Fashion as Art, Art as Fashion

A recent submission, handwoven on a floor loom (above)  for the Fate, Destiny and Self Determination international (tapestry) installation is from Maite Tanguy . She has distinguished hereself in her weaving practice in Paris France for the last 10 years by creating art /fashion fabrics for Haute Couture such as Balenciaga, Christian Lacroix, Celine, Bouchra Jarrar, and Proenza Schouler. She enjoys these collaborations and describes them as robust and envigorating experiences but also challenging and demanding in terms of productivity. She has had numerous exhibitions in Latin America and has participated in "Artextures" , an exhibition of fibre art in France directed by Marie Francine Brochard.

detail of  shape by Maite Tanguy
 She loves to travel and weave connection with others which she considers very important...weaving ...people and threads - the fibre that gives meaning to her life! In her 20s she acquired her skills at sewing fashionable clothes in Paris and at night she worked on her own creations, where she discovered her gift for colour and her passion for it. When she was unable to find the kinds of fabrics she wanted to sew, she decided that she had to weave her own in order to create the garments she imagined. When she was 30 her parents gave her a weaving loom and the process was an ecstatic experience and embarked in studying textiles and weaving at the atelier National d'Art Textile under Genevieve Dupeux.

detail of shape by Maite Tanguy
Weaving for Maite is also about transmitting it to others and she has been giving classes for the last 30 years at workshops in Vanves, a suburb of Paris.

Maite says she loves fibre art because she loves to use it to share her stories and love for nature. After a rigorous spell of production fashion weaving she realized she needed more creative time, and time to express what was important to her. Marine life are great sources of inspiration for her work.

Another important element for creative work is silence. She feels it nourishes her creativity, and helps her to release the flow of ideas, further  rejuvenating and revitalizing her in so many ways. Its all the sweeter when many opportunities like exhibitions, have resulted with her being true to her calling and direction and honouring what she needs to have her in life.

Maite's website: http://arts-up.info/MBR/page_dediee/galerie.php?id=286
other websites featuring her work:
http://www.aiguille-en-fete.com/A-la-decouverte-de-Maite-Tanguy-creatrice-de-tissus-uniques-et-inspires_a1052.html
http://www.ateliersdeparis.com/pro.php?pro=911

Exciting things also happening here at the Toronto Weaving School. 

Carole Hibbert wove this incredible mercerized cotton shawl on her 28" Ashford Knitters loom, available for sale at the Toronto Weaving School. She created a lace weave pattern that was all hand manipulated. She added a hemstitched twisted fringe. 

Margaret Raines wove these cotton runners for a friend. We know these are NOT her kind of colours so she really put herself outside of her comfort range. 

Marion Kirkwood wove this twill scarves in wool. 

Michelle Kortinen did an especially good job at weaving her beginner sampler. She numbered all the samples and included a  threading draft at the top for quick and easy reference for the projects she will be making in future. 

Wendy Hayden did a wonderful presentation of her latest woven project. She made a cake which she brought in, gave us a lovely talk about the reasoning behind her choices of colour and placement.  

Wendy writes: "I took a Colour and Design weaving workshop at Jane Stafford Textiles earlier this year and used the theory to create eight (8) tapas-sized napkins as my canvas for freestyle weaving.  These napkins are my first attempt to work without a draft created by someone else.
My first thought was to create two bold stripes set in a yellow background for the warp and use a natural-colour weft to create the eight napkins. The number of yarn ends for the colours in the stripe were a simple 2-1-3 proportion (these numbers found in the Fibonacci sequence: 1,1,2,3,5,8…).
As I finished the first napkin I thought, what if I added an accent stripe? I played with the secondary colours (honey and lilac) and the accent colour (dark rose) following the stripe sizes and placement within the warp to determine where to change colours in the weft. I finished each napkin with hemstitching to get practice.
Just a simple little project in 2/8 cotton but it allowed me to practice my weaving and hemstitching skills and gave me the freedom to play with colour and design. Freestyle weaving can easily be adapted for napkins and towels of varying sizes following the same proportion theory."

 

A close up of the the 4 designs for Wendy Hayden's scarves. 

