Day Meeting	September 11, 2023	Strickler Scholarship Presentations and Information Displays from Study Groups
Evening Meeting	September 12, 2023	Strickler Scholarship Presentations and Information Displays from Study Groups

In-Person Meetings

Stickler Scholarship Presentations
Information Displays from Study Groups

Day Meeting Presentation 

Margaret Tullis - PLY Away Spinning Retreat Audrey Wilvert • Margaret received her scholarship to attend Ply Away in Kansas City. She studied last year with Judith MacKensie, Joan Ruane and Jacey Boggs ply founder herself. Her hosts filled in related fiber sites, the Museum of the Arabia, a sunken trade goods filled riverboat, and the Nelson, the Silk Road (felt!) and indigenous textiles. This year she studied with Stephanie Gaustad and corespinning basics with Charan Sachar. She’ll be the first to sign up for his “thick & thin” and much more in March. Margaret enjoys fiber travel, always advancing her own skills as well as sharing as a student and with her students. • Audrey received her scholarship to visit the research center “behind the scenes” at Mesa Verde. She arranged a full day with Sam who laid out her chosen collection of fiber items, weaving, braiding, basketry, matting, rabbit fur over yucca and more. She will share her learnings about this ancient collection. Margaret travelled with her and can attest to her guide skills with an excursion to Long House and 3 historic trading posts.

Evening Meeting Presentation

• Estelle Torpy and Carolyn Steinkoenig - A Tale of Two Long Arms
• BA Johnston - John C Campbell Folk School- L’Amour de Maman

Estelle Torpy and Carolyn Steinkoenig, mother and daughter quilters, will share their experiences with longarm quilting on computerized and non-computerized longarm machines. Both quilt on Innova longarms and have taken training classes to develop their skills in longarm quilting.

• Estelle’s Innova has a 12 foot bed and a machine head with a 26 inch throat. It can be operated with or without the attached computer. To learn more about the computer software program, Estelle took a course from Accomplish Quilting and Forever in Stitches out of St Joseph, MI called "Advanced Training AutoPilot Mach 3 for the Innova". She participated in their self-study workshop using their book, 12 videos, access to information on their website for license holders and follow-up phone conversations with the instructors. She created samples to learn how to use the software and machine. Since participating in the study, the software has been updated several times so the learning process is ongoing with new features and improvements to the program.
• Carolyn’s Innova has a 10-foot bed and a machine head with a 22 inch throat. She operates her long arm without a computer, doing free-motion quilting from the front of the machine or Pantograph quilting from the back of the machine. To improve her free-motion skills, Carolyn took an APQS Longarm Certification class under the guidance of Myrna Ficken from A Quilter’s Choice - APQS West in Highlands Ranch, CO. She has made many samples of block, fill, edging and border designs as well as designing her own quilting patterns.

Come see lots of beautiful show and tell, and hear about the ins and outs of longarm quilting.

• BA took a class at the John C Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. Weaving and Spinning are Appalachian traditions deeply rooted in the history of the Folk School. Her class was titled Pour l”amour de maman (a mother’s love). L’Amour de Maman (A Mother’s Love) is the charming French phrase for a handwoven wedding dowry; her class highlighted fabrics and techniques from the early French settlements in maritime Canada that were carried along to modern day Cajun Louisiana. Class time was spent on weaving techniques that were developed by the Canadian settlers in Louisiana as they adapted to using cotton instead of wool and using two shaft looms. For those who were interested, some time was also spent on spinning juane cotton and the various weights of weft yarn used in weaving. BA learned how amazing things are possible to make with basic tools such as a 2 harness loom. She will share the tools and techniques of the things she made and the history of the craft

Visit the HGB website for more information

• Strickler Scholarship - http://www.handweaversofboulder.org/grants.html
• Study Groups - http://www.handweaversofboulder.org/studygroups.html

Also at September Meetings
In-Person HGB Fiber Art Show & Sale Assistance
Standards Review – Sale Tech – When To Work – Publicity
http://www.handweaversofboulder.org/event-5321864

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Day Meeting	October 9, 2023	Tales of Textile Intrigue I: The Secret History and Creative Possibilities of Wool Waste
Evening Meeting	October 10, 2023	Tales of Textile Intrigue II: A Community Workshop

