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Thursday, March 31, 2016

52 books - week 12: Art from ArtZona

I made a scrapbook for all the flat art that I traded for at the ArtZona art retreat I attended in Phoenix. I made the front and back covers out of samples from one of the workshops I took at ArtZona, and I decorated many of the inside pages to coordinate with the artwork on the page. It was an interesting exercise really look a people's art and choose some aspect of it to extend onto the page. The three part person is from a late night absinthe fueled "exquisite corpse" game.

52 books. week 11, Happy things in March


This is the latest installment in my "happy things" series. Each month I made a book to record and remember the good things. The pages are random pages gathered from my studio, with a cardstock cover, and simply bound with a few staples in the spine (yeah for long arm staplers).

The figure on the cover is called an inuksuk. The people who live in the arctic build giant stone cairns in a vaguely human shape. They are considered symbols of welcome and friendship.

52 books, week 10 - Artzona 2015

I made a journal for ArtZona - an art retreat I attended in Phoenix. I usually make journals to sketch in on trips. Since this was an art event, the contents are a mix of sketches, ephemera that I picked up along the way, and some fun collages made from bits and pieces that were lying around in the art room.

52 books, week 9 - Beauty in the Lack of Intention

A long time ago, someone sent me a book that they had made by decorating a piece of card stock with random scraps of paper, stamped images and doodles.  The sheet was then cut to make the pages of a book that was held together with a tie in one corner. That's exactly what I did this week - mainly using scraps and bits that had accumulated on my desk - you know how that is.. I called it "Beauty in the Lack of Intention" which is a phrase that I picked up through the SAORI weaving that I've been doing.

Katzie Children's Festival


I took a loom to the Katzie First Nation Children's Festival last week. Lots of little hands, and a few bigger ones too, worked to weave a community banner that reflects their personal choices as well as their connections to each other. 


I really love the things that people say to me while they are weaving. One boy said that the First Nations teacher at his school has a hat that is woven, but she didn't make it herself. Another child told me he was 1/2 First Nations, but that he might be fully, but he wasn't sure. A couple of kids said that their grandmother had already taught them to weave - not sure if they had the same grandmother or not. One girl offered to show me how to finger weave. Someone offered to give me a bag of rovings from her sheep, and of course many many people said that weaving was lots of fun.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Tallinn vest


Last summer, when I was touring around Europe, I got to spend some time weaving at the Saori Tallinn studio in Estonia. I was only there for a few hours, so my weaving isn't very big - just enough for the front of a vest. I scavenged the back from a jacket that I made years ago when I was taking a fashion design program. The jacket was made to fit a runway model - which means that it never did, and never will fit me. It works perfectly for the back of this vest though.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Living Room Art in the Heights Banner


Last fall, my daughter AD and I participated in a very fun community event called Living Room Art in the Heights. A local family opened up their home and transformed it into an art gallery for one evening. It was such a lovely evening, meeting artists from our very own neighbourhood. This video gives short glimpse of the evening. If you watch carefully, you'll see a short clip of AD weaving at the event.


We invited people to give freestyle weaving a try, and together, we created a lovely banner. It's always interesting to me to see how people pick the yarn they will add. Some people are bold and impulsive, and make quick decisions. Others carefully think about their choice - touching and  considering the textures and colours before making a selection. I love watching the banner grow as people add their own unique contributions. I've done a bit more weaving on the banner since the event, but I finally decided it was time to cut the banner off the loom. It's always exciting to see the completed weaving off the loom. I love how it turned out - it feels full of joy.

I'm looking forward to displaying the banner at the 2016 event.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

New workshops announced


WEAVE YOURSELF, ONE DAY WORKSHOPS: 
LEARN TO WEAVE ON A BEKA RIGID HEDDLE LOOM
Sunday, April 3rd, 2016
or
Sunday, June 5th, 2016

Another Space
1523 East Pender Street, Vancouver
10:00 am—4:00 pm
You will learn how to prepare a loom for weaving, and of course you’ll have lots of time to “weave yourself” - choosing yarns and other fibres in colours and textures that please you. You will most definitely create something completely unique that could only have been made by you.

We will be using Beka rigid heddle looms. They are small, well made, versatile, affordable and easy to use. They are a great choice for both beginners, and experienced weavers who would like to try something new and creative.

If you have always wanted to learn to weave, or if you want to find a new way to use up your yarn stash, come and find out how much fun it is to weave the freestyle way:

$140 includes use of loom and all materials and supplies.(cash or cheque)
Feel free to bring some yarn from your own stash if you like. Even short leftover bits can be used in freestyle weaving.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

I've been weaving (and using the internet) for a very long time

I am amazed at what I find when I google my name. Today, I did a search for my name and "weaving", and two posts I wrote back in 1995 came up. Yes, that's right, did you even know there was an internet in 1995, were you even born then? Have you ever heard of usenet?

It's so nostalgic for me to see my very first email addresses, and to see that even so long ago, I was enthusiastic about weaving on a rigid heddle loom.

