A Magical Class

THREE STUDENTS WINDING THEIR COLOR HOROSCOPE WARPS.

I am finally back home in sunny Seattle! It was a wonderful trip. There was lots of weather including an "end of the world" type wind and rain storm. Living in Seattle has made me appreciate all kinds of weather. I was concerned that my 7 ft. tall Japanese Tree Peony would have already blossomed, but it has waited for me. I counted over a dozen buds, the most I have ever had. I can't wait to show you pictures. But I digress.

Blue Ridge Spinners and Weavers is a fun loving group. I don't think they expected quite as intense a workshop (at least the second day when everybody wound their Color Horoscope warps), but they did it! The first day was pretty relaxed. I regaled the group with an exciting slide show and a yummy show and tell. I've gotten really good at packing a ton of samples into a carry-on piece of luggage.
ALMOST ALL OF THE CLASS POSING WITH THEIR WARPS.
I don't know what happened to the other 5 students.

The main goal of the workshop is to shake up the rules of color in weaving. Each warp consists of 12 colors (a basic spectrum). These colors combine to make over 5 billion color possibilities. Since the human eye sees only about 8 million variations, I think of this exercise as the "dog whistle" of color:) I continue to be amazed and delighted by the color variations even after 28 years. I think of these weavings as a living rainbow.

"If you were a rainbow, this is the rainbow you would be."

I talk about Color Horoscope Weaving on my website and also in Syne Mitchell's Weavecast Episode #9.

The downside of the workshop for me is that I don't get to see the finished weaving. I always ask students to send me pictures, but they rarely do. I have some finished pieces displayed in my web gallery "Inspired By Bonnie". Do take a look.

The upside for the student is they don't have to drag a loom to the workshop. Since the weaving is plain weave an easily woven off, there really isn't any reason to spend workshop time in this fashion.

On the third day, we made horoscope necklaces using the same draft used to wind the warp. I will put the horoscope necklace day into the next post. I have one funny picture I want to use, but I have to get permission before I post it.


I can always tell a successful workshop because I end up learning ways to make the workshop more streamlined, which is a good thing because I am teaching it at NEWS in July as a one-day workshop instead of a two-day workshop.

Gone Teaching AGAIN

Loch Raven, sorta near where I will be. This is the serenity I am hoping for.

I will be teaching Color Horoscope Weaving to the Blue Ridge Spinners and Weavers. Look forward to some great show and tell when I get back. I return on April 18th, stay tuned.

A Shuttle Question

Hi Bonnie

You posted to use your e-mail addy if we can't post on your blog. Should we do this everytime or just this time?

I have always wanted to ask why you seem to use a ski shuttle rather than a bobbin and boat shuttle?

I read your blog daily and have wanted to comment and thank you for all you share it is so invigorating and expansive to my own way of weaving.

Look forward to having class with you at NEWS Maureen

ANSWER:
This is a good question. I have always used a ski shuttle mainly because it was the shuttle I had when I started weaving on my own. It was a beautiful shuttle, hand carved oak. I won't go into the sad story of losing my beautiful shuttle, but after it was gone I continued to use a ski shuttle because I didn't have a bobbin winder. Now I could have gotten myself a bobbin winder, but I came to believe there were a couple of benefits to winding yarn by hand onto a shuttle. First of all, I get to touch the yarn in a way that makes me feel like a virtual spinner:) But the biggest benefit for me is winding the amount of yarn for 15-20 minutes of weaving. Then I have to stop, stand up, and wind some more.

When I first started weaving, I would pride myself on the number of hours I could continue weaving non-stop. I would wind all of my bobbins at once (when I was in school, they had lots of bobbin winders) and away I'd go. Now that I have been weaving for 47 years, I see that weaving lots and lots of short spurts is a better way for me and may well be the main reason I am still weaving after all this time.

I'd be interested to hear from anybody out there who has completed a woven mile and who has other tips and suggestions for the long run.

A Fabulous Conference: Part 3

Last but not least EASY IKAT! Because this was a 1-day workshop, we had a "virtual dyeing" session:) The focus was more about designing on the warping board. Click here to see what happens to this warp.
It is such a kick to watch these beautiful ikat designs emerge right before your very eyes.

Some of my show and tell Ikat samples in silk and merino wool

A more orderly array of Ikat samples in silk, wool, cotton, and bamboo.

A Fabulous Conference: Part 2

WOVEN WORDS: Some students came to this class thinking we would be weaving actual letters of the alphabet in a tapestry technique rather than spell out words through a color coded alphabet I developed. About 10 years ago I found a book that had color correspondences to letters of the alphabet. I thought this color system would be less threatening than the color coded horoscope. Who doesn't love the alphabet:)



Can't you just imagine this beautiful sample as the springboard for a host of weaving projects?
The main goal of Woven Words is to help weavers become more free in their use of color.

A Fabulous Conference: Part 1B

I love the fact that Silvia, the Conference Chair, was so well organized she was able to take my workshop!

True Confession: I have never woven on a table loom. This particular table loom by LeClerc seemed to be right handy (probably left handy too). A couple of the students had Wolf Pups, and they seemed really wonderful because you can use a treadle system to weave.

Here are 9 of the 12 warps. Sadly I don't have a picture of all 12 together before they were chopped up into samples. If you are wondering why the strips are varying lengths, it is because each student's concept of 5" is different:)

Students are painting a plain white glue (thinned down with water) between each sample. The glue dried in about 20 minutes, and then the samples were cut apart. I find this to be a tidy and easy method of sample making. Students created a work sheet to go with each sample and used double stick tape to attach the sample to the worksheet.

Success!! Students posing with completed notebooks.

Onward to Part 2: Woven Words

A Fabulous Conference: Part 1A

The Southern California Conference: Wildflowers of the Sierras was so much fun! Everything was perfect: comfortable accommodations, great teaching facility, extremely well organized, great students, tasty food available, soy chai close by, terrific guild booths, entertaining fashion show, breathtaking keynote speaker, fabulous exhibits, and exotic shopping. And they paid ME!

I have so many wonderful pictures, it was difficult to choose. I decided I to post in several parts because there is just too much for a single post.
My first workshop, Exploring Not So Plain Weave, was 3-days (18 hours) long. I sent out 12 different plain weave variations warps, and EVERY student arrived with a pre-warped loom! I sound surprised because I am told this never happens.

Students moved from loom to loom and wove a sample.

Here is the Easy Ikat sample warp just cut off the loom.

In addition to the 12 warped looms, there were several other work stations for students to sample the Easy Ikat process and some finishing techniques.

This is it for today, but stay tuned for tomorrow and Part 1B.