February 2018
February 2018
Diablo Weavers Guild meets in Walnut Creek, usually on the third or fourth Friday of the month from September through June, 10:00 am until noon or a little later. We do not meet in July and August.
New members and guests are welcome.
In September, December and June we meet at a member's home. Other meetings are usually held at the Thurman Casey Library in Walnut Creek (Ygnacio Valley Library).
Thurman G. Casey Library
2661 Oak Grove Rd.
Walnut Creek CA 94598
See the side bar on the left or the link below for meeting dates and topics. Active planning is underway, but additional suggestions are welcome.
Library location details and a map:
Membership:
Dues for the 2017-18 year, September - June, are $30 per person; $40 per family. If joining half way through the year, dues are $15.
February 16, 2018
Our next meeting will be February 16, the third Friday of the month, at the library at 10:00 am. The program will be on deflected doubleweave, with a video by Madelyn van der Hoogt.
Deflected Doubleweave
Last year, our own Margie K. showed the work she was doing with deflected doubleweave in her SF City College course. Her enthusiasm was infectious and we hoped to have her instructor do a presentation, but timing was not optimal, since the teacher lives in Fort Bragg and comes to the City on Monday to teach Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning!
We will be exploring this interesting structure with Madelyn van der Hoogt, via today's wonderful digital technology. The video is most informative and an accompanying workbook has the details in writing for future study. Though it may be familiar to many of our weavers, it is a versatile structure that lends itself to experimentation and surprising and beautiful results.
Join us for a tour through the possibilities of deflected doubleweave with Madelyn.
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Snack for the meeting: Carol G.
Huston Textiles
Robin Lynde shared with Joan an interesting article about a local textile mill based in Sacramento and part of Fibershed. This is the mill that produces the cloth she talked about at our January meeting.
See the link below for an article about the only selvage fabric made in the U.S.
Interesting Links about natural dyes
Harvesting and processing cochineal in the Canary Islands:
We were contacted by Lorenzo Perez, a cochineal farmer in the Canary Islands and a contributor to the Turkey Red Journal, a newsletter dedicated to education and use of natural dyes.
My name is Lorenzo Perez, I'm cochineal farmer from Canary Islands dedicated to produce high grade cochineal.
Would love to share to your Guild Association a report on the Turkeyredjournal about our natural dye.
http://turkeyredjournal.com/perez.html
If you are interested in this natural dye and need more information please don't hesitate to contact back.
Thank you very much !
Best regards
Lorenzo Pérez
lorenzo.cochinilla@gmail.com
Updates about Asian textile studies:
We have just uploaded a new webpage on Lau Wuti Kau – sarongs from the island of Sumba that are decorated with shells. This page covers the history and distribution of shellwork throughout the area, as well as how they were used and the fascinating motifs produced in this way.
Following our time on Kisar towards the end of last year we have also uploaded another page on Kisar textiles. There really are very few weavers left on Kisar and we have attempted to document their processes before weaving finally dies out here.
We’ve been experimenting with adding video and have finally cracked it. There is now a short video on the Lau Wuti Kau page showing how the shells are prepared for use, as well as another on Kisar Textiles 3 showing them drop-spinning using a basket.
See http://www.asiantextilestudies.com/lwk.html for the Lau Wuti Kau and http://www.asiantextilestudies.com/kisartex-03.html for the current state of ikat production on Kisar.
By the way there are still a few spaces remaining on our Textile Tour this May and we have now agreed to lead another for SeaTrek in Spring 2019. See http://www.asiantextilestudies.com/tour.html
Best wishes,
David and Sue Richardson
Travel Opportunity
Aiko will be in Japan for another show this spring, so is not leading a spring tour to Guatemala. However, she is helping her daughter, Mari, with the tour below. Mari is the founder of Kakaw Designs.
online:
Our first textile tour in Guatemala, August 2018. A new way to support our artisan partners through creative idea exchange. Let's have some fun together!
Who are the leaders?
Well, that's a fun team! It will be me and my mother, two generations; like mother, like daughter. My mom, Aiko Kobayashi, is a career textile artist and the reason why I have grown to love Guatemala so much (oh yeah, and also the reason why I was born in Guatemala to begin with!). Her passion for all things textiles, her knowledge of rural Guatemala and Maya traditions, plus her personal friendships all over the country makes her an excellent leader of textile tours, which she's been doing for over 20 years now. But she's been wanting to change things up, and I had this idea of creating an idea-exchange opportunity.... so we've teamed up to offer you this unique experience!
I'll be arranging all of the workshops, coordinating everything with our Kakaw Designs partner artisans. My mother will be bringing her experience leading international groups in Guatemala, her passion for rural travel, and most of all, her friendly relationship connections all over - people are sincerely happy to see her, every time. After so many years, she's built strong relationships with people in rural communities, and it's a treat to be invited into people's homes, to share family updates, and bring back pictures for locals from the previous trip. It's a nice personal touch that only she can provide.
I hope this answers a bit about the leaders of the trip. Please let me know if you have any questions! We're taking reservations for August trips, starting at only $1800. Let me know to save a spot for you.
See the itineraries
XOXO,
Mari
Mari Gray
Founder, Kakaw Designs
502-5328-3576 | mari@kakawdesigns.com | kakawdesigns.com | Skype: mari-gray | Antigua, Guatemala
Local Events
International Terminal of the San Francisco Airport Museum
An update from Charlene Woodcock, who spoke to our guild about this Mayan weaving cooperative:
If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to see the Jolom Mayaetik exhibition at the International Terminal of San Francisco airport, we will have a reception there on March 10, with one or possibly two weavers here from Chiapas, an informal talk, a weaving demonstration, and a book signing. Weaving Chiapas: Maya Women’s Lives in a Changing World will be out at the end of January.
The display fills two long glass cases facing the tapestry shown here and it will be up until April 8. The adjacent SFMOMA bookstore will have copies of the book of oral histories of the weavers in February.
As we plan for this event, it will be very helpful to know how many of you can come. It’s very easy to come via BART—just take the SFO line to the airport; it comes directly to the International Terminal. I’d be grateful if you would reply to this to say if you can come, are not yet sure, or cannot come.
Thanks very much.