May 2014 – Backstrap Loom Weaving

Backstrap Weaving- The Flying Kangaroo

I took pictures of both sides of a lovely little square of weaving that my friend Virginia purchased when she was at Tinkuy 2010 in Cusco, Peru. It was to be part of a piece submitted for the annual weaving competition between teams of weavers from the various communities that form the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales de Cusco.

The competition challenge had been for weavers in each community to weave a series of thirty-six thirty-centimeter squares that would be sewn together to form one large piece. Many squares were woven but only the best selected. Each weaver had to create a perfect four-selvedge square that could be sewn to the others to form a seemingly seamless piece of fabric. Attempts to include a square that was even ever so slightly off would result in an imperfect overall piece of fabric.

Here are some of the winning pieces from that competitionin 2010….

This entry has squares that were created using the ticlla, or discontinuous warp technique for which the community of Pitumarca has become renowned. Each colored square has a rectangle of pick-up patterning embedded in plain weave, something that only be achieved by using discontinuous warps.

The weavers of Sallac included squares of ikat amongst squares of complex pick-up patterning.

The takers of first place from Chahuaytire presented a deceptively simple piece entitled “matrimonio”. You have to look very closely before you realize that the piece comprises thirty-six masterfully color-matched and pieced-together squares.

Here are some of the pieces from last year’s competition…

But, as I mentioned above, not every square submited by the weavers can be accepted for the final piece. I imagine that there is much frustration and disappointment as hard work and dedication is rejected.

The sweet piece that Virginia had bought back in 2010 was actually one such rejected square. At least it managed to find an appreciative owner and a good home and the weaver was compensated for her hard work. I love the figure on this piece. To me, it looks like she is hitch hiking. She looks strong, bold, and independent yet, friendly and good humored.

It is such clever and creative use of the supplementary-warp technique. I am amazed at how each and very finger on both hands is clearly defined and at how nicely the legs have been shaped.

I am guessing that this figure was supposed to be just one small part of a story told in the finished piece with its thirty-six squares. I am intrigued by this and wonder what role this humorous lady played. What is she doing….what is she saying? What is that “hitchhiker’s” thumb indicating?

Maybe someone who was at Tinkuy 2010 took a picture of the entire piece. I would love to hear from you if you did. These pieces were hung in the co-op store in Chinchero and I somehow missed this one. Quite likely if I had seen the entire piece I would not have even noticed this one female figure and would have been captured by the piece as a whole rather than by its individual parts.

Other pieces that Virginia shared with me during my stay with her at South Lake Tahoe included this very colorful ticlla piece with three-color complementary-warp pick-up patterns. The four selvedges in each half of the cloth were created without having to abruptly interrupt the pick-up pattern.

There were also pretty tubular bands woven independently and as edgings…..

And sprang bags from the tropical lowlands of Peru…

And a reminder that not all highland weaving in Peru has gone the way of the textiles that are being produced by the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales de Cusco with their fine handspun naturally dyed yarn and intricate pick-up patterns. Cheerful pieces with relatively simple patterns made with heavy yarn and bright synthetic colors are still very much in use in many places…..

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at Lake Tahoe and the group with whom I wove there. From beautiful mountains…

….to Donner Pass and tales of the ill-fated expedition after which it was named…(Suzanne showed me around the Truckee area)

….to the glorious lake itself…

Virginia took me out on a boat crossing and it was spectacular!

And what about the weaving?….three days of Andean Pebble Weave in a resort on the lake shore…what fun!

There were ladies who liked to get down on the floor for a session of “team charting’, broken leg and all! Several members of this group had been playing with pebble weave on their four-shaft looms using the instructions in my Andean Pebble Weave book. They were now keen to set it up on a backstrap loom and found that the backstrap loom has a few advantages over the floor loom especially when it comes to saving sheds and creating pick-up shortcuts.

Here is a gorgeous bag that Jen put together from fabric she wove with pebble weave patterns on her floor loom…

After the gathering, I stayed with Jen and her sister Elizabeth in Reno with this gorgeously distracting view from the kitchen window…

While all that was happening outside and I tried to stuff all my gear back into the massive bags that I lug about with me on these trips, Jen and Eizabeth calmly wove on their backstrap looms and worked on the Andean Pebble Weave pieces we had started together.

I am thinking that those looms in the background might be left to gather dust for a while!

This is what Jen was weaving…her own adaptation of a Tarahumara pattern…

Elizaebth wove as far as she possibly could so that she could squeeze in the last parts of her design and have a matching start and finish…

I will be seeing these ladies back at the Lake for another gathering in the fall…yay!

