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."