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The meeting afternoon program features a guest speaker
from the weaving world. The guest's presentation, which
starts right after a brief guild business meeting, runs from
about 1:15PM to 3:00PM.
Click teachers' names to see their biograpies.
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September 14, 2011
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Anastasia Azure presents her development of the double-weave
technique to create jewelry and sculpture. She weaves on a traditional
floor loom with non-traditional materials, pairing the flexibility of
plastic with the strength of metal. She will discuss her background
as a jeweler, her three-year residency at the Appalachian Center for
Craft, and her attraction to rhythmic curves and elegant geometry.
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October 12, 2011
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The use of dyed linen among weavers has been hampered by the
limited range of colors that are usually available. Furthermore, most
weavers have shied away from dying linen themselves, due to the
fiber’s reputation for difficulty and unreliability. Indeed, most weavers
assume that it requires a great deal of skill to dye linen, particularly
linen that is colorfast. As this program will demonstrate, nothing
could be further from the truth! Linen is easy to dye in a wide
range of colors, and colorfastness can be assured. Participants will
be shown simple, step-by-step methods for dyeing linen in a range of
colorfast hues, and will be given recipes and instructions for colors
that range from the palest green to vibrant saffron and the deepest
plum and eggplant shades. At the end of the presentation, participants
will leave with their imaginations fired by the beautiful linen colors
that can be produced, and with the confidence to try it on their own.
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November 9, 2011
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The New England Woolen Industry and the Crompton and Knowles Loom Works
Peggy Hart
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New England is sprinkled with old brick
mills which once housed woolen manufacturers.
The cotton mills were more notorious,
but woolen manufacturing outlasted
them. The woolen mills were more essentially
New England in that they spun and
wove wool grown here, using machinery
made here. Dozens of specialized businesses
supported the industry, from reed makers to
fabric dyers and finishers. The Crompton
and Knowles Loom Works of Worcester,
MA had the corner on loom building, outfitting
mills from Connecticut to Canada.
The W-3 loom was the workhorse of the industry.
Up until the last loom was manufactured,
it was constantly being improved by
independently patented innovations. At what
point did these marvelous machines become
valued only as scrap metal?
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February 8, 2012
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Celebrating The Fiber: Cotton
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After our business meeting and lunch,
the afternoon will be devoted to demonstrations of spinning cotton
and a show and tell of fashion pieces and non-wearables woven with cotton.
Share your experiences (good and bad) of weaving cotton. You just may appreciate this
wonderful fiber more after attending this meeting.
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March 14, 2012
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Lace, by definition, is “a constructed textile that has opaque and
transparent areas.” What are the opportunities for weavers to explore
the concept of lace? Take a look at nontraditional, contemporary
lace, woven and non-woven, using construction, burn-out and the
concept of transparency.
The fabric at right is wool and stainless steel, 60”
x 10”, Woven shibori, burned out to form lace.
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April 11, 2012
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Figured and Fancy: The Jacquard Handloom
Richard Jeryan
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The presentation will describe the history, operation, and restoration
of the Jacquard hand loom at The Henry Ford/Greenfield Village
(www.thehenryford.org). The loom with its 696-hook Jacquard
head was commissioned by Henry Ford in the 1930s and operated
as part of the educational program of the Greenfield Village Textile
Division. Unused for 25 years, the restoration of the head and
loom began in August 2006. The presentation will include the history
and operation of the Jacquard loom, the research conducted on The
Henry Ford’s loom, and the steps taken to restore it to operation.
The loom restoration was completed in the spring of 2008 and coverlet
samples woven on the restored loom as well as historical coverlets
will be on display. These coverlets are the focus of Christine Jeryan's
morning workshop.
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May 9, 2012
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Woman’s War:
Ritual Weaving and Headhunting
among the Ibans of Borneo
John Kreifeldt
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Weaving the beautiful and mysterious patterned
ritual textiles indispensable to the headhunting culture of the Iban peoples of
Borneo was considered as dangerous to the woman weaver as headhunting was to the
male headhunter because she was pitting her spiritual strength in a battle against that of
the spirit of the pattern. If she was weaker or transgressed any of the many rituals and
prohibitions while weaving she could become lifeless. She advanced in status in the
community by demonstrating her courage and spiritual strength through weaving progressively
more potent and hence dangerous patterns and only the bravest and most
spiritually advanced weaver would dare attempt the most dangerous ones. A pattern
was revealed to the weaver in a dream and the finished weaving while dangerous to the
Iban because of its spirit was nevertheless essential because it acted as an intermediary
between them and their gods and spirits. Woven on the simple backstrap loom,
these cotton textiles are arguably the most creative and striking of all those from South
East Asia where textiles are of vast cultural significance and importance. They seem to
radiate a sense of the power of the pattern’s indwelling spirit.
The talk covers the background of the Iban peoples as it relates to weaving and
their now vanished culture as an aid in appreciating and understanding these amazing
textiles. Short movies of portions of the weaving processes will be shown as well as
actual cloth from the speaker’s collection of over 200 pieces for inspection.
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