Saori Installation!

Call out to Saori weavers!

We have been invited to make a Saori installation at The Forum, Norwich for the month of February 2016.

As part of Makers Month we will be decking the Forum with Freestyle, Saori woven banners. The aim is to create a vibrant, colourful display of banners that can be seen by visitors throughout the month.

Since starting the Saori Shed three years ago, I have had the greatest pleasure in meeting many lovely weavers, seeing your wonderful works and being honoured by getting people started in the joyful art of Saori.

We would love to take this opportunity to display your weaves and bring together Saori weavers from all over the UK.

All weavings will be joyfully dislayed, whether it be banners, hangings or yardage that you have woven to later make into clothing. There are no restrictions!

The Forum Trust is kindly providing funds so that all your weaves can be returned to you by post - UK weavers. For worldwide weavers please contact.

The installation will be up for a month and during this time your work can be publicised by local media and online – if this is your business there will be great coverage :)

If you would like to be involved please email me at-

info@thesaorished.co.uk

and I will send you more details.

As part of Makers Month we will be taking looms along for visitors to experience the joyful art of Saori weaving, to make some community banners and to bring people together. You are all invited to come for a weave - more details will follow!

The Forum, in Norwich, is a public Millennium building - everyone is welcome seven days a week all year round to enjoy free exhibitions, events and activities. There is also a café, a restaurant and one of the best public libraries in the UK. Around 5000 people visit The Forum every day.

Makers Month is a new event aimed at bringing a wide variety of local makers under one roof to create a vibrant, collaborative month of interactive learning and motivational experiences for all age and ability groups.

Each week in February will be themed-

Week one - ‘Yarn’,

week two - ‘Fabric’,

week three - ‘Pencil and Paint’

week four - ‘Paper and Ink’

I look forward to hearing from you.

With thanks

Kim

Autumn Saori Kai

Last week saw the second Saori Kai at the studio. 
Kai in Japanese means sharing or a gathering. A Saori Kai is an opportunity to meet other Saori weavers and share your weavings and experiences.
Local Saori weavers came and brought their recent weaves, shared ideas, solved some problems and ate some lovely cake.
Here are some of their beautiful weaves, sorry I didn't take so many photos - there was far too many lovely weavings to distract me from photographing :)

Stunning felted handspun looong scarf, wrap, to keep you warm this winter

Beautiful hanging inspired by a Design Seeds image that may be lashed/stretched to hang - look forward to seeing how it evolves.

Next few pieces are inspired by rust, great textures on these - I esecially loved all the hardware that is woven in that gives the pieces a nice weight and sound :)

Screws!!

Lovely idea for christmas presents, these are his and hers scarves - woven on the same warp but with different coloured wefts for his and her.

Handspun wefts from the Isles of Orkney - these skeins are colours from the Island, I think I may need to visit :)

Autmnal weaves with luscious, dyed wensleydale locks.
Thanks all for coming and sharing your weaves and your stories, look forward to seeing more :)

Woolly Workshop August

At the end of summer Yarn artist Kally Davidson and I hosted another Woolly workshop at the studio in Diss.
We were exploring different techniques to encourage everyone to be more experimental with yarn :)
A day of freestyle fibre fun!
We made some chunky yarns by plying together lots of other yarns.

 

We used rope making techniques to make new yarns from fleece, bring careful not to go too far down the stairs!

 We played on the Saori looms and incorporated some of our new yarns into weaves.

 We experimented with some VERY extreme crochet....

 .....some giant body knitting ....

 .....and for the first time ever, in Diss, some giant, interactive french knitting! We created a whole tubular piece on our arms around Kally (she did get out again :)

Lots of new techniques to play with and a good giggle had by all :)

If you would like a Woolly Workshop to come to a place near you, get in touch -
info@thesaorished.co.uk or woollenwood@kallyart.co.uk

New Summer Jacket

I have been enjoying weaving a summer warp that I made from rich reds, yellows,oranges and purple cottons and silks inspired by some lovely Norfolk sunsets we've been enjoying. This was a real joy to weave. I especially liked playing with the different tonal effects created by weaving contrasting colours on the same warp, leading to some of the cloth being more red and other parts more purple. 
I wanted to make one of the patterns in the Saori blue pattern book - Fuku no Katachi ni Suru - coat on page 81, but I didn't have quite enough cloth ( I had already used some of the warp for a hanging). So in true Twisted Tailor style I frogged it :) Found some lovely natural cotton in red and magenta and made triangle shapes to fit into the gaps. Adding triangles instead of rectangles to the front gives the jacket a more flowing shape and nice drape. After playing around with it discovered its even better upside down! Reminds me of a styalized kimono. Great to wear on summer eves :)

Woolfest 2015

Back home and feeling inspired and envigorated after another FANTASTIC Woolfest :) Such a joyful weekend in the beautiful Cumbrian hills. We had our Saori stall with 2 looms set up for everyone to have a play at weaving Saori - it was lovely to see so many people finding pleasure in Saori. 
The Woolclip put a great show together with loads of inspiring textiles and fantstic fibres. I found some fibre treasures for the studio including dyed silk hankies and rainbow roving-weavers coming to the studio in the next few weeks can enjoy the treats!

Big thanks to Janine, Ruth and Jo for helping out and inspiring all :)

Beautiful Cumbrian hills on the drive up

Famous Blacknose sheep - these lovelies went to a very good hairdressers!

Stunning weaves on the Woolclip aisle

Looms set up before the doors opened

Local Saori weavers work on display

Weaving banner

Love this about Woolfest! Herdwick being taken to the ring :)

Beautiful work at the Arty Bird stand

Beautiful plant dyed yarns and weaves from Ananuca artisans in Chile

2 Banners created at Woolfest - one of them was won by raffle ticket no.55