A single bangle doesn’t jangle

A favourite proverb of mine and totally apt to apply to my workshops and my work in general. We all learn from each other but in Saori workshops I see it more as a collective energy swirling around the room as beaters place each new row of weft onto the loom. My last group was the Newcastle Spinners and Weavers. A group still carrying on the great textile traditions of Newcastle, remembering Larry and Mary Beeston and the several mills which existed there. And now Saori inspired weaving and textile creation!  A great venue housed ten weavers including complete beginners to weaving. It was a great day and I feel exceptionally privileged to have four of the weavers doing a second and even third Saori workshop with me!

Once again it’s amazing how quickly everyone just takes off weaving. Within half an hour I could see such diversity of colour approach and techniques, some immediately inventing their own ahead of me showing them such things!

I also took the four shaft Saori loom and Kathy worked some experimental clasped weft taking advantage of all four shafts. It’s a three colour process but creates four ‘shading’ possibilities in the cloth. You can see the four here in the photo. Kathy used very distinctive and contrasting colours to show the extent of the technique. Very nice.

I really want to show you all of the weaves but the light wasn’t friendly to my camera. This often happens when I’m outside my studio! There are a selection here but I know I’m missing some really lovely work too.

Next year the Newcastle guild are having an Open day on 11 April at Broadmeadow. I’m planning to be there and will have the Saori loom open to the community for hands on enjoyment. There’s also a rumour about a Saori Newcastle group!

A very warm thank you to the whole group, Carolyn S, Carol, Deya, Barbara, Kathy, Carolyn B, Robyn, Kerry, Helen  and to Jayne for organising it.