Spinning & Plying at Loscon 38

Here's what I spun up and chain plyed at Loscon this weekend.  It's Joan Contraman's Dolphin Tails.  I love Joan's batts.  We used to be in Designing Weavers together, before she moved to Montana.

Fiber Artist Bio

I had to make a bio page for an art gallery show I'm in, and tho I couldn't upload it here, I was able to more or less recreate it on my facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=789000690&sk=notes#!/notes/ellen-shipley/ellen-shipley-woodcuts/10150417474201520

It's weighted toward printmaking because that's what I've got in the show.  ;-j

Double Woven Edges

Brilliant!  Check out Alice Schlein's Weaverly blog post featuring double woven edges:
http://weaverly.typepad.com/weaverly/2011/11/829-finished.html

I detest weaving edges, whether on a shawl or a towel, what-have-you.  Fringe takes forever to twine, and I don't like leaving it loose.  I've never cared for folding over and sewing either.  But this technique shows promise.

Start and end with double weave (and on a later post she shows you how to do that even on 4 harnesses:
http://weaverly.typepad.com/weaverly/2011/11/double-weave-hems.html).  When off the loom tuck the ends into the "tube" and whip closed.  Nice clear finish.  8-]

My SCA Device

This is the mini-tapestry of my device for the Laurel's Cope.  I'm unsure how to deal with the back of the tapestry.  I've only ever mounted mini-tapestries to be framed, never to be work on a garment as a badge, and I'm unsure what is required.

front

back

And here it is on the Laurel's Cope at Coronation.  8-]

Sneaking a try-out of the cope.  ;->

Fiber Frolic 2011 - Pictures

My sprang class -- all my serious students!

Steph finished her bag in class.

Ta-da!

Rebekah all but finished her bag.  She worked on it all day.  That's dedication.  ;-]

Woody's fiber prep class:

There's Rebekah working away on her sprang.  ;->

The trick is to make the roving "unzip" from the drum just the way Woody demonstrated it.

Woody makes it look so easy.

Success!

Some other classes:

 

Tablet weaving

Some really kewl tablets made out of  Home Depot color chips...with hole protectors.

Lucet

Bjeux tapestry

Spinning circle:

Dyeing station:

Felted scarves: 

Indigo Tye Dye:

Some of the merchants:

The end of a long, happy day:

Sprang Class - Fiber Frolic

Here's a pic of a student working on a sprang loom.  Note the cord pushed to the top.  Loom was warped in the easy figure-8, with a string to hold the cross pushed to the top.

~*~

Stretcher bars came and I'm putting the looms together.  Had to buy all new looms this time so I ordered smaller bars to keep the cost down.  Still plenty of room to weave.

~*~

Sample loom for the class on Sat.

250 wraps on the bobbins.  Enough for two sprang bags.  20 loops on the looms.  4 skewers, 4 string place holders.  Tapestry needles.

Woven-Felted Scarves

Here's the original concept -- felted bit added to a gauzy material to create a crinkle or seersucker effect:

Zen Garden

This is a loosly-woven scarf with filmy bits of roving felted on that wouldn't distort the matrix very much:

Starry Night

This is another loosly-woven scarf with more substancial felted bits.  The idea was to allow the felt to create a seersucker effect:

Stones in the Steam