TAPESTRY WEAVERS in NEW ENGLAND

Friday, May 18, 2012

Tapestry Workshop

Learn the basics of

CLASSIC TAPESTRY WEAVING

An intensive workshop

Monday and Tuesday, June 11 and 12, 2012.

11 a.m.- 4 p.m. (1 hour lunch break)

Florence, MA (2 miles from center of Northampton)

* For beginners and those with some experience

* Portable Frame looms and other equipment and supplies provided

* Limited enrollment

Contact: tamarshadur at hotmail.com (use @ symbol in place of “at”)

About the Instructor, Tamar Shadur:
I have been a tapestry weaver for the past 34 years, as well as an ESL and Adult Basic Ed. teacher for about 20 years. (BFA Ed., MEd, both degrees from UMass, Amherst). Over the years, I have given numerous workshops, most recently at the Fiber Arts Center in Amherst. My larger and finer tapestries are woven on a large low-warp loom (Aubusson tradition), and smaller tapestries on portable upright tapestry looms. My students use the small portable upright looms. Memberships: TWiNE, ATA (American Tapestry Alliance).

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

WORKSHOPS AT OLD POINT COMFORT 2012

Old Point Comfort Gallery is in Waldoboro, Maine.

TWIG WORKSHOPS

Build a Tuteur: A Twig Pyramid for Your Climbing Plants with Susy Perrine

Simple materials and skills are all that is needed to create this very useful and attractive garden structure. Build this rustic plant support in a few hours to take home and place in your garden. You'll be the envy of your neighbors and have the knowledge to build a whole herd of them!

Students may bring their own branches or purchase them from the instructor. Materials list sent upon registration.
May 19, rain or shine. sat. 10 - 2pm. $60 Maximum 8 students.

Learn to Weave a Twig Garden Structure with Susy Perrine

Using techniques that perform as well today as they did centuries ago, sturdy twigs and saplings form a strong framework for climbing vegetables and flowers. With sides and a roof, this shelter is also a charming spot to read a book or admire your garden while sipping lemonade. We will build a wattle garden structure onsite to learn these simple techniques; you will leave with information and experience to build your own at home. Local green materials will be used in this one-day workshop.

Bring garden clippers for cutting twigs, work gloves, and a lunch. June 16, rain date June 17. sat., 10-3. $75 Maximum 8 students.

Twig Tapestry Loom with Sara Hotchkiss

These charming tapestry loom frames are made of twigs, which become part of the finished product ready to hang on a wall or sit on a table. Learn a tapestry technique called "hills and valleys" to create interesting organic shapes and images.
Looms and materials provided, bring a lunch.

July 18, rain or shine, wed., 10 - 4 pm. $75 Maximum 8 students.

Susy Perrine is an accomplished twig artist and workshop leader thru out New England. Her large twig hut was recently exhibited at the Inspired Hand V show at the Atrium Art Gallery at USM in Lewiston, ME. She is also an accomplished textile artist.

Sara Hotchkiss owns Old Point Comfort Gallery. She mostly weaves area rugs and wall hangings when she is not distracted by her garden projects. Tapestry weaving has been her passion and practice for over 40 years.

LAVENDER WORKSHOP WITH SARA HOTCHKISS

English lavender grows well in Maine if you take the time to understand this lovely plant and give it what it needs to thrive. Contented lavender will reward you with healing aroma, beautiful colorful blooms, very happy bees, a culinary herb, and potpourri to get you thru the winter months. With little extra care, lavender will come back year after year.

Class includes discussion and suggestions for growing lavender, plus hands on instruction for propagating lavender from cuttings; students will leave with 4 potted cuttings.

July 7, 11, and 14 10 - 12 pm. Limit 12 students. $12 includes materials.

WEAVING WORKSHOPS

Portable Tapestry Loom Weaving with Sara Hotchkiss

Learn the traditional techniques of this ancient textile art form on a small, portable loom using wool yarns. Shading, color, joining, diagonals, stripes, slits, textures, finishing will be covered. Students will leave with a sampler and ideas for future projects. June1and2 10-4pm

August15and16 10-4pm
A rentable loom and materials are provided. Bring a lunch. Maximum 8 students. $100, plus a refundable loom rental fee.

Weave a Rug/Color Your Home with Sara Hotchkiss

My goal is for you to feel relaxed and inspired by the craft of weaving, wonderful textiles, my colorful eclectic studio workspace, and the beautiful landscape that surrounds my home and gardens. We'll laugh, share stories, learn, and eat great food in my cozy sunroom or outdoors in the gardens.

Leave all the arduous prep work to me! I will prepare each students' loom including the warping, threading, winding and tying on. You will be coached and guided thru the actual weaving process from beginning of rug to the end and you will go home with a beautiful, durable, custom designed rug to cherish for many years to come. Here's the special part: you will weave this rug in colors of your desire based on color references you provide to me ahead of time.

A demonstration of a tapestry technique is included in this class and students are encouraged to add a section of tapestry to their rug.
All materials and lunches are included in the price. Maximum of 3 students per class. $250.
Dates to be announced, please inquire.

Twig Tapestry Loom with Sara Hotchkiss

July 18, rain or shine, wed., 10 - 4 pm. $75 Maximum 8 students.

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Early registration is recommended. Please make checks payable to Old Point Comfort.

Questions? Call or email Sara. sara@sarahotchkiss.com

Old Point Comfort 28 Pitcher Rd. Waldoboro ME 04572 207-832-8133

Monday, February 27, 2012

TWiNE Meeting at Slater Mill

A small group of TWiNE members met on February 25th at Slater Mill Historic Site, in Pawtucket, RI.

Slater Mill is the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, on the mighty Blackstone River.

I was the head tour guide for a brief time, 27 years ago, and I have always loved the Mill. To find out more about it, read David Macaulay’s fabulously illustrated book Mill.

After our lunch and our meeting and “show and tell,” we took a tour of the three buildings:

Sylvanus Brown House, a 1758 colonial home, where people processed, spun and wove their own wool and linen. This building was moved to the Historic Site in 1962.

The loom in the house could have been owned by the family, or it could have been set up by an itinerant weaver, who went around to different homes, to weave with the wool and linen that the family had been spinning all year.

It took about 3 months to card and spin enough yarn to weave fabric for one set of clothes. Most people could only afford to have 2 sets of clothes, one for every day, and one for Sundays and holidays.

Wilkinson Mill, a 19th century, water powered machine shop, with many significant machines, including my favorite:

this screw cutting lathe, invented by the renowned American inventor David Wilkinson, when he was just 23 years old, was designed to cut screws that were all identical.

This was an important step in the development of interchangeable parts.

Slater Mill, the first cotton spinning mill in America, was built in 1793. Samuel Slater had been an apprentice in a spinning mill in England, but his ambition drove him to set out for the new world, with the plans for the newest spinning machines in his head. England was determined to keep this new technology to itself, and Slater would have been arrested and charged with treason if he had been caught leaving the country with plans.

A few of the machines in the mill are the cotton gin, a bale breaker, spinning throstle, a mule spinner, a narrow fabric jacquard loom, and my favorite, the hand cranked maypole braider.

An extra bonus was the fiber sculpture “Weaving the Blackstone,” by Donald Gerola, a self described “Wind Sculptor.” It is made of colored ropes that intertwine across the river. I plan to go back and see it at night sometime, when it apparently looks like a laser light show. Here it is in a youtube interview with the artist.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Beginning Tapestry Intensive

with Janet Austin

Everything you need to know to get started with tapestry weaving. Besides the actual tapestry techniques, and advice on designing, you’ll learn about looms, yarns, helpful books and other resources.