Send your news items to Tim Prins by the 25th of the month for inclusion in the next month’s newsletter.
Guild Calendar
Thursday, February 9, 2023 – February Meeting
Multnomah Arts Center + Zoom
7688 SW Capitol Hwy. (503) 823-2787 – Gym
10:00 am Day Meeting
9:30 am – 10:00 am: Set up and social time
10:00 am – 12:00: Meeting
After meeting: Library browsing time in hallway in front of guild closet
7:00 pm Evening Meeting
6:30 pm – 7:00 pm: set up, social and library browsing time (library in hallway in front of guild closet)
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Meeting
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Board/Planning Meeting
Zoom
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
President’s Message
The search for a new home for PHG continues, and is starting to take up much of my time and attention. We’ve heard some good suggestions from members, and encourage you to share more. Here’s some of the ideas that have come in so far:
- Milwaukee Community Center
- The old OCAC location, now home to Catlin Gabel
- Lloyd Center
So far we’ve only done a brief visit to the Lloyd Center. It has some advantages, being fairly central and close to transit. And, we wouldn’t be alone. The Portland Bridge Club and Portland Chess Club already have spaces there up on the third floor. If you’re in that area you might take a look and see what you think. Debbie Ellis is familiar with the Milwaukee center and speaks highly of it, and there’s been a suggestion that we move the fall sale there. We’ll be exploring that idea more as well.
All of this talk about new spaces, or as Lynne likes to call it a clubhouse, has us thinking and dreaming of the possibilities. And that’s this month’s survey question. What should we offer in our new home (when we find one) that we don’t currently offer today? Can’t wait to see your ideas. Go here to take the new survey: https://forms.gle/ywJSD1xrctQ8vZt46
As for last month’s survey about fiber-related gifts, seems like most people want hand-made fiber items (32%), followed by books about fiber (21%) and fiber itself (15%). Other ideas included gift cards, tools, special fibers, cards with handwoven inserts, and whatever other weavers make. All great ideas.
Hope this finds you all happy and healthy, and I hope to see you at a meeting soon.
Dan
Programs
February 9th PHG Meeting at MAC: Sue Walsh presents Margaret Bergman: Weaving Teacher, Designer, and Innovator
Margaret Bergman was a Swedish-American weaver who lived in Poulsbo, WA and had a significant impact on handweaving as we know it today in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. She patented her innovative folding loom, taught hundreds of students, was a prolific designer, and shared her knowledge freely. Her designs were the subject of the 2022 ANWG History Study Group. Bergman’s contributions and the projects of that study group are the subject of this presentation.
Spring Fiber Arts Sale
PHG Spring Sale with Gathering of the Guilds
April 28-30, 2023
Oregon Convention Center
The 2023 PHG Spring Sale Artist Application is now available! Please check the PHG Website Sale Page for a link to the application and the prospectus. Please read the prospectus before filling out the application. Application deadline is February 15, 2023. If you have any questions, please contact Cindy Fowler at phgspringsale@gmail.com.
Additionally, volunteers are needed for the following tasks:
1. Coordinator of Volunteers
- Set-up Sign Up Genius, a free online sign-up program for vendors participating in GOTG
- Remind volunteers/vendors to sign up for required hours
- Remind volunteers/vendors to work their shifts
2. GOTG postcards/flyers/posters distribution
- Ship or deliver to vendors and others to distribute
- Pass out at PHG meeting
3. PHG demonstrations for lobby
- Recruit PHG demonstrators
- Prepare guild loom
- Coordinate transport of equipment between MAC and OCC
4. Demonstration from outside of group
- Recruit outside fiber arts group to demonstrate
- Coordinate with John Beard
5. Social Media Editor
- This is a new position and training will be provided.
- Create Facebook and Instagram postings that are linked to the GOTG media page.
- Posts will include a photo and description of the artist’s work.
- This position begins after the first of the year.
Please contact Cindy if you can help.
