Our meetings are open to the public and we love visitors,
including non-weavers and not-yet weavers as well as weavers and other fiber artists.
Our last 2016-17 meeting was on May 13.
We're looking forward to seeing everyone in September for our 70th year as a Guild.
Have a great summer!
For more information about the Guild, including the location and time of the meetings, click on the About link (above).
Click on the Gallery link (above) to see photos of our 2017 annual show and sale.
May 2017 Meeting
(Thanks for sending the photos of your sculptures, Anastasia!)
Anastasia Azure presented a fascinating program at our May Luncheon meeting, and the day before she led a 5-hour workshop on making jewelry using some of the same materials she uses when creating her own beautiful and innovative pieces of sculpture and jewelry. Below are photos of three of Anastasia's sculptures. She described and illustrated the processes by which she made them: Handweaving on a floor loom using metal and plastic filaments to form double-weave strips, which she then manipulated to form complex and handsome shapes like those below.
The very dynamic and dramatic piece above, "Within, the ways of water", was inspired by Anastasia's collaboration with an oceanographer who studies oceanic eddies (swirling, very local, circular currents of water). She chose the colors to invoke a sense of coral reefs and sunlit waters.
This sculpture was exhibited in a show of works of art that were all made in collaboration with scientists. It is 60" x 48" x 24" (Very large but also intricate!)
This closeup detail of the sculpture shows how the woven strips of plastic filaments interact to make up its structure, and how the colors in the strips shift and change like sunlight on swirling water.
Using gold wire together with plastic filaments in a double-weave and manipulating the strips into a complex symmetrical final form, Anastasia created this elegant piece titled "Landau for a Maharaja". It is 36" x 36" x 15".
This closeup detail of "Landau" shows the contrast between the surrounding, airy, gold edged, double-weave strips vs. the intricate center of the piece which is made of a complex arrangement of narrower, more densely woven strips.
This very handsome piece, "Peacock" was also created with double-weave strips of different widths made with plastic filaments. For this sculpture Anastasia colored the filaments blue and green like a peacock's tail. The gold wire edging helps to stabilize the open shapes of the final sculpture. It is 23" x 23" x 8".
This closeup shows the contrast between the open, airy double-weave strips that surround the more densely woven strips that make up the center of "Peacock".
Workshop Photos
(Thanks for taking the photos, Sue!)
Nine Guild members participated in the jewelry workshop Anastasia led on Friday: Ellen, Jackie, Jeane, Margaret, Melvenea, Sharon, Sue, Suzanne and Yvonne. Their raw materials were sheets of thin metal (copper, brass and aluminum), colored wire, earring fittings and plastic filament for necklaces. Below are photos of some of the participants and photos of some of the lovely pendants and earrings they made.
Anastasia on the left and Melvenea on the right.
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Yet more lovely pieces of jewelry made by workshop participants.
April 2017 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Sue!)
The speaker for our April meeting was Bev Atseff who shared with us her 50-year history as first a trade mark designer and then weaver and business owner (2-B Weavers) with her very close friend, Bev Savel. Over the course of those years she wove fabric for many beautiful garments and household items as well as serving on the board of HGA and participating in many juried and non-juried shows. More recently she has been designing pieces using beading and chain mail. She brought many inspiring examples of her work to illustrate the story of her life as a fiber artist.
Bev created this intricate and attractive beaded piece for a "Small Expressions" show.
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| This is one of several elegant kimonos Bev brought to show us. She wove the fabric using 5/2 cotton and strips cut from a brilliantly colored, printed, silk fabric and then she constructed the lined kimono. |
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| This kimono with its handsome pattern of stripes was exhibited in a show of black and white items. Bev wove all the kimono fabrics on a 18" wide warp. |
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| Above, Bev is holding a beautiful beaded piece inspired by a region on a butterfly's wings. It is one of a series. | The design on this very attractive runner was inspired by Chicago's L train support structures. Bev wove it using 4/2 cotton in a summer and winter weave. |
She ended with this advice for us: "Don't wait, do it now" and "Remember to ask 'What if...?' as an aproach to weaving and to life".