In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation
Tales of Textile Intrigue I: The Secret History and Creative Possibility of Wool Waste

This is a presentation based on Shell’s book Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags. The history of modern-day old clothes recycling begins with a thing called shoddy. Starting in the early 1800s, shoddy was the name given to a new material made from reclaimed wool, and to one of the earliest forms of industrial recycling. Old rags and leftover fabric clippings were ground to bits by a machine known as “the devil” and then re-used. Usually undisclosed, shoddy-also known as reworked wool-became suit jackets, army blankets, mattress stuffing, and much more. Shoddy is the afterlife of rags. And Shoddy, the book, reveals hidden worlds of textile intrigue.

Evening Meeting Presentation

Tales of Textile Intrigue II: A Community Workshop

Participants will bring an article of clothing (either acquired secondhand, handmade, or that has had a “long life” in relation to the participant) to the event. Stories will be told, new relationships and ways of talking about textiles created. Possibility for creative community darning a possibility.

Hanna Rose Shell

Author, Artist, Associate Professor-University of Colorado Boulder

Hanna Rose Shell studies aesthetics, textiles, and the interface of art and science; her scholarship takes the form of text and film. Shell’s 2020 book, SHODDY: From Devil's Dust to the Renaissance of Rags (University of Chicago Press), examines recycled textiles as transformative media forms through the lenses of aesthetics, material culture, history, and critical theory. It dovetails with a series of experimental documentary shorts and a textile installation in the Czech Republic on the subject of waste, recycling and old clothes. Shell’s book on camouflage, Hide and Seek: Camouflage, Photography, and the Media of Reconnaissance, published by Zone Books in 2012, has since been translated into French (Zones Sensibles) and inspired her own and others’ multimedia works. Shell has published widely in scholarly and popular journals on subjects including taxidermy, waste processing, and the history of chronophotography. She served as co-editor for a volume on science studies published Princeton University Press and previously released an edited reprint of The Extermination of the American BisonTechnology and Culture, her scholarship has appeared in the publications Journal of Visual Culture, Configurations, History and Technology, Bidoun, Technology and Culture, Natural History and Cabinet among others. Her films and media works have appeared worldwide, at art and film venues including The Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, the ZKM Center for Art and Media, Machine Project, Slamdance, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Machine Project, the Zimmerli Art Museum. Prior to her arrival in Colorado in 2018, she was Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before which she was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Shell also taught previously at the Rhode Island School of Design. Jointly appointed in the Department of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts and the Department of Art & Art History, she teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses.

http://www.hannaroseshell.org

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Zoom Workshop  

Transformation through Cordage

Turning worn, beloved, or ragged garments and fabrics into beautiful and strong lengths of cord that can be worn and used anew.

Cordage goes by many names- string, thread, twine, rope, yarn- humans have been making cordage for at least 60,000 years. It is the process of taking two or more lengths of fibers and twisting them individually in one direction and twisting them back on themselves in the opposite direction. In doing so, shorter and weaker fibres can be turned into lengths that are long and strong.

The process is fun, simple, and repetitive in a way that leaves room for conversation, laughter, contemplation. Cordage making is accessible to folks who would not consider themselves crafty as well as to artists wanting to explore another way of engaging with materials.

Perhaps there is fabric in your life that is dear to you that no longer serves in its current form. This workshop is an invitation to explore this ancient process and transform something meaningful to you; adding your own energy as your hands find the rhythm of the making. Come away with an understanding of how to turn materials in your life into beautiful and useful lengths of cord, whether to wrap a gift, hang as a garland or wear as a necklace or hatband.

• Date: Thursday, October 12, 2023
• 7:00-8:30pm
• Location: Zoom
• Class size: no maximum
• Prerequisites/Experience: All Skill Levels

Equipment/Materials Provided by Participants

• Old, worn, or loved fibers in the form of an old t-shirt, silk handkerchief or thin scarf, cotton blouse or button down shirt. Saoirse will provide a hand out prior to the workshop guiding folks on the kinds of fibers to select and how to prepare them for the workshop.

