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- March 2025 PHG Newsletter
Send news items and fiber events to Tim Prins by the 25th of the month for inclusion in the next month’s newsletter.
Guild Calendar
Thursday, March 13, 2025 – March Meeting
Multnomah Arts Center + Zoom, 7688 SW Capitol Hwy. (503) 823-2787
All meetings are free and open to the public10:00 am Day Meeting – Auditorium
9:30 am – 10:00 am: Set up, social time and library browsing time
10:00 am – 12:00: Meeting7:00 pm Evening Meeting – Room 30 (Senior Center)
6:30 pm – 7:00 pm: set up, social and library browsing time
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm: MeetingThursday, March 20, 2025 – New Weaver Forum
10:00 am & 7:00pm – Zoom
Need help or advice on something you’re working on, or just want to help others with their projects? Come join us to get answers to your questions and talk about how to approach weaving challenges.Thursday, March 27, 2025 – Board Meeting
7:00pm – Zoom
See the website for full calendar including study group meetings.
President’s Message
Hopefully our winter woes are over, and spring is here. Frankly, until the ice storm, I was out working in my gardens, mostly ripping out old shrubs and dreaming of what to plant next. I would love to plant a dyeing garden so I can dye yarn and fabric. I took one class and think I could be an expert 😊 Flowers are my shiny object. I need to get some work done …. Oh look, Portland Nursery is having a sale, Bi-Mart has seeds…. Here’s to visions of sunshine and flowers.
Onto the business of the Guild. The Board met one Saturday to discuss updating job descriptions, many of which haven’t been touched in a decade or more. References to typing, filing, paper records…. Too funny. We also realized that maintaining our technology must be a role.
The result was to revamp the Board structure to align with the work the Board does and better serve our members. There were 12 Board members, 9 of whom were Directors. Many of the original roles were proposed based on historic need or logic at the time but no longer made sense. The Board agreed to the following structure. The items under each role are not all encompassing; rather illustrate the key responsibilities.
For me, what was gratifying about the exercise was every Director has committee chairs and/or volunteers that are doing to work. My thanks to everyone who steps up behind the scenes to keep our guild running and provide services to over 260 members.
Our second order of business was to update our mission statement. We believe this reflects who we are, what we do, and who we serve.
“The Portland Handweavers’ Guild is dedicated to promoting the artistry and culture of handweaving and related fiber arts. We support and inspire members of all levels through educational opportunities, resources, and creative sharing, and engage with the broader community through outreach and events.”
Key words that stand out to me are – Promote, Support, Inspire and Engage. If we keep those words in mind, we will never waiver in our mission.
Here’s to Spring and I hope to see everyone in March.
Nora Gessert
Upcoming Programs
March 13, 2025 Meeting – Flóra Carille-Kovács
10 AM meeting: “Central Asian Traditional Felting Styles”
Central Asia is the cradle of feltmaking. Learn how different nomad nations developed their significant styles in feltmaking
7 PM meeting: “Felted Wearable Art and Home Textiles – A Feltmaker’s Journey”
Flóra Carlile Kovács started her career creating wearable art, 20 years ago in Hungary. Changing countries, continents and culture has influenced her art, and she transitioned to creating mainly art for the wall.
About Flóra Carlile-Kovács
I find endless inspiration in nature and in the natural state of my materials. Felt, as an expressive medium, is conducive to an instinctive and spontaneous creative process.
Felting is an underestimated and underrepresented craft in the art world. My mission is to show the possibilities of applying handmade felt in interior designs, to find the audience for this craft, and to break the boundary between craft and fine art.
I’ve been teaching felt making on all levels since 2005 and leading Felt Tours to Hungary annually since 2016. I am a full-time studio artist in Seattle, WA. You can learn more about Flóra at https://www.florafelts.com/about
April 10, 2025 Meeting – Linda Kubik
10 AM meeting: “A Good Marriage Makes All the Difference!”
Couture garments always have wonderful unique fabrics; so as weavers, we already have an advantage. A successful garment depends on not only the fabric, but also on the fit, finish and construction. Another contributing consideration is your pattern. Is the pattern compatible with the fabric, your skills and your lifestyle? Please bring your pending projects, fabric, etc for evaluation and discussion. Linda will share her samples, good and bad. Problem children welcomed.
