Harvest Cloth

next placemat warp

One of the advantages of participating in a show like the Seattle Weavers Guild is that I don't need to pay as much attention to the development of a line as I do when I'm exhibiting only in my own booth space.

I can go ahead and do colours that won't necessarily look good together, because they won't necessarily be seen together.

The Seattle Guild sale has been running for years. It takes the form of a large department store. There are areas for household textiles, fashion accessories, clothing, rugs, and so on. All the guild members bring their textiles and each department head arranges everything within their department.

Since there are generally around 70+ weavers participating, that means there is a vast array of colours, styles and approaches to designing cloth.

It's very exciting!

But as I said, it's also very freeing because I can go ahead and scrounge through my storage area, using up bits of this and that with no thought to how it's going to look in a 10 by 10 booth.

I've about used up the yarns suitable for placemats. If I want to make more I may actually have to buy more yarn! So I expect that unless I stumble across something later today it will be back to scarves tomorrow.

The Efficient Weaver

next 11 meter warp for placemats

When I chose weaving as a career in 1975 I immediately ran afoul of some of the attitudes of the time in the weaving world.

To wit:

#1 When pricing, figure out how much you paid for your materials and multiply by 3 (or 4 if you were feeling cocky)

#2 Do not under any circumstances use any equipment more efficient than a standard floor loom

I rejected #1 out of hand because it does not recognize one's labour - the largest investment in any hand woven textile - nor overhead costs - all those expenses that continue regardless of production or actual sales.

Other weavers were aghast at my temerity. Some told me to my face - trying to be kind I suppose - that I'd never sell my textiles because my prices were way too high.

But I persisted and lo and behold, my textiles sold. And sold well, thank you very much.

The next brick wall of attitude I ran into was when I bought my AVL with dobby, fly shuttle and auto-cloth advance.

A chorus of "You can't label your textiles hand woven any more!" arose. Which perplexed me enormously. That attitude came with a sub-text: How can you do that? Don't you get bored?

The truth is I didn't get bored with it. I did get tired, but not bored.

Then came the introduction of computers and computer dobby's. Once again a chorus of "You can't call your textiles handwoven" arose again. I bought one anyway.

During all of the years of my career, I have sought out and learned from people who weave efficiently. I bought books, initially, because that was the technology of the day and took workshops. As many workshops as I could afford. Along the way I picked up nuggets of information that I incorporated as best I could when I saw that they would improve my performance.

I continually analyzed what I did and where the bottle necks were. If it was an equipment issue, I saved up enough money to buy more efficient equipment. If it was a physical issue, I tried to figure out how to make my body work more ergonmically, more efficiently.

The goal was always to do what I do faster and/or better. Speed that introduces error is not efficient. But when learning a new process, one must also allow for time at the slippery end of the learning curve. Eventually I decided that if I couldn't make the process work for me after 6 warps, it probably wasn't for me.

I have tried over the years to share what I do. When teaching workshops I offer to demo how I hold and throw a shuttle and talk about other efficiencies. So often I hear muttering in the background "I could never do that".

I know it's hard to unlearn something. Muscle memory is stubborn! But it can be done. It just takes conscious effort - purposeful study.

Over the past few years I have seen a growing interest in the weaving community in weavers wanting to learn more efficient methods. Conferences are now booking me to present seminars and workshops to address efficient methods. Since I started accepting private students, there has been some interest in that, too. When I teach beginning weaving classes, I now teach my methods, not the ones I was taught lo these many years ago.

I'm still waiting for the contract from NEWS, but I think I can go ahead and announce that I will be doing a couple of seminars there next year on issues of efficiency. And it's official with the John C. Campbell Folk School. I returned the contract to them last week. The workshop there will be January 9-15, 2011.

For this year I'll be teaching a beginning weaving class at the Folk School in Joplin, MO. Contact info is on the schedule page on my website. I'll be listing the 2011 events once I get the NEWS contract.

I Yam Wot I Yam

placemats

I am not an artist.

While I have in the past woven pieces that were artistic statements, this is not my primary goal.

I am a weaver.