Here are the two posts that I found
#1
From: Dawn_...@mindlink.bc.ca (Dawn Livera)
Subject: Re: Novice Weaving
Date: 1995/07/29
Message-ID: <75352-807065302@mindlink.bc.ca>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 107122143
distribution: world
organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles.yarn

Dear new weaver;
Don't get discouraged.  I weave on a rigid heddle loom and I love it. I am
lucky enough to have an excellent teacher who specializes in rigid heddle
weaving though. You are right, weaving classes will help you to get a
better feeling for warping, tension, etc. I'm sorry I missed your previous
posts, but if you have any specific questions about rigid heddle weaving,
I'd be happy to answer them if I can.

BTW:  Two projects I recently finished:  Hand towels made of unmercerized
cotton using patterns from Betty Davenport's book Textures and Patterns for
the Rigid Heddle Loom (out of print) and a rag rug bath mat using old
towels for the rag weft.

Best regards, Dawn

--

==================================
Dawn E. Livera
email: dawn_...@mindlink.bc.ca
or:    dli...@sfu.ca
==================================



#2: This one is from August 1995

I think that people will be very interested in your demo. I once took a 
small band weaving project to my office, to help me explain to them what 
weaving is all about. I found them to be quite fascinated with how 
fabric is woven. I don't think many of them had given much thought to 
how the fabric for their clothes is made.
If you want to do a weaving demonstration, I would suggest that you pick  a project that lets your audience see you changing the sheds etc., so  that non weavers can understand what is going on.  Perhaps use thick  warp and weft yarns with the warp yarns in a different colour for each  shed, so people can see the shed changes.
Before I started weaving, I saw a weaving demonstration in Thailand.  Although I thought the fabric being produced was beautiful, I could not  understand the process. The warp threads were very fine and the sheds  were changed with foot peddles. I just could not figure out how the weft  yarns were being held in place.
I think your company's diversity showcase sounds like a lot of fun. Dawn.

California Weaving

NOTE: all the pictures in this post were taken by Jill Nickolene Sanders of SAORI Santa Cruz.

Last week I got to spend a day with the lovely Jill Nickolene Sanders of SAORI Santa Cruz making myself an amazing SAORI style jacket.


When I knew I was going to California, I checked to see if there were any SAORI studios in the state - there are three. I was most excited when I found that Jill's studio was in California. You see, I already knew that Jill was a SAORI garment genius. If you've ever looked at on-line pictures of SAORI garments, you've probably drooled over some that were made by Jill. I know I have.

Some of my favourites include her "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" jacket (my own jacket is based on this design):

her SAORI sun umbrellas (I'm pretty thrilled that Jill saved a bit of my left over cloth to use in a future umbrella)

There are so many others, that I could go on all day about how much I love the clothing and accessories she designs and makes. I was so excited when I realized that I might be able to visit her studio and see some of her gorgeous creations in person. I had no idea that I'd even get to try some on:

Here I am trying on Jill's Portals tunic. It coordinates so nicely with what I was wearing that day:
Jill collaborated with her friend Sue Tye on this tunic, and it was recently featured in an issue of PLY magazine.

Well, this trip almost didn't happen. You see, Jill's studio is not right in Santa Cruz, it is in a town called Felton, in an area called Zayante. I thought I would have to fly to San Francisco and then rent a car to get to the studio - that would have been much too expensive. I could have gone to one of the other California studios where I'm sure I would have been able to make a nice SAORI garment, or perhaps do a bit of weaving, but I knew that I would be abe to make something really incredible with Jill.

When I told Jill my problem, she generously offered to arrange a much more affordable ride to and from the San Jose airport. After being a passenger on Hwy 17 in the dark, I'm so very glad that I didn't have to match wits with the crazy maniacs on that road. I also got to know Jill's wonderful husband, who not only shuttled me to and from the airport, he also made sure I got to and from the studio and took me to pick up food for my supper after my day of weaving. Jill included a delicious lunch and snacks for me during the day. This lovely couple just took care of me so well.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some pictures of the cloth I was weaving to take with me. Here's a close-up of one section. You can see that I was thinking of sunny California weather!

Jill had asked for 10 yards! That was a lot of weaving, that almost ended in another disaster. I was supposed to "soak" the cloth, and I thought I'd cheat and do it in the washing machine. My machine has a "soak" setting, but I somehow set the dial to the setting that was directly opposite. Oops! When I realized what I had done and rescued it, some of the fibres I had used had shrunk and felted. The cloth was no longer the full length and the sides were all wavy. There was some interesting texture, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to make anything. Since this was the day before I left for the trip, I did not have time to weave any more.

I shoved the cloth into my backpack where it got a liberal sprinkling of the coconut snack I also tossed in the bag, and set off for the airport.

In a very SAORI way (remember "there are no mistakes"), Jill and I managed to make a stunning jacket with the almost failed fabric that I wove. Here are some photos of the process. You can see more of the pictures that Jill took during the day over on her blog:

The finished fabric complete with bubbles, waves and puckers caused by the shrinking and "fulling" of some of the fibres:

 Pinning and cutting - I've done this before with my handwoven fabric, so I wasn't as freaked out as I was the first time.

Sewing outside in February! It was such a lovely warm SUNNY afternoon.

 The finished jacket - I'm calling it Santa Cruz (for obvious reasons)