Karen Bota sent me this from the One of a Kind Show featuring a black and white woven scarf selling for $250 ! 

http://oneofakindonlineshop.com/home/weaving/stay-calm-and-focused-organic-cotton-handwoven-scarf.html?utm_campaign=ooakos_lessismore&utm_medium=email&utm_source=product-newsletter&utm_content=&utm_term=scarf

Don't forget to go to the World of Threads exhibitions happening in Oakville and kicking off this weekend. Go to their website for more info. 

25 Steps

Deflected doubleweave scarf in 18/2 merino woven by Jennifer McDermott. 

Recently I saw a wonderful video about the (jacquard) weaver/fibre artist Bhakti Ziek. I loved how slowly she spoke and though I've been teaching weaving for over 25 years, I never really thought about how many steps preceded the moment of actual weaving until I watched this short video on her, describing her process and a commission for Princeton University. Bhakti Ziek on weaving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KBy3oaEQDU

Rep weave placemats in 2/8 cotton by Michelle Kortinen. Michele was inspired by another matt she had in her possession and copied the design almost perfectly. She has launched her own handweaving business and you can check her out at www.bloomtextiles.ca or at etsy.com/shop/bloomhandwovens. She has created fresh and enticing marketing campaign for her new venture. 

I first heard of Bhakti Ziek when I became interested in Jacquard weaving. She co-authored a book with Alice Schlein, The Woven Pixel. This was one of the earliest books to be written on jacquard weaving. Though she is known today as a jacquard weaving fibre artist, in the early part of her woven path she studied backstrap weaving instensively with Mayan women  in Guatemala where she lived for 4 years, which resulted in her co-authoring Weaving on a Backstrap Loom. As many weavers do, her practice evolved, endlessly exploring and investigating different weaving techniques and applied them to her fibre art and wallhangings.

A beautiful soft alpaca scarf that has irredescence perfectly capturing the colours of urban living in winter. Woven by Jane Tucker. 

So, I decided if I could come up with 25 steps and could not. Many of the steps though would be taken up with the design process, especially if it is jacquard weaving, where considerable time would be spent on the computer, and if it was a commission, more time and steps taken with the client. 
1. Research
2. Deciding on what you will make
3.  Design 
4. Experimentation, exploration, sampling (most weavers bypass this)
5. Deciding on the materials to be used
6. Choosing weave structures 
7. Calculations of yarn amounts and sett. 
8. purchasing / ordering materials 
9. Preparing the warp 
10. threading the reed 
11. threading the heddles 
12. tying onto the back 
13. rolling the warp on 
14. tying onto the front 
15. adjusting tension 
16. testing 
17. correcting mistakes 

Lann Smyth created this vest with a mohair and ribbon rectangle that she wove. The softness of the picture seems to mirror the mohair! 

What's Happening at the Toronto Weaving School

Colours for the colours samplers are ready!

This week we received 2 loom donations. Above, the Klik loom, a Louet version of the knitters loom but with 16 shafts! Wow...now you can weave those complicated patterned scarves you always longed to, though it will be slower than a regular table loom. Below, a 22" Leclerc tableloom donated by Burr House, a weaving guild in Richmond Hill. http://burrhousew.blogspot.ca/ a very BIG THANK YOU to all and thank you for thinking of us and making that effort!!!!! 

Textile Talks and Exhibits

At the ROM http://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries
Islamic Textiles 
http://www.rom.on.ca/en/activities-programs/events-calendar/cairo-under-wraps-lecture-series

Textile Museum of Canada, 55 Centre St, Toronto
http://www.textilemuseum.ca/
From Ashgabat to Istanbul: Oriental Rugs from Canadian Collections
http://www.textilemuseum.ca/apps/index.cfm?page=exhibition.detail&exhId=363

Looking for irresistible yarn and the latest trends in knitting yarn (many good for weaving) ? Go to http://www.diamondyarn.com/ and if you buy a whole bag will give you 25% off. 

To promote or not promote yourself

The inspiration for this blog comes from Lann Smyth, who  gave me an inspiring catalogue of an exhibit she had seen  at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ethel Stein: Master Weaver, is being exhibited until November 9 2014. To learn more about her and the exhibition go to http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/ethel-stein-master-weaver. At the age of 96, Ethel Stein's weaving and artistic talent is only now being recognized by the broader public. She began her weaving forays with a 4 harness loom and gradually used a drawloom to create her contemporary art pieces whose visual simplicity give it the impact they have although obscure s their complexity. She was an artist and weaver who did not adhere to trends. The drawloom weaving show were produced over a 34 year period and blend historical weaving techniques with pared down aesthetic. Her creative and weaving process was preceeded by a vigourous art training as well as research of the historical textiles at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of ARt, all located in New York.

