Cambridgeshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers
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Cambridgeshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Letter from the Chair Thank you to everyone who helped make the Exhibition such a success. We had lots of visitors and the comments in the Visitors’ book are very encouraging. The demonstrations were very popular and a lot of children had a go at weaving. Jacqui Fuller and her team did sterling work in the Reading Room providing drinks and homemade cakes as well as overseeing the dye plants that were for sale. Sue Prior produced masses of plants for sale. Paula Armstrong, Beth Parks and Sue Melvin were the ‘hanging group’ , ably assisted by Chris Tucker and Lynn Reynolds on the Friday afternoon. Paula also organised the sales table which looked spectacular. I am indebted to Ann Ruel for facilitating the display of Jan Morris’ work. It was lovely to see her weaving again and her family were touched and delighted that we were able to do this. The range and quality of the work on display was breath taking and the ‘Challenge’ was fascinating to see how everyone had interpreted their part of the picture. Thank you. Sue Letter from the Newsletter Editor Thank you to everyone who provided content for this newsletter. So many folks have come together to provide book reviews, meeting summaries, recipes and announcements, that I mainly played around with adjusting colours for this issue! I do love design and I am glad to be able to combine two of my creative outlets in one place. I will strive to keep a fairly consistent layout, but will likely change up a few things each issue. I hope that doesn’t bother anyone. In this issue we have 2 book reviews along with our normal letters, and calendar of events. Please keep in mind as the summer goes along, if you come across an exhibition of interest, do let me know about it. The best way to contact me is via e-mail at [email protected]. Erica Jones Table of Contents: Letters: Chairman & Newsletter Editor 1 Librarian 2 Book Reviews: Viking Patterns for Knitting 2 Tapestry Weaving: Design and Technique 3 Recipes from the Exhibition Tea room 3, 6 & 7 Workshop Summaries: Natural Dyes 4 Rug Weaving Introduction 5 Program and Exhibit 8 Photos from the Exhibition by Fiona Bureau New Librarian – Chris Tucker Hello, most of you will know me, I’ve been around in the Guild a long time, but this year I have taken on the role of Librarian. The Library is always available when we have meetings at Arbury, and should be easy for everyone to use. Please feel free to contact me with any ideas you may have about making it more accessible and useful. We have a small annual budget for book purchases, so if you have any ideas for new books I would be keen to hear about those too. You can contact me on 01767 650904 or [email protected] For Guild News – in case you haven’t seen it Some of you might recognise Sue Wallis on page 7 of the latest Vav (2/16). Sue is wearing the jacket she wove for her final project in the Janet Phillips Masterclass. The 1952 design by Ebba von Eckermann was published in Vav in 2012, and inspired Sue’s final project. Book Review If you like knitting Aran patterns you will love Elsebeth Lavold’s books. I bought her first book, Viking Patterns for Knitting (published in 1998) a few years ago, because it contains some wonderful patterns for warm jumpers, jackets and hats. I was amazed to find that all of them were taken from standing stones and other Viking artefacts found in Sweden. The book tells of her interest in archaeology, and her development of techniques to recreate the braided patterns found in carvings, metalwork and other finds into easily read knitting patterns. What we think of as Aran or Celtic designs and our Scandinavian neighbours think of as Viking were actually common throughout the Celtic/Scandi/Anglo-Saxon world, but there is much more to learn. I recently found her 26th book, Viking Knits and Ancient Ornaments (published in 2014) at this year’s Tex- tiles in Focus. Yes, 26 books in 16 years! This book details her studies in a multitude of cultures. Knotwork and interlacing patterns are found throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia (the Buddhist Eternal Knot), North India, Africa and the Americas, going back to 1,000 BC. Her study journey makes fascinating reading, and the resulting knitted garments are again lovely. The pat- terns are charted and easy to read. Here are a few examples that I have made. Tapestry Weaving: Design and Technique by Joanna Soroka Paula Armstrong Some books improve with keeping, and for me, this is one of