Workshop fee: $20 payable on registration. 

Registration opens August 1, 2023
To register online, click here. 

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Zoom Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation
My Journey as an Artist

Erica will take us on a tour of her journey as an artist, including her education, her exhibitions and residencies and her evolution to a creator of large textile installations.

Evening Meeting Presentation

Studio Tour and Planning a Large-Scale Fiber Installation

Erica will take us on a tour of her studio and show us how she designs large scale fiber installations, including the techniques she uses and the selection of materials.

Erica Green

Artist 

Erica Green is an artist known for her site specific textile installations that transform spaces with large accumulations of knotted fibers. Born in Nebraska, she now lives and works in Colorado. Green’s work has been exhibited in several solo exhibitions including the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) ,The Art Base and The Boulder Creative Collective. Her work has been included in many group exhibitions such as RULE Gallery, Redline Contemporary, The Dairy Center for the Arts. In addition, her work was included in the 2020 survey of emerging Colorado artists - Great Expectations at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Colorado Springs. In 2019, she was awarded the Director’s Award in “The Art of the State” show at Arvada Center for the Arts in Arvada, CO and received Honorable Mention in the “Contemporary Art Survey” at the Lincoln Center Gallery in Fort Collins, CO.

She holds a BFA from The University of Nebraska- Lincoln and completed a two-year post-baccalaureate program at the University of Colorado. She has completed several residencies including Breck Create, The Boulder Creative Collective, LUX Center for the Arts and Skidmore College. Her work has been reviewed in publications such as Hyperallergic, The Denver Post, The Jealous Curator and Arte Morbida. Her work lives permanently in several collections such as The Boulder Museum, Hotel Indigo and Parasoleil to name a few. Currently, Erica is a resident at the Temple Studios in Denver.

http://www.EricaGreenStudio.com, http://www.instagram.com/ericagreenstudio/

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In-Person Meeting

The celebration starts with food -- of course!

• Bring-A-Dish Buffet - All are invited to contribute a ready to serve and easily shared food item to the buffet - along with any utensils required for serving
• Tote along your own dinnerware, utensils and napkins to reduce waste

Ornament Exchange - An HGB Tradition

The HGB Holiday Celebration includes a handmade fiber art related ornament exchange, each participant brings one wrapped handmade fiber related ornament.

The ornament exchange is a long-standing tradition leading to many laughs and a few quick steals! Come join in the fun - or watch the commotion! The choice is yours! 

Ornament Exchange

• The HGB Holiday Celebration highlight is a handmade fiber art related ornament exchange, each participant brings one wrapped handmade fiber related ornament.
• Once everyone is assembled, each person will draw a number. The person with number "1" chooses an ornament to unwrap. The person with number "2" has a choice: They may choose a new, wrapped ornament, or they may take the unwrapped ornament from the first person. If they take the ornament from the first person, that person chooses another ornament to unwrap. The person with the number "3" may choose any previously unwrapped ornament or a new, still wrapped ornament. The game continues until all ornaments have been unwrapped and everyone has a gift.
• The handmade fiber related ornament may be created by the member or acquired by other means.

The ornament exchange is a long-standing tradition leading to many laughs and a few quick steals! Come join in the fun -- or watch the commotion! The choice is yours! 

Do I need to participate in the Ornament Exchange?

• The Ornament Exchange is optional. 
• You may participate in both Day & Evening Ornament Exchanges, one or neither. 
• If you don't want to participate in the Ornament Exchange, come for the Buffet, Library (Day Meeting only), Social and Meeting time!

I'm new to the Guild. Can I still come to the December meeting holiday celebration? 

• Yes! Even if you just joined this month, the December meetings are for all members and you are very welcome.
• Don't know who to sit with for the Holiday Celebration Buffet? Look for the Guild President's table or join any table and introduce yourself (psst, we all have a love of fiber in common!).

What should I bring? 

• A food item to share (both Holiday Celebration Buffets will be the first thing we do together - so bring hot items already heated), a serving utensil if your food needs it
• Tableware for yourself (plate, fork, cup, napkin, etc. - we're going green)
• A handmade ornament (made by you or someone else) if you'd like to participate in the Ornament Exchange.