7 PM meeting: “Special Fabrics – Special Techniques”
This is an overview of construction techniques for handwoven fabric, along with some neat tools and equipment to help. Feel free to bring current or past projects for evaluation and discussion.
Upcoming Workshop
If you’d like some weaving inspiration, to learn new skills, and connect with the PHG weaving community, please join one of our future workshops. Here’s what we have coming up:
April 11-13, 2025: Sewing with Handwovens workshops with Linda Kubik
We are hosting TWO Sewing with Handwovens workshops with Linda Kubik in April. We have a one day Homemade vs. Handmade Techniques Workshop on Friday April 11, 2025 at the Mill End Store in Beaverton. And, a two day Tailoring a Handwoven Vest on Saturday and Sunday (April 12 & 13) at Ruthie’s Weaving Studio in Portland. This was our most highly requested workshop topic in this past summer’s interest survey, so we are happy to be able to host these workshops. There are plenty of spots available. If you are planning to take this workshop, please sign up soon. Registrations are open to anyone. If you have friends who are not PHG members and may be interested in these workshops, please share this registration information with them.
September 12-14, 2025: Indigo and Shibori, an Exploration of Resist Techniques with Judilee Fitzhugh
PHG’s own Judilee Fitzhugh will be leading this workshop exploring indigo with multiple techniques that highlight this dye’s natural beauty. This 3-day workshop will be held at Ruthie’s Weaving Studio and is open to dyers of all levels. Judilee is a fantastic instructor, come join us! For information and registration, visit: Indigo and Shibori, an Exploration of Resist Techniques
November 14 & 15, 2025: Color and Design in Huck Lace Towels with Rosalie Neilson
This workshop is led by another PHG member, Rosalie Neilson! Explore Huck Lace while weaving a multi-colored towel in three sections. Discussions and design sessions will focus on converting a profile draft into a threading and treadling plan, and how literally thousands of designs can be created with a single threading by changing the tie-up. This 2-day workshop will be held at the MAC and is appropriate for advanced beginning to advanced multi-shaft weavers. Rosalie is well known as an excellent teacher. Please join us, just in time for some holiday and winter weaving! For information and registration, visit: Color and Design in Huck Lace Towels
Happy weaving and learning!
Any question should be directed to workshops@portlandhandweaversguild.org.
Guild News
Gathering of the Guilds Demonstrations
As always, we are hoping to have lots of participation in our demonstrations for Gathering of the Guilds this year, at the Oregon Convention Center the last week in April. Mark your calendar now and be ready to sign up for a slot showing the public how looms work, and answering their questions about our Guild and the resources we offer. The dates are:
Friday, April 25, 10 to 7
Saturday, April 26, 10 to 6
Sunday, April 27, 10 to 4You can bring your own small loom or spinning wheel, or use the ones we have set up. The sign ups will be a little different this year as we will no longer be using Sign Up Genius. Instead we will use the volunteer section on the PHG website. So watch for the directions to sign up at the beginning of April, or email CookiMessmer@comcast.net
ANWG guild booth
Several PHG members are designing, weaving, or have completed projects inspired by Portland buildings, neighborhoods, nature, and history for our guild’s display booth at the ANWG conference in Yakima in June. If you’re working on something for the booth, please let me know, and share it with everyone at an upcoming guild meeting.
Projects I’ve heard about range from detailed tapestries to dish towels inspired by buildings, and are woven on equipment from rigid heddle looms and inkle looms to multi-shaft computer dobby looms and drawlooms. Fiber techniques other than weaving are welcome!
The booth committee is PHG’s Education Director Linda Edquist, Eva Douthit, Phoebe McAfee, and me. We would love to hear your ideas! Some of us will be at the PHG retreat, and you can also talk to us before and after guild meetings or wherever you happen to find us.
You do not need to attend the conference to participate in PHG’s booth. We’ll collect all items ahead of time and return them afterwards.
