Stratford-upon-Avon Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers

Reports of Recent Meetings

Mary Jeffries 90th Birthday - November 2009

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18 July 2009 - Dyeing workshop - Teresinha Roberts

19 June 2009 - Experimental Knitting - Sarah Cage

20 March 2009 - From Nettles to Cashmere - Teresinha Roberts

27 February 2009 - Members Workshop

Good turn out for the Guild last night. Zarena came. Jane Lucas and Sue both showed their spinning. Luckily Jane had just brought back the guild wheel or we wouldn't have had one there. We had peglooms, drop spindles, needle felting and Ann and Ros were doing very clever things with tablet weaving.
 
Angela
 

16 January 2009 - AGM

We appoint officers and committee to run the Guild at the AGM. If you are new to the guild, do think about joining the committee. We aim not to have meetings just for the sake of it. In 2008 we only had three committee meetings and still managed to get everything done.
 
Our AGMs are always fun and if you have anything you have made or an interesting Xmas present to do with our crafts, do bring it along to show. If you have any finished coiled baskets, it would be nice to see them.
 

NEW! Photos of the Coiled Baskets & Xmas Party - click here! 

16 December 2008 - Christmas party

Angela led a workshop making fluffy balls or pompoms. This is part of a worldwide scheme developed by Amy Larne from Northern Ireland to help towards world peace. 
The pompoms will go on to take part of the world’s biggest collection of pompoms for peace.

See photos of the party here

21 November 2008 - Tapestry & Digital Design - Jane Freear-Wyld

Tapestry, Print Weaves and Digital Design:

Jane showed us some slides of her early work from the 1970’s to show how her tapestries have developed over the decades. She then talked about the impact of digital cameras and computers had on her work. She brought some examples of her tapestry for members to touch and several sketchbooks. www.janefreear-wyld.com/ 

17 October 2008 - Coiled Baskets - Teresinha Roberts

Workshop making coiled baskets with wool:

We had a lovely time sharing out our washing lines for the core of the baskets, sorting the wool and then finding the right needle to sew with.

Some people were very quick to learn how to hold the line and to wind the wool with a threaded needle, others took much longer, but I think everyone managed to learn the basics. It was certainly a very enjoyable evening.
 

NEW! Photos from the Paper-making Day - 19 July - click here! 

19 July 2008 - Paper-making day - Teresinha Roberts

Angela Tilley and her husband Mark were our hosts and we enjoyed the use of their home and garden, as well as a generous supply of cups of tea and coffee. The day started with the sad news that our dear friend Betty Davies had passed away the previous evening.

A lot of preparatory work had been done, e.g. shredded paper had been put through a liquidiser and the remains of a previous dyeing session provided some of the colours. There were thirteen guild members present and Teresinha soon had us all enthusiastically making paper.

There were several bowls of murky looking liquid into which we dipped frames and scooped up some goo. Draining the frames only took a minute or two and then the contents were pressed between J-cloths; the end results were sheets of attractive paper. Some members had brought along petals, coloured thread and silk, all of which helped to make each sheet of paper unique.

We really do owe Teresinha a huge debt of gratitude; she not only shares her knowledge with us but also gives us encouragement and advice. After lunch Teresinha’s husband Mike arrived and took photographs of several members who were dipping frames, pressing the water out of their work or hammering cooked iris leaves which turned into a pulp and which we all used to make even more paper.

In my book, days don’t come much happier than this and I am sure that if Betty was with us in spirit she would agree.

Chris Suddick
 

NEW! Photos from the Paper-making Day - 19 July - click here! 
 

NEW! Photos from the Hatton Demonstration Days - 14 June - click here! 

15 Feb 2008 - The Magic Carpet - Melvyn Thompson
 

Melvyn Thompson from the Carpet Museum Trust in Kidderminster came to speak about oriental pile carpets. As well as an outline of the history of carpets in the Middle East, India and China and a description of the knots used, he entertained us with stories of his holidays searching for contemporary carpet makers. After many years in the weaving factories of Kidderminster he had decided to try hand-knotting a rug himself and brought it, still on the loom, for us to see and try out a knot ourselves if we wished. It is a long term project particularly as he in now very involved in setting up the new Museum in Kidderminster, working on the fund-raising and demonstrating at the temporary museum which is open in the summer. Several of us are planning a visit one Saturday.
 
To check on current opening times - www.CarpetMuseum.co.uk
 

14 Dec 2007 - Christmas Meeting

We made some very elaborate Xmas decorations, similar to Japanese temari, using folded cardboard, yarns, pins and glue. It was interesting to see how they all looked quite different, from colourful decorations using hairy thread to delicate pastel ones made with fine embroidery thread. Many thanks to Audrey for making all the templates.

Summary of 2008 meetings

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Last updated on 26 July 2009
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