3D Weaving – Old Technology and New Inspirations

Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Light refreshments at 7:00pm, program at 7:30pm
Location:  Fivesparks (7 Fairbank St, Harvard, MA)

Sally Eyring will be the guest speaker on Tuesday 9/24/19, sponsored by the Nashoba Valley Weavers’ Guild. The talk will start at 7:30, following a reception at 7:00. The talk is in conjunction with the NVWG exhibit, which will be on display at Five Sparks for the month of September. The talk is open to the public.

Three dimensional weaving has a long and varied history, starting with arachnids 400 million years ago to the space age fabrics of today. Despite this long history, the terminology is confused and inconsistent. Up to now, hand weaving has been limited to rectangles woven with interesting structures that create surface interest. 

In their book, Ideas in Weaving, Ann Sutton and Diane Sheehan muse on a tension device developed by Janice Lessman-Moss of Kent, Ohio. The device, they say, “broke one of the cardinal rules of even tension maintenance,” and note that “More work like this would bring the handweaving loom (which suffers from innovation deprivation) out of rustic technology and into the twentieth century.”

In trying to remedy the “innovation deprivation” of the hand loom, Sally has developed three different techniques and several loom modifications to allow the hand weaver to create 3D woven forms. She will describe her weaving techniques and tools, and show some of the results.

Sally Eyring has been weaving and building tools since childhood. She earned a BA in Mathematics Education from Arizona State University and a MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Her MFA graduate project described the immigration experience through woven sculptural headdresses, using unique 3D weaving methods that she invented. Her work has been featured in the Complex Weavers Journal, WeaveZine, Best of America – Glass Artists & Artisans, Handwoven, Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, ArtScope magazine, and other publications. Her book on 3D hand loom weaving will be published by Schiffer Publishing in 2020.

In addition to weaving, Sally both renovates and builds looms, and does glass casting. Her work can be seen at: www.sallyeyring.com