Spring Kai

Friday saw the first Kai at the studio-
Kai in Japanese means sharing or a gathering. A Saori Kai is a great opportunity to meet other Saori weavers and share weavings and experiences.
We had a lovely group of weavers come who brought some of their recent weaves to share. Techniques were discussed, sewing problems were solved and lots of yarn and weave admiration had by all :)
We had a play with the WWW technique and wove a loose communal Kai piece (photos to follow)
Delicious cakes and bread supplied by the Hempnall Honey co. 
A lovely morning, thank you all for coming and sharing, look forward to the next Kai!

 

WoollenWoods new weaves

New wild weaves from Kally - WoollenWood (check out her beautiful hand carved crochet hooks,yum!)
Stunning hanging using the 2 dent comb reed and her luscious handspun yarns with crochet  lichen on the top. Kally says 'the weaving has developed some interesting characteristics now that its been washed eg. a lumpy curly twisty fringing which resembles veins of ivy' -
I love how it sits so happily wrapped around the tree - inspiringly gorgeous :)

New Year weaves

Happy new year and a catch up of whats been happening in the Shed.
We had a packed 2014 with shows, workshops and a new baby :)
Firstly some Saori weavers work to inspire you. These are all made by weavers at the studio and around the UK with Saori looms, some fibre and lots of imagination. Thanks all for sharing your work, can't wait to see what comes next.

More later..........:)

Saori weavers meet and inspire!

An inspiring day at the studio!
Weaver Fiona came for a weaving session to learn some new techniques to go beyond the stripe-she felt that she had got into a little pattern of reverting back to stripes when weaving so we had a play with some Saori techniques to create texture and interest in your cloth, to go beyond the stripe :)

Fiona brought in some of weavings including this fantastic purple coat, all made from rectangles pieced togerther using wools, fancies and cheniles - a really clever little feature is that it has an extra zip up the centre, which Fiona uses to zip her fleece into for when it get especially cold, making it double layered, genius :) 

Ang from Weird Weave came along with her great new hats made from shetland wool mmmm and some lovely clasped weft pieces in gorgeous colours, looking forward to seeing what they turn into :)

Later in the week an inspiring mother and daughter come for a weaving session - Love the textured weaves.
Thanks to all for a wonderfull weaving week :)

Saori workshop @ studio

Sharon from 'Taylor Made Yarns' came to the studio for a weave. She is a pro spinner and spins these AMAZINGLY gorgeous gigantic skeins of art yarns using beautiful fibres and lots of luscious wensleydale locks.She's been weaving on a knitters loom and wanted to have a try on a Saori loom. Completely, joyfully hooked on Saori :) Thanks for an inspiring morning.

LUSCIOUS LOCKS :) Can you imagine these beautiful skeins woven? mmmmm :)

Some of what Sharon makes from her Art yarn.

Inspired by birds exhibtion

I have a collaborative piece with Kally WoollenWood and Zoe WeavingSpace in an exhibition at Norwich Castle from now until the 31 st August.
We went for the preview evening the other night and got a sneeky peek at all the lovely work 'Inspired by Birds'.

 

With this Doodlebird dwelling we doodled in yarn taking a thread for a walk rather than a line. We have created interchangeable sacred spaces based on the social weaverbirds nests.

Birds build nests for shelter, protection and nurturing young, like wise human communities who build organically, create structures which are sympathetic to their environment, grow, are torn down and rebuilt to serve the needs of the community.

The Doodlebird dwelling has the same potential to change and be rebuilt after the exhibition as it encounters more doodling weavers who can bring their own skills and experience to take the dwellings into new environments changing spaces and creating new perspectives - please get in touch if you would like to get involved.

 This was my part of the Doodlebird dwelling as it came off the loom. I wove it flat with hanspun yarns with wensleydale and felted tufts add ins. I then cut and sewed it into nest shapes.

 The evening had such a turn out it was hard to get to see everything, so I will need to go back for a better look. These were some of my highlights-

 Jasmine with Kallys 'Resourcefulnest' - Amazing nest crocheted using handspun yarn made from a whole, entire yellow pages, all 808 pages of it :)

'

 Textiles bird house with birds eating buttons :)

and a stunning felt hat:)

Kally is also selling cards of the works on her Etsy shop - WoollenWood

Sheep highlights from Woolfest 2014

Heres a few of the gorgeous sheep that were at Woolfest this year :)

 Freshly shorn alpacas

Herdwicks

Lovely wensleydale

Jacobs

And ......the fleece sale - highly dangerous! I resisted this year as my shed is full of fleece, but there was an amazing selection of tasty fleeces to tempt :)

 Thank you Woolclip for another fantastic Woolfest, we had a great weekend of fibre fun :)