From there I headed northwest to stay with my friend Betty. We had two gatherings there…one for beginners and another for learning all kinds of pretty finishing techniques. We used handwoven pieces of fabric which had been made by my Bolivian weaving teacher Maxima and other ladies in her co-op. One piece was used for sampling the new techniques while the other was to become a wee pouch. The pouch could be dressed up with the embellishments that we had practiced together.

Linda really took to the tubular band weaving and came on the second day with two finished “eye” bands.

Sharon’s sample cloth has a sewn tubular band and cross knit looped edging. She also applied coil stitches to one end which is the embellishment that Bolivian weavers sometimes use to decorate the bottom edge of their chuspas.

Here are some of the ladies weaving and sewing accompanied by snoozing Trouble, the cat.

Weaving in Betty’s studio is the closest thing you can get to being outdoors with its floor-to-ceiling windows and skylight.

During my stay a group of us went to the meeting of the Portland Handweavers Guild where Rosalie Nielson presented A Cacophony of Kumihimo….a talk on the history of these braids in Japan and her own personal explorations with the techniques.

Dozens of Rosalie’s gorgeous braids were displayed amidst her stunning rep weave work.

Next stop… Seattle…. to re-connect with people I had met at ANWG in 2013 and Braids 2012 as well as to meet new weavers. A talented group of tablet weavers came who slid very easily into the basics of backstrap loom operation and basic patterning techniques. John, a skilled braider and ply-splitter, decided to try his hands at weaving. His wife Stacey quickly settled into it and both she and Lynn found themselves very much at home on the floor while the others were happy to stay in chairs.

Seattle was glorious in pre-summer warmth…gardens in full bloom and vistas of the Cascades at every bend. It is little wonder that my planned weekend stay in Seattle back in 1992 turned into three weeks!

Annie brought in an old exquisite hair sash from Jaceltenango, Guatemala which had been sold to her by a weaver from Laos many years ago in midwest USA…how these wonderful weavings get around! John brought some of his ply-split work to show as well. I haven’t been able to find John’s website but he has some Youtube videos on his Takadai work….it’s a lovely process to watch.

I can just imagine Braids 2016 in this corner of the US. It’s going to be HUGE!!

Here is the next stop…

Did you guess Austin, Texas? And that was not the only display at the airport. The Weavers and Spinners Society of Austin had an exhibit there too aptly entitled ”Flying Shuttles”. I had met seven of the weavers who had things on display ranging from felted sculptures to basketry to wall hangings to wearable fabrics to ply-split braided jewelry. Three of these talented ladies later wove with me.

I wove Complementary-Warp Pick-Up with some new faces as well as returning weavers. It s my third visit to Austin and third stay with Eileen and Guy. Eight weavers came aged from 18 to 79 producing sweet bands decorated with pick-up patterns. Eileen and Guy’s park-like back yard perched above a pretty creek along with a Saturday evening symphony concert made this a perfect venue in which to wind down at the end of my trip.

And then it was…..Hello Sydney!!

The Flying Kangaroo comes to rest at Sydney airport…

A couple of weeks to recharge with family and then I shall be doing some weaving here. It is strange to have the days getting shorter, see the fallen leaves and feel the slide into winter after the lengthening days and blooming gardens in the US. Still, the garden is full of color and sound with visits from flocks of raucous lorikeets every evening!

See you next week….

Backstrap Weaving – The View from the Other Side

The Conference of Northern California Handweavers (CNCH) will always have a special place in my heart. At the suggestion of my friend Janet Finch, I came to it as a registered participant in 2010 in Santa Clara, California. It was my first ever weaving conference and I had a ball!

I took classes with Robyn Spady and Syne Mitchell. Syne had agreed to sell my first book, Andean Pebble Weave, and gave me so much support on her website WeaveZine. It was our first chance to meet after much online contact. I met online weaving buddy Franco in Syne’s class and hope to see him again this fall when I visit Sacramento. Franco has been an online friend for almost five years now! and I look forward to his Facebook posts with his special sense of humor everyday.

In 2010 I thought it would be fun to enter three sashes in the wall hanging section of the gallery. They won a blue ribbon!

Kathe Todd Hooker and Pat Sparks shared with me their experiences with weavers in communities of Russian Old Believers in Oregon and Kathe showed me her collection of Old Believer sashes. Those Old Believer sashes have taken me places. They appear in my second book and have led me to other online friendships. I am now a part of a nice online Ukranian weaving group as a result.

Friendships started at CNCH 2010 that have lasted all these years. — Friendships started and made as a result of CNCH 2010 that have lasted all these years.