them. I wasn’t sure when I bought this book if it would be as useful as other more ’how –to’ books on tapestry weaving. But it has been my constant companion for inspiration, practical help, trouble shooting, and sheer enjoyment. The first chapter deals with a definition of tapestry weaving. The second a brief history from the 14th and 15th centuries BCE to the present. Soroka’s subsequent chapters on how to get started, and what materials to use are sufficient to get a beginner going, but do not replace other more practical books. Every point the author makes is illustrated by a colour print of a tapestry. Chapter 5 provides an excellent summary of a number of the more unusual techniques which make weaving exciting for any practitioner. There follows two excellent chapters on designing for and translating design into tapestry. Always a difficult subject, because ultimately it is so personal. Chapter 8 covers practical aspects of presentation and care of the finished work. Something which is easily overlooked, but needs to be considered at the planning stage of any work which is to be exhibited. The final chapter provides a gallery of work from contemporary tapestry weavers. Soroka gives one full page reproduction of one work from each of seventeen tapestry weavers. The facing page gives a brief biographical introduction to each tapestry weaver, what they want to achieve through their work and how they go about it. This is a truly inspirational chapter and bears continual looking and reading. The book concludes with a good glossary; information on suppliers ; relevant organizations; where to see tapestries; and a comprehensive index. Clearly written by a well recognised tapestry weaver for tapestry weavers, one of the great strengths of this book is the varied array of tapestry artists represented by their work to corroborate everything mentioned in the text. It comes in hard back at 19.99., a small price for such a useful book, and I would recommend it to anyone setting out to become a tapestry weaver. Carrot and Walnut Cake by Maj-Brit 8” square loose bottom cake tin. 190-200C Gas mark 5-6. Check after 20 minutes. [I bake in my Aga] 280g plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 280g carrot, finely grated 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp vanilla essence Pinch salt 2 tbs liquid honey 2 tsp ground cinnamon 90ml milk 1 egg 90ml vegetable oil 110-140g light brown sugar 60g walnuts chopped Mix flour, baking powder, bicarbonate, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl beat egg with a fork. Add sugar, carrots, vanilla, honey and milk. Scrape all of liquid mixture into dry. Stir lightly with fork, then add walnuts. Dyeing with Natural Colours: Aviva Leigh Tina Tribe On a somewhat chilly Sunday, the 24th April, Aviva Leigh ran a workshop on natural dyeing at the Cambridge Steiner School. One of her aims was to dispel the myth that you can’t achieve good bright colour with natural dyes. Using 5 base dyes of weld, madder, cochineal, logwood and woad, we were to leave the workshop with 15 different colours by either adding a modifier to the base colour, or over dying it with another colour. Aviva had prepared skeins of mordanted wool for all of us attending the workshop. We placed 3 of our skeins into the weld. Of these, one was left yellow as plain weld; another was modified with copper producing an olive green and the third was partly dipped into woad, turning the yellow into a lovely Lincoln Green. Three of our skeins went into the madder vat. Again, one was left plain orange; the second was modified with ammonia on one half and citric acid on the other half, producing slightly different shades of a paler orange. The third was over-dyed in cochineal, producing a lovely red. Aviva ground up some cochineal, and once again in went 3 of our skeins. One was left pinky red; another modified with acid and the third over-dyed with woad to make purple. Interestingly, two slightly different shades of red were made due to the water that the cochineal was soaked in; one was soaked in soft de- ionised water and the other into the hard water straight from the pipes of the Steiner School. The difference in colour was clearly noticeable. The pure logwood came out purple; one skein was modified with iron, making it almost black; the other skein overdyed with woad, making a deep blueish purple. The woad bath was magical; it is fascinating to see the wool come out of the dyebath green and watch it turn blue as it oxidizes. All three skeins went into the woad for c.10 seconds; then two skeins were over-dyed for c.20 seconds and one skein was over-dyed a third time for c.