York & District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (Reg. Charity No. 519097) May Newsletter 2010
	Please note that the "@" symbol has been replaced by " at " in email links. Next meetings 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. 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 Spinning wheel Ashford traditional style made by Don MacClachlan with 8 bobbins and a niddy noddy. £100 ono. Brough (E.Yorks). Ref A.BOD Spinning wheel Ashford traditional £70 ono. Sneaton (E.Yorks). Ref B.THO Wanted (Please contact the webmaster for further information) Drum carder. Ref S.RUS Speaker Report Handloom weaving - Adam Jordan What a delight for a girl who could never say no to anything with a purple feather attached, never mind the gorgeous dangly jewels dripping from his beautifully crafted bags! He kept telling us how he loved his weaving but had no need to as this was patently obvious from his joyous enthusiasm. Adam told us of his original desire to do cartoons for sci-fi comics, but after being told he wasn’t going to make it in this field, spread his wings into art and textiles, eventually applying and winning a place at Loughborough University just to prove his tutor wrong (who thought he wouldn’t get accepted!) His “mathematical “ brain obviously helps him to plan his complex weaving patterns and result in him usually using all 36 shafts on his loom (even though it can take up to 3 weeks to warp up). He loves to experiment and has great success using elastic in the weft to produce interesting ruched designs, resulting in curvy ruffled fabric that wouldn’t look out of place in the Moulin Rouge of the thirties. In fact he says he would like to branch out into fashion and costume if he could learn a bit of dressmaking, although he admits he doesn’t always know how his elasticated fabric is going to turn out. Adam is the youngest, and a very active member of the Northamptonshire Guild of Designer Craftsmen. He is proud to be on the “Hanging Committee” (for exhibitions, not those who step out of line), and is “Cabinet Secretary”, alternatively known as the less glamorous sounding “Showcase Secretary”, who rents out cabinets for showcasing members work. He finds the Guild a useful outlet for getting himself known. His weaving is very much a family affair, his Nan houses his loom, his Mum helps him warp up, his Dad helps him set up for shows and talks and his sister takes great joy in “trialling” his bags for him (I wouldn’t mind her job!). In amongst the perfusion of pink and purple glitter and feathers is some very complex and beautiful weaving, way beyond my comprehension, but not my appreciation. Adam told us that his most recent piece is usually his favourite and he has mixed feelings when someone wants to buy them, but always feels a sense of joy that someone else is going to appreciate and love it. Margaret gave the vote of thanks and we all joined her in wishing him all the best for the future and hope he gets that call from Vivienne Westwood very soon! Enid Member’s Work Rosemary showed samples from the complex weaving course that she attended at Summer School using small quantities of her hand dyed yarns. Also a hand woven and dyed Shibori scarf ( she offered to run a workshop in this technique) and an Ikat dyed piece. Mary Carbert showed the results of a dyeing session using the yarns to knit 3 identical strips. One of the strips was dipped into another mordant and one into another dye and the 3 specimens were mounted side by side to show the resultant changes in colour. The same experiment from last year was also shown illustrating that natural dyes can give different results. Barbara showed brooches made with Japanese folding of cloth. They start with a circle folded in any manner of ways to form a petal. An odd number of petals are gathered together to make a brooch and a button stitched in the centre. Useful for using up oddments of hand dyed cloth. Jackie showed a sample of experiments in inkle braiding. Beryl showed a circular hand spun, hand dyed and crocheted shawl. This was an on going piece of work over a period of approx 46 years. So there you go – don’t give up. Just make sure that the moths don’t get busy in the mean time because they are useless at crochet!