Fibers Through Time ~April,2010~ Phoenix, AZ

First a quick apology to my readers for such a long stretch between blogs. Last year I was given the opportunity to participate in an artist's co-op at our local mall. Needless to say I jumped at the chance! Turned out my scarves started selling as quickly as I could make them! But, I have caught up now and vow to blog on a regular basis.

Thanks for sticking with me!

On April 15-18 I was privileged to participate as an instructor at the Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds conference in Phoenix. I was teaching a 2 1/5 day "Taste of Shibori" workshop to 10 participants. They had 4 workshops that required water, so we shared a tent outside. It turned out to be a nice set up that worked well. I was very impressed with the entire conference - they were well organized and I was very comfortable teaching there.


I had 10 students in all and because we were outside everyone had their own 8' table to work on. Really made it easier to work! The way I like to structure this workshop is to give everyone an overview of the techniques, make some samples, and then let them free to explore whichever methods attracted their attention. I always find it fascinating! Here are some of the examples of what they came up with:

Lovely eye candy isn't it?

They really stuck in there even though it was a bit unseasonably warm. Every day there were some who came early and/or stayed late.

One of the things I love about shibori techniques is that no matter how long you practice, there are always new avenues to explore and surprises to discover!

It was a lovely conference - the vendor area was packed with new goodies. And yes, I gave in and brought back a few things to play with. As I try them I will tell you about it. One thing they had was a raffle. Many fiber goodies were donated to the cause and tickets were sold. They even had a Macomber loom as one of the raffle goodies. Trouble was, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't figure out how to get it in my suitcase. So, I didn't use one of my tickets for the loom but there was plenty of other fun things to try for. I didn't win anything, but my roommate (Susan Wilson) won a pile of old monographs and samples! There was a dinner on Friday at a local Cajun restaurant for the instructors and a grand banquet on Saturday. One of the traditions they have is to gift the instructors with handwoven scarves. It was a lovely undulating twill using the colors of the Phoenix sunset as their inspiration. I want to thank everyone who participated in the weaving for my lovely scarf. I will treasure it.