Anne – Page 4 – Fiber Artisans of San Jose

September 28, 2014 – Dye Day

On September 24th, the group met with the intent to do wax resist on fabric and then dyeing the fabric with indigo. Below is a beautiful example, created by our member Phyllis Karsten with a simple white kitchen towel and a potato masher.

2015 CNCH Scarves

CNCH Area Five is responsible for the conference next year. As part of Area Five Fiber Artisans has taken on the task of weaving the scarves for all the teachers and volunteers. We are doing the colors from Monterey Bay Ocean that were chosen for the CNCH 2015 colors. Here are some of the first pictures of the fiber and scarves.

Six of our weavers have agreed to weave an 8 yard warp for a total of 6 scarves when they are finished. They each have 72 ends of Ocean Blue Tensil, 44 ends of Aqua, 28 ends of Jade and 6 of Jasper. The weft is either Blue or Aqua, they may place their colors where ever they choose. Each scarf will have a jelly fish placed on it in what ever manner the weaver chooses. Embroidered, felted, Theo Moorman technique. Innovation is the name of the game.

Our 2014 Bag Project

For the Conference of Northern California Handweavers in 2014 we wove bags. Everyone contributed some of their yarn. Some was handspun, some dyed with indigo, some with a special meaning to the member. A loom was warped with a section from each of these yarns and members each wove a section of the warp with the weft of their choice. Each then chose how to finish the bag.

striped warp on the loom — We started with a warp made up of yarns, mostly handspun, that we had dyed earlier with madder and indigo. Each of us is represented by one stripe in the bag.

photo of a woven section on the loom — Each of us used our own weft to weave a section long enough to make a bag.

Because of the differences in the elasticity of the warp yarns, the back of the loom became a mess. We hung weights on the loom to keep tension on the yarns.

Some of the yarns were two ply, and some singles. We kept the singles controlled by lashing them to the madder stripes (using some medical tools).

Sharolene's bag with lining — Sharolene’s bag lining

Too much fun! We are all set to get started on our next group project.

Cotton Ikat Jacket

I consider this my most spectacular project – also it is one of the best pieces of weaving I’ve done. The third place ribbon from the CNCH judges at the Marin fashion show got it wrong. their comment was that it didn’t hang straight.

Well, it was not intended to be a up-tight western style jacket. It was patterned after a Japanese style that is OK to hang loosely.

And, I didn’t want to have shoulder pads in the jacket as they would either be inside the lining, which would mean that I’d have to open up the lining if the pads deteriorated. I didn’t like the appearance of pads tacked to the outside of the lining. I solved that problem by putting shoulder pads in the blouse that I made to go with the jacket. The judges didn’t know that. Next time I will be certain to add a note to my entry – A little learning opportunity on entering items.

I usually wear the jacket with blouses that have no shoulder pads. It hangs loosely with the expected informal hem line, but looks just great!.

Our Projects

We have a group project every year and each of us creates a wide range of individual projects. Our current project is ikat dyeing. The directions can be found here. You can see our monthly updates below.

Note: Occasionally we have a program that is only open to members or guests who have pre-registered.