Photos - Tawe Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers

2010-10-22T04:09:00.000-07:00

We had a beautiful day to go, seeing the processes involved in commercial spinning and weaving

We saw the way fleece was carded and combed to become yarn, single strands of spun wool as above

Our guide was using the equipment, mostly over 100 years old, daily

The looms ranged from very large to more compact

Warping day with Norma

2010-10-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely day, Eirian proves she can get into small spaces! Barbara and Chris listen very carefully to Norma

Ann concentrates very hard on getting it right

All Wales 09

2009-10-05T06:47:00.001-07:00

Owain Glyndwr 09 - from Clare!

2009-09-30T06:26:00.001-07:00

Winner of the Chairman's Challenge

2009-09-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

Voted for by the visitors to our Annual Exhibition Summer2009, Aberdulais.

Rainbow Waterfall by Marilyn Hilditch.

Marj's Lecturn Linen St Peter's , Norton

2009-09-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

Plying with Liz Day

2009-09-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

Christmas at Remo's

2009-09-03T12:21:00.001-07:00

Henry for those who have yet to meet him

2009-09-03T04:43:00.000-07:00

Annual Exhibition at ABERDULAIS FALLS

2009-09-03T04:37:00.000-07:00

buttons!

2009-09-03T04:18:00.001-07:00

Dye Day!

2009-09-03T03:43:00.001-07:00

Fun and Fabulous colours!

Owain Glyn d'wr 08

2009-04-09T06:08:00.000-07:00

Annual Tawe Guild Exhibition Swansea Grand 09

2009-04-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Pontedawe festival 08

2009-04-09T03:41:00.000-07:00

A few of the Tawe Guild at our opening Pontedawe festival with the Mayor of Neath Port Talbotal 2008. Thanks everyone for a great week.

Thanks Norma!!

Wonderwool Wales!

2008-04-28T11:52:00.001-07:00

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This is Celia (The Spinning Lady-click the link) from the Guild of Longdraw Spinners

This is an amazing felted outfit from the "sheepwalk"

All of these colours were natural dyes on pure wool!
in contrast to Garthnors(click for link) stand of coloured wool which were as the sheep provided!

Above is Freyalyn a small stall with bags of enthusiasm! Find her etsy here and her yahoo too.

Then there was Fire and Fibre(click to link)

And if anyone can identify the next one do let me know!

Ah Welsh willow with Glasu willows in powys

And I think these are both from Llantrisant Felters Club.

And we said hello to Joanna click to visit(Tawe Guild Member)

And there was tons and tons more! And yummy food too!

If you have more piccies send them in or have a go at posting yourself!

Silk Workshop.

2008-04-21T12:34:00.001-07:00

The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of Bombyx mori (Latin: "silkworm of the mulberry tree"), the domesticated silkmoth. see links for more info from Wiki!
More from Clare's collection of silk cocoons.

This is Italian throwsters waste silk.

And Liz also brought in some prepared silk roving to show and tell!

Here we go, look past liz's stash to see, what really got us going!

Silk caps! They are huge. The cocoons have been stripped and the silk formed into caps commercially, Liz showed how to separate the layers,
( note the clean hands, they have not returned to this state yet!)

and what it looked like spun up. LUSH.

So we had a go too.

Liz separated a single layer of capsilk and

the from the un -twisted thread, Isabel began a scarf!!
Now that's beautiful.

So here we go then, we soaked the silk, silk caps and silk yarn in warm detergenty water, to which Liz added a good "glug"of vinegar. We needed the vinegar to act as a fixative as Kemtex colours are acid dyes. Then we sprinkled the caps with dye powder, being careful not to inhale the dust!

The next stage was to press the dye through the caps, Liz reccommended a wallpaper seam roller, so that's what we used.
Then the wet caps were popped individually into plastic bags, these were not completely sealed in order that steam could escape, then the bag went into a recycled 2l icecream tub with a half inch of water in it and the whole plot was steamed in the microwave see below
for about a minuite and a half, the bag was turned, then returned for another minute and half, at high to cook, through. When the bag was removed to a safe cooling space, the silk cooled, then, was rinsed out in warm then cool water.

