I had a busy open studio for April which filled with delightful people. Here below Dominique looks a bit serious because she is contending with the Rail Reed…a very interesting tool on our looms. It seems a ‘wacky’ tool but very easy to use. Dominique is an avid local Saori weaver and spent the morning threading a cashmere warp off loom, winding a linen mix warp into a ‘pre-wound’ warp, then experimenting with the rail reed.

Dominique wove the cashmere warp with a nice mix of dark cashmere to produce a very soft cloth with irregular weft tones throughout. It’s always great to see how warps work when they are woven off as it can be quite different to what you imagine.

Here below you can see the flexible dents in the reed and how we can modify the path of the warp threads.

Wobbly and curvy warp threads can be achieved by no reed, comb reed and ondule reeds too but this Rail Reed seems a very intuitive way to work.

Here Penny works some magic into the cloth with some fine Japanese paper yarn. Paper yarns from Japan are suitable for clothing and you can launder the cloth…quite different to our ideas about paper generally and what the clothing would look like after a cycle in the washing machine..yikes.

The Open Studio is for 2 hour sessions and all are welcome, especially if you have never woven before or don’t even know what it is. Autumn and Winter is the perfect time to weave in Old Bar as the weather is always beautiful. 🙂

The next studio time is Saturday 4 May. Bookings are essential, contact Kaz Madigan.

Please note: the studio will be closed 8-29 May 2019.