Lecture Descriptions
My Life of Weaving in the
Swedish Tradition
Becky Ashenden,
September 8, 2010
This presentation will delve into Becky’s adventurous lifelong involvement in the
rich tradition of Swedish Handweaving. An in-depth slideshow will transport
the viewers through different stages of Becky’s weaving career, ending with
the development of the Shelburne Falls weaving facility, known as
the “Väv Stuga”. Becky will present for viewing, plentiful examples of the
beautiful traditional structures and techniques for which Sweden in particular
is so well-known.
Following this pictorial presentation, there will be
time for attendees to come
see (and touch) a plentiful array of handwoven textiles close-up, as part of our
question and answer session.
Bio: In 1981, at the age of 21,
Becky went to Sweden
to study weaving. She attended a well known craft school, Sätergläntan
Hemslöjdens Gård, located 125 miles north of Stockholm. This school,
started in 1922, still teaches a wide range of traditional Swedish
crafts including weaving. "I fell in love with
weaving and found myself at home with the traditional
methods used in Sweden. I am most grateful that I
was able to learn my weaving skills in a country that
has a rich traditional heritage."
Her experience in Sweden inspired Becky to become a professional weaver.
For the
next thirteen years she earned her living in the United States as a production weaver,
selling at national juried shows such as the Crafts at the Castle in
Boston and the WBAI Crafts Show in New York. In 1993
Becky shifted focus and began to teach classes out of
her weaving studio, Becky's Väv Stuga,
in Shelburne, Massachusetts. When not teaching,
Becky works on a series of publishing projects under her own imprint, Vävstuga Press, translating weaving books from Swedish to English.
How to Market an Ancient Art in Our High-Tech World
Kristin Kelley, October 13, 2010
Kristin will conduct a frank, open discussion about the challenges and opportunities facing a weaver who
wants to sell his or her work in today’s marketplace.
Weavers in the 21st Century have the incredible opportunity to sell
their work to people from around the world.
Kristin herself has sold work to people as far away as Seattle, France, the UK, Korea,
New Zealand and Australia, and as close by as Foxboro, Lowell, and home-town Chelmsford. But with this global market come unique challenges.
A weaver
wanting to take advantage of markets near and far, both online and through the show
circuit, must be willing to don many hats – business manager, customer service rep,
photographer, web guru, and book-keeper, to name a few. This talk is intended to be a
light-hearted discussion of Kristin's own adventures in the on-line – and local – retail world.
Materials fee: $2.00 for CD Rom with detailed notes and resource list
Bio: An MIT-educated, former attorney, and grand-daughter of a mill-girl
weaver from Quebec, Kristin Kelley has been weaving since 2000, and has been selling
her work since late 2006. Kristin is a member of
the HGA, Complex Weavers and the WGB. She sells her work
online through Etsy, locally through her studio at
Western Avenue Studios in Lowell, and through various
boutiques and art fairs, and deCordova Museum’s yearly Artists’ Market
by invitation. Kristin has had original
work published in Handwoven Magazine (including the Endnotes article in the
March/April 2008 issue), and teaches at various area weaving guilds (NHWG, Pioneer Valley, NEWS.) She was incredibly honored to receive the Dorothy Glowacki Celebratory Award from the Weavers'
Guild of Boston in 2009.
The Joy of Color
Sarah Saulson, November 10, 2010
This hands-on afternoon lecture encourages weavers to build their confidence
in color for weaving. The lecture portion covers basic color theory, but the
main focus is on a set of weaving exercises to open new windows on color. We
will be making color wrappings to explore color relationships. The purpose is
to make color fun rather than scary.
For more, visit
Sarah's Website
Bio: Sarah
started weaving as a child in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and
became seriously involved during the early 1980s in the
Boston area, where the Weavers Guild of Boston played an
important role in her early development as a weaver. Since then, she has pursued fiber arts as her full-time
profession for more than two decades. For many years
Sarah
sold her handwoven fashion accessories at juried craft
shows, including ACC shows and retail craft shows in the
northeast and mid-Atlantic.
Teaching in a variety of contexts has become an
important part of her weaving life: “My
students of all ages continue to energize and educate me.”
Sarah holds a degree from Wellesley College in
Anthropology, a background that keeps her interested in
ethnic textiles. She attended art school at
Syracuse University.
Sarah has lived and worked in an old brick house in Syracuse, New York since 1990,
which she shares with her husband and their cats. “My studio is the third floor of our
home, where I look out upon a glacial drumlin covered with stately, tall, old trees.”