April Show and Tell
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| Mary brought this tapestry to show us, on which she had woven a mitten, a heart and a cross. | Sue showed off the sweater she had knit and brought several projects she had made at an Anita Luvera Mayer "Gathering" she had attended with Margaret. |
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March 2017 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Lisa!)
Natasha Lewis presented a very interesting program on her family's farm and the ways they market products grown on the farm. Among them is Esther's Place, a shop in which Natasha spins, dyes, felts, and creates items that use fleece from their cheviot sheep. She told us about her family's history with the farm, and then showed us an amazing variety of very attractive items ranging from soap encased in felt to very stylish nuno-felted clothing. Among the items she showed us were some very handsome wall hangings that she had exhibited in galleries and juried shows, including shows in Verona, Italy. Natasha's account of her outreach activities with school groups was very engaging, and we all had an opportunity to contribute to making one of her wet-felted geodes at the end of the program.
In the photo above, Natasha is holding an elegant dress she created with nuno felting and wool felt applique.
She is wearing one of her needle-felted flowers, made with a technique she demonstrated for us.
In this photo, Natasha is packing together roving layers, the first step in making our wet-felted geode.
In the background is more colorful roving, needle-felted flowers, and other items she brought to show us.
March Show and Tell
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| Joyce showed us the twined rug she had created as her President's Challenge project. She created it on a frame her husband made for her. Both the fabrics in the rug (a coat, sweaters and a sheet) and the frame were recycled materials as called for in the Challenge. | This lacey summer top was knit by Shelby who also talked to us about being hyper-critical of our own work. To address that tendency which many of us share, she donated to the Guild library 2 DVDs of "Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk". |
| Melvenea brought several things to show us, including this yardage she wove using naturally dyed yarn she had hand-spun. She also brought skeins of llama yarn which she was spinning at our February meeting. |
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| Susan brought back the hat she was knitting at the February meeting to show us how it turned out. | Jacque made this sampler while taking a tapestry course online. She found the course very worthwhile. | And Jacque wove this scarf using 16 shafts. The warp is hand-painted tencel and the weft is mercerized cotton. |
| Using a warp of silk which Paula had space-dyed and a silk weft, Margaret wove this scarf. She noted that because of its length she might decide to incorporate it into a garment. The weave pattern is an 8 shaft broken twill. |
February 2017 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Lisa!)
Our program for this meeting was the Weavers' Challenge. Back in September Marianne had given each of the four weavers a Hubble telescope photo of a nebula and instructed them to weave an item using the name of the nebula (or "NASA") in a name draft for the item. The results were very interesting and the presentations held our attention as each weaver explained her approach to the challenge and showed us her results. Two general recommendations from the weavers were: For name drafts, a short name works the best, and overshot shows off a name draft threading more clearly and more attractively than twill.
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| Lizz wove two plain weave scarves using the word "Hubble" as a guide for the order of the colors in her warp. The colors she used were inspired by the Hubble photo of the Carina Nebula Jet. Both of the scarves have been sold, but Lizz brought one to show us how the lovely colors and their distribution in the warp worked together to make a very attractive scarf. | Jeane worked with the Mystic Mountain Dust Pillar. With Sue's software help, she worked out a 26 thread name draft repeat for the warp. Jeane wove a number of samples and towels shown above with different treadlings and wefts to find the combination she liked the best. Her favorite towel, and ours too, had a large white pseudo-tabby center area that worked beautifully with the towel's striped areas which she had treadled with the name draft. |
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| Sue used the Tarantula Nebula for her name draft and colors. She tried two different treadlings: a point twill and an overshot after arranging the colors of the warp to work well with the threading using her weaving software program. The point twill towel is on the left, and the overshot towel is on the right. The name draft threading and red warp accents are especially attractive in the towel woven with overshot treadling. | Joyce was inspired in her color choices by a Hubble photo of the Butterfly Nebula. Amazingly, she found a single skein of thick and thin yarn that included almost all of the lovely colors of the Hubble photo. She artfully added white eyelash and copper metallic yarn accents to round out the colors needed. A white eyelash yarn embellishment trails off the edge of the scarf, representing the butterfly of the nebula's name. |
February Show and Tell
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| Jeane wove this Baroque Twill runner using 8/2 cotton warp and 5/2 cotton weft and many different treadlings. | Betty brought three shawls to show us, all woven with a multicolored eyelash-like yarn for accent on a background of wool blend yarn. | In the photo above, Paula is wearing a sweater she knit and holding a wool hat she knit using a pattern from the Internet. |
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| Melvenea wove this triangular shawl and also brought her spinning wheel so she could spin during the meeting. | Gini wove this summery table runner using a slippery (hard to work with), narrow ribbon yarn of unknown fiber content. | Using an Echo & Iris double weave structure and 5/2 perle cotton yarn (at 30epi), Jacque wove 5-6 yd. of upholstery fabric for a chair. |
January 2017 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Lisa!)
