World History of Textile Arts was an ambitious project and I don't regret organizing it.
Here is my overly enthusiastic class follow-up letter from September. I lost my momentum and never sent another one. I need to be more attentive. I love this photo- the studio was a blank canvas in September and full of possibilities.
Hello My Friends,
I cannot tell you how much fun it was to share my weird and wonderful avocation with you all today. Thank you for helping me to break in the new space. Hopefully, by October 17th, there will be more amenities, including working plumbing!
Here is a list of some of the resources we discussed today. Feel free to reply-all with the books, movies, articles, etc that you shared with the group while we were all together.
Women’s Work, the First 20,000 Years
by Elizabeth Wayland Barber, 1994
Prehistoric Textiles, same author ever more information
There are a gazillion fiber arts books, but the grandmother of them all is
The Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Book by Rachael Brown.
The Woolery: https://woolery.com
The Sears and Roebuck of Spinning and Weaving supplies- feel free to check with me about specific articles that are for sale before you buy.
If you would like to go down a spinning-tool-rabbit-hole, check out Dancing Goats
https://sites.google.com/site/thedancinggoats/
Links on his webpage to Instagram videos for great review of techniques, and also a link to his Etsy page. His prices are very fair, but we can band together and buy class sets of the things we “need.”
Local source for great fibers to play with:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ConservingThreads?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1011546584
also- check out The Four-Eyed Ewe on Etsy.
We will be spinning her Nettle and Hemp roving (commercially prepared fibers) next month.
I know only once a month seems slow paced, but that gives us time to practice and share our successes next time.
My favorite FB pages:
These may require an invite from a member- let me know if you are interested, I can get you in.
Textile History (I am the admin) it is really boring, no drama just folks posting links to articles about archaeology and artist's renderings of knitters and weavers.
The Evangelical Church of Distaff Spinning. Chock full of information, images and fun conversations. You do not need to own a distaff to join.
Berta’s Flax - this is the place where I learned about the Austrian Flax Stricks which had been stored away for almost 100 years in wooden hope chests. We will be spinning these from distaff in January.
Fiber Equipment: Great Wheels, Winders, Walking Wheels, and Spindle Wheels- loaded with images of old wheels and long sagas of the labor to rest them… very nerdy.
Ravelry is great for knitters but also useful to spinners…
I will be offering single topic workshops soon- check the O&C webpage for updates, and stay in touch!