I met and hung out in the Vendor Hall with a group of people on the Santa Cruz guild’s Education Booth. I was backstrap weaving there while they were inkle weaving and loop braiding and these folks would become my very good friends…Yonat, Annie and Ingrid. I shared my room with Janet, Sandra and Linda, all from Humboldt County and met Becky and Connie. Many friendships started and many great things were born at that conference.

So, it was quite a thrill to be back at CNCH in 2014, as an instructor this time.

I would get to enjoy the view from “the other side” It was fun to have my name on this list at the Marriott in Oakland California amongst the other very familiar instructor names in the last half of the alphabet…

Below, you can see organizers Elaine Gray and Connie Anderholm (at the computer keyboard).Connie has woven with me many a time on my visits up to Humboldt County. They are checking-in instructor Tracy Shapiro (with whom I have also woven up in Humboldt!). Tracy taught a basket-making workshop. It was so much fun running into my on and off-line weaving friends with familiar faces all over the place. I had a whole new group of backstrap weaving friends that I had just sent time with weaving with whom to mingle.

Linda Hartshorn, with whom I had shared that room back in 2010, was there instructing, as was Ingrid Crickmore who had been loop braiding at the Education booth just for fun in 2010. Ingrid and I have backstrap woven together in Santa Cruz , California many times and we taught together at Braids 2012 in Manchester UK.

I shared my room with Jennifer Moore. We had met in Santa Fe prior to Jennifer’s trip to Tinkuy 2013 in Cusco, Peru and it was fun to catch up with her post-trip and hear about her experience there. So much catching up to do in such a short space of time…a mere two and a half days.

The theme of the conference was Branch Out with Fibers. The center pieces on the tables at the Friday night banquet reflected that. Keynote speaker Robyn Spady had us in stitches with her highly entertaining and clever presentation on her Top Ten Reasons for Branching out with Fiber.

I am sure that I arrived on time for the banquet but it seemed that everyone else had arrived there early. The Humboldt table was full and so I swung around and begged a seat at the very next table. There were friendly faces everywhere. I got to meet a group of Raverly fiber folk there. It is always nice to put faces to those Ravelry names and discover mutual friends and acquaintances.

I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning on on Andean Tubular Bands. Some of the people I had met before and it was nice to see them again. We worked hard and wove the ñawi awapa.

I walked into the room and found this on the table…

…a balanced double weave bag from Mexico. Weavers always bring the coolest things along to show me. I have been studying this pick-up techique as practiced by the Cora, Huichol and Otomi people of Mexico and have woven my own pieces. I hadn’t run across this particular motif.

Many of my weaving friends had already discovered the stand in the Vendor Hall that was selling products of the CTTC (Centro de Textiles Tradicionales de Cusco). Many of the pieces were edged with the same tubular band that we were about to weave. That’s a placemat you can see above.

Abigail Killey is selling these pieces at her Organic Cotton Fabric Shop in Bodega, California and she had her stand right at the entrance of the Vendor Hall. It was difficult not to stop there for a LONG time examining all the beautiful Peuvian weavings. My weaving friends bought pieces and brought showed them to me and we were able to examine the way in which the weavers had cleverly disguised the ends of their tubular bands.

I hung out with Abigail in my free time and showed her some basic backstrap weaving techniques using the little jakima beginner kits she was selling.

Here are some of the large pieces that Abigail had amongst the smaller purses, placemats and table runners….

I love the colors and the large and jolly joining stitches on this large piece from Chahuaytire…

I run into CTTC pieces all over the place. Friends I stay with in my travels show them to me, I saw them in Santa Fe NM at the Folk Art Festival, they were at Convergence, in Cusco of course, on my many visits there and at CNCH. I never tire of seeing them, fondling and photographing them and yes, I finally bought my first piece at CNCH.

I did some other shopping…

I got this wonderful super fine reed from the stand that was selling textiles and implements from Laos and other SE Asian countries. This is even finer than the reed I got from the Chinese minorities stand at Convergence. When I get to Australia I will see if my brother can remove the rather heavy frame that it is in so I can use it on my backstrap loom…maybe with silk! Excited!

And, speaking of silk….

I got these small, very affordable skeins of 60/2 silk from Redfish Dyeworks.

I had bought tiny spools of 60/2 silk from a bargain basket in a yarn store when I was in the UK in 2012. I got olive green, shades of terracotta, purple, brown, deep reds…mainly darkish tones.

I found how lovely it was to use as supplementary weft on a ground weave of fine Guatemalan cotton (see the scarf at left) and lamented not having bought some paler colors.