Rag rug for cabin by Helen Skelton

One of the points they made in the catalogue is that Ethel never promoted or sold her work. She wasn't concerned with that. She concerned herself instead with the process, with  exploring the possibilities and potentialities of her weaving and of  building on her knowledge and experience. This is definitely a very noble and ideal approach, more often subscribed to by women. It's true, that in some circles it is considered bad form to promote yourself and if one does not have to be concerned with earning an income from one's endeavours or does not regard it as a profession, then certainly its as good a strategy as any to embark upon.  So many of women have been conditioned to believe though that it's 'unladylike' behavior to promote yourself, and to be ambitious but this perception is changing.

With the advent of the internet, social media and innumerable websites that will help you promote yourself as a weaver, craftsperson or artist,  the opprobrium this stirred up is quickly dissipating. The truth is, if you don't have important social connections in places that you could do you such honour and favours, then you do have to get your work out there somehow.  For some of us that will mean swallowing our pride and integrity. For others that will mean taking more pride in what you create. Destiny is kinetic. Destiny is  an expanding field of possibilities alluding to our potential to influence outcomes.

There are advantages and disadvantages of both strategies. Each person decides for him or herself which to take. Throughout a lifetime of pursuing one's weaving, one can also change course and realize that what once was important, no longer is and you find yourself  going off in another direction. Your weaving path is your own individual path, your own journey , one in which only you decide the itinerary, and create the map. Above all, make it a joyous and inspiring (a)vocation.


Spinning Workshops with Barbara Aikman
Riverdale Farm, Toronto
Sat. Nov. 1st, 2014
How to use a “Drop Spindle”
9:30am to 12:30pm
19yrs+     Barcode: 2697417
Adults 25-59yrs                     $   77.00
Older Adults60+ yrs              $   39.00
Youth 19-24yrs                     $    45.00
Each participant will receive their own drop spindle to take home,
and learn how to prepare a variety of spinning materials.

Sat. Nov. 1st, 2014
How to use a “Spinning Wheel”
1:30 pm to 4:30pm
19yrs+         Barcode:   2701230
Adults 25-59yrs                    $   57.00
Older Adults60+ yrs              $   19.00
Youth 19-24yrs                     $    25.00
Participants will learn the basics of operating a spinning wheel.  Feel free to bring your own wheel, or you may borrow one from the Farm for use in class.
Registration hotline 416 333  4386              
For more information contact: farm@toronto.ca or 416-392-6794

World of Threads Exhibit

November 1-30 2014

for more information go to 

http://www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/

There will be weaving at this multi-venue exhibition. Of note, Louise Lemieux Berube, co-founder of the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles,  has jacquard woven pieces in the exhibit. She will be present at the opening reception November 1 2014, 2-4pm. 

Pat Burns Wendland will also be part of the exhibit. 

Learning Strategies and Resources

There are different strategies one can take to advance one's learning in weaving. You can choose to learn different weave structures and let that guide you. Taking a project by project approach is also a good process of learning weave structures and practicing your weaving skills. Many students these days are finding so many resources on the internet.  Of course experience is definitely one of them. Last Spring Louise Granahan made it her goal to learn 8 different kinds of weaving techniques or kinds of looms. She did meet her goals and here are some of the results of what she accomplished. 

Inkle loom woven strap for carrying a water bottle or coffee. Louise Granahan. There are inkle looms in the weaving class waiting for you to give it a try. 

8 shaft pinwheel pattern woven by Louise Granahan. 

Louise decided she try 8 shaft patterns. We have several 8 shaft looms in the class. 

8 shaft variation of the houndstooth pattern. Louise Granahan. 

8 shaft reverse twill blocks. Louise Granahan

Louise also did the doubleweave sampler. There is so much one can do with doubleweave. If you are interested in doing it, let me know. 

Baby blanket by Patti Wibe in 2/8 cotton and waffle weave, aka honeycomb. 

Judite Vagners wove these colourful scarves in 2/8 cotton and orlec (acrylic). 

