Touchstone Center for Craft 2009 catalog of classes

I want to share with you about Touchstone Center for Craft, as I thoroughly enjoyed myself there last year. AFter many years of raising kids, and holding our breath to make ends meet, our kids are grown, and I can take myself to art camp! Last year, I taught at Touchstone, and intend to do so again this year. It was so much fun. They have a fantastic, yet fairly intimate facility. There is a Photography studio, a rather amazing blacksmithing facility, beautiful watercolor/painting studio along a little singing brook, a pottery studio along the same. Ther is a paper arts and stained glass(I think, it had a lot of torches) studio, and LOOMS galore! I will be teaching spinning, rigid heddle weaving, and weaving on the floor loom.
No matter what you take, you should take yourself off to art camp this summer. It was quite a gift to give myself last year. It was a beautiful drive from central Virginia to Farmington, PA, where Touchstone is. You might even enjoy the trip, as I did.
Here is a link to the catalog. http://www.touchstonecrafts.com/Graphics2000/catalog.pdf
gotta go. I've got a spinning commission to get finished, and a solo show to work on.
I've got to be ready for the show in JULY!!!Panic!!!!!

More on the local alpacas

Teri got back with me about all the fun things Fireweed Alpacas is involved with in the near future. Here is a list of some of the upcoming fun:

State Fair of Virginia
Saturday, September 27 9 am – 9 pm

National Alpaca OPEN HOUSE
Sunday, September 28, 12 pm – 5 pm
2280 Camelback Road
Maidens, VA 23012
(804) 556-2526
fireweed@boone.net
www.fireweed-alpacas.com

4th Annual Taste of Goochland
Tuesday, October 14
5 – 8 pm
Boy Scouts of America
1723 Maidens Road (this is actually on our property! See you there)

Teri is having the open house in Maidens, and it’s a great opportunity to see the alpacas in their home environment. The “Taste of Goochland” is an opportunity to come out and see what Goochland County has to offer. It’s a large # of Goochland businesses reaching out to the community to introduce themselves. It was great last year. Fireweed Alpacas did participate and drew a great deal of attention with their crias and adult alpacas. There is much more information coming from Fireweed, and an opportunity that my local fiber friends will LOVE! We can participate with shearing day, and earn fiber to boot.

Stay tuned.

Cherri

Learn to Weave in a Weekend Results

As I try to learn Wordpress, I am humbled by my own naivete. I have uploaded the pictures from the Learn to Weave in a Weekend class to my Flickr account (maidensweaver), and have done the administrative stuff for flickr to share them, but am to brain tired to figure out the rest tonight.
I'll upload a few pics here, and my impression at the end of the class....just for you. Then, if you want to see the rest of the pics, you can check out flickr, until I rest, and educate myself.
We began Friday night with 2.5 hours of class. The students received a vocab list, a syllabus and a tour of the building. We talked about each student's expectations for the class, and their goals regarding weaving in general. One lady owns a loom.
Once I knew their needs, I could determine my role in this. We planned their projects, determining epi, warp length, etc and made a guide string. The lady with a loom has a warping board, so she learned on our board, instead of using the warping mills. Then we tied the warp with choke ties, and ties that preserve the cross, inserted lea sticks, and ties the lea sticks to the loom. That ended Friday for most of us. One student began winding on, and she threaded the heddles completely on Friday night.
Saturday, we had 6 hours, so those who weren't threading heddles began. So on Sat, we threaded heddles, and sleyed the reed until about 2 pm, then we began weaving.
The students wove, under my supervision until 4pm, and then the days class was over, and I had to leave. They used the remaining hour that the art center was open for open studio time.
Sunday, they finished weaving off their pieces, and some hem-stitched, others ties fringes, etc.
One student made a 8" change in her weaving right in the center. That meant that as she approached the end of her weaving she came up short. Not wanting to disappoint, I attempted to help her get min. waste by extending the back apron rod so it came to within an inch of the heddles, and we removed her reed from the beater. Well, it worked. We had to have another student lifting and really pushing down certain harnesses, but the student was able to achieve a balance of the symmetery of her piece. I learned there is such a thing as zero-waste weaving!
You will see this in the flickr photos.
Here you will see a tapestry wall hanging in rag and yarn, a tapestry rag rug, and 2 basic, plain weave rag rugs. I enjoyed these students. They were very focused and positive to work with.
Thanks for a fun weekend.
Cherri