Janis Johnson
Lend a hand. Sign up Now to Help.
The new website allows us to have folks sign up to help with various tasks and functions. In addition to seeing what you’ve signed up for and who else will be helping too, it provides the guild a way to collect volunteer time and stats for future grant applications. For our regular meetings, we need help setting up the A/V system as well as help with bringing snacks and setting up the tea, tables, and chairs. You can sign up now for the rest of this year’s meetings at https://portlandhandweaversguild.org/volunteer-new/.
New Evening Edition of the New Weaver Forum
To make sure we’re not missing new weavers who aren’t available for our daytime meeting we’re going to try an evening edition as well. So, if you’re a newer weaver and can’t make it during the day I hope you’ll consider joining us for an evening discussion instead! Check the PHG Calendar for details.
Latest ANWG Newsletter
The Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds has posted their January 2025 newsletter. Check out the creative ways other Northwest weaving guilds are getting their members together for fiber activities. All ANWG newsletters are available here.
Library News
Our latest assignment for the COE study group (which could also be called “Explorations in Weaving”), is weft-faced flat weaves. One sample is “twill variations achieved by treadling variations and assorted color arrangements”; another is “bound weave based on a rotation of at least three colors maintaining an unvarying treadling sequence.” Krokbragd is a way of achieving the second sample.
Not having much experience in weft-faced weaves, I needed to consult a reference book. The one I ended up using is one that I’ve used multiple times for my study group samples, Peter Collingwood’s The Techniques of Rug Weaving. The book is a classic. It was first published in 1968, making it older than many current weavers. Our current assignments were only touching the surface of weft-faced rug techniques in this book. There is still inlay and clasped wefts to try. If you are looking for his shaft switching technique, you will need to consult his later book, Rug Weaving Techniques: Beyond the Basics.
The first time I used this book for the study group was during the summer. Our assignment then was looped pile. We needed to do at least three versions of looped pile. The book’s techniques are illustrations with line drawings rather than the photographs in more contemporary books. The line drawings are clear and easy to follow. In my mind, it was easier to follow his drawings than to try to follow the weft yarn in a picture, with fewer distractions from the path. Over the fall, we explored warp-encircling techniques: soumak, chaining, and weft twining. I had a very basic understanding of these techniques from Amy Belgan’s tapestry workshop that I took in May. The Techniques of Rug Weaving showed multiple variations with color changes, changes of directions and patterns that could be formed with these techniques. If you haven’t studied tapestry weaving or rug weaving, the variations you could execute with simple changes in color and direction were surprising. And once our samples were woven, we sampled the various finishing techniques.
The COE study group isn’t done with this book. We still need to explore knotted pile, as most of us needed a break from pile after the looped pile. When we get to the corduroy sample, this will again be the book that we reach for. Working through this book could be its own study group. There are so many variations beyond the scope of our study group. Although this book is out of print, it is available for download for free, removing the major barrier for using as a study group text. You can find it at handweaving.net or at the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics maintained by the University of Arizona. It comes in multiple files. I recommend renaming with the page numbers included in each file to make them easier to use. Of course, you can always check out The Techniques of Rug Weaving from the PHG library which has color plates of the rugs.
–Robin K
Browse the PHG library online from the comfort of your home anytime. The first tag for each book tells you in which section the item can be found.
Have you read a book or watched a DVD available in the PHG library? Please share your opinion, good, bad or indifferent, with the rest of the guild. We can publish it in a future newsletter. Email your reviews to Robin.
Bulletin Board
ANWG Movie Bites for March, 2025
Laura Devendorf is an Associate Professor with the ATLAS Institute, Department of Informational Science, University of Colorado Boulder. She and her colleagues have developed a weave design program called AdaCAD, named after famed English mathematician Ada Lovelace, generally known for her work with the early Analytical Engine, an 1837 era computer. Devendorf and the ATLAS Institute were mentioned at the February Movie Bites.
Devendorf has conducted interviews with several weavers who work in complex designing and our selection for March is Patrice George, who coincidentally is offering a program to the Seattle Weavers Guild in April.
