Send your news items to Tim Prins by the 25th of the month for inclusion in the next month’s newsletter.
Guild Calendar
Thursday, March 14, 2023 – February Meeting
Multnomah Arts Center + Zoom, 7688 SW Capitol Hwy. (503) 823-2787
10:00 am Day Meeting – Auditorium
9:30 am – 10:00 am: Set up, social time and library browsing time
10:00 am – 12:00: Meeting
7:00 pm Evening Meeting – Room 30 in Senior Center
6:30 pm – 7:00 pm: set up, social and library browsing time
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Meeting
Thursday, March 28, 2023 – Board Meeting
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Zoom
President’s Message
Just back from the guild retreat. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if you get the chance to go to a retreat you should go. It’s a wonderful way to get to know fellow fiber folks a little better, and it’s a nice chunk of uninterrupted time to work on projects, something that many of us have a hard time finding. I myself was able to weave 2 sets of shoe laces and 2 different scarves. Others were busy carding, spinning, and weaving, and I even saw someone crocheting, too. The camp is pretty, and more than one person noted how nice it is to not worry about cooking or cleaning for a couple days. Really, if you have a chance I hope you’ll join us next year. Diane is working on dates, and we’ll put it in the calendar when we get them.
The other thing we’ll be adding to the calendar soon is the upcoming study group meetings. I’ve already entered the next 2 meeting for the band weaving study group, and we’ll get schedules from the other groups posted as well. Soon you’ll be able to find them all on the website in the guild calendar.
Also new to the calendar is something we’re going to try starting in April. Denise Wild noted at the board meeting last week that there are lots of intermediate level weavers who have questions from time to time and need someone to ask for help and advice. Guild meetings are good for that, but we don’t always leave time for that at our regular meetings, so starting in April we’ll add a new meeting to the schedule. For April and May we’ll meet on the third Thursday of the month at 10:00 via Zoom for a Problem Solving Group meeting. Come with your questions, your problems, your conundrums, and we’ll leverage all the experience of the guild to help you find an answer. If the first couple sessions go well we’ll make it a regular session throughout the year.
Well, that’s all for now. As always, I hope to see you at a meeting soon.
Dan
Upcoming Programs
March 14: From Baskets to Sculptures – Dorothy McGuinness
Dorothy McGuinness will discuss her basket making journey of learning all she could about basket making techniques and materials. She will talk about her switch to paper as a weaving medium and her utilization of the diagonal twill technique to transform her work into sculptural forms.
Special Program in June
Giovanna Imperia’s program, “Weaving with Metallic Yarns” has been rescheduled to Thursday, June 13, 2024 at 10 am. It will only be the presentation via Zoom, no in-person gathering. The Annual Members’ meeting and Strawberry Social will be in the evening as usual. Please see the website for more details.
Upcoming Workshops
We have two workshop registrations up both taught by Portland Handweavers Guild members.
April 12-14 will be Zapotec Rug Weaving, presented by Francisco Bautista. His work can be viewed here.
May 10-12 will be Beginning Tapestry Weaving, presented by Amy Belgan. As of today, we need 4 more registrations for the workshop to be a go. The materials fee for the workshop includes a copper tapestry loom, and all warp and weft threads are provided.
Future workshop is Crimp Cloth, taught by Dianne Totten, September 13-15. Registration information will be available closer to the workshop date.
Cheers,
Lynne F
Study Groups are underway!
First of off I want to thank all the organizers who have worked to form these study groups. I know it takes a lot to bring everyone together to start these learning and sharing adventures. Thank you!
So far there are five study groups: Small Looms; Band Weaving; Designing 4 the Future; HGA Certificate of Excellence; and Sewing with Hand-wovens. We are working on getting the meeting times onto the website calendar for reference and there is a tab under Education titled Study Groups that I will eventually list these groups with descriptions.
