September Bark Weaving Outdoors

Bark weaving was our topic for the September 21 Buellwood Weavers and Fiber Artist Guild meeting, which we held out side at Boston Pond Shelter in the Keweenaw. We had a smaller turn out this month but an interesting show and tell and a fun project was started. I am still waiting for pictures of the finished Bark weaving samples.  It was interesting the variety of  sticks each person brought in to created their weaving. Here are some samples of the yarns and bark sticks our members tried.

We all wore masks and social distanced, despite it being hard to take pictures and hear each other with the wind. We have two new members to our guild this month so a big welcome Deb and Jim. 

I found that a strong stick that was fresh  with rough bark worked best . As the yarn was easier to wrap on the stick and the Y did not bend in too much to make the tension a problem. I did find one strong driftwood piece that might work. A couple of us interpreted the directions a little different but they all seemed to work. 

Anita has a big stick with two Y's sections . This will make an interesting wall piece for sure.

Denise had the right idea and some special weft yarns and cloth to work with. 

Laura had a very small piece of drift wood that she wound with some fine glitzy yarn which was very interesting. 

John was trying a 3 dimensional piece with his stick. This is an interesting approach and he was using both sides of the warp and weaving with cloth strips. 

Deb came prepared with some fat yarn....a good idea when weaving a tapestry type woven piece.

Kathie was struggling with getting the tension on her stick. Which I found was the problem with a smooth or weak stick. 

Show and tell was quick and sweet.

Laura has been weaving on her 20" rigid heddle loom. Look at the garments she made with her handspun yarn. She is looking for a loom with a wider weaving width about 26 inches, preferably a small loom for her small house. The tunic top in green and purple and the black and white Jacob fleece coat are beautiful. 

 

Mary finished her handwoven vest 12214 Cutting Line Designs made with yarn from the North Ronaldsay sheep in Scottland. 

She took a workshop with Mary Sue Fenner this last year and completed the sewing at home this summer. She also attended MLH in 2018 and took a workshop with Su Butler 'Tied Weaves'. the sampler has some great woven patterns.  

Kathie has been weaving up a storm of items and brought in her latest scarves and runners.  She used a shinny cotton warp with a blue cotton weft and the turquoise weft is a mystery fiber she found at a resale shop. 

Dawn found this item in some weaving supplies and wonders what it is actually used for?

we thought some sort of tension maker for a warp. She has been dyeing with plants again and this time it was colored corn cobs, the tassels gave a green color.  Sweet Gale gave the yellow yarn.  A Lichen from the Maple tree she showed us last meeting gave the purple variations.  The bright magenta was from the Common Buckhorn Bark with ammonia.

Karen's fabulous baskets.

She was unable to attend our meeting and sent some photos in for the Blog. First an embellished Birch bark basket. Which is her creative design. 

 

Karen's Willow basket around a recycled jar with the faucet base.

Keep watching for more information on our fall meetings Where we will be meeting? in emails from John, if you have any requests for a topic or presentation send your ideas to John. Our next meeting should be October 19th. 

Buellwood Best 2021 is a challenge to create a fiber piece to fit with in  a 12 inch square.

Hopefully by May Meeting in 2021 we will be meeting in  person to present our work. 

June 2019 Willow Basket

Look who is back! Clare showed up with baby Lyra for our June Guild meeting. We were surprised and delighted to see her and meet 9 month old Lyra. Then off she goes again for a two week Music Event Clinic in Finland. Fibers for show and tell no time for that right now.

Lyra is her show and tell

Jay showed us his Dream Catchers he has been making with Red Willow and waxed linen. He is making the spacing tighter at the top and incorporating bought not found feathers as he hopes to sell a few at the Keweenaw Summer Celebration.


Anita has been Good Willing again and this time she found some miniature metal Magic looms. These caught a lot of attention and we may try to use them at our retreat. She found an all metal round knitting needle, handmade wooden and metal crochet hooks and a hairpin lace loom.