Well, now I have them and know where to get more when I need and so do you now!

A box of luscious Redfish Dueworks silk. — A box of luscious Redfish Dyeworks silk.

So, that is what I bought. There were many cool things to look at. See, below, the wooden rigid heddles and clasp for band weaving from Glimakra and plastic rigid heddle segments from Village Spinning and Weaving…perfect for getting kids into a bit of band weaving on a simple backstrap loom.

I took a quick run through the galleries. I loved Ingrid Crickmore’s display of loop braids in the Instructors’ Gallery. She managed to combine two of her loves,…braiding and fiddle tunes. The words on the braids are lines and titles of fiddle tunes.

There was a Spinning Corral where I ran into my friend, Cookie. Cookie has woven with me up in Humboldt as well as down in Pala Alto. She is one very creative lady. Here she is showing the blending board she made and decorated with Zentangles.

My friend, Autumn, was asked to wear a dress made from plastic newspaper wrappers and shopping bags at the Fashion Show on Saturday night. She had been hesitant about accepting and named me as a possible candidate for the role…I wanted to slap her when she told me that! Phew…she went ahead and did it with everyone’s encouragement! I so wish I had been able to photograph her modeling it…she looked stunning. Here is the dress on display in the Vendor Hall. It was surprisingly soft, was made by Sandy Drobny, and is entitled “Evening News”.

Sheila O’Hara was in the Vendor Hall working for Vllage Spinning and Weaving and had a display of some of her famous jacquard-woven tapestries. Sheila and I had chatted at CNCH 2010 and she remembered every word of thst conversation as did I. She is such an energetic person! She took my arm when I entered the Vendor Hall. It was the warmest welcome ever.

I love her four season “flockettes” ….

She makes the most beautiful tapestry versions of Edward S Curtis photographs of Native Americans. This is a piece that she recently finished that depicts South America at top as a condor and North America as an eagle…

Sunday was all about accepting invitations that I had been receiving to visit various instructors’ classrooms. It was impossible to visit all! I also wanted to meet up with my Santa Cruz friends who were driving up for the day to visit the Vendor Hall and hang out. And, it was also the time for saying goodbyes as some friends hit the road early for long drives home. Plus I needed to meet with Suzanne who would take me on to my next weaving gathering leaving at noon…so little time!

Stenciling on Fabric with April Sproule. This class looked like a lot of fun. There seemed to be alot of "bug" stecils and each studnet used in them in so many differnet ways. Some studets brought in a piece of fabric on which to practce while others brougt in bags, item sof clothing or hand dyed fabric on which to stencil motifs. I loved the green spinning wheel bag that had been spruced up with stenciled patterns. Tien had brought a red shirt. She said that she had not been pleased with the results of her dyeing of this artucular shirt but that the dragonfly stenciling had now converted this shirt into a favorite. — Stenciling on Fabric with April Sproule. This class looked like a lot of fun. There seemed to be a lot of “bug” stencils and each students used in them in so many different ways. Some students brought in a piece of fabric on which to practice while others brought in bags, items of clothing or hand dyed fabric on which to stencil motifs. I loved the green spinning wheel bag that had been spruced up with stenciled patterns. Tien had brought a red shirt. She said that she had not been pleased with the results of her dyeing of this particular shirt but that the dragonfly stenciling had now converted it into a favorite.

Advanced nuno felting workshop with Carin Engen. I walked in on a lot of students hard at work rolling and thumping as wool was made to felt and adhere to silk. It was very hard to picture the finished project looking at the pieces of wool placed on the cloth before the feting process. The fun part was seeing the pattern revealed as the pieces were unrolled. Carin inspected each piece for sufficient adhesion and advised each student on the next steo for their particular piece. — Advanced nuno felting workshop with Carin Engen. I walked in on a lot of students hard at work rolling and thumping as wool was made to felt and adhere to silk. It was very hard to picture the finished project looking at the pieces of wool placed on the cloth before the felting process. The fun part was seeing the pattern revealed as the pieces were unrolled. Carin inspected each piece for sufficient adhesion and advised each student on the next step for their particular piece.

My friend, Diane, took this class. This was her first ever CNCH and I know that she must have felt as excited as I had felt back in 2010. Here she is inspecting her piece after her first session of rolling….

I was lucky as Diane sent me a picture of her finished piece after she got home from the conference. She had just gotten into backstrap weaving and now I know that she will have problems deciding where to go next after all the exciting things she has learned lately. Last I heard she was back at her backstrap weaving finishing off the bands we wove together…yay.

Diane's finished nuno scarf. — Diane’s finished nuno scarf.