Here is a listing of the 5 groups:
- Band Weaving Study Group, Leader: Lynne Fitzsimmons
Meeting Saturday March 23, 2024, 11:00 to 1:00pm at Ruthies
Topic INKLE-TYPE Weaving - Designing 4 the Future, Leader: Sarah McCully-Posner
Meeting Monday April 1, 2024, 11:00am. location TBD
Topic: Maragret Coe’s book “Designing for the Future”
Bring a computer with Photoshop & Fiberworks - Small Looms Study Group, Leader: David Norris
First Meeting Saturday March 23, 2024, 1:00pm at Ruthies - Handweavers of America Certificate of Excellence Study Group, Leader: Michelle Lee
Second Meeting Friday March 1, 2024, 1:30-3:30pm at Ruthies - Sewing with Hand-wovens, Leader: Linda Edquist
First Meeting Saturday March 9, 2024, 1:30-3:30pm.
Location Linda’s House 13769 NE Sacramento St, Portland
If you have not signed up yet and would like to contact the group leader for additional information.
Thank you for making these study groups active again and I hope everyone finds them a great way to study and socialize with other members.
Guild News
Volunteer for Demonstrating at GOTG
Gathering of the Guilds will be held at the Oregon Convention Center, Friday through Sunday, April 19, 20, and 21. This is a chance for PHG to reach lots of folks who come to browse and shop for the art of six different Guilds from the Portland area. While demonstrating weaving out in front of the sale, we answer questions about our craft and sometimes encourage new members to come check out our Guild. Our demonstrating also helps to pull people into the sale to shop for beautiful handwovens! If you have demonstrated weaving or other fiber arts before you know how rewarding it can be. But if you have never done it, here is your chance to try it out and help our PHG’s outreach efforts.
Bring your own small loom or spinning wheel, or use the Guild’s floor loom, small table looms, or rigid heddle looms. You can sign up for a shift online by going to this link:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0948ACA929A1F85-48197521-gathering
or contact CookiMessmer@comcast.net. If you are part of the sheep to shawl group on Saturday or the Damascus Tapestry group on Sunday, no need to sign up here. We know you are coming.
Thanks for supporting our PHG outreach activities.
Volunteers Needed at DaVinci Arts Middle School
Fiber arts teacher, Neressa Bennett, will be starting weaving units during two of her classes this April. PHG has been helping her rebuild a weaving program as part of our community outreach.
Her more advanced group meets from 10:30 to 11:15 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and from 10:15 to 11:00 on Tuesday and Thursday. Those students will each be on their own 2 or 4 harness, or rigid heddle loom, weaving their projects. Volunteers are needed during that time to walk around the class, checking to see if students need help. For example, Neressa reports that students still often have issues advancing their weaving and keeping the tension tight enough. It helps her to have the extra hands of another volunteer or two to help with that instead of each student waiting on her! This class will start about April 1. Occasionally she may need help rewarping a loom.
Her beginning class meets from 8:45 to 9:35 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and from 8:45 to 9:28 on Tuesday and Thursday. These 30 beginning students will start with potholders and then move to simple frame looms. Again, with a class this large it helps to have a few extra volunteers around to help students with questions, or problems that arise. That class will be starting about April 22.
If you are interested but have questions, contact Cookimessmer@comcast.net. Or, to get on her list and let Neressa know you are coming and what day / time works for you, email Neressa. nbennett@pps.net She is happy to have volunteers whenever you can come, once a week, or whatever works out for you.
However, Portland Public Schools requires all volunteers to fill out a volunteer application and background check each year. You can call 503-916-3000 or go to the online link to fill out the required volunteer application:
Thanks for encouraging our next generation of weavers!!!
Gathering of the Guilds – Guild Booth
April 19-21, 2024 at Oregon Convention Center
There are openings for members to participate in the shared guild booth! This is a great opportunity if you’ve ever been curious about selling or participating in a sale.
A few key points:
- Cost is limited to 25% of sales.
- A small commitment of time to the guild booth (set up, sales and take down) as we’ll as a few hours to the greater Gathering of the Guilds operations is required.
- Absolute deadline is March 8th in order to secure your space!
- At this point we will be limiting the amount of items per artist that will be displayed (apps 10) at any time. Your stock may be replenished as you sell items if you choose.
- There is no minimum of items needed. Don’t hesitate if you only have 8 items.
- It is so much fun!
Additional details and application available here.
