Co-Sponsored with the Boston Area Spinners and Dyers
Presented by author Virginia Postrel, 7pm via Zoom
Textiles are one of humanity’s oldest and most influential technologies, but nowadays most people take them for granted. Drawing on her widely praised new book The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World, author Virginia Postrel will take us on a tour of some of the innovations–in fiber, spinning, weaving, and dyeing–that gave us today’s textile abundance and the ways textiles shaped civilization as we know it.
Virginia Postrel is a Los Angeles-based author, columnist, and independent researcher whose latest book is The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World. She is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Her previous books include The Power of Glamour, The Substance of Style, and The Future and Its Enemies. During her research for The Fabric of Civilization, she learned to weave and is now the program co-chair for the Southern California Handweavers’ Guild.
All proceeds will be added to NVWG’s Pauline Duke Educational Fund. The Fund was originally set up through a “pay-it-forward” donation by Dawn Forde from the sale of a loom given to her by Pauline. The fund has been used for various outreach and educational programs, including payment of guest speakers, purchase of workshop supplies, and the screening of “Yarn, the Movie”.
A few of our Guild members took a 3 Dimensional weaving workshop with Sally Eyring, back in February. Please join us for a Virtual Show and Tell, to see some of the pieces that we made during and after the workshop! Didn’t take the workshop? Bring your COVID Creations to Show and Tell, too! This meeting is a fun way to see what everyone’s been working on.
The meeting will take place via Zoom, with a link to be sent out on Monday, the 26th. All members should automatically receive the link. If you aren’t a member yet, you can send a note to chair@nvwg.org to request the Zoom link information. The meeting will start at 7pm, on 27April2021.
Nashoba Valley Weavers' GuildPosted on by Penny Lacroix
Did you know that we have the DVD of “Yarn” available in our library? ‘Tis true! A few years ago, the Guild sponsored a screening of the movie at the Harvard Library. It was open to the public, and it generated much interest from locals. As part of the licensing agreement, we are permitted to have the DVD in our Guild library to lend to members. According to imdb, the documentary reveals how “international artists and knitters take a simple skein of yarn to create their extraordinary ideas and stories.” Calling it a documentary makes it sound serious, but it really is a fun movie to watch, if you’re into yarn!
If you’d like to borrow the DVD, you can contact Kathy, our multi-talented librarian, to arrange a socially distanced pickup. Alternatively, you can stream the movie through a link on its imdb listing for a small fee.
By the way, you can view everything in library by clicking the LIBRARY tab above!
Join us via Zoom at 7pm for a presentation by professional photographer Joe Ofria. Joe has been photographing fine art for almost 40 years. He will talk about what makes a good photo, how to use what equipment you have, and editing the image following the guidelines for entering shows or competitions. He will also answer questions about setting up a “studio” and lighting options.
Not a member? Send an email to chair@nvwg.org to get the Zoom link and join us for a visit! (Please send your request before 5pm on 23March.)
Nashoba Valley Weavers' GuildPosted on by Leslie Ardison
Laverne Waddington has been learning to weave on simple looms with indigenous teachers in South America since 1996. In her home in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, she draws on ethnic design influences from around the world to create pieces on a backstrap loom using the various techniques and structures she has studied in South and Central America as well as with backstrap weavers from Vietnam and Mayanmar. Since 2010, she has published eight instructional manuals on the various woven structures and finishing techniques that she has studied and produced a dvd on Operating a Backstrap Loom. Her articles on backstrap weaving and indigenous textiles have appeared in Handwoven magazine. Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot and Spin Off as well as in the published proceedings of the 2012 and 2016 Braid Society conferences. She has shared her skills and experiences with many visitors to Bolivia over the years and now reaches a global audience with her weaving tutorials and travel tales on her blog. She provides online advice and support to weavers through forums such as Ravelry and teaches and speaks at guilds and textile conferences around the world.
Nashoba Valley Weavers' GuildPosted on by Penny Lacroix
What is sprang? How exactly does it work, what evidence do we have of sprang in the past, and what can you do with it today?