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Day Meeting	January 15, 2024	Zoom - My Felting Journey - the Red Thread of Fate
Evening Meeting	January 16, 2024	Zoom - Lacy Line Felt to Heavy Duty - Diversity of Felt

Zoom Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: My Felting Journey - the Red Thread of Fate

‘The red thread of fate’ is an expression in Japan to explain the special connection with someone important to you. "I can see my felt red thread has been leading me to who I am today as an artist," she said. Leiko will tell us about how she has learned her craft and developed new techniques for felting.

Evening Meeting Presentation: Lacy Line Felt to Heavy Duty - Diversity of Felt

Felt making is so adaptable, it can be made into something very fine and soft or something strong and heavy. More than 1000 breeds of sheep in the world make this possible! Leiko will show us the materials and techniques she uses to make her many gorgeous items and will show us her technique called “pine needles” which creates lacy felt. 

Leiko Uchiyama
Felt-Making Artist

Leiko is a felt making artist nestled in the picturesque Blackstairs Mountains of County Carlow, Ireland. Her journey has taken her from her Japanese home as an agricultural and textile design graduate, to New Zealand, where she worked on a sheep farm, to Indonesia where her felt-making techniques developed and France, where she relished aesthetically and culturally rich surroundings.

The experience she has gathered through making, all the sheep breeds and the many types of wool she has worked with, have helped her to refine her skills. She creates wearable pieces with wool and silks which she dyes using her own color recipes. She also enjoys making functional pieces for the home such as tableware, stool tops, wall pieces or rugs.

Leiko has developed many felting techniques including one called Pine Needles. It was inspired by the look of pine needles on snow. It creates a fine, lacy felt - no actual pine needles are involved.

Leiko teaches felting workshops throughout Europe, America, Australia and Japan and she has exhibited in many different countries.

http://www.leikofelt.com 

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Zoom Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: Get a Little Closer to Woolpunk

Say what? Say woolpunk. Trademarked as the artist, Woolpunk will share her work, art shenanigans, and discuss all things fiber related. She will show us her work and describe her inspirations and techniques.

Evening Meeting Presentation: I'd Like to Teach the World to Stitch/Community Outreach and Activism

Woolpunk has long focused on community to highlight the invisible work needed to better our planet. Getting a little closer will deep dive into inspiration and communal outcomes with fiber focused initiatives.

Woolpunk has the hands of a gifted artisan, the soul of a social activist, and the passion of an environmentalist.

--Hildreth York, Curator, Writer, Emeritus

https://www.woolpunk.com, https://www.instagram.com/woolpunk/

WOOLPUNK

Artist, Activist, Organizer

Woolpunk® is an American artist, born in Summit, NJ in 1971. She has both a BA and an MFA from Rutgers University. Woolpunk® employs materials and techniques sourcing women’s work creation, historically; she machine-knits fiber installations, quilts sculptures, and embroiders photographs. Her work consequently champions social change, addressing homelessness and foreclosures, water contamination, and deforestation. Referencing her unique stitching and use of fibers, she trademarked the name Woolpunk®, which she has been using creatively since 2004. The Dairy Arts Center introduced us to WoolPunk!

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Day Meeting	March 11, 2024	From Engineering to Clay to Fiber to...
Evening Meeting	March 12, 2024	Color and Texture in Art Yarns
Workshop	March 10, 2024	Thick and Thin Art Yarns

In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: From Engineering to Clay to Fiber to...

Charan will share his journey starting as a software engineer, then textile artist and potter, and into all of his creative fields.

Evening Meeting Presentation: Color and Texture in Art Yarns

Charan will share how he creates art yarns as well as samples of his color and texture.

Charan Sachar
Textile Artist and Potter

Charan Sachar recently taught at PlyAway where several HGB members met him and took his courses. He is an artist whose work reflects his passion for the fiber arts such as knitting, spinning, weaving, quilting. He uses that love as an inspiration for his clay work. In all the fields he works in, Charan loves to accept challenges and approach the making with a “what if...” attitude. Charan specializes in creating art yarns with textures, using traditional spinning techniques and pushing them an extra step to create unique yarns. Charan Sachar lived in India for a significant part of his life where his mother ran a boutique designing clothes for brides and bridesmaids. The designs, colors, fabrics and embroidery he came across then have a strong impact on his work now.