Please feel free to reach out with questions or concerns to Denise.wild@me.com or noragessert@yahoo.com
PHG Retreat Wrap Up
(Photos by Margaret Marcusen)
What a fabulous Spring Retreat 2024 we had — right up there near, if not at, the top. The people mix, the projects, and the number of floor looms – 6! – plus a table loom and all the many tapestry looms and spinning wheels — well, it was pretty much beyond words.
The constant hum of verbal interaction among the participants was music to the ears. Soooo much sharing and laughter, along with a few ‘Darn its’ and ‘Oh, shoots’ made for a delightful background noise to work by.
We had an amazing number of projects that were either initiated as well as completed! There were gorgeous dish towels woven by two people, a couple of incredible scarf projects done by a couple of folks, two interesting shawls with cross woven backs completed, and an amazing amount of tapestry weaving produced. Add to that, there was a sock knitting workstation in action, hand embroidery being done, wool carding on a drum carder, hand spinning for pleasure and competition, nuno felt hats sewn, and lots of tablet and inkle loom weaving in progress. Quite a few of the projects are destined to be sold in the Gathering of the Guilds sale in April.
We have an incredibly talented and interesting group of folks in the Portland Handweavers Guild. It’s hard to believe that this wide range of fiber techniques and products was worked on and often successfully completed by the 25 participants!
Another fun thing happened on Friday afternoon. The Director of the camp facility brought her After School Activities group of middle school kids to visit us while we worked away at our fiber arts. We got to talk with small groups of them as they toured the room. We introduced them to the amazing world of fiber arts. It was a nice way to share and promote PHG’s Mission in a very friendly setting with a young audience.
Of course, each day included our Happy Hour where everyone met in The House to mix and mingle while sharing delicious appetizers and an adult beverage if desired. We chatted about anything and everything for the hour before dinner.
Once again, Cedar Ridge Retreat in Vernonia provided us with a perfect venue, very good food, and service beyond excellent. They look forward to us being there.
That’s about all that can be said about the PHG Spring Retreat 2024 because as you all know, what happens at the Retreat stays at the Retreat. Want to know more? Then become one of the ‘in crowd’ and be sure to attend PHG Spring Retreat 2025. Dates will be announced soon so please watch the Newsletter for more information.
Submitted by
Diane McKinnon, PHG Spring Retreat Coordinator
Library and Rental News
During the February program, the presenter, Giovanna Imperia, suggested six books to help you start your adventure into weaving with active yarns. The Portland Handweavers Guild has all six books in its collection! OK, I did need to order the sixth book, though it has been on my shortlist for back fill books for some time. We’ll take a short look at those six books.
Weaving Outside the Box: 12 Projects for Creating Dimensional Cloth by Denise Kovnat is the newest of the six books. As many of you recall, Denise was our first in-person speaker after the pandemic, visiting us from New York. As the title suggests, there are 12 projects, 4 of each for 4-, 8-, and 16-shaft looms. Following the instructions for each project, Denise explains how the yarns used collapse in the finishing process. If you want to dive into a project without wading into the details, this is the book for you. As the author is from the US, the suggested yarns will be the most readily available to purchase. This is the only book that is primarily a project book in the group.
Two of the books on Giovanna’s list were written by Lotte Dalgaard, a weaver from Denmark. Her first is Magical Materials to Weave: Blending Traditional & Innovative Yarns. She followed that with Thread Magic: Weaving for Shape and Texture. Both of these volumes discuss the properties of various active yarns and how the weave structure will affect the texture of your fabric. There are various projects to sample, from scarves to jackets. She includes useful tips for warping your loom and finishing your projects. As the author is from Denmark, the yarns used are designated in the European convention and you may need to find suitable alternatives. The drafts are also for sinking shed looms common in Denmark rather than the jack looms popular in the US.
English weaver and biologist Ann Richards is the author of the next two books on our list. In Weaving Textiles That Shape Themselves, Ann Richards guides the weaver in the creation of three-dimensional textiles using high-twist yarns. This book is not a recipe book and does not include any projects. The author gives in-depth information on the role that the fiber properties, yarn structure and weave structure have on the textured textiles. The information is easily accessible. Ann Richards’ second book, Weaving Structure and Substance, draws more from her earlier experience as a biologist and how she brings this into her weaving projects. This volume is more of a top-level design book. She shows how inspiration from the natural world is brought into her weaving through the interplay of yarns and weaving structures. The photos of her and other weavers’ projects are amazing.