Cindy Fowler, cafweave@gmail.com
Retreat News
The Annual PHG Retreat 2023 is a go for Thursday March 30 – Sunday April 2, 2023 at Cedar Ridge Retreat & Conference Center in Vernonia, OR (https://www.CampCedarRidgeOR.org)! See full information and sign up below!
Diane McKinnon 971.219.1564 dimckinnon@aol.com
Upcoming Workshops
We had a great time in the Krokbragd workshop. Debby Greenlaw was a fabulous instructor. You can look forward to seeing our projects at upcoming Guild meetings!
Tablet Weaving (3 1-day workshops) with John Mullarkey. March 9-12, 2023
As of January 26, the Ram’s Horn workshop is sold out (but get on the waiting list if you are interested!). There are still places in Threaded In Designs and Sulawesi.
If you are thinking you’ve only got one loom and want to take more than one workshop, John will show us how to “park” the warp for later.
Future workshops
Barbara Walker and I are settling on a date for Supplementary Warp Patterning workshop, probably in the fall of 2023. This topic was of great interest to many of you, second only to Krokbragd. I’m also trying to schedule Juan Bautista for Zapotec Rug Weaving.
– Lynne Fitzsimmons
Fiberworks Lessons with Jerry Swick
The Fiberworks tutorials by Jerry Swick have been recorded and are viewable online by logging in and clicking here.
Guild News
ANWG and Rental Equipment
The Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds has asked PHG to allow our rental equipment to be available for attendees flying in for the conference in Bend in June. The PHG board has agreed to this request. A list of available rental equipment will be forwarded to ANWG on April 1st, 2023. Thus, PHG members have until March 31, 2023, to make their requests, receive confirmation of availability, and, make their payment for the rental period covering the conference. Keep in mind, that the PHG rental period runs from meeting day to meeting day. This means that the rental period over the conference is from the June 8, 2023, meeting to the September 14, 2023, meeting. Such a deal!!
Special June, 2023, rental policies
- Payment must be received within 48 hours of rental availability confirmation for the conference period.
- Monthly rental fee for cancellations for June, 2023, rentals will not be refunded if made after March 31. Deposits will be refunded.
- After March 31, 2023, loom and spinning wheel rentals can be made on the ANWG conference website following their rental policies and procedures for the conference.
- Rental equipment will be available for pick up during the Thursday, June 8, 2023 meeting. If you anticipate needing more time to warp a loom, consider starting your rental in May for an additional months fee.
Book Highlight
For the second month in a row, we have a guest reviewer!! This month’s book review is by Pat Zimmerman. Pat is a longtime Guild member and dedicated multi-harness weaver. She’s a retired software engineer who wishes she’d been an archaeologist.
The Golden Thread – How Fabric Changed History by Karisa St. Clair. John Murray Pub. 2018
The threads that create fabric have profoundly shaped our history. This book tells engaging tales about them.
Roughly organized around fibers – bast, linen, silk, wool and cotton – with subsequent chapters covering arctic/everest, competitive sport, space, synthetic and spider silk fabrics, I’m amazed at the amount of fascinating information she’s managed to pack into this medium size book. Factual data is footnoted – this isn’t just one woman’s opinion.
An introductory chapter presents women-centered themes with anecdotes. They include: reasons why textile work has been undervalued in recorded history; cotton created and sustained the industrial revolution; and incredibly, Sigmund Freud preached that women wove because of (seriously) a “genital deficiency”.
St. Clair then embarks on a fascinating tour of the male-dominated archaeology of early humans. Much textile evidence was discarded as irrelevant to the history of our species. What fragments remain show that the earliest weavers of bast fibers worked between 32,000 and 19,000 years ago. They wove with 8 colors including pink and blue-violet. Weirdly, the genetics of head lice have shown that we first wore cloth between 72,000 and 42,000 years ago. Indian subcontinent finds show that one pound of cotton was spun into thread 200 miles long during that time. And we call these folks “primitive”.
