Past Guild Events
February 18, 2023 Guild Program
Sheila O’Hara gave a wonderful and entertaining presentation on February 18th, “Jacquard Weaving: One thread at a time”. She described her life journey as well as her weaving journey. Her talent and sense of humor helped her create many unique textile works of art that are exhibited in businesses and museums around the country. We were able to view up close some of these works of art as she explained her process and the evolution of her techniques.
She shared her travels in Egypt, analyzing ancient jacquard ribbons and her subsequent great pyramid adventure. She took us along to Italy to see how antique fabric is reproduced in workshops using the original designs and antique looms. It was an informative and inspiring lecture.
You can see more of Sheila’s work at Sheila O’Hara Weaving
Earth Day, April 24
The City of Napa, CA celebrated Earth Day on April 24th, 2022. Our guild had a booth with activities designed to engage children as well as adults. Kate McBride, Sharon Crary, Simone McManus, and Mary Ann Parker helped throughout the day. Since the theme of the day was recycling, we decided to emphasize rag rugs. We made 5”x5” cardboard looms, made from boxes laying around our homes and ready for the recycling bins, for the kids to weave on, and take home. We also had 3 guild Structo looms warped for weaving. Kate brought her spinning wheel, and a basket of fiber.
Our booth had a steady stream of visitors all day. We had several boxes of fabric strips from our own rag rug stashes available for use, so the kids had a variety of colors to choose from. We also cut up some plastic shopping ad shipping bags to use. Some of the children stayed in our booth for 20-30 minutes making their “mug rugs”, weaving the fabric strips under and over, under and over. Many took their little looms home to finish later. Older children were immediately attracted to the Structos, to try weaving on a loom. “Cool!” was a common exclamation as they raised the shafts, threw the shuttle and beat the yarn into place.
In addition to the weaving, Kate demonstrated spinning. People young and old were fascinated by the process. Kate also had small wire hooks to let the kids make yarn. She drew out the fiber while the child twisted the fiber on the wire. Then she looped the 2 ends together and let loose the hook to twirl into a 2-ply yarn. At one point, we had a line of people waiting to make their yarn. We needed more spinners to help with crowd control!
The day was a success on many levels. Our community outreach yielded interest in our guild. Several adults signed up to receive more information, and 2 are attending our next meeting. Hopefully they will enjoy our program and join our guild. Just as important, we introduced our craft to the next generation of weavers and spinners.
Black Sheep Gathering, Sheep to Shawl Competition
The Silverado Spinsters made it to Albany, Oregon, to participate in the Sheep to Shawl Competition. Cat Vandevoort, Christy Redford, Debra Taylor and Mary Ann Parker from our guild, plus Margaret Drew and Vera Rodriguez competed against 2 other teams.
We chose a clasped warp in white and black for our design. The clasp ran diagonally down the shawl. We wove several samples to figure out how to wind the warp and then dress the loom. The weaving pattern was a diamond twill. It was a challenge to keep the diamonds square and treadle correctly. It was fun to see everyone waiting to see how it would look. The weavers in the audience were especially interested what we were doing. Most had not seen a clasped warp.
The white fleece is a cross Merino/Cormo/Wensleydale and the black a Cormo/Wensleydale cross. The merino gives it a soft hand and the Wensleydale strength and luster. The shawl is very light, about 9 ounces. We spin the singles with a low twist and the plied yarn with a little more twist. After we took the shawl off the loom, we misted it with water and give it a little pounding to make the yarn bloom.
The judge, Suzie Liles from the Eugene Textile Center, was very complimentary and gave us a high score. We enjoyed talking with all the spinners and weavers afterward. So friendly and so much interest and support. Fiber people are awesome.
And in case you missed it, we won 1st place! We’re already thinking about our shawl for the Dixon Lambtown Festival in October. Please visit the Lambtown website for more information.
HGA 25th Convergence 2022, Knoxville TN
Knoxville TN was the site for Convergence this year, presented by the Handweavers Guild of America (HGA). People from all over the US arrived by plane and cars to take classes, exhibit their work, listen to seminars, take tours and generally share their love of all things fiber for a week.
Guild member Mary Ann Parker attended the conference and took classes in eco-dyeing, felting, and double weave pattern drafting. The conference offered many other classes and workshops: weaving, basketry, dyeing, spinning and seminars.
On Friday, July 15, 2022, there was a fashion show and dinner. After the show, the clothes were displayed in the exhibit hall for closer examination and appreciation. The exhibit hall also showcased items from other competitions. There was yardage, mixed media, and baskets on display.
