Buellwood Weaver and Fiber guild Annual Retreat Sept 17, 18

Melissa and Laura the Marsin Nature Center

Once again we had a great two days of playing and learning with Fiber. This year we had lots of fiber presentations. Thank you to everyone who helped out with the presentations. We had also recruited some new members with our extensive advertising.

Saturday AM: Carol taught us how to properly use the Drop Spindle it was a challenging experience but with practice I am sure we can accomplish this skill. Our new members were delighted to learn from Carol and this old member will need a lot more practice and patience.

Saturday PM: Dawn did an amazing class making Birch bark stars. we first made stars with paper strips folding and bending the paper to make the stars. After a few tries she trusted us with the real thing. The thin strips of birch bark that Dawn carefully prepared for our workshop. A lot of time goes into preparing the materials for Dawn's presentations and we really appreciate all the time and effort she put into making this a success. A number of attendees spent most of the day Saturday making stars which turned out beautiful.

Dawn's Star Class

birch bark stars

Melissa and Laura making stars....

Dawn's beautiful baskets

John at the 8 shaft guild loom

Weaving continued on both days: 

John, Carol and Mary prepared a number of looms for the group to try out during the two days. John set up the guild 8-shaft loom with a honeycomb treadling using heavy outline wefts.

It is always fun to try out a new pattern that is on the loom and ready to weave. This warp should make some lovely towels.



Melissa brought in the loom she used for her workshop at Convergence 2016 she took a class from Kay Faulkner 'When East Meets West' http://www.weavespindye.org/thursday-august-4-2016
her colors were beautiful and the weaving was very interesting. She explained the workshop and what she learned from this experience. Sorry to say I did not get a picture of her loom and the warp.....

Kathie at the guild table loom

I brought in the guild's 4-shaft table loom threaded with a an Overshot pattern and a few samples to show the many different patterns that can be woven on a 4 shaft loom with one warp. Kathie was happy to take this loom home and continue to weave on the warp at home. I also brought in my 8- shaft table loom that I have been weaving a Summer and Winter pattern with tencel that creates polka dot reversible fabric.  A few of the more brave weavers tried out this pattern. But alas I will still have a yard to weave when I get it home!

Carol brought in a rigid heddle loom warped with a beautiful turquoise Scarf that was fun to weave on. We had two smaller looms to try out that are less expensive for the beginning weaver to experiment with.

 

Karen on the Mini Wave loom

Here Karen is trying out the Gilmore Mini-Wave on which they could make 5 inch mug rugs. Karen is a new member of our guild and is even going to do a 'Cordage' class for us at our May meeting in 2017.

Welcome to Karin, Laura, Gale and Kathie who joined our guild this last weekend.







Sunday was Natural dye day: Dawn loves to collect plants and prepare them for dyeing. We are lucky she has joined our guild and is willing to share her knowledge with our group. The dyes are prepared with out harsh chemicals and they yarn is dyed with various safe mordants.

Dawn with a super mushroom

boiling plant materials

The Marsin has a trail with a lovely collection of Mushrooms and a number of us took a walk to explore what was out there. These are a few of the mushrooms I found on our short walk.

Dawn preparing the dye and dying her samples while we anticipated our turn.

 








The results of natural dyes were amazing the colors were beautiful and the teacher was full of information for us.

 


More weaving continued on Sunday between Beading with Debra and Natural dyeing demo.

Debra showed us how to do herringbone beading that she uses to make beautiful necklaces and bracelets. 

Until next year a great workshop and new members. I call this a successful two days at the Marsin Nature Center for the Buellwood Weavers and Fiber Guild.

Please check out the schedule we have planned for 2017 on the top of this blog and if you are interested in joining our guild we meet at noon on the third Monday of the month at Gloria Dei Church in Hancock Michigan. Our next meeting is October 17 th 2016.

contact information is in the officers and members tag above.