Then on to Egypt, linen and mummies. King Tut was swathed in 16 layers of linen, most of which were discarded by the discoverers. Other mummies had 28 pounds of linen wrappings; one had 50 meters of inscribed bandages. The author demonstrates how linen was essential to preservation of the bodies.
China and silk. I can’t begin to summarize the 5,000 year history she reviews in 40 pages. Some factoids: one thread from a cocoon is 30 microns wide, half the width of a human hair; silk fabric was used as currency for thousands of years; the Silk Road was perhaps the biggest transmitter of culture the world has known; King John of England had 185 silk shirts in 1216, all carried across the Silk Road; in classical Rome, prostitutes were the early adopters of silk fabric and noble women eventually adopted it, whereupon the philosophers condemned it as immoral and indecent, and passed laws forbidding men from wearing it; a silkworm goddess was worshiped through the 19th century in Shanghai textile factories. And that’s just the historical background.
Vikings had wool. Lots and lots of wool. It took around 200 kilos (440 lbs.) of wool and the equivalent of 10 years labor to outfit one Viking ship. One sheep yielded 500 grams of wool suitable for sails, so roughly 400 sheep equaled one ship’s fitting out. Some historians think that a major reason for the Vikings’ raids on England was that England had even more sheep.
Thanks to all those sheep, England became the wool fabric producer of the western world. Their craftspeople became extremely skilled in breeding white and high quality fleece animals, which led to a thriving export business. The fabric was made using warp-weighted and later harness looms in cottages – as we know, a slow process. As cotton became available, imported from the colonies, the flying shuttle and then the spinning jenny were invented and the industrial revolution began.
The chapter on cotton focuses initially on its effect on slavery. St. Clair delves deeply into the uses of fabric in the control and rebellion of slaves over the history of the US south. Using advertisements which searched for escaped slaves in contemporary newspapers, she analyzes the clothing that they wore and took with them. The results are fascinating.
Remaining chapters deal with a kaleidoscope of fabrics. She discusses the fur and skins that polar, antarctic and Everest expeditions wore (and froze in) along with cyclical fashions in underwear fabrics – wool/synthetics/wool. Rayon and its lethal carbon disulphide problem show up along with nylon and the frenzy to get “nylons” (remember those horrible things?). Space suit fabrics, heated controversies about innovative swimsuits, sports bras (duct tape was featured) and spider silk end the book. A really fascinating read.
Reviewed by Pat Zimmerman
Have you read an interesting weaving, spinning or dyeing book that is available through the PHG library? Submit your review for the guild newsletter. Good, bad or indifferent. Include a couple of lines describing yourself.
ANWG 2023 Conference: Fiber Connections
The 2023 ANWG Conference is a GO for June 11-18, 2023 at the Riverhouse Convention Center and Hotel in Bend. Portland Handweavers Guild is weaving the name tags. If you are interested in weaving some name tags, we can provide you with the draft, pre-made warp, weft, and instructions. Please contact Sue Walsh at sugar2311@comcast.net if you’d like more info. If you’d like to know more about the conference, or wish to sign up for the regular blogs, go to https://anwgconference2023.com/ Thanks in advance!
Latest ANWG Newsletter
The Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds has posted their January 2023 newsletter. Check out the creative ways other Northwest weaving guilds are getting their members together for fiber activities. All ANWG newsletters are available here.
News from Complex Weavers
All Weavers who have joined Complex Weavers should have the latest CW Journal by now. There will be a Complex Weavers meeting at the Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds meeting in June of 2023 at Bend Oregon.
Thank you – Ladella Williams. Contact me if you have any questions or concerns (LadellawilliamsCZZ@gmail.com, text 503 729 1704m or write 16539 S.E. River Rd, Portland Oregon 97267-4504)
Bulletin Board
Cultural Workshop Series: Seasonal Textiles with Judilee Fitzhugh
Portland Japanese Garden is partnering with textile artisan, Judilee Fitzhugh, to provide workshops that will have its participants make charming pieces ranging from rabbit bags in honor of the Year of the Rabbit to leaf-printed notebooks. Each workshop will run from 9:30am-4:00pm, which includes 6 hours of instruction and a 30-minute lunch break. Participation is limited to 20 students. Workshops are open to students of all levels of sewing abilities. All tools and materials are included in the workshop fee. Coffee, tea, water, and light snacks will be served. For more details on each session, please see here.
