Transparencies in weaving

The Buellwood Weavers and Fiber Artist guild meet Monday April 23 as our regular meeting was cancelled due to snow. Thank you John for rescheduling and presenting your Transparency Weaving program for us.

John has been working on finding a weaving techniques that is pictorial and he explored a number of different techniques before finding Transparency. He did some tapestry a few years ago but wanted something a bit lighter for this project.

His first attempt was Finnweave after visiting the exhibit at the Finnish American Heritage Center which had a number of woven pieces by Dona Jung. Which I believe was a version of Finnweave. Per Bonnie Inouye "finnweave" is a pickup method. It is a form of double weave with paired threads. Loom-controlled designs in this structure are called "deflected double weave" now and have had other names in the past.
John found working with Finnweave did not give him the results he was looking for and a bit difficult to weave from his sampling.

He proceeded to study Transparency weaving, Inlay, Theo Moorman and even Shaft Switching by Peter Collingswood.

The result of his search came up with some nice results with Transparency weaving on a linen background.

Transparency Sampler by John

Cartoon and Transparency 'Hiker' by John

He finished the 'Hiker' inspired by his pilgrimage on the Comino de Santiago last year. 

John set up a loom for us try our hand at Transparent weaving and combining colors with the fibers on the loom. He uses a cartoon under the weaving to follow his design.  

His other weaving will be his entry into the Buellwood Best show in our May meeting so you will have to wait to see the results.

He also discovered that transparency weaving may have been invented by Frida Hansen  

in the early 1900's. Read more about her in the link above.

Show and Tell

Once again we had a great show and tell from our talented members:

Kathie knit a scarf from handspun she got from Laura at our last retreat. It is a bit heavy but she is sure her grand daughter will love it.

Hand spun yarn scarf

She also brought in 2 coiled baskets she bought from the Hoopa Valley Indians in Northwestern CA.

Hoopa Valley Indian coiled baskets

John shared some luscious silk yarn that came with his new 8-shaft loom. he plans on weaving a gift with this yarn on his new loom.

Phyllis wearing Dawn's vest

Dawn our natural dye teacher came in with some beautiful felted pieces this time and of course another example of colors she gets with her natural dye matter.
Her felted vests were a hit. One went home with Phyllis.

 









With the 100 gr of dried indigo leaves Dawn cooked up a dye bath and  has been dyeing everything she has in this beautiful bath. Then she dyed the wool and silk she used to Nuno felt this scarf. Still some green in the silk in this felted piece. Did the silk not oxidize or is Silk different from the wool when dyed in Indigo?

Nuno felted scarf Indigo dye.

She also felted a scarf out of wool she dyed with black walnut hulls and embellished it with wool dyed with purple corn shucks.

Black walnut hulls scarf

Glossy buck thorn bark with ammonia

 Her dye sample was dyed in Glossy buck thorn bark soaked in straight ammonia. The resulting red was beautiful the grey was when she dried the sample in sunlight.

log cabin weave with Harrisville Shetland yarn

Mary wove her third Log Cabin Rauna out of Harrisville Shetland yarn. This one is green and blue with a Tundra color edge. She brought the sample of woven log cabin pattern woven with Harrisville yarn and finished. This one a gift is already gone.Very soft feel gives this garment a nice drape.

She has also been teaching herself to crochet with cotton Sugar and Cream yarn to make sun hats for the grand daughter. It took three tries to get one that might fit. Sugar and Cream is a little chunky for this pattern. 

crocheted hats out of cotton

The knit hat is fashioned after the USA Olympic 2018 team hat that was worn by the snow board ladies. One ball of chunky yarn to knit this hat all it needs is the USA logo on it and it is a match.

felted bowl workshop GLIKKA July 25-29 St Helena Light station

Because I had so much fun last summer I will be doing another felting workshop at St Helena Light station just west of Mackinaw City MI. Join me for 4 days at Great Lake Lighthouse keepers website for the July workshop.


Donna, brought in at drift wood sculpture she enjoyed making this Christmas tree or as she it a Sailboat. We can see it decorated with ornaments for the holidays.

Karen has been making baby booties. She shared a pair of crocheted dragon stitch booties... so cute for a new grand daughter?

Karen crocheted booties

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Phyllis has been busy dyeing with onion skins. Who knew these beautiful colors could be had with all those saved onion skins? She used only Alum as a mordant to get these lovely results.

Here a grey fleece was dyed with onion skins without the Alum as a mordant

Phyllis admiring her grey fleece dyed with onion skin

Marilyn is weaving dog lashes on the inkle loom.
These are beautiful and she has mastered the salvages on these samples. She plans on treating the lashes with lavender oil to protect her dogs from the dreaded ticks we will soon have to deal with her in the U.P.

Our next meeting will be May 21 at the Gloria Dei Church in Hancock MI at noon. 

this is the Buellwood Best show that can win you a years membership. Peoples choice will determine the winner of the scholarship for 2018-2019.

Our guild retreat is scheduled for the Friday and Saturday Oct 13, and 14 th this year. We have again reserved the beautiful Marsin Retreat Center near Houghton MI.
Please save the dates!
 if you want to present a short workshop let John or Katie know what you have in mind.  The public is welcome all we ask is that you join our guild with a $25 membership to attend.