Patrice’s talk will trace the history of digital weaving technology, from IBM’s first software patent in 1970 for Janice Lourie’s Textile Graphics System, through the adaption of digital textile technology by industrial mills, handloom, and power loom manufacturers, textile education, and artists’ explorations. The transition from slow design to advanced applications for woven textiles today will be discussed and illustrated.
Even thought you may not consider yourself an advanced weaver or in the category of ‘complex’ weaving, the explanations outlined have many applications in history and design evolution including our everyday weaving projects.
Movie Bites runs from 6:30 – 8:00 pm on March 19 to accommodate the majority of ANWG members. Meeting link: https://zoom.us/j/98733178071?pwd=uDtQpJCPIYDstZcrcWV3nKoTVjjxxT.1
46th Annual Celebration of Creativity
March 6-9, 2025
Southminster Presbyterian Church
12250 SW Denney Rd.; Beaverton, OR. 97008
www.celebrationofcreativity.orgFour of our PHG Members have been invited to participate in this high-end, Juried Art Show. They include: Laura Bautista (fiber, non-wearable); Jackie Howard Kraybill/Textile Arts NW (fiber arts); Diane McKinnon (hand weaving and nuno felting) and Denise Wild (hand woven textiles).
The Thursday, March 6th Opening Night includes live music from 7:00-9:00pm. The “Meet the Artists” reception is Friday night March 7th from 7:00-9:00 pm and also includes live music. This Fine Art Exhibit and Sale runs from Thursday night, March 6 through Sunday afternoon, March 9 (please see their website for hours of operation). All art forms are included in this event, with everything shown for sale. Proceeds retained by the Church are used to fund Art Education in Beaverton schools. So please drop by, say hello to these PHG Members – and check out all the great Art!
Kathrin Weber Demo & Trunk Show
Damascus Fiber Arts School
Tapestry Talks: For less than the price of a burger these days, you can join the Damascus Fiber Arts School for their monthly Tapestry Talks. One Saturday a month, an invited artist will give a presentation about their tapestry journey. Our Upcoming Talks will feature:
Ellen Ramsey, on the beauty of microelectronics and the use of digital tools – online Feb 22, 2025, video only Feb 23 – Apr 22, 2025
Barbara Burns, on pulled warp technique – Mar 22, 2025
Jennifer Sargent, on her tapestry journey and the unexpected directions it takes – Video only until Mar 25, 2025
Alex Friedman, on abstract to the hyper realistic tapestries – Apr 19, 2025Join us each month–it only costs $10–by signing up on our website.
Homage to Audrey Moore (1926-2020) – A catalog of select tapestries by Audrey Moore and the 27 tapestries woven to honor and celebrate her 53-year journey in fiber arts as a weaver and much beloved mentor and teacher. Audrey is best known for her colorful tapestries “The Ladies” and was the founder of Damascus Fiber Arts School. To get your copy of the catalog visit the Damascus Fiber Arts School website
Create Your own Workshop – Can’t find the exact dates or topics for your tapestry needs? Looking for a Beginning Tapestry Workshop or something else? We can help. Find a few friends, then contact us with a proposal and possible times/dates. We can organize a workshop just for you and your friends. Email inquiries to: damascusfiberartsschoolinfo@gmail.com
Looking to Buy or Sell Weaving Equipment or Materials?
Check out the Items for Sale page.
Fiber News and Events
Conference of Northern California Handweavers
April 24-27, 2025
Pacific Grove, CaliforniaMore info: https://www.cnch.org/conferences/
Fiber Fusion Northwest
June 7-8, 2025
Monroe, WashingtonMore info: https://www.fiberfusion.net/
ANWG 2025 Conference
June 16-21, 2025
Yakima, WashingtonMore info: https://anwgconference.org/
Black Sheep Gathering
June 27-29, 2025
Albany, OregonMore info: http://blacksheepgathering.org/
Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival
October 18-19, 2025
Albany, OregonMore info: https://www.oregonflockandfiberfestival.com/
Handweavers Guild of America
Textiles & Tea
TuesdaysThe 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.
Past Newsletters
For older newsletters see our Newsletter Archive