Buellwood June 2016 meeting Judging a fiber show with Phyllis Fredendall

Jennifer Gould's Entry in Exhibit.

Our Guild meet June 20th at Gloria Dei church for a slide presentation by Phyllis who was the Judge for the 19th Annual Michigan Biennial Fiber show 2016. She took us through her viewing and selection process for the the Exhibit. Then explained how she presented the Awards once the show was hung. check out the Michigan Handweavers Site to see more information and highlighted entries for the Exhibit. http://www.mlhguild.org/19th-biennial-exhibit/

This juried exhibition chronicled the current state of handweaveing and showcased the work of Michigan’s finest fiber artists including home décor, fashion accessories, garments, yarn, fabric, handmade paper, wall pieces and more. Phyllis Fredendall juried the exhibition. Phyllis is professor of Fiber and Fashion Design at Finlandia University’s International School of Art and Design in Hancock, Michigan. She teaches weaving, spinning and off-loom structures; garment design; jacquard design using CAD software; dyeing and printing; and two and three dimensional design fundamentals.

This exhibit was open through the end of May at the Dennos Museum in Traverse City, Michigan

To find out more about the Dennos Museum
​http://www.dennosmuseum.org/exhibitions/index.html

Carol and I also attended the MLH 2016 Workshops June 3-6 in Holland MI this year. I took Jennifer Gould's Blue Dye Class and Carol took Heather Winslow's Theo Moorman class. We both had a great time and learned a lot from the excellent instructors. All of the workshops were top notch and the MLH group put on a well organized Conference. For more information about this years workshops and for the dates for the 2017 conference check out the website: http://www.mlhguild.org/

Jenny Schu was one of the Artist in Residence in 2014 at Porcupine Mountain State Park, she spent about two weeks in the wilderness cabin, and presented a program for locals and park visitors, which was very inspirational. Here is her completed contribution to the Park for the honor of being selected Artist in Residence. Stop in at the Visitor's Center to see this weaving. Check out Jenny's blog for her production of this weaving. http://jennyschu.blogspot.com/2016/03/porcupine-mountains-residency-weavingis.html
Jenny is also teaching a 3 day Russian Leaf beadweaving class at the Porkies folk school in August this year. http://porkies.org/folk-school/workshops/

Jenny Schu's woven contribution to the Porkies Artist in Residence wall at the Porcupine Mountain state Park's  Visitor Center

Our show and tell for the month of June was lead by Deborah who brought in all the cotton towels she wove using 4 - shaft patterns she learned from Robyn Spady's 'Extreme Warp Makeover' class she took at 'Northern Wefts' Midwest Weavers Conference in 2011. Sometimes it takes a few years out of our busy schedules to use all the valuable knowledge we acquire during a 3-day workshop. But as you can see, Deborah put the knowledge to use and created some beautiful color combinations with the patterns she learned during this workshop.

A lovely Monk's belt pattern in Gold, Red and Blue (or green)

Everyone was excited to see Deborah's pile of beautiful towels. They were thick and thirsty with a cotton warp and weft.

Susan announced that she will be leaving the area at the end of June. Susan dove right in and was a great asset to our guild, as a new member she offered to lead a presentation last fall and she will be missed by all. Good luck Susan with your move and keep weaving. She may still have a 4- shaft rug loom that she would let go for a very reasonable price.

John brought some of the guilds many magazines and books for the members to borrow, as he is our new keeper of the Guild's Library.





 Dawn is always dying with some new plant. Today it was Alder Bark which makes a nice brown dyed yarn. She had more cedar bark, cherry bark, red dogwood and Buckhorn. Some lovely colors resulted from these natural fibers.

Dawn's dye records

Dawn will be doing a workshop August 6 th at the Calumet Art Center, Join her for a day of dyeing with Natural Plants.





 I brought in samples from my MLH workshop with Jennifer Gould... I have to say I have a whole pot of Indigo Dye in the Garage waiting for me to dye to my hearts content. Only if I had more time and energy to explore this summer.

'Blue Dye' Workshop: samples of fabric and stitches

Our next guild meeting will be August 15th. I am waiting to hear from Pekka on a possible repeat visit to his wood working studio. He is busy this summer working on preparing logs for his Loom Room building. I will keep you posted of the time and location of the August meeting. Until then Happy Weaving!