Cordage for Fiber Artists - April 2017

We had a big turn out in April for Karen's Cordage presentation. Nice to see some young faces visiting our Guild meetings. The topic for this meeting was Cordage but we always do 'show and tell' first and we have a lot of wonderful items to share each month.

Show and tell was again inspiring! We were happy to see Lynn this month, she made a lovely ribbed cowl scarf out of Malibu Yarn. A very interesting pattern and beautiful colors. She also shared a beaded square she made this beaded piece in a class with Cynthia Cotes.

Lynn's Beaded piece

Rib knit scarf

Dawn shared some interesting reading 'Fleece and Fiber Source book' and 'Ply Magazine'. She knit a lovely hat out of handspun chunky Border Leicester wool. A series of yarn skeins dyed with dried Black Holly Hock flowers. She noted that the colors ranged from blue green tones with the first dyed skein and then blue purple with the second skein and alternating with the following several skeins she dyed. Dawn will be teaching a 'Natural Dye' class at the Porkies folk School on July 22nd 2017.

The rose colored slippers she brought to show us are a pattern she has planned for us to knit and felt at our fall retreat which is a beginning knitter pattern. 

We are starting to plan now for a number of other fiber demonstration techniques for October 7-8, 2017 'Buellwood Fiber Retreat' Free for guild members and open to the public for new members.

Dyed with Dried Black Holly Hock flowers

Fall felted slippers

Border Leicester handspun yarn.

Karen embellished her Dogwood Basket with Spruce Roots, she is a master basket weaver. Karen will also be teaching a class August 17th 'Basketry Petals and Stars' at the Porkies Folk School.
For her lovely 'Bark Pouch' class you will need to travel to Sievers  on magical Washington Island, off Door County WI.

Dogwood basket by Karen with spruce roots embellishment.

interior spruce root embellishment.

Anita shared her latest amazing find at a resale shop. This is silk embroidery yarn from a silk mill in Petaluma, CA. The Perfection Filo Silk was made by Carlson Currier Company and was a lovely shade of bright pink.

Phyllis shared her Jacquard woven fabric. This year she let a friend design the fabric for her. His choice was a design using the word LEVEL. The design is entered into a computer program by Phyllis in her class then the completed file is sent off to Montreal Canada to be woven on a Jacquard loom. The finished cloth is then returned to each student for their personal use. The company gets to keep the design and the students receive a finished sample of their design. This is a nice arrangement for Finlandia University Fiber Students.

 

Jean brought some coiled and corded baskets from India and a sample of glow in the dark roving that she plans to use as accent around the neck or sleeves. It would also look great to highlight wall piece.

cordage baskets from India

Peter ' Pekka' volunteered to make some wooden shuttles for the Midwest Weavers Conference for our guild to donate. He brought in his Gutter Bowl hand made out of basswood and painted. In the bowl he had a number of hand carved fish Shuttles that he embellished with paints. A few lucky attendees of the Midwest Weavers Conference in Indianapolis will receive one of Pekka's hand painted and carved shuttles or one of Buellwood Weavers goodie bag fiber pins that a few members helped to produce.

Gutter bowl with handcarved fish shuttles

Katie Jo is making what she calls a 'Life Project' one she is sure will take the lifetime to finish. The pattern is 'the Beekeepers Quilt' available on Ravelry at Tiny Owl Knits. These are stuffed honeycomb shaped puffy pockets called Hexipuffs. They are joined at the corners with simple quilt ties for better flop-a-bility. Cute, cute, cute what a great idea to use up that leftover sock yarn and oh so portable.

Katie Jo with basket of knitting

hexipuffs in a basket

 Carol brought in a basket she crocheted out exactly 'one' cut up  T-Shirt.

One cut up T- Shirt = one red bowl

linen collapse weave scarf

 Mary finished weaving two Linen Collapse weave scarves for this weeks show and tell.

 Cordage: was presented by Karen  

Karen in motion

At this meeting we were shown how to make Basswood Bark Cordage for our fiber Art. Karen prepared the basswood bark for her demonstration by stripping the bark off a cut down tree. She then had to soak the fiber for 3 weeks to Rett, which rots away the flesh of the inner bark so to remove it.

The outer bark comes off and leaves the paper thin inner bark which is what she uses to make the Cordage for her baskets. She also uses Japanese Iris leaves for cordage. We got to try out her her twisting method and take home some fiber to practice making cordage for future use. Basswood also takes dye very readily which adds to its usage.

The technique

Supplies for cordage making and finished samples of Karen's Baskets

Our next guild meeting will be Monday May 15th at Gloria Dei Church in Hancock MI

We will present our 'Buellwood Best Show' and a critique will be given by Phyllis on our work and entering a Fiber Show. Please bring along your best work for this educational experience.

We will also have a peoples choice award that will be given out. 

On June 19th we will have a presentation of  Central American Folk Art Garments. I have seen some of the samples and you will be impressed with the hand crafted quality that will be presented.