Magic Loom and steel circular needle

Karen has been a busy lady with all the shows she has been producing work for. Thanks to winning all those awards at the Bonifas Arts Center earlier this year. She made a willow purse with a Catalan Base. Inside you can see how she attached the purse handles with very clever rods. https://www.wickerwoman.com/willow-purse-with-catalan-base.html

attached purse handles

willow purse with Catalan base

She also brought in her latest basket experiment, which she will be teaching at North Shore school this fall. She was able to Eco print a leaf on the birch for her basket lid. Her basic basket class is at North Shore this fall  https://northhouse.org/instructors/karen-tembreull 
She is also teaching at the Porkies Folk School in August

Basket with Eco print

Laura is excited to have joined the Livestock Conservancy for her felted Art projects. They have initiated a program called 'Shave Em to Save Em'

Laura created this darling woolly sheep with her first fleece. The face is totally felted and oh so cute. She has found rare breeds of sheep from Sweden and Rya breeds. This sheep actually originated from the Norwegian and Swedish sheep breeds. Using the long, wavy and shiny wool to produce rya-wool was the main purpose of this sheep breed. Few long wool sheep breeds remained in the province of Dalarna, leading to the restoration of this sheep breed. Find some on Etsy better yet join the Livestock Conservancy 'Shave Em to Save Em' and use it in your Fiber Art.

needle felted face.

Shake - Gulf Coast Native fleece

Jacob fleece

 Marilyn has been weaving with a Wool/Acrylic blend of yarn and found that the final fulled weaving was much smaller than the woven piece. We learn a lot about fibers by experimenting. Still a lovely woven cloth from two skeins of this yarn.
Marilyn brought a young student Anna she has been teaching Inkle loom weaving. Anna is in 9th grade and you can see the progress she has made. The pink ones are her first attempts at weaving on the inkle loom and the more she wove the better the selvages are.

Marilyn

Anna with weaving

My Show and Tell this month was bringing my friend and her fabulous recycled garments. 

All pieces are designed and hand sewn by Mary Margaret. She was inspired by our day at 'Sew Cranky' last fall. When I visited the Finlandia Show this spring and saw the garments created by Jessica Shields. I thought Mary needs to share her garments.

Jessica's sketch book

'Bury Me in Fiber' by Jessica Shields

 Mary is a fine Watercolor artist but she loves to shop at Vinny's. This winter she found a bedspread at our local store and decided to wash it in her home machine. Which was a disaster as she burned out the motor in the process. She created a beautiful poncho with this bedspread. Which lead to searching for velour pillow shams which she made into garment toppers by adding various embellishments from items she collected on her travels around the world. I regret the pictures are not the best but Mary is very animated and I had a hard time catching her image.

MM's bedspread now a poncho

hand stitching on back of the garment

Velour pillow sham with Finnish silk piece

more from Mary Margaret...you had to be there.

Velour pillow sham embroidered art

another velour pillow sham becomes a topper

Backside of the topper

From Cambodia came this Hmong Art

and so cute on the Artist

Then the 'Main Event' Poppy presented a grand 'Willow Basket' presentation with a slide show of the history and gathering of willow for basket making. She told us how easy it is to grow willow catkins and how good they are for the bee. There are colored willow stalks also, that are cut down in the fall. With a second year harvest that you sort by length. She makes living structures that was really interesting.
Poppy shared the Boat Coracle Regatta that occurs in July at lake Michigammi the 26 th and 27th.
and the exhibit at Northern Michigan Heritage Center that is on display right now.

willow hoop and wax linen

Poppy with her inner bark black willow from Kentucky

Some samples of Poppy's baskets. Using Donna Kallner's looping to embellish the hoop basket with waxed linen. A inner bark black willow basket with willow from Kentucky. Garden structures that everyone loved. Poppy and Karen will be teaching two classes at the Porkies Folk School in August... classes are filling up so check it out.

fine basket

garden structure

stake and stan base white willow and brown with bark

 

Rib reed basket for Porkies Folk school class

lined willow purse with silk embellished edges

These Coracles are on display at Northern Michigan University Heritage Center.

Karen's coracle

Poppy's Coracle

 Thanks so much Poppy for opening up a new weaving direction for our Guild. We enjoyed it so much. 

Our next meeting will be in August 19th with Gary Olds coming to present a program on growing flax to making Linen to weave with. Come join us with show and tell at noon and then a presentation by Gary Olds to follow.