In 2014, Charan took up knitting as a hobby and very soon the knit patterns started making an appearance in his pottery work. Since then, he has been spinning, weaving and knitting a lot, one step further down into the rabbit hole of fiber and every step inspires him.

http://www.creativewithclay.com 

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Workshop

March 10, 2024

Thick and Thin Art Yarns

In-Person Workshop  Thick and Thin Art Yarns Thick and thin yarns are wonderful to make textured yarns. In this full-day class you will learn to spin thick and thin yarns and to ply them into something magical. Using thick and thin singles you will learn how to make beehives, rosettes and fishnets (2 ply crepe). When you leave the class you will be able to apply these techniques to your spinning repertoire.  Date: Sunday, March 10, 2023 Time: 9:00am-4:00pm Location: Goodhue Farmhouse Off Hwy 287, south of Dillon Road Class size: 20 Prerequisites/Experience: Beginner/Must know how to spin a continuous thread Equipment/Materials Provided by Participants: Spinning Wheel Workshop fee: $110 payable on registration Material fee: bring $35 (cash or card) to the workshop. This covers batts and yarns. Registration Opens December 1, 2023 To register online, click here.

Day Meeting	April 8, 2024	Wild Silks from India
Evening Meeting	April 9, 2024	Weaving with Silk

In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: Wild Silks from India—Cocoons, Mawata Cakes, Combed Tops/Slivers and Yarns

Most of us are familiar with silk from the Bombyx mori silk worm...aka "bombyx silk" or "mulberry silk." Did you know there are also different kinds of wild silkworms that produce cocoons and beautiful silk? These wild silks from India can be naturally white, creamy, different shades of gold and even a brownish color. Come learn about these and see/touch these silks in person. There will be a pop up shop available.-

Evening Meeting Presentation: Weaving with Silk—a show and tell of 2Skeins=2Scarves & weaving kits for Rigid Heddle and 4 or more shafts

Sometimes weaving your first silk project can be a bit daunting. A great place to start is with Treenway Silks' 2 skeins = 2 scarves free drafts. Come see our 12-year collections of hand-woven silk scarves and be inspired to dress your loom with silk. I'll cover a few tips and tricks for handling a silk skein, too. There will be a pop up shop available.

Susan DuBois
Owner Treenway Silks

Treenway Silks was founded in 1997 by Karen Selk and Terry Nelson. After 34 years, they decided to sell the business so they could spend more time traveling, writing a book, etc. On August 1, 2011, they sold the business to Susan Du Bois and Richard Yabunaka. And they’ve been living inside a rainbow ever since!

Karen Selk and Terry Nelson started Treenway Silks out of their home in British Columbia. Over the years they worked as a team learning about importing silk fibers, dying silk, and using silk creatively. All the while raising a family and being part of a vibrant northwest island community.

Susan is experienced both in business and in the fiber arts. Her business experience includes 25 years in direct response marketing and financial analysis/accounting, plus she is a licensed CPA and holds three advanced degrees (MBA, MS-Accounting and MS-Marketing). Susan weaves, dyes, embroiders (she has taught silk ribbon embroidery), spins a little, and has dabbled in paper-making and felting.

Richard is well prepared to take on the shipping, having six years experience in product fulfillment. His interests include a wide variety of martial art styles and he has the greenest thumb that you can imagine—keeping our yard filled with flowers and vegetables.

The extensive silk product line will remain the same, and beautiful dye colors will be created by three experienced Colorado dyers: Betsy, Pamela, and Peggy. Plus, Salt Spring Island dyers Cheryl and Mary will continue dyeing the lovely Montano series.

https://www.treenwaysilks.com

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Day Meeting	May 13, 2024	My Creative Journey
Evening Meeting	May 14, 2024	The Split Shed Rabbit Hole
Workshop	May 10, 11,  and 12, 2024	Split Shed Weaving - Multiple structures using a straight threading

In-Person Meetings

Day Meeting Presentation: My Creative Journey

Deborah will discuss her creative journey: how she came to be a weaver, created textiles for interiors, and incorporated split-shed weaving into her work. She will present the creative process and philosophy that she employs in her weavings. She will also explain the split-shed weaving technique

Evening Meeting Presentation: The Split Shed Rabbit Hole

Deborah will discuss her research into weave structures and how she modified dozens of 4- and 8-shaft patterns so that one can weave curves on only 4-shafts using a split-shed. She will explain the split-shed weaving process and how she has integrated various split-shed structures into her art and craftwork.