The result were fantastic.

This is Dorethy's Silk roving

What a way to brighten a dull day!

Then we did lunch!

Lunch mmmm... lunch, that was a fine example of a sharing lunch, thank you ladies very much.

Now back to scarf painting, Clare gave us an inspirational talk about her shibori silk scarves, then with Liz as a guide we were off.

Dorethy decided to give a previous project a new lease of life. Wow what a difference a day makes!

Clare has given a plain white scarf to a dose of animal magnatism!

The next few pictures are of work by Sarah. Inspired by shibori techniques, she made tiny daisies on a hot orange and black background. With only rubber bands and a lot of patience!

And the result. Lovely. These were just some of the beautiful silks produced. I'd like to see them all together agian, pressed and gorgeous.

I hope all the scarves made will be on show at our Summer Exhibition.

More Basket making pics.

2008-04-08T01:38:00.000-07:00

Not quite a song and dance!
Quiet now we's concentrating!
At one stage all the baskets looked very alike!
Pause for birthday cake!
Almost there!

Eirian, I will amalgamate these album style with the others, when I have time!

Back to the Monk's belt and Rosepath Day - Eirian

2008-04-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

Basket cases!

2008-03-31T06:04:00.000-07:00

Here lesley sets up the base of her planter basket. If you came here from the home page then you will have seen how well it turned out. (ie the basket with built in climbing frame)

Infact here it is a little later on.

More to follow.............having download probs from Nells photos cos my connection is slow this afternoon. I will be back later!

Indigo Blues!!

2008-02-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

Isabel and damask cotton sample, colour variation was due to the jacquard effecting how the light played on the fabric.

Organised chaos around Claire as she begins unwrapping her tie-dyed cottons. Sue cutting up more labels!!!!

Here's the finished vest-SPECTACULAR!

Isabel and Lesley over-dyed a peach coloured silk scarf to dramatic effect after two, five min.dips.

Isabel achieves a true green, acid yellow overdyed with synthetic indigo!!!! Unfortunately the indigo blue overwhelmed the yellow of the rhubarb root dyed wool leaving another blue.

While waiting their turn, Chris, Lesley, Claire and Carol worked tirelessly at sorting and labelling our sample skeins.

This is the result, and we got to take them home!

This is Lesley's skein of hand-spun wool and after the Indigo Vat,

with some of Chris's uncarded wool I think.

Isabel pulls fabric out of the Synthetic Indigo dye vat. That looks like a vest and some batik.

Isabel and Dorethy with the Before and After batik print-beige print still clearly visible.

A new laese of life!!

Carol obviously very happy with her blue poly-cotton.

This is Dorethy's handspun jute, which was promptly turned in to

this!!!

Look at how strong the blue is on her wool tyes, as for the jute I will look out for an opportunity to take a snap of it when its dry!

Finally, a tired and obviously happy Dorethy has 5mins sit, in front of Isabel's display table of samples, books and skeins used to illustrate her points during this very successful and informative workshop.

Thanks again Isabel from us all.

Rosepath and Monk'sbelt Workshop.08

2008-02-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

Sue and Trudie hard at work on their samples.

Eirian's beautiful blue, lemon and white samples.

Trudie's work at the end of the session. Clare, Eirian, Isabel -combined work showing a variety of border motifs.
Sarah's work now in the Guild Basement Studio.

My wobbly sample acheives a bit more class behind glass!!

Some views of Pontedawe Festival Exhibition 07

2007-11-16T06:06:00.000-08:00

Welsh Smallholders Camelid Stand 2005

2007-11-14T01:43:00.000-08:00

Some of the livestock from the sheep exhibitors on show at Welsh Smallholders Show 2005

2007-11-14T01:33:00.000-08:00