Learn to Weave in a Weekend

OH, what a fun class. I have 4 students with enthusiasm and a very positive attitude.
This group of students has flown through the process of dressing the loom, and are now inserting weft to weave off their projects. One is doing a rag rug, and two of the others are doing rag runners while the 4th is doing a wall hanging incorporating rag, charged yarn, balanced yarn, and other inclusions. I also had a make-up class today with the student I would be neglecting tomorrow due to being in the WiaW class.
She is making unbelievable progress. On day one, she almost completely dressed her loom. She came in during lunch this week, and completed threading heddles, and today (lesson 2), she sleyed the reed, tied onto the front of the loom, inserted header, and began weaving. She is doing a fairly simple rag piece using t-shirts.
I am truly blessed to be their teacher. Life is Grand.
Check out the pics. Don't forget that I will be using Wordpress to parallel this blog until I know whether I like it, then I will be (sniff) shutting this one down for the other.
My username at wordpress is Rivercityweaving
Bye for now, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Cherri

Summer Challenge

Sorry not to post for a week. I've issued a summer challenge to my students, and will do the same to you. It's for the weavers. It's just to get you planning your projects, and to inspire you to think of ways to use color and the interconnectivity of color and your draft. The challenge is as follows:
Let's get the creative juices flowing with something to stretch your
imagination. Looking at your draft....assuming it's 4 harness, I want
you to choose 4 colors. color 1 is a shade or tint of color 2. Color
2 is a pure color (primary- it doesn't really have to be the primary,
but not mauve, or some other secondary or tertiary color). Color 3 is
the compliment of color 2 on the color wheel, and color 4 is a neutral
(black, white or grey).
Now for the hard part.

The dominant will be whatever color you put on the harness that
appears most in your draft.
So if your draft is 1,2,1,3,1,4,1,3,1,2,1, whatever color you put on
harness #1 would be the dominant color. Whatever you put on 4 will be
the diminutive color. Each color has a specific harness.
So all threads on harness #1 will be the same color, on harness #2
will all be the same, etc. You get to choose your pattern, but no
straight twills!

Are you in?
Cherri

Latest commission

Here are pics of the latest commission.
It's a memorial. The client sent the fibers from her deceased dog, and I spun them and
wove the piece. I thoroughly enjoy weaving the wall hangings from natural fibers, and fibers from peoples loved pets. Some people choose to honor a living pet by using their fiber, and some memorialize beloved pets that have died by using their fiber.
It's a joy to get to know these special clients, and have them share their stories with me.
Hope you enjoy.
Cherri

What are we covering in the spinning classes?

I got a request about what we will be doing in the week-long spinning classes in Brookfield, Conn. and Farmington, PA. First, let me say that Brookfield is an hour from Manhattan, so if you are planning on taking that class, you should plan on making an evening 'run' into the city one or two nights, and Farmington, which is near Pittsburg, is very rural, and it is a residential craft center, so we will have a wonderful bonding experience.
Day 1: We will begin drafting, and learn the mechanics of spinning, we will dye some wool for use later in the week, and we will do some hand carding. Students will spin a bobbin or two of singles.
Day 2: We will learn to ply our singles together, and navajo ply, we will continue our dyeing. Students will learn to clean wool, and set twist. Student should produce a couple of skeins of yarn today
Day 3: We will use the drum carder, and will do some blending on the drum. We will learn to use inclusions in our spinning, and will produce a skein or two of yarn. Some students will continue to navajo ply.
Day 4: We will learn to use combs, continue drum carding, and spinning. Students will learn to spin boucle, and will spin a skein or two of boucle yarn, unless they are still having sooo much fun navajo plying that they are committed to just that.
Day 5: Students desiring to drop spindle will learn that, others will 'blend in the draft', spin from the lock, and dye yarns.

Hope that helps. The class is great for beginners, as well as intermediate spinners.
Please e-mail me with questions.
Ciao!
Cherri

spinning from the fleece

I also wanted to post some pics of the yarn produced from spinning directly from a raw fleece. I don't pull locks, and tease them, or anything. It's just drafted directly from the fresh fleece. This has been navajo plied, which you can see in the close-up of the lovely loop-d-loop produced by this method. Yes, this loose, furry, textured yarn is what I was looking for, and I rejoice in every moment I spend producing it.