Deborah Silver
Artist/Teacher/Weaver

Deborah Silver is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. She discovered her love of weaving while attending the Cleveland Institute of Art, attaining a BFA as a Fiber major and Drawing minor.

After a weaving internship, Deborah learned the craft of antique furniture upholstery. She then combined her skills to open her own fiber art business, working closely with interior designers, creating site-specific fiber commissions for private residences, businesses, and religious institutions.

Currently, Deborah designs and weaves pieces using the split-shed technique, transforming traditional patterns into a signature method of hand-weaving. All weft yarns travel from selvedge to selvedge, differentiating this cloth from tapestry. Her works have been inspired by the increased cross-culturalism in the world which has been facilitated by technology, the ancient realm of road and trade, now advanced to hyper-speed. Her most recent art is drawn from the memorial structures found in old cemeteries.

Deborah teaches split-shed weaving workshops internationally. In 2019, she published The Technique of Split-shed Weaving, a book that illustrates pictorial weaving using the split-shed process on four-shaft looms. Her articles have been published in Complex Weavers magazine.

Deborah’s weavings have been shown in numerous local and national juried exhibitions. In 2015, she received a Cleveland Jewish Arts and Culture Fellowship award. In 2017, she received third prize in the ARTneo national juried competition. She received the Complex Weavers Award and First Place at Complexity 2018. Deborah is also the recipient of a 2019 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award.

https://www.deborahsilverstudio.com

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Workshop

May 10, 11 and 12, 2024

Split Shed Weaving - Multiple structures using a straight threading

Split Shed Weaving - Multiple structures using a straight threading

Break out of blocks with split-shed weaving. Weave curves and blend colors using continuous wefts on a 4-shaft loom with no special equipment. In this workshop, students will create multiple combinations of weave structures using only four shafts and a straight threading. Only tie-ups and treadling are changed between samples. Most of these combinations would normally require a minimum of eight shafts. Students will experiment with combinations of twills, summer and winter, double weave, Han damask, taqueté and more! Woven samples include continuous, complementary, and supplementary wefts, as well as wefts which combine to produce shading for pictorial weaving. (This is the same color-blending process Deborah Silver uses to create her art.) Students will also learn to make a cartoon on cloth that will advance with the warp and will not wrinkle when beating.

​Although students will not be able to complete all of the samples in class, they will leave with the ability to complete them at home with all of the drafts and instructions. Floor looms are preferable, with jack looms allowing the easiest treadling. Direct tie-up and table looms may also be used. Looms will need to be pre-warped. Students will provide their own weft yarns (instructor will email samples of acceptable yarn types). Students will also need three 10”-14” flat shuttles and one other shuttle of their choosing that will be comfortable to use with an 8 to 9-inch wide warp.

• Date: May 10, 11, and 12, 2024
• Time: 9:30am-4:00pm
• Location: Tumbleweed Art Collective
  1333 Coffman Street, Longmont

• Class size: 20

Prerequisites/Experience: Ability to warp and weave a 4 shaft fabric

Equipment/Materials Provided by Participants:
Directions for “homework” will be provided 45 days in advance, loom and the shuttles, bobbins and tools to weave with.

Equipment: Although this workshop can be done on a table loom, a floor loom (jack or direct tie-up) is preferable as it speeds up the weaving process.
Looms will need to be pre-warped. Students will provide their own warp and weft yarns. Students will also need two 10”- 14” flat shuttles and one other shuttle of their choosing that will be comfortable to use with an 8”- 9” wide warp.

Workshop fee: $240 payable on registration

Material fee: bring $15 (cash or card) to the workshop. 

Registration opens December 15, 2023
To register online, click here.

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