Cabin Fever Virtual Workshops
Registration for the Montana Association of Weavers and Spinners Cabin Fever Virtual workshops is open. They are offering Dorset Buttons by Pat Olski, 18th Century Knitted Latrine Hat by Barbara Landry & Dr. Annamarie Hatcher, Paper Weaving MAWS member Play Date led by Barb French, Fan Reeds to Create Ondulé Textiles by Norma Smayda Staley, and Introduction to Supplementary Warp Weaving by Deb Essen.
Looking to Buy or Sell Weaving Equipment or Materials?
Check out the Items for Sale page.
Fiber News and Events
Handweavers Guild of America
Textiles & Tea
Tuesdays
The Handweavers Guild of America, Inc.’s (HGA) exciting new program, Textiles & Tea, takes place every Tuesday at 4 PM (ET). We’ve invited some of the most respected fiber artists in the field today to join us for an hour long conversation where we will discuss their artwork and their creative journey. Make a cup of your favorite tea and join us as we talk about fiber, creativity, inspiration, process and so much more.
The Weaving Guilds of Oregon (WeGO) committee is delighted to announce that the traveling show will take place beginning in January of 2023. This show travels around the state of Oregon showcasing the fiber arts in our communities. The Title of the show is “Filaments.”
Weaving Data Winter Exhibition
January 24 – April 29, 2023
Portland, OR
More info: https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/weaving-data/weaving-data
Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat
February 16-19, 2023
Tacoma, WA
More info: RedAlderFiberArts.com
RAGS Wearable Art Sale and Show
March 9-12, 2023
Artist applications for the 2023 RAGS wearable art sale & show are due by December 1, 2022. For more information go to https://www.ywcapiercecounty.org/wearable-art-sale
Fiber in the Forest
May 19-21, 2023
Myrtle Point, OR
More info: Fiber in the Forest
Fiber Fusion Northwest
June 3-4, 2023
Monroe, Washington
More info: fiberfusion.net. They are also recruiting instructors (deadline February 15, contact class@fiberfusion.net for more info)
ANWG Conference – Fiber Connections
June 11-18, 2023
Riverhouse Convention Center, Bend, OR
Click the link below to read all the news for the ANWG Conference 2023.
anwgconference2023.com
Black Sheep Gathering
June 23-25, 2023
Albany, OR
More info: blacksheepgathering.org
Intermountain Weavers Conference
July 27-30, 2023
Logan, Utah
More info: intermountainweavers.org
Conference of Northern California Handweavers
August 3-6, 2023
San Luis Obispo, CA
CNCH 2023 will be located on the campus of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Attendees will enjoy apartment-style lodging on the campus and 16 retreat-style classes in subjects including weaving, spinning, dyeing, felting, kumihimo, sprang – and more.
Registration opens on April 29, 2023, and students are urged to register early because classes are expected to fill up quickly. More info: https://www.cnch.org/
Rental Equipment
PHG has equipment available for rent to current PHG Members. Click here for more info.
PHG Board and Chairs
Please click here for a list of PHG Board Members and Committee Chairs.
Your purchases can benefit PHG! Click on one of these links before buying and PHG will earn a commission from your purchase.
Connect with the handweaving world through Handwoven. Every issue is packed with projects, instruction, and inspiration to help you build technical skills and design confidence.
The Woolery is the place for weaving, spinning, felting, dyeing, rug hooking and knitting. Established in 1981, our extensive inventory of products, excellent customer service and in-house fiber arts experience make us the ideal source for all your fiber arts needs. We have one of the largest selections of weaving loom and spinning wheel floor models for you to test drive. Your Fiber Journey Starts Here!”