Judite Vagners wove these scarves (above and below) with 18/2 merino yarn also available in the class. 

Building on Weaving Knowledge and Experience

Julia Pelenyi  - stair runner in 4/8 cotton.

Toronto Weaving Classes is happy to say that weaving classes have resumed and there are lots of projects that people wove over the summer, finished last spring term or remembered to send photographs of completed projects. If you are wondering how these were made or what patterned they use and it is not included, please contact me at linedufour.tapestry@gmail.com or talk to me in the weaving class if you are registered. 

Debbie Harris

Weft faced rugs in MacAuslands 3ply wool

Toronto Weaving School is putting together a Potluck cookbook featuring students (past and present) projects to sell as a fundraiser for the weaving classes. We are asking for your favorite potluck recipe to contribute to the book. If you took the recipe from some other source, please indicate so that we can make slight modifications to it so as not to infringe on copyright. Send recipes to linedufour.tapestry@gmail.com. 

Caroline Castilloux 

Double weave blanket in Lemieux yarn - 90" width. 

This summer I took 2 Jacquard weaving course at the Centre des Textiles Contemporains de Montreal, one with Louise Lemieux Berube, http://www.lemieuxberube.com/, a well known internationally acclaimed jacquard weaver, and Leila Palumbo, equally talented and technically brilliant. I actually didn't do any weaving, but learned to design with the software to create the images that are woven on their jacquard looms. http://www.textiles-mtl.com/en/. They offer other continuing education courses that you might be interested in. You can sign up for their newsletter on their website. 

Toshiko Shindo

Doubleweave baby blanket in space dyed 2/8 cotton

While I was there, I met a weaver Monique Ste-Marie, whose work is inspired by objects from the past, objects that are part of our daily life. who sells her work in many shops in Quebec. I thought her work very contemporary and unique. http://www.saintemarietextile.com/. 

Avril Loreti

Infinity Lemieux scarf . Avril does the Christmas one of a Kind show and you can buy her products there as well as online at http://avrilloreti.com/

Darlene Haywood

Meditation altar runners

"For many devotees of Yoga, it is a spiritual path.  As part of their practice they prepare an alter to rest the objects of devotion that support their prayers and meditations.  I wove these runners as gifts for two members of the Yoga community to  be used as cloths for their alters.

The pattern was taken from Handwoven Magazine January/February 2014 and is now available as a free download.   The warp and weft is 2/8 organic cottolin.  The contrasting weft stripes are recycled sari silk yarn.  The structure is a plain weave with 1/3 twill where the sari silk is inserted."

Jane Richmond

Tapestry (kilim) woven cushion cover. 

Mimma Draga

Knitters loom project

Toshiko Shindo

Orlec scarf

Hand/Eye magazine features many articles about weaving all over the world. Recently, they included an article about my international tapestry installation, Fate, Destiny and Self-Determination/le sort, le destin, et l'auto-determination: http://handeyemagazine.com/category/terms/textile/weaving. You can subscribe to their magazine here http://handeyemagazine.com/ and you can purchase back orders. 

WEAVING WORKSHOPS

Edge of Your Seat: Chair Caning and basketry with Donna Kim
If you've been curious about weaving, the fall/winter Chair Caning & Seat Weaving schedule is now posted. In each class, we'll learn a traditional weaving technique, and discover how to prepare materials using natural reed, paper fibre, or cord. All materials & use of tools are included. Bring Your Own Chair (BYOC), or weave onto a locally made footstool frame.
Register online, or, feel free to contact me by phone or e-mail.
416. 302. 5520 / weaving@edgeofyourseat.ca
www.edgeofyourseat.ca

Craft Ontario Craft Show 
Artscape Wychwood Barns, the Craft Show will take place as a yearly event that offers the best of contemporary high-end craft. This inaugural show will showcase high-end retail craft by Craft Ontario members in a boutique inspired setting. The Craft Show makes a perfect Thanksgiving activity; bring the family, visit the farmers market and take the opportunity to shop a curated selection from 50+ local vendors showcasing a selection of handmade jewellery, ceramics, textiles, glass and wood from some of Ontario’s top craft artisans. 
http://www.craftontario.com/craftshow

Craft Ontario http://www.craftontario.com/

Toronto Weaving School wants to give a special thanks to Judite Vagners and Kelly Crowe who donated looms and reeds.