I make textiles that are functional. Scarves. Dish Towels. Placemats. Etc. I make them as well as I can, with as much beauty and grace as I am able.

But I am not an artist. That is not my goal.

I am a weaver.

I have no other 'real' job that comes with a 'real' paycheque that I can cash to pay the bills. There is only me and my loom and my yarns.

I am dependant upon others to pay me for my skill as a weaver, and my artistic aesthetic in terms of how I design my textiles.

Therefore, woven into and through everything I create are efficiencies. Efficiencies of scale. Efficiencies of motion. Efficiencies of tools.

At times I will even go so far as to modify a design in order to be able to execute it - yes - more efficiently.

Efficiency is not my primary goal, but it is one of my three interwoven goals. To efficiently make attractive textiles that others will purchase.

I weave for myself, but my textiles are not made for me, but by me.

Why weave as a job, a career, instead of something far more lucrative?

First and foremost, the ability to - every single day - be creative on one level or another. To set my own goals. Master (mistress?) of my own schedule.

It gives me great satisfaction to know that other people buy my textiles because they appreciate them and want them to enhance their homes/lives.

I love to commune with my yarns and looms, becoming one with them as the inches build up on the beam. I love the physical activity, the dance over the treadles, throwing and catching the shuttle.

But in the end, in order to actually make enough money to buy my equipment, pay the rent, purchase new and exciting yarns, rent booth space at craft fairs, travel to attend conferences, plus all the other expenses of running a business, I must always work as efficiently as possible.

In a craft that is as time consuming as weaving, efficiency should not be ignored or discouraged. Learning how to work ergonmically and efficiently is as much a part of the craft as learning how the equipment works and fibre characteristics in order to make appropriate choices.

Currently reading The Hearse You Came In On by Tim Cockey

Slow Cloth

scarf #2



A friend sent me an URL for a website with an article about developing a Slow Cloth movement.

(as per Elaine's request and with my deepest apologies for not including this in the first place:
http://handeyemagazine.com/content/slow-cloth )
I was all set to embrace the concept until I read this:

If efficiency and sameness are the primary goals, it's not Slow Cloth.


Let's think a little about this.

A loom with shafts and treadles was developed in order to create fabric more efficiently than without. This was the primary goal of developing this equipment, and why most people use such a tool. According to the statement above, a loom with shafts and treadles could disqualify the cloth made on such a loom from the Slow Cloth philosophy.

We won't even discuss drawlooms or Jacquards whose primary goal was to create complex patterns more efficiently than by using a pick up stick. We'd also have to rule out an AVL or similar loom with auto-cloth advance, dobby and fly shuttle - all options for weaving more efficiently.

Okay - so let's say a floor loom like my Fanny with four shafts and treadles might be allowed to create Slow Cloth. Let's look at the other tools in my studio.

Boat shuttle. Primarily created to be more efficient than a stick shuttle.

Electric bobbin winder. Heck - a bobbin winder, period. The only purpose these tools have is to more efficiently wind a bobbin.

Swift. Nope - primary goal is to unwind a skein more efficiently than draped over the knees, or the arms of a willing assistant.

Scissors. Much more efficient than a sharp rock.

Threading and sleying hook. More efficient (to me) than using my fingers.

And so on. We won't even talk about the processes I've learned whose very purpose is to work more efficiently, allowing me to quickly get a warp onto and off the loom so that I can go on to the next, and the next and the next, delighting in the laying in of each pick, smoothly, rhythmically, watching the inches roll by.

Let's take the second part of that statement. My goal when weaving a set of placemats is to make them as similar as possible. The goal is sameness. Ergo, they might not qualify for the Slow Cloth movement according to the above statement.

Ditto towels, or a set of table runners.

Such a pity when I am so completely in tune with the other tenets of the movement. To paraphrase:

1 Joy in the process
2 Contemplative while working
3 Work with skill
4 Honouring diversity and history of textiles
5 Honouring teachers and lineage of skill practitioners
6 Use of sustainable materials
7 Quality
8 Beauty
9 Community
10 Expressive

But underlaying all of the above is that I want to make cloth as efficiently as possible. Partly because I want to make so much more cloth than I have time to execute, partly because I want to work ergonomically (which has the side benefit of efficiency) to cause the least amount of harm to my body, partly because to me being skilled means being efficient, partly because I want to experience as much joy as possible which manifests itself in the creation of another fabric, another textile, another design concept to bring into material form.

