At Easter I went to a design and craft fair at the Witham Arts Centre in Barnard Castle. It was full of quite delightful stuff, most of it excellent quality, innovative and unique in design, but the best bit was I met Becky Sunter, a weaver who runs classes on weaving in Darlington. I was soooo excited!
I was soon to learn that that Becky and her colleague Jane run a small (actually its quite big) studio called the Weaving Rooms in Darlo and they run classes which seem to cover every aspect of loom weaving and tapestry weaving - I signed up straight away for a table top loom weaving course.
Today was my first class. it took me ages to find the place, its really well tucked away in the back streets of an area of Darlington I am not familiar with - ha ha like I know anywhere in Darlo!!! It was worth finding! Set up over two floors its full of looms for all sorts of weaving. The walls are covered with various weavings, patchwork pieces, shelves with masses of different yarns - its colourful and inspirational!
I have wanted to learn how to use a proper loom for a very long time, I was hoping it might fall under the 'constructed' part of my degree course but they only did frame weaving and not much of that. I did some frame weaving years ago at the Swarthmore Centre in Leeds and loved it but found family, work and general life gave me little space to progress with it. Now I have found that opportunity!
Becky had set up a loom for me. She had put the warp on it and she patiently explained the very basic principles of how the loom worked, once shown its really almost simple, very clever and as long as I was able to concentrate it was easy enough to work out... I cant imagine threading the thing up though!! I picked two complementary colours that contrasted with the warp thread so I could see how it worked and set to the task. I'm hoping it will become like knitting - easier and almost intuitive although it feels a long way from that at the moment!
I was given some simple patterns to practice with and shown how to keep the piece wound tight and I surprised myself at how quickly my weaving grew. The morning flew by, the class isn't big and as is always the case in a group seeing everyones work is always really interesting, I love how different people see different aspects, in colour, design, application. I can see the potential and possibilities are endless once I get the hang of the basic principles. I cant wait to get back next week!! I was pleased with my first attempt at using the loom and following the patterns and now I'm going to explore the internet for inspiration and ideas how to develop this new skill.
I was soon to learn that that Becky and her colleague Jane run a small (actually its quite big) studio called the Weaving Rooms in Darlo and they run classes which seem to cover every aspect of loom weaving and tapestry weaving - I signed up straight away for a table top loom weaving course.
Today was my first class. it took me ages to find the place, its really well tucked away in the back streets of an area of Darlington I am not familiar with - ha ha like I know anywhere in Darlo!!! It was worth finding! Set up over two floors its full of looms for all sorts of weaving. The walls are covered with various weavings, patchwork pieces, shelves with masses of different yarns - its colourful and inspirational!
I have wanted to learn how to use a proper loom for a very long time, I was hoping it might fall under the 'constructed' part of my degree course but they only did frame weaving and not much of that. I did some frame weaving years ago at the Swarthmore Centre in Leeds and loved it but found family, work and general life gave me little space to progress with it. Now I have found that opportunity!
Becky had set up a loom for me. She had put the warp on it and she patiently explained the very basic principles of how the loom worked, once shown its really almost simple, very clever and as long as I was able to concentrate it was easy enough to work out... I cant imagine threading the thing up though!! I picked two complementary colours that contrasted with the warp thread so I could see how it worked and set to the task. I'm hoping it will become like knitting - easier and almost intuitive although it feels a long way from that at the moment!
I was given some simple patterns to practice with and shown how to keep the piece wound tight and I surprised myself at how quickly my weaving grew. The morning flew by, the class isn't big and as is always the case in a group seeing everyones work is always really interesting, I love how different people see different aspects, in colour, design, application. I can see the potential and possibilities are endless once I get the hang of the basic principles. I cant wait to get back next week!! I was pleased with my first attempt at using the loom and following the patterns and now I'm going to explore the internet for inspiration and ideas how to develop this new skill.
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