The final book is Collapse Weave: Creating Three-Dimensional Cloth by Anne Field of New Zealand. Of the books listed, it was the first one published. As the others that followed her, Anne Fields discusses the properties of the over-twisted yarns and weave structures to create three dimensional cloth. Again this book is not a project book; there are no recipes. She does have a “project” chapter but this section describes how to use your cloth to become something more; e.g., harem pants. Unlike the previous books, Anne Fields structures expand beyond the four- (or six-) shaft drafts up to sixteen-shafts. Many of the pictures are in black and white but show more of the smaller variations in how the sett and fibers can change the texture of the fabric.
All of these books are well worth your time if you are interested in creating textured cloth. The first three touch upon the elasticized yarns that were discussed during the February program. For pure inspiration, the photos of textile art and clothing in the Lotte Dalgaard and Ann Richards books are exquisite.
Latest ANWG Newsletter
The Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds has posted their January 2024 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
The latest Complex Weavers Journal has a super article of photography by Barbara Walker in it plus other interesting articles. Only members of Complex Weavers are writers of articles in the Journal.
If you wish to join Complex Weavers you can ask Ladella Williams how to join Complex Weavers. Incidentally I have more news for PORTLAND Handweavers Guild to share with you! LadellawilliamsCZZ@gmail.com Or see me at the guild meeting. Ladella Williams.
Bulletin Board
Ruthie’s Open House
Ruthie’s Weaving Studio would like to invite you ALL to our Open House and Sale this Saturday, March 2 from 12-4. See website for directions and more information on the open house.
We are settled into our new location after a process that started almost a year ago. And we’d like to thank everyone who helped make it possible!
Fiber Arts Workshops at the Art & Soul Mixed Media Retreat
Four daylong fiber arts workshops will be offered by Vicki Assegued at the Art & Soul Mixed Media Retreat in Portland. Workshops are:
Dimensional Fabric Fusion 4/15
Weaving on the Wild Side 4/16
Mixed Media Weaving on a Simple Loom 4/17
Fabric Wrapped Coil Baskets & Wall Hangings 4/18
Looking to Buy or Sell Weaving Equipment or Materials?
Check out the Items for Sale page.
Fiber News and Events
Celebration Of Creativity Fine Art Exhibition and Sale
February 29-March 3, 2024
Southminster Presbyterian Church,12250 SW Denney Road, Beaverton, OR 97008
Several Portland Handweavers Guild members are exhibiting at the Celebration Of Creativity Fine Art Exhibition and Sale, including Peg Silloway, Wynter Rayne, Jackie Kraybill, Linda Gettmann, and Margaret Zeps.
More information at https://celebrationofcreativity.org/
Abernethy Spring Fiber Sale
March 16, 2024. 10am to 4pm
Abernethy Grange 15745 South Harley Ave, Oregon City, OR 97045
Presented by NwSFA Area 6030. We emphasize locally produced fibers and handmade products. Raw fleece; dyed and blended fibers; yarns, roving, batts; handmade fiber art tools and equipment
For more information: www.abernethyspringfibersale.com
Whidbey Weavers Guild Annual Spin-In
April 6-7, 2024
Oak Harbor, WA
For more information, go to whidbeyweaversguild.org
Conference of Northern California Handweavers
April 25 – 28, 2024
Rohnert Park, California
More info: https://www.cnch.org/conferences/
Fiber in the Forest
May 17-19 2024
Camp Myrtlewood, OR
More info: www.eugenetextilecenter.com/fiber-in-the-forest
Fiber Fusion
June 1-2, 2024
Monroe, WA
More info: www.fiberfusion.net/
Black Sheep Gathering
June 28-30, 2024
Linn County Events Center in Albany, OR
More info: blacksheepgathering.org
Convergence
July 11-17, 2024
Wichita, Kansas
More info: https://weavespindye.org/convergence/
ANWG 2025 Conference
June 16-21, 2025
Yakima, Washington
More info: https://anwgconference.org/
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.
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.
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