My desire to work efficiently never excludes any of those other tenets, but is thoroughly woven into and through them. It cannot be separated from them. I want to make cloth that will perform it's function as beautifully as possible, and I want to make it as efficiently as possible. If that means that sometimes I make repeats (i.e. placemats) I am willing to do that, too.

For 35 years I have hand woven cloth - functional fabrics - and tried to sell them to earn my income. The Slow Cloth movement may grow or not. It may embrace efficiency or not. I'll still be sitting at my loom, weaving - as efficiently as possible - making fabric as well as I know how.

Scarfa-Stash Reduction

beginning of scarf showing header picks taken to the ends of the apron rod to prevent the warp from curling

Finished weaving the silk warp after lace this afternoon, then dressed the Fanny loom with one of the many painted warps I have kicking around. Unfortunately I only have enough of the lovely blue weft for two of the four scarves on this warp so I'll have to go digging and see what else is lurking in the store room.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I am not a patient person. I really hate waiting to hear what's going to happen next, especially when I have no idea how long it's going to take to find out.

I am also extremely deadline - or goal - oriented, so much of my time today was spent formulating a game plan. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. :}

So I am back to stash reduction with a vengence. I'd stopped making scarves because I already had a big inventory of them. However, since being accepted to the One of a Kind Vancouver show for next December, it seems prudent to make some more. Besides, I have all these painted warps....

And if - and I won't know for sure until I see the specialist - I have to have surgery, I won't be able to weave for 4-6 weeks. I know - that's hardly any time at all and will no doubt pass by all too quickly! But that's 4-6 weeks of no production, with shows starting in September.

While I might not be able to weave, I will be able to fringe twist and hem, so I'm pouring on the coals to get as much stuff woven as I can so that I can do the finishing while I'm healing.

I'm not a big fan of surgery, but if in the end it fixes the problem once and for all, then let's get it done. Just saying....

Scarfaweekend #2

click on photo to see close up

In spite of spending the morning at the guild room dyeing, I managed to thread and sley the warp this afternoon and after dinner got about half of it woven in between minding the industrial cone winder.

I have a new temporary studio elf coming in on Monday, so I needed to get some prep work done in order that she have things to do when she arrives. The Bambu 7 is now coned off, ready to be labelled and packed. Next week I'll do the Bambu 12 in case she can come the following Monday, too. Add to that the textiles that require labels, the tea towels and place mats I cut off the looms that need serging, vacuuming, etc., she will have lots to keep her busy.

Fibres West will be upon us rather quickly. I have already fallen behind in my expectations of what I felt needed to be done but have made progress getting samples spun and knitted. And the 2/20 silk yarn is all dyed, too. In the end, the festival will come whether I'm ready or not, so I'll just keep plugging along while waiting for phone calls from two different specialists' offices for appointments.

It appears that 2010 is going to be devoted to fixing my body. While I'm grateful to be living here and now where there are medical treatments for both issues, I can't help feeling that my body is letting the side down much too soon. :( Not to mention I'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.

I like being my age (59 going on 60 in case you were interested). I like having a life times worth of experience to draw on. I like the skills I've acquired over my career in weaving. I like the perspective all of this gives me.

I don't like having my body break down. Especially when I still feel like I'm young - or at least young at heart?

Now I'm over the initial shock of hearing what I expected to hear but not wanting to hear it, I'm determined to get everything dealt with so that I can continue to weave after surgery, if it should be necessary. The last two years it's just been one thing after another - but - and it's a big but - 40 years ago there were no treatments. And now there are.

We've come a long way, baby. :D

Currently reading Underground by Kat Richardson.

Dye day

Decided to experiment and see if I could include a photo with text from my phone.

If it doesn't work I will delete when I get home.

So far today one skein spun and one dyepot done. Three more pots and the 2/20 silk will be done.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network