What are the kids classes I'm offering?

This is for those of you who have asked what classes I'm offering for youth this summer.

The Visual Art Center of Richmond got theirs up on the website early, so some of them are already full, but here they are:
July 14-18
9 am - noon Weaving (this is on the floor loom) for ages 9-12
12:45 - 3:45 Tie-dye ages 9-12

July 21 - 25
9 am - noon Felting (making felt from wool; not knit and shrink) ages 9-12
12:45 - 3:45 Weaving (floor loom class) ages 10-13

Aug 4 - 8
9 am - noon Felting (making felt from wool, not knit and shrink) ages
12:45 - 3:45 Weaving (floor loom class) ages 10-13
If you would like to contact the Visual Arts Center about registering for a class, please call 804.353.0094

At the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, the classes have just gone onto the web, so you may find openings here. The class offerings and dates are different also.

July 28 - Aug 1
9 am - noon Tie-dye ages: 9-12
1 pm - 4 pm Felting (making felt from wool; not knit and shrink) 9-12 years

Aug 11 - 15
9 am - noon Tapestry weaving with a twist ( students will learn tapestry weaving)9-12
1 - 4 pm Gettin’ Stitchy We will sew and embroider projects the kids choose 9-12

If you want to register for classes at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, call 804.261-2782

Residential Arts Centers and Spinning

This is just a plug for my out of state classes. I have a fun week coming up in Farmington, PA at Touchstone Center for Crafts. Here is a link to the website:
http://www.touchstonecrafts.com
If you think spinning looks peaceful, and want to jump in and find out for yourself, please join us in this class. We will explore wool, learn to draft it, spin it and ply it. Oh, did I mention that we will also dye some of it! Spinning wheels are provided and no experience is necessary! Just come with a desire to learn and an openess to enjoy one another in this class.

It's time for you to finally get away, and send yourself to Summer Camp;0)
We will thoroughly enjoy the solitude of this wonderful, creative retreat.
If you have questions, please e-mail me at tallitweaver@gmail.com
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Cherri

just a couple more

Here is my fav, and another.

Amazing workshop!

What a great time!!!! This was one of those perfect days, in which I enjoyed the workshop, and the students as much as the students did. These 3 ladies are so full of joy and fun that they filled the studio with it.
All 3 ladies got their projects on the looms quickly and without any problems. Hazel was working with chiengora yarn that she spun from her dog's fur. It is a very clean white and turned out to be a nice warp. She really seemed to have found exactly what she wanted from the loom and the workshop. She is also an accomplished painter.

Cyndee got her loom dressed with a fine linen, which is a little inflexible, but it is really working for her. She crossed the first inch or two with alpaca and it feels soft and nurturing.

Helen dressed her loom with a 20/2 mercerized cotton warp in a sort of ruby red. She is interested in doing some fine tapestry work. She is a cool lady, strong in her faith which encourages me, also! She did the most tapestry work today, working on some interlocking and some slit tapestry.

Don't forget that I'm starting a Tues morning weaving group at roseneath rd, and have an opening now. We will meet from 10 am - 12:30 am, right in the fan district of Richmond, va. Hope you will join us.
Cherri

Openings in Thurs night weaving class

There are still openings in the Thursday evening class at the Visual Art Center of Richmond, also.
That would be the Art Center formerly known as The Hand Workshop. 1812 W. Main St.
You can review classes at http://www.visarts.org
Hope to see you tonight for the first night of class. If you have questions, e-mail me at maidensweaver@earthlink.net
Cherri

Weave in a Weekend - Finished work

Glen Allen work and Felting workshop

Here are pics of some of the work going on at Glen Allen. The multi-color, highly textured piece is a set of place mats that I am weaving. The taupe and burgundy is Nancy's. She has done 2 or 3 scarves out of that, and these pics are just to show how pretty the weave and fiber are. She is weaving off the loom waste. The fiber is tencel.
The chenille piece is also taupe, and has beads woven in. This is Julie's work.
She is truly a 'natural' fiber artist.



Tomorrow I have a hatfelting workshop at The Visual Art Center of Richmond. I'll try to remember to take the camera and upload pics afterward. It's a busy weekend, so I may not get it done until sometime during the week.
Take care.

