Buellwood Weavers and Fiber Artist guild January 2020 Handmade Paper

The Buellwood Weavers and Fiber Artist Guild met January 20th  for our monthly meeting at Gloria Dei Church in Hancock, MI.

Show and Tell was interesting as always since we have such an array of talented members and sometimes visitors. Today we were joined by two students in Finlandia's Fiber program.Welcome Lisa and Nikolai!

Our presentation today was handmade paper presented by Debra and her daughters Marguerite and Reena.

Apple wood in this one

Marilyn had one of the three sweaters she has been knitting a beautiful color and the cable is well done. She found a mistake and needed advise on how to repair the stitch.  Husband Jon has been making more bread boards and brought in a few to share the one on the top is made with wood from an apple tree.

Jon's wooden bread boards

Nickolai a visiting student from Finlandia’s Fiber class used a crocheted crocodile stitch for his Dice Bag. A very interesting project and he is very interested in weaving fabric also.

Dawn has been busy making slippers for her house guests. She is using her hand spun yarn to make slippers, mittens and even these cleaver boots with the rubber soles. She also knit a neck warmer for a friend who lives in Barrow Alaska. The slippers are a Monique Rae pattern. She does also sometimes uses Tile and Tub caulk diluted on the bottoms of the slippers to make then non skid. Dawn will teach a 2 day dye workshop at the Porkies Folk School this summer in July 2020. check out registration at Porkies.org.

 

Dawn's winter boots

house slippers and Barrow Alaska gift

Phyllis with crocheted hat

Phyllis was given these cute Chinese booties that are twined and woven from a friend. she also crocheted this really warm hat! finding yarn to finish her hat while in Milwaukee at the Yarn Junkie shop in Butler WI. Phyllis will be leading our February meeting where we will be learning Shibori stitching. we will have samples that we will use to dye in our March meeting where Dawn will be introducing us to indigo dye.

Chinese booties 

Phyllis also will be teaching a inkle loom class in March 11, 18, and 25  at the Finnish American Heritage Center 6:30- 8 pm call
906- 487-7302 for more information.

crocheted hat

Karen is busy making plans for classes she will be teaching this year. But she found time to Eco dye a number of scarves and experiment with over dyes. Her schedule is very busy and she is teaching this twill scissor sheath and many more baskets workshops around the country. She will be teaching a Pint Cozy basket workshop at the Porcupine Mountain folk School in August. Registration will be starting February 1st at Porkies.org. https://porkies.org/event/pint-cozy/ . Registration is open now check it out! Poppy and Dawn will also be teaching workshops. 

scissors sheath  

Karen woven birch necklace

eco dyed scarf over dyed with cochineal

 Anita our guild resale shopper found some beautiful machine embroidered samples at a local shop.

Detail of machine Embroidery

Anita with machine embroidery

Jimalee shared a book she recommends ‘The Golden Tread’ How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair 

        Lisa another visiting student in the Fiber program at Finlandia University shared her recently finished woven Ryijy wall hanging ‘Birch Bark'

Ryijy wall hanging Birch Bark

Kathie Finished weaving these lovely

towels from a warp we helped her put on her loom last summer as a guild presentation. She is delighted with her cotolin towels. She also shared a fringe maker with our group. This she passed on to a member who was interested.

Kathie’s towels

Fringe loom

Reena with fiber projects

Reena 
Shared her fiber projects with us. She knit this with multicolored yarn and has a needlepoint project she is working on too!

 Debra  Is planning her warp for MS Fenner workshop in May. She wove a sample which has a nice drape.

MarySue will be teaching a 'One of a Kind Jacket' workshop at Finlandia May 5,6,7. Class is full right now but there may be one open spot from cancellations if you are interested call or email Debra for more information.


















Mary is planning for the Mary Sue Fenner workshop in May. With the help form guild members on yarn choices this is what will be woven. 4.5 yard warp of North Ronaldsay natural colored wool with a few colors and some silk added in the warp and weft.

warp plan and warp

Debra, Marguerite and Reena Handmade Paper Demonstration

Debra and her girls showed us how to make incredible handmade paper. 

Starting with 2 cups of clear water in blender they tore up paper and added it to the water, about one and one-third sheets of any paper torn into small pieces. Then they blended this for about 30 seconds.  They poured this mixture into a prepared screen while the screen was submerged in the tub of water. Carefully they removed the prepared screen from tub and placed it on synthetic chamois and removed the screen and wooden frame. A second super fine screen was placed on of the paper and a sponge was used to soak up excess water. They peeled the screen from the paper and pressed. In minutes they had a beautiful sheet of handmade paper to make into cards or even paint on the surface when dry.

Debra with daughters preparing wooden screen

   Marguerite emerging the screen    

Pulp added to screen frame

taking frame off of the paper

removing the screen from paper

adding the super fine screen to top of paper

finished paper waiting to dry

an envelope stencil can be used to make envelopes 

attentive guild members watching process

Paper is dry

Thank you Debra, Marguerite and Reena for coming to our guild meeting and sharing your paper making skills with us.

Our next guild meeting will be February 17 at Gloria Dei church 12:00 noon. Phyllis will show us some Shibori stitches on cotton muslin that we will dye at our March meeting when Dawn will do an Indigo dye demonstration.