And yet again…Sturt’s total weave textile five day winter school is over. A wonderful mix of participants and an emerging Saori inspired woven textile community. This years mix had the international flavour with a couple of Kiwis.

There were several brand new weavers, and some were returnees to Sturt which was delightful. There was alot of work woven and all dramatically different. Several of the returnees had project ideas and delved into it immediately. It is all very inspiring for me to be involved around their ideas and I’ve learnt alot too. How we wished the five days could grow a couple more.

Jen wove and constructed a great dress on the bias with a cowl neckline. She wored hard because it required about 6 metres of 60cm wide cloth.

We had several garments created this year and so dedicated art pieces. One garment, a skirt by Paula, created a real problem solving headspace to make something that worked from the not enough fabric problem. Impressively, she really applied herself to the task and after several full mockups made a great garment that worked. Nina wove and stitched two garments then moved on to beautiful art work.

Daisy did extensive work with wave weaving and swarovski beads to create a lovely translucent light hanging which was magical.

Helen wove two very long pieces full of exuberance and colour. One of the pieces has been installed horizontally in her home to enhance the blended rainbow hues as they morphed into each colour.

As you can see from these photos the range and ideas in the woven textiles is quite diverse. When we start a workshop it all seems very new and ‘what to do’ but you can feel everyone moving into a real creative moment and getting their way around what they are doing…weaving, and what appeals to them to work with. I’ve always said that it is like painting with yarns on the loom but really it is much more that that because of the structure process that underpins the weaving.

There was alot of warp creations over the week too. Kenzo’s warping system just allows so much of it to be done in a workshop situation. We went through the different types of warping both back to front, and front to back. Sally created the first warp for her Saori loom set up with 4 shafts. It was a lush red wine type of shade. Her threading was a random draw in the Saori style and working with wool and silk she really bought out the yarns. She popped some bright inlays in, especially for me!

You can see Sally winding a warp under the beautiful window at Sturt. This used to be the weaver’s workshop and studio, but no more. I still feel the presence of textile artists and weavers of the past in that room.

Jann, new to weaving but an experienced knitter took to weaving immediately. She experimented with a wide range of creative techniques and used a knitters eye to capture the best in the yarns.

Sue wound a couple of warps completing one woven off and you can see the unwinding in the video. Sue had been experimenting with some very lovely natural dyes and wound a second white warp to weave them into.

Julie had a warp ready for weaving a garment and needed 6 metres woven to start. What a joy to watch it develop and then be cut off!

Above is Paula’s work after threading up the full width of the loom with a 300 thread warp. She also made bags using a backing fabric to support an open weave, which were delightful applications for our Saori cloth.