The keynote speaker was Kathleen Curtis Wilson. Kathleen gave a talk on the Southern Appalachian tradition of weaving in Tennessee and Virginia. She has written several books on the subject and showed many pictures of beautiful coverlets. Kathleen presented a visual tour of the talent and diversity of people who settled in Southern Appalachia.
The conference included a vendor hall, a Sheep to Shawl competition, dish towel exchange, and informal presentations for all to enjoy. Attendees had a wonderful experience being able to immerse themselves in fiber related activities for the week long event.
The location of the 2024 HGA Convergence was announced at the final dinner. Convergence is going to Wichita, Kansas. Start planning now!
2022 Napa Town and Country Fair
After a 2-year hiatus because of COVID, and a bit of an uncertain start, the Silverado Hand Weavers and Spinners returned to the Napa Town and Country Fair. The fair was open to the public from Thursday, August 11 to Sunday, August 14 and held at the Napa Expo, in downtown Napa. Instead of the usual adult craft judging and display, Chardonnay Hall was turned into a Maker’s Market with artists and craft people demonstrating and selling their work.
Our new banner was displayed proudly over our booth behind the Drag Queen makeup artist and across from the Master Gardeners life size talking “man eating” plant. The location was perfect! Due to the last-minute notice, we (Mary Ann, Joyce and Karen) had little time to plan but filled the booth with hand woven towels, shawls, felted works and handspun yarn, basically whatever we could gather quickly from our members around town.
Many adults and children stopped by to watch our members spin yarn and weave cloth. All were fascinated by the process and of course the resulting products. As always, the kids loved the Structo looms and wove to their hearts content, or when mom and dad needed to move on.
It was a great success and a big thanks to the hardy group of volunteers who spun and wove and shared our love of fiber with the fair goers. In order of appearance: Joyce, Karen, Kate, Jaime, Ann, Christy, Kim, Gale, Debra and Evelyn.
Dixon Lambtown Festival 2022
Our Sheep to Shawl Team, the Silverado Spinsters, place 2nd at the Dixon Lambtown Festival on October 2. Our design was a clasped warp again, but with a herringbone design this time. We used the same black Cormo Wensleydale cross yarn we used at Black Sheep last June, and the white Wensleydale, cormo, merino cross, blended 50/50 with bombyx silk, and dyed Aztec Gold.
There were just 3 in-person teams this year, Del Oro, Meridian Jacobs, and our team. There was also a virtual competition, and the winner of that competition competed against the in-person winner. The Del Oro team was the overall winner. The judge this year was Stephenie Gaustad.
The Silverado Spinsters did win 1st place for the educational board. Congratulations to Christy for putting together an informative and comprehensive description of our shawl.
It was a fun day. We had excellent education people, Kate, Barbara, and Karen, who also doubled as the ultimate gopher. They kept the festival attendees at bay while we spun and wove without interruption. We couldn’t have done it without them.
October 15 Guild Program: Eco-printing
We had a really fun meeting this month. Our program was eco-printing, which we began as soon as our guild members arrived. We followed the instructions per the class Mary Ann took at Convergence, and the results were fantastic. Mary Ann and Karen had pre-mordanted the fabric with vinegar, alum, iron sulfite and soda ash. At the meeting, everyone did the final step of dipping the fabric in a bran bath. From there we placed our plants on the cotton fabric.
Once we designed the plants on our fabric, we rolled it up and tightly wrapped our bundles. In the breezeway outside the Laurel Room, we had several steamers ready to go, and steamed our bundles for 90 minutes. We had time for our meeting, show and tell, and snacks, before unwrapping our bundles. They all looked stunning! Everyone had a great time.
October 22, 2022 Napa Library
Our guild set up shop at the Napa County Library on October 22nd. Five guild members. Kate, Christy, Karen, Sharon, and Mary Ann, demonstrated spinning, weaving, and tapestry. It was an open house demonstration, and library patrons strolled through the community room to see what we were up to. In addition to the demonstrations, we had a variety of other looms and tools available to educate our visitors.
On a center table, we had an inkle loom, rigid heddle, and our Structo looms as well as carding paddles, a warping board, and a variety of books.
We also brought a variety of things we had woven and spun. Everyone appreciated looking at the finished work after learning about the process. Several visitors spent up to 45 minutes with us, learning about each craft. We had a fun day.