Margaret Jones presented a very interesting program for this meeting.
She and Lisa had woven a series of a dozen samples that illustrated how using different colors and distributions of color in warp and weft threads with the same simple weave structure can result in impressively different-looking fabrics. Margaret gave us a handout that included the drawdown and treadling as well as a detailed list of the samples and how she achieved the different effect on each of them.
Margaret is holding one of the six samples which were all woven using the same fine rayon variegated color warp.
On the table to her left are the colors of yarn that were used as weft to achieve the different effects that you can see on the samples in the photo below.
The six samples above were all woven using the same simple weave structure. They vary by the distribution of pink threads substituted in strategic places in the warp and/or weft. The results show that a variety of very attractive patterns can be produced with a simple weave and the artful addition of threads of contrasting color. In the upper right is Sue's green baby blanket that she wove with the same weave structure.
January Show and Tell
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Melvenea, our first new Guild member for 2017, showed us the triangular scarf she had knit using a single skein of Noro sock yarn.
December 2016 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Lisa!)
We had our annual silent auction at this meeting.
Below is a photo of some of the tables of fine items that were donated by Guild members
with several of the shoppers who helped the Guild earn $438 for future programs.
After the auction many of the Guild members stayed for a potluck lunch and fellowship.
December Show and Tell
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| Paula brought scarves she had woven on a single tencel warp in 12-shaft block twill weave patterns using a different color of rayon for the weft of each one (red-violet on the left and royal blue on the right). | For Christmas, Joyce knit boot accessories, a.k.a. leg warmers. These are to be presents for her granddaughter. |
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For the scarf on the left, she modified the weave and used a weft of 5/2 cotton and 20/2 cotton.
For the scarf on the right, the weft was 5/2 rayon and 20/2 rayon. Note the contrasting sides of the scarves.
November 2016 Meeting
(Thanks for all the photos, Sue!)
Margaret
Demko gave us a very lively presentation about her experience raising
different breeds of sheep, goats and alpacas. She
brought supplies so that we could each make a felted ball to use in our
clothes dryers following her directions. Margaret is an
advocate
for wearing wool clothing and gave us handouts which
describe the wool characteristics of different breeds of sheep,
including the wools that are most comfortable for us to wear.
She
felted the wool for the very attractive skirt and top she wore for her
presentation. November Show and Tell
 KathyO brought a mask she made a few years ago using similar techniques.
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October 2016 Meeting
(Thanks for the meeting and show and tell photos, Sue!)
| Priscilla
Lynch gave us a very engaging presentation, Painting with Wool,
and brought many wonderful examples of her work: clothing, art pieces
and practical lovely ways to use felt to decorate objects such as book
covers. After the meeting she led a workshop in which ten
Guild members tried their hand at creating their own art with felt as
the medium. Below are photos of the program and workshop and
the meeting's
show and tell . 
Photos from the workshop (Thanks for taking the photos, Ken!)  Above is an overview of some of the ten people who participated in the workshop.
October Show and Tell
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September 2016 Meeting
(Thanks for all the photos, Lisa!)
Our
2016-2017 year got off to a wonderful start with a preview of our
programs for the coming year. A group of members volunteered
for
the weavers' challenge for our February 11 meeting, and we had the
exchange of towels that members had woven over the summer.
Below is a photo of the lovely towels that were exchanged and
below that are four weavers with their towels.
September 2016 Show and Tell
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