Tapestry Expressions with Tricia Goldberg. Students were invited to bring in a picture of a face and capure the expression in tapestry. The weaving was done looking at the "wrong" side of the fabric and a small mirror was positioned so that the weavers could see what they were producing. The little faces that were emerging were fascinating! — Tapestry: Expressions with Tricia Goldberg. Students were invited to bring in a picture of a face and capture the expression in tapestry. The weaving was done looking at the “wrong” side of the fabric and a small mirror was positioned so that the weavers could see what they were producing on the “right” side. The little faces that were emerging were fascinating!

Robyn Spady's classroom wher she taught Exploring Weave Structures on a Single Warp was electric...a lot of looms, weavers and action! My friend Gina caught me pering in at the door and ttok y hand and brought me in to excitedly show me what she had been weaving. — Robyn Spady’s classroom, where she taught Exploring Weave Structures on a Single Warp, was electric…a lot of looms, weavers and action! My friend Gina, above, caught me peering in at the door and took my hand and brought me in to excitedly show me what she had been weaving.

I saw my friend Ruth in Linda Hartshorn’s class on Shadow Weave and got to see her weaving as part of the ”round robin” style of sampling…

I love shadow weave! I have done a four-shaft version on my backstrap loom amd would ove to try an eight-shaft version one of these days. This is one of the many shadow weave samples that the weavers created. Each one will take home an example of all the sahdwo weave patterns studied in the class. — Secrets of Shadow Weave…Linda Hartshorn. I love shadow weave! I have done a four-shaft version on my backstrap loom and would love to try an eight-shaft version one of these days. This is one of the many shadow weave samples that the weavers created. Each one will take home an example of all the shadow weave patterns studied in the class.

Sara Lamb's Contemporary Cut Pile Rug. Familiar faces from banquet night welcomed me into Sara Lamb's class where partcipants worked on copper pipe and rigid heddle looms to create a sampler of colored squares before starting on a project. Peggy, from my Santa Cruz backstrap weaving group, was there. She said that it was nice to be able to chat and practice this technique. Pick-up weaving on backstrap looms ofetn requires a high level of concentration and SILENCE! It was surprising to see how much the color of the cut pile ends differed from the color of the yarn. The cut ends were darker, richer and more luscious and the sampler then helped weavers make good choices about the colors they would use in their project and the amount of contrast they would achieve. Sara had brought a dazzling range of pieces as samples. No two bags were alike in construction or finishing techiques. She showed how she recorded and planned her projects in a notebook of charted patterns and yarn samples. — Sara Lamb’s Contemporary Cut Pile Rug. Familiar faces from my banquet night table welcomed me into Sara Lamb’s class where partcipants worked on copper pipe and rigid heddle looms to create a sampler of colored squares before starting on a project. Peggy, a backstrap weaving friend, was there. She said that it was nice to be able to chat and practice this technique. Pick-up weaving on backstrap looms often requires a high level of concentration and SILENCE! It was surprising to see how much the color of the cut pile ends differed from the color of the yarn. The cut ends were darker, richer and more luscious and the sampler then helped weavers make good decisions about the colors they would use in their project knowing better the amount of contrast they would achieve. Sara had brought a dazzling range of pieces as samples. No two bags were alike in construction or finishing techiques. She showed how she recorded and planned her projects in a notebook of charted patterns and yarn samples.

As I said, it was impossible to stop in at every workshop. When I got to Sara’s I was already a half hour late for my Santa Cruz weaving buddies meet-up. And then at noon, I was whisked away by Suzanne. There were quick goodbyes, hugs and expressions of congratulations and gratitude to the organizers.

So, I have seen CNCH from both sides now… Both sides were equally exciting and fun. This experience in 2014, I guess, was different because I knew a lot more people. 2010 was great because it was my first ever conference and EVERYTHING was fresh and interesting.

I had planned to write about the Lake Tahoe weave-along here but I think this is enough for this week. Lake Tahoe was heavenly! I stayed at Truckee near Donner Lake, then South Lake Tahoe and finished just outside Reno. Now I am in Washington state. I am excited beacuse I get to go to the Portland guild’s meeting tomorrow night where Rosalie Nielson will be presenting. I have not had the chance to hear another weaver speak at one of these meetings. And there is bound to be Show and Tell….my favorite part.

I will leave you with two very different faces of Tahoe and Reno…

Virginia took me on a boat trip on Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay. — Virginia took me on a boat trip on Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay….a perfect day! I think I got a bit sunburned!

Slot machines at the airport…not something you see every day…no, I wasn’t tempted.

See you next week from….who knows where?