Cherri

Learn to weave in a weekend class

Some of you have been looking for a quick opportunity to try weaving. The Visual Art Center of Richmond is offering that opportunity. On January 25, I will be teaching a weaving intensive at the Visual Art Center of Richmond. You have the opportunity to completely immerse yourself in 3 days of weaving. Friday night, we will work from 6:30 - 9:00 pm measuring out our yarn to put on the loom. On Saturday morning, from 10-12:30, we will wind the yarn onto the loom, and pull the threads through the heddles. In the afternoon, we will finish pulling through heddles, and sley the reed, tie onto the loom and begin weaving these beautiful mohair shawls which we will finish on Sunday afternoon.
I have openings in this class, if you would like to join us. It's a wonderful refresher course for you if you just haven't woven in a while. If you are new to weaving, and want yet another opportunity to set up and weave under the instruction of a teacher before working on your own at home, or you just want to know if weaving is something you might want to pursue deeper, this is a good opportunity for you.
The class is designed for mohair shawls because they weave up quickly. I hope to see you there.
If you are not local, there are many lodging opportunities in the area. We are very close to VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), and the thriving heart of Richmond, Virginia. Come join the fun and be a part of a vital weaving community.
Cherri

My bizarre tapestry

Ok, here are 2 pics of the odd little tapestry I did this week. I wanted to do some pattern weaving in a tapestry type piece, and wanted some rya knots in it also. So here is the strange little piece I did. Yech!
I'm still working on the new tapestry loom that I hope to have saleable in a few weeks....4-6. After talking to Sue and Stu I'm thinking is should weave at least 24 inches, and maybe should have some sort of reed-like divise. Hmmm, it's still a work in progress.
Please click on the pictures and you can see much more detail.
Cherri

A Loom Review

Hi,
I thought I would do a loom review today. Since I own, or have owned so many looms that I rate many of them for you. Mind you, some of them aren't made anymore, but many of us/you buy used looms, so I'm reviewing any that I have used or taught on regularly that you might still encounter. If it isn't here, I haven't used it, and so I can't offer you advice on it, OK?

My #1 most favorite loom is my 16 harness, 45" Macomber. It's sturdy, never walks around when I use it. I like the tie-up system and for the most part, I like the super clips. The loom is very stable and durable. It can weave linen, mohair, wool, silk, tencel, cotton, qiviut, camel, alpaca, or whatever you can think to throw it's way, and you can beat the livin daylights out of whatever you are using for weft without ever phasing this loom. It's a wonderful loom. If we were talking about cars, Macomber would be a Mercedes! (yes, there are more expensive cars and there are more expensive looms, but Mercedes represents both performance and durability as well as stability, so it fits). I would recommend Macomber looms over any other loom available.

I also have 2 baby Macs, which are very good looms and I enjoy them tremendously. For my studio, they are very versitile, and fold up to an incredibly compact state. Once, I even got one in a rolling suitcase:0) There are drawbacks, however. These looms tend to pop the pins used for tie-up. I have taken these looms for demos, and not been able to weave because the super hooks, would not stay on the loom. Similarly, you can't fold the loom up with the super clips on, as they fall off easily. The loom doesn't have as much stability as Leclerc's Compact 24 and although I love them (they are Macombers), I do recognize their failings. My students don't like them as much as the Leclerc's because they are so small that they seem like miniature looms. In general, Macs are my favorite looms.

Next, I have a Lillstina, 6 Leclerc Compact 24's, an AVL 12 harness mechanical dobby and 2 students in my Roseneath studio have hand made looms by private individuals. Once is fashioned after the HD looms and the other is a lot like a hardwood Norwood loom. I have taught on Hammets and Leclerc Fanny's.
So let's discuss them.
I love the Lillistina. It's very light despite the fact that it weaves 45". I can push this loom across the floor with a finger. It doesn't walk as I weave with it, and it can be folded up and packed away fairly easily and flat. I like most Scandinavian looms. They are just SIMPLE! The harnesses are raised and lowered by balances, not rollers. Think of drilling a hole in the 6" mark of a 12" ruler, and hanging weights on it so you could tilt one side or the other to raise. It's like that. I keeps a nice tension and fits my personality. Problems? If you crank the tension too tight, the hooks that hold it together release and the loom collapses into it's folded position, which I believe could break your warp not to mention the fright that it gives the weaver.
Oh well, some things we love simply because we have chemistry with them. I have chemistry with my Lillstina.

