Saori Weaving Down Memory Lane

2015 is the year I have taken on the ZYG challenge (Zero Yarn Growth). First I weave something from my stash, and then I buy some new yarn for my next project, then use yarn from my stash….etc. You get the picture. I recently saw an inspiring picture on the FB Saori Weaving page, a mouth-watering silk weft/cotton warp poncho. I had a just enough cotton warp left on my Saori loom to weave a scarf. It had never occurred  to me to weave with silk on the Saori loom. In fact, I hadn’t woven with silk in this century!

Into the deepest reaches of my closet I delved, and out came the silk stash. At the bottom of the basket, I discovered a bag of silk bits, slightly longer than thrums, but an extra warp end here and a leftover ping-pong ball size snippet there. Some of this yarn  dates back to the mid seventies!   Most of it is custom ikat-dyed by at least a dozen different dyers, Cheryl Kolander of Aurora Silks  and Michele Wipplinger of Earthues to name a few.

A Look at Woven Paper Collage

Way back in the 20th century when I was living in Seattle and at the height of my teaching “career”, I was searching for a hands-on activity  for weavers that could be accomplished in 3 hours.(the smallest block of time used by most weaving conferences). I wanted something that would also appeal to spinners, knitters, basket-makers, anyone really. I came up with a workshop I called “Finding the Color Within”.

Since my focus is color, I wanted to create a workshop that would strengthen creativity and to free up color experimentation. Here are some examples of those first woven collages.

I taught a bunch of workshops– even one at Convergence in Vancouver.
After I moved back to Montana, I taught, what I now call Woven Paper Collage, at Living Art and several other places around Missoula.

Over the years, what began as a color exercise continues to evolve. Stay tuned for the next chapter….

Another New Weaver on the Saori Loom

Just a short little post to show off a beautiful new weaving by a beautiful new weaver, Ruth.

Ruth tied together some of my thrums to create the weft for her first (and hopefully not the last) weaving.