A Closer Look -- Fashion Show Honorable Mention

This post is part of a series taking a closer look at award-winning entries from exhibits at Northern Wefts, the Midwest Weavers Conference, which was held in June.

LeAnna Franklin's Woven Webs. Photo by Larry Retzlaf

LeAnna Franklin of Kewaunee, Wisconsin, won a special Honorable Mention award for her Woven Webs entry in the Fashion Show at Northern Wefts. This piece and two other entries were woven on an old Sears & Roebuck 2-harness loom.

"I still consider myself a beginning weaver," Leanna says. She used machine-spun Shetland wool for the weft (10 epi) and hand-dyed Shetland for the weft. When she wet-finished the fabric, the difference between the machine-spun and hand-spun resulted in a luscious texture that looked as if it had been woven on more than two shafts.

LeAnna used a jacket pattern taken from one of her favorite alpaca sweaters, and constructed the jacket in Mary Sue Fenner's Weave, Cut and Sew class.

A Closer Look -- Superior Breeze

This post is part of a series taking a closer look at award-winning entries from exhibits at Northern Wefts, the Midwest Weavers Conference, which was held in June.

Georgie Hurst's shawl "Superior Breeze". Photo by Larry Retzlaff

Georgie Hurst's love for Lake Superior showed in her shawl Superior Breeze, which won the Conference Theme award in the Fashion Show at Northern Wefts. Georgie is from Marquette, Michigan and is a member of the Yarnwinders Fiber Guild in Marquette.
 
Superior Breeze was made of 8/2 hand dyed tencel (30 epi). The undulating twill was woven on an 8 harness Norwood loom. "I had 18” of hand dyed tencel and added 1.5 inches of commercially dyed black to each selvedge," Georgie says. "After weaving the fringe on the two pieces was braided."

To finish her shawls, Georgie soaks a piece in warm water for about 30 minutes then dries them -- sometimes flat, sometimes hung over the shower rod, and sometimes "moved along" in the dryer.

Georgie has been weaving for 25 years. "A friend needed a place to store his Norwood 4 harness loom and asked if I was interested. It had a basic tie up (never changed) and I toyed with it for about five years. That was enough to know that I wanted to learn more," she says. She now has four looms, including her retirement gift to herself, after 29 years of teaching elementary physical education -- a 50” 8 harness Norwood loom.

Most of Georgie's weaving is wearable art pieces for summer and holiday art shows. "When I’m weaving 'full time' I like to have three looms warped," she says. "During an 8-10 hour day of weaving I change looms every 1 to 2 hours."

"The hand dyed warp just holds you at the loom because of the variety of color just keeps flowing from the back beam."

A Closer Look -- Complex Weavers Award

This post is part of a series taking a closer look at award-winning entries from exhibits at Northern Wefts, the Midwest Weavers Conference, which was held in June.

Marcia Kosmerchock's "Pillow" received the Complex Weavers Award.

Marcia's inspiration for this project came from Lotte Dalgaard's Magiske materialer. Fascinated by the draft, Marcia did a full range of samples using overtwist, differential shrinkage and various spandex yarns. She also experimented with the length of the floats and sizes of the grid structure.

"It is really a very simple 4 shaft double weave," she says. "Layer 1 is white 20/2 silk sett at 20 epi Layer 2 is black cotton spandex sett at 16 epi in the areas where it weaves . The black spandex weaves in the inside of the grid and floats in both the warp and weft."

"After all my sampling I really wanted to weave a finished project. The weave is very one-sided so does not work well for a scarf and I thought it was a bit too much for a jacket," Marcia says. So making a pillow seemed the ideal application. "Once the weaving was completed the piece was steamed with a clothing steamer. This caused the spandex floats to contract and create the wrinkly grid. I made use of the ruffle selvage on the side seams."

Marcia is "more a texture person than a pattern person." She has been a member of Complex Weavers for about 10 years and co-chaired with Wendy Morris the Collapse Pleat and Bump study group. The goup has members from seven or eight countries and has a sample exchange once a year.

Marcia started weaving in 1972 while in graduate school. Her interest in collapse weaves was piqued by what she saw in Japanese galleries on business trips there while she was living and working in Europe. "My looms have been moved to three different countries," she says. "I hope never to have to dismantle and pack them again!"