Last night we enjoyed one more sunset at Lane's Cove and said goodbye to the lilacs and various cats.
Thia evening we find ourselves in Greenville, New York at the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn, home of the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops and Life by Chocolate.
Now that all the bags are unpacked, the laundry done, and the week's mail gone through, I can take a deep breath and reflect on my wonderful week at the Folk School.
My teacher, dollmaker Lesley Thornton, is a wise and gracious lady, whose art dolls are breathtakingly beautiful. She gives new meaning to the word craftsmanship. For me doll making is a side trip from weaving, but I learned so many things from Lesley that will become part of my practice. Here are a few:
1. The surgeon's knot. I'm now using it to tie new warps to the cloth beam. Very helpful! As a replacement for the first step of a square knot it is non-slip.
2. Using wool for stuffing. More maleable and controllable than polyester. Can stuff 3-D forms really hard.
3. Pattermaking for 3D forms. Sheer genius. If you ever have a chance to take a class from Shelley, go for it.
4. Designing & sewing tiny things. Paying attention.
4. Needle sculpting on fabric forms. Faces? Other bumps & protuberances? Who knows where this will lead. Book making?
Then of course there's always the the supportive environment of a week in a beautiful natural setting, with meals magically appearing three times a day.
The pace of life slows down, you focus on your work and nothing else, and if you're lucky, new paths open up.
Her body is nearly finished. The skirt is a scrap of handwoven double twill I brought from home. Tomorrow I'll work on her jacket.
The gate in the picture from couple of days ago was made by a blacksmith here at the John C. Campbell Folk School.
"Discovering Shape" is the title of the workshop I attended yesterday; it was taught by Terry Jarrard-Dimond at the Greenwood Arts Center. Terry's a good friend—I've known her for 40+ years and have enjoyed following the evolution of her work, but this is the first time I've actually been to a class with her. It was an exciting experience. The students came from diverse backgrounds (jewelry, origami, clay, weaving, bookmaking, quiltmaking) but we were all interested in pursuing Terry's topic, which was discovering shape in two dimensions. We bagan with cut paper exercises and moved on to expressing our ideas in stitched cloth. For me it was an eye-opener. A day away from the computer, getting my hands into cloth, scissors, and glue, was just what I have been longing for; it was a real incubator for new design ideas. Thank you, Terry!
This fabric, an echo weave sample on 16 shafts, is one of several that appeared in an article I wrote for Weaver's magazine, Issue 32, in 1996. The issue is long out of print, and I've decided to revise the article and release it as a standalone monograph. I have retained the essential text (slightly modified) but updated the drafts. I have also rescanned the original fabrics and presented them here at a higher resolution. I've omitted the Echo Weave Scarf project, which appeared in that issue.
The 18-page monograph is available as a pdf download for $7 USD, payable through PayPal. Simply email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net, indicating your preferred email address for PayPal, and I will send you a PayPal Request for Payment. As soon as payment is received, I'll email you a link for downloading the file. Simple! You can view the file on your computer or print it out and view it as a physical copy. You can even take the file to a copy center on a flash drive and have them print it out for you and spiral bind it, if you wish. Please respect my copyright and do not share copies with others. If your friends would like their own copy, tell them to email me.
Echo weave would make a great guild or study group topic.
For eight shafts or more.
I've had many requests to repeat last month's class, Triple Play, Repeat Patterns for Dobby Weaving Using Three Software Applications. So here it is! We'll be working with Repper, Photoshop, and a weaving application. This time we're offering the class at 10am - 12pm EST on Wednesday, December 28. Take a break from from the holiday whirlwind, sit down with your computer and a cup of tea in a quiet corner, and learn a new skill. Although it will be morning for me, on the other side of the pond it will be afternoon; but we can all still get together in the same virtual classroom. Thanks again to Weavolution for making this possible. For more information about the class, go here or click on the link in the sidebar, under New Classes.
Here's one of my Repper designs interpreted in a 40-shaft dobby sample:
If the above draft for 24 shafts intrigues you, you might be interested in an online class in Network Drafting to be offered on Weavolution on three successive Tuesdays in January. This is a repeat of the class offered this past September. The class was so popular that we are offering it again, this time at 2 p.m. EST, which will give some of you European weavers a chance to join in the fun. There are a few openings left, but the class is filling fast. For more information, look under "New Classes" on the sidebar, or go to Weavolution and click on "Classes."
Last night was the Weavolution Triple Play class: Repeat Patterns for Dobby Weaving with Repper, Photoshop, and any weaving program. Click on the above screen shot to enlarge.
This is the fourth time I've engaged in online teaching. The first three were multi-session classes on Liftplan Connection and Network Drafting, and last night's class was a one-time two-hour session. This is a good time to pause and take stock.
First of all—do I like teaching online? A definite yes.The advantages are many. From a teacher's point of view, I value not having to travel long distances, endure the indignities of TSA inspections, shlepp computers and boxes of samples, and spend travel days out of the studio when I'd rather be weaving. I love the idea of teaching a group of students who are in three or more time zones at once but all present in the same virtual classroom.
There are some negatives. The technology is not yet where it needs to be. I ask students to turn off their video in order to conserve bandwidth. Audio feedback from microphones is annoying, and I have to remind students to turn off their microphones except when they have a question. But when the students' video and mics are turned off, I have no feedback from students while I am talking. I don't see their puzzled faces when a concept is poorly explained, and I don't see the bright light of joy when they have an "aha" moment. So I'm flying blind. I trust that they will turn on the mic and ask a question when that is warranted. And they do.
Another negative is the video parallax. Video transmission lags seriously behind real time when sharing bandwidth-hungry applications like Repper. So I have to remember to speak slowly and take long pauses when I am demo-ing Repper or Photoshop, and wait for the students' screens to catch up.
But now back to the positives. Teaching an online class is an activity that can dramatically shorten the lead time for disseminating information. From the first time I heard about Repper, through the time I developed a system for using it in weaving, to the time when I wrote a course proposal and had it accepted by the good folks at Weavolution, to the time I actually presented the class online, was less than two months!!! Compare that to writing a book, or teaching at a regional or national conference, and you will agree that the time from concept to event is awesomely short.
If you have taken an online class, from Weavolution or from other providers, I would love to hear about your experiences from the student's point of view. Click on comments. It's free!
I've been busy preparing for tonight's online class on Repper, but in between sessions at the computer I was able to move the pillow project along. The long warp of twill stripes has been cut up, and the first pillow is stuffed. Here it is on the ironing board, with its two mates waiting their turn.
This work is slow, slow, slow, but I'm enjoying it.
