York & District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (Reg. Charity No. 519097) January Newsletter 2010
	Please note that the "@" symbol has been replaced by " at " in email links. Next meetings February 20th Skill Share, National Exhibition selection. March 20 AGM Programme of Events 2010 March 20 AGM April 18 Guild Open Day. Please note this is a Sunday May 15 Talk and demonstration of hand loom weaving, Adam Jordan June 4-6 Cober Hill residential weekend June 19 Skill share - work on 50th Anniversary banner July 17 50th Birthday Party with Faith Lunch - all former members of the Guild are cordially invited to attend August 21 Skill share Sept 18 North Yorkshire ganseys and intro to flax weaving. Debs Gallanders Sept 19 Workshop: Flax weaving, Debs Gallanders. Dunnington Reading Rooms Oct 16 Skill share Nov 20 Creative Spinning, Alison Daykin Nov 21 Workshop: Creative spinning, Alison Yule. At Dunnington Reading Rooms Dec 4 DYOT and Faith Lunch. At Dunnington Reading Rooms Subject to alteration. Alterations will appear in the Newsletter For Sale (Please contact the webmaster for further information) Harris 24" table loom, with instructions and all tools. Kirstie Garside Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel 3 Bobbins and Lazy Kate: £180.00. Leeds. Ref T.BED Various items Looms (hand, floor and inkle), hand carders, spinning wheel, wool, etc. Ref P.YG Spinning wheel Ashford traditional spinning wheel in excellent condition with lazy kate and carders. £150 ono. York city. Ref H.JON Spinning wheel Ashford traditional style made by Don MacClachlan with 8 bobbins and a niddy noddy. £100 ono. Brough (E.Yorks). Ref A.BOD Speaker Report Not a pretty face among them - Chris Beavers This was the intriguing title for her talk about her handmade dolls in the January guild meeting. Chris, who was wearing a sizeable brooch in the shape of a doll, showed us her large and colourful collection with not two dolls the same. They were embroidered, made from patterned cloth, some with parts of turned wood and from many other materials. One doll had hair made from a Brillo pad, another from petals from silk flowers. As she said herself, the only limit to what you can do is your imagination. Chris took us through many different ways of making dolls: The simplest were cookie cutter dolls, with just two pieces of cloth, with a body shape outline, sown together. Though simple, these looked colourful as they were mostly made from patterned cloth, had embroidered bodies and intriguing facial features. She then moved on to dolls that were somewhat more complex with limbs, body and trunk made separately. Many of these had joints. The joints were either simple ones, with just the top part of each limb having a gap in the stuffing, thus making it mobile, or more complex, using buttons. Chris was full of tips for anyone who wants to make dolls: Embroider faces before stuffing a head, but embroider the body once stuffed. You can draw faces, but make sure you use good quality colouring pens. If you want a sculpted head you can use stitching. Start your stitch at the back of the head, push the needle through the stuffed face to just inside the corner of the eye and then stitch backwards and forwards to shape a nose, pulling the thread as tight as you want it to give it shape. For this you need a doll needle. For a good profile you have to make the head from two pieces of cloth with profile outlined, then sew together. For hands you can bend and position pipe cleaners inside the hands. Always machine stitch the seams for strength as it’s needed to be able to stuff well. Chris then showed us her current projects, These dolls are of a different order, as Chris has now moved away from the more traditional shapes. One was made from a box, decorated as an aquarium for the lower part of the body, with only the upper part the more traditional doll shape. Another was a tree with a face just glimpsed in the trunk. Others were made from sticks; Chris is currently working on a set of such dolls to be shown at the upcoming York Viking Festival. They will be displayed in the craft tent for two days of the festival. My own favourite doll was her Pearly Queen with limbs made from threaded buttons, even though her feet pointed in the wrong direction. For anyone interested to learn more, you can either search the internet for patterns and lessons in doll making, or contact Chris if you are interested in being part of the York Dolly Birds group. However, Chris warned that this group is nearly full. She can be contacted by email. Tanya Thank you, Tanya, for an excellent write-up, I think you might have written yourself into a regular job! - Ed. Information about doll making is readily available on the web - a good 'umberella' site to start with is www.clothdollconnection.com which gives links to designers, suppliers, classes and free patterns. If you want supplies in this country, google Jan Horrox - she has a good web site based in this country. Magazines are generally American Soft Dolls and Animals is a magazine which includes patterns and Art Doll Quarterly is more inspirational and no patterns. Member’s Work Ply split braiding work was shown by Rosemary with interesting 3D pieces, made from Wensleydale fleece. A sampler made on a 4-shaft loom using a pick-up technique, a cotton piece hand dyed and woven, in turquoise. She had some Shetland fleece in natural colours that is commercially carded/prepared – for sale, various Moorit, muskit, etc. A hat brought in by Nick made for Tash, in blue/coral/lilac with a ‘ponytail’ hole and buttoned band. Nick made the buttons out of Fimo. Liz Lumb had an Alpaca cream scarf she had made with crocheting.