Peter Collingwood
Celebration Day
Guild Rug Weavers Panel, February 9, 2011
We will spend this day honoring Peter Collingwood (1922
- 2008), weaver, author, the
man, his work, and his legacy in the weaving world.
Complex Weavers sent a film crew to England for a recorded
interview with Peter Collingwood. You will see this
personal interview and hear this humble man talk about starting out as a young
weaver trying to make a living, and then falling in love with the creative process. This led to the invention of his method of Shaft Switching, a well known creative method today.
The interview will be shown at 10:00 am in the morning.
After lunch there will be a panel discussion /question and answer
session with our Experienced Rug Weavers Panel, moderated by Deb Watson.
They will answer questions about weaving
technique, materials that work and don’t, and all things to do with
rug weaving.
Bring your questions! Even if you have never tried weaving a rug, come and ask
how you would start! Members are
strongly encouraged to bring in their
rugs,
successful or not, for a show and tell discussion of “what went right or wrong”
session with these experienced rug weavers. Don’t be shy, bring your questions!
This is not a critique. It is meant to share experience
and expertise.
Some of you have taken classes with Peter’s son, Jason, who teaches
rug weaving and specifically Shaft Switching. Some of you have a “Peter Collingwood Loom” produced by Harrisville Designs NH, where Jason
Collingwood teaches each summer.
We will focus this day on Peter’s rug weaving legacy. However, he has published books about other forms of weaving
- Tablet weaving, Sprang, Macrogauzes are just three of his other weaving loves. Please
come and share in this day honoring the legacy of Peter Collingwood’s life long commitment
to weaving, and his persistence in sharing his wealth of knowledge with all of us and
all the handweavers of the world.
Chromatic Fantasy: Music, Mathematics, and
Magic in Doubleweave
Jennifer Moore, March 9, 2011
For more than 25 years Jennifer Moore has been exploring relationships between weaving,
mathematics and music in her doubleweave wall pieces. In this multi-media presentation,
Jennifer will show how she has used doubleweave pick-up as a medium for her geometric designs
and color harmonies. She will explain the basic principles of the golden proportion, symmetry
movements, tessellations and fractals, and show how she has used them in her work. The
program will culminate with an animated video of her weavings dancing to the music of Bach.
Bio: Jennifer Moore received her MFA in Fibers from the University of Oregon, where her area
of specialization was exploring mathematical patterns and structures of music in doubleweave wall
hangings. She has exhibited throughout the country and overseas and received numerous awards for
her work. She has been featured in numerous publications and is the author of the recently released
The Weaver’s Studio: Doubleweave. Jennifer lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and travels throughout
the world to study weaving and teach workshops. (For
more visit
Jennifer's Website)
Shadow Weave with More Than Two Colors
Sarah Fortin, April 13, 2011
Shadow weave is a visually graphic and exciting weave structure, and also a
stable, yet fluid fabric. Sarah has used the Powell method for shadow weave
to create fabrics for fashion as well as for the home. She has explored the
many options of using a variety of colors and textures in both warp and weft. Sarah will use slides and
samples to illustrate the many possibilities for
making beautiful fabrics with one warp, several colors and a change in treadling
sequences. Many of her pieces are coordinated for use in her jackets and coats. She also creates a variety of table runners on one warp, using the shadow weave
structure with more than two colors in a warp and or weft. Sarah will have a few
shadow weave handouts for those who wish to purchase them for $4.00.
Bio: Sarah has taught weaving extensively in the Northeast and across the country.
Her work has been awarded many times at the League of NH Craftsmen’s Fair, New
England Weavers Seminar, NH Weavers’ Guild Exhibits, HGA’s Convergence and The
Blue Ridge Handweaving Show in NC. with several of her pieces receiving recognition
for excellence in craftsmanship and creativity. Current work appeared in
Convergence ’08 exhibits and other recent work has been published in Handwoven magazine. Sarah continues to explore and expand in her art with new techniques.
Her jackets, coats and scarves are created of handwoven fabric using fine
threads that include silk, angora, cashmere, wool, cotton, soy silk and tencel. Each piece is one of a kind, using coordinating fabrics to highlight the lines of
the garment. Sarah combines weave structure, color and texture to create garments
in timeless designs that may be worn and enjoyed for many years. She also weaves
wall art using 3 dimensions in double and triple weave structures to create puckers,
pleats, tucks and gathers on a ground warp. Sarah's talent as a weaver is enhanced by
her beautiful sewing skills making her one of our New England treasures.
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