My AVl I loved and continue to love each time I use it. I just don't use it that much. It's a great weave. It was wonderful when the kids were little and I needed to be able to set it up in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep, and then I could weave mindlessly during the day. Now, I want to think about my weaving more, and watch what is happening, trouble shoot, and even alter the treadling as I go. Yes, I can be a rather stream of consciousness weaver sometimes. The AVL has a great built in raddle, which I love. I has a friction brake, love it, has texsolve heddles, is a little noisy, folds compactly, and is light. Similarly, I like the beauty of the loom. It's designed very differently than most looms. It's not great for anything that needs very tight tension and I like to weave linen, so it's not my favorite, but it's a very good loom. Bear in mind that mine is maybe 20+ years old.

Hammetts, I think are simple looms and very useful. I definitely have taught on my share of them. They have a few problems, ie., the lamm pins slip out of the harnesses a lot, but I conquered that fairly early on. These looms are very stable, but a bit blocky. If I had the space and a free one found it's way into the studio, I would keep it for a while, but would eventually have to have Macombers or Leclercs instead.

I would hope to never own a Herrald loom. I taught on one for years, and it created misery in my life the whole time. When we finally sold those looms and bought new ones, I wouldn't give that one away. It had caused me so much misery that I wanted to burn it! Instead, I decided it would pay for the misery it caused and I took it apart and used the various parts to mount fiber art for sale. It would pay me back!!!!! The first piece that I mounted that way was burned up in a fire. The gallery it was in, was arsonized. Can you believe it? Anyway, stay away from Herrald looms.

Leclerc Looms.....Hmmm, I have always considered Leclerc as the Chevrolet of looms. It is a sturdy loom that can go the distance. It's reliable. It's well thought out, but would never make you feel special weaving on one. They are for the most part functional looms. That's what looms are for, right? Well, sometimes, you can weave on a loom and know that the designer was a weaver. Although I know that Msr. Leclerc was a weaver, his looms don't reflect that to me. I just don't see the innovation that I see in Mr. Ahrens' looms, or in Louet looms, or even the Macomber's looms. But they will do the job and probably never let you down (I can speak from the perspective of one who has owned or woven on the Artisat, Nilus, Compact 24, the Dorothy, the Fanny, and the Bergere). So the Leclerc is a very good buy for someone who is on a budget, and wants to never regret the money they have spent to get a functional loom. I would also group the old Union rug looms in with these since the roller type counter-balance looms are all quite similar.

For tapestry, I am developing my own loom. I don't like the rigid heddle looms much, and don't think you should have to pay a fortune for a tapestry loom. Hopefully this loom will be out in late Feb.

Hope this helps you. If I mentioned one, but didn't review it, I'm sorry. My tendonitis is starting to hurt.
Talk later.
Cherri

spaces available in Thurs. night weaving class

We have a weaving class starting Thurs. night at the Visual Art Center of Richmond. We meet from 6:30 - 9:00 pm and there are openings! Please join us for this 4 week session. In that time, you can learn to dress a loom, and weave off a project. We work on 8 harness Leclerc floor looms. There is a mix of new weavers (never woven before) and returning weavers, so no matter what your experience level, you will feel right at home.
Come join us.
804.353.0094
Thanks!

make a hat with a friend as a holiday gift!

Did you know you can buy a 3-4 person hat or rug felting workshop as a holiday gift? Here is how it works. You buy 3 or 4 gift hatfelting certificates for the amount of the workshop ($85.00 ea) and I print them out. You then confer with the recipients of the gifts, and book a date to take the class together. It's loads of fun. You lay out your design, and felt up your hat. Then you block and shape the hats as we all try different shapes and styles, laughing and playing together in this fun workshop. It's always a great time!
These workshops are from 10 am - 4 pm. Can be booked on a Saturday or weekday.
Dates are currently open for Dec. and Jan., for friends to gather and make hats. We do these in Goochland at my home, where we have access to all of my materials and supplies, instead of the limited supply I can bring to traveling workshops. Join me!
Here are a couple of fun hats from my workshops.