Carol James, aka The Sprang Lady, will be joining us live (on Zoom) from Manitoba, Canada for our regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday 26 January 2021 to answer these questions.
We begin with simple definitions and live demonstrations to help you understand how every row of work yields two rows of cloth. A variety of stitches lend themselves to this type of work, some even look like woven cloth. Diverse techniques transform simple rectangles into hats, socks, mittens, vests and more. We will see this played out in a series of images of sprang through history. The presentation offers photos of actual sprang artefacts, ancient artwork, and Carol’s sprang replicas taking us from the bronze age to present.
The presentation finishes will focus on ways to make sprang shirts. The ancient Persians and pre-Columbian Americans made shirts, so why shouldn’t we? History suggests a variety of approaches. Trial-and-error suggest a few more. Carol has made more than 20 sprang shirts, and shares what she has learned.
Nashoba Valley Weavers' GuildPosted on by Leslie Ardison
November/December Meeting
December 1, 2020, 1:00 pm
Via Zoom
We will be making star ornaments. Supplies you should have on hand for the meeting are listed below. A link for the meeting will be sent to you via email. If you are just joining our guild, please let us know you would like to attend.
1. Two 2”X2” pieces of corrugated cardboard
2. Two 2”X2” pieces of tin foil
3. Scotch tape
4. White Glue or paste
5. Yarn – from your stash. Wool, cotton, whatever. Sock yarn weight or so for this size ornament, not too thin. If you would like to get creative, go a bit thinner and use more than one strand at a time. Add a thin strand of something that sparkles!
6. Straight pins with the colored ball point tops
7. Yarn needle
October 27, 2020 7:00 PM (via Zoom, meeting link will be emailed to members)
Members, please join us for our October meeting. Local art quilter Ann Ribbens will talk about the multi-faceted world of shibori. While she often uses it in whole cloth quilts, there are many applications, including woven shibori. Ann’s comments will cover the definition of shibori, highlight several techniques and show samples from amazing artists as well as some of her own work.
Artist Statement
Ann Ribbens
I moved to Berlin, MA, in April, 2018. I am a transplant from Minnesota where I lived for over 20 years. My husband, A.J. Moses, and I are “trailing grandparents” in that we followed our daughter and granddaughter to Massachusetts when our daughter got a new job.
I have always been interested in quilting. I come from many generations of women who made fantastically beautiful quilts. They were Midwestern farm women with great sensibilities for color and pattern. Of course, they used scraps because that’s what was available to them during the late 1800s and the first half of the 20th century. Little girls’ dresses and men’s suits alike found new lives in these wonderful quilts. I have 14 heirloom quilts that were made between 1880 and the 1930s. Most are works of art from my grandmother and her cousin.
I have been making quilts since 1985. In the mid-90s, I abandoned making traditional quilts. I joined Minnesota Contemporary Quilters and found a whole new artistic outlet. I’ve experimented with various media including using trims, dyeing my own fabrics and embellishing my work with hand embroidery.
I deploy a wide range of surface design techniques in my contemporary quilts. I seek to provide rich visual details while giving the viewer a “wide angle” view. I work in small formats, or “wall quilts.”
These days, I work primarily with shibori (a Japanese tie dye technique) and deconstructed screen printing. For several years, I’ve been successful combining the two techniques to get outcomes that I’d hoped for.
My work is both representational and abstract. I have focused on several themes in recent years: memory, environmental issues and women’s relationships to their bodies.
My work has been exhibited at the Mosesian Art Center in Watertown, MA, the Brush Gallery and the Loading Dock Gallery in Lowell, MA, the Schweinfurth Museum in Auburn, NY, Gallery One in Ellensburg, WA, The Wickford Art Association, North Kingstown, RI, the Minnesota State Fair and several venues in Minneapolis/St. Paul. My art quilts have also appeared in books and in textile magazines including the Surface Design Journal.
