Black Sheep Handweavers Guild is an HGA and CNCH affiliated guild located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The purpose of the Black Sheep Handweavers Guild is to promote the exchange of ideas and knowledge in the textile arts, and to encourage efforts and activities in all fields of textiles.
Our guild meets monthly on the third Thursday of each month at 7PM. Click here to get to the members’ only calendar. If you are not a member but wish to join us, please leave us a note and someone from the Membership committee will reach out to you.
Some examples of projects by our Guild Members
Of interest:
Black Sheep 2023 Towel Exchange!
We are excited to announce the guidelines for our 2023 towel exchange and look forward to seeing all your beautiful contributions at our June Guild Meeting or alternatively at CNCH in August!
Guidelines for the Black Sheep towel exchange 2023:
Participation: Any member of the Black Sheep Guild can participate in the towel exchange
Due dates: we will collect all participating towels before our June 2023 meeting on June 15
Submission: You can bring your towels to the June 2023 meeting (if we are holding the meeting in person) , drop it off in South San Jose or or send it via mail
Distribution: We are planning to showcase and distribute your towels at the 2023 CNCH in San Luis Obispo. If you cannot participate, we would be happy to send your towels home with a friend or colleague.
Specifications: Towels must be woven from cotton, linen, hemp, or any combination of these fibers. Finished size is to be between 18” and 22″ inches wide, and 25” to 28″ long.
Please plan ahead to address shrinkage and pull-in. Please finish with a hem, either hand-sewn or machine-sewn.
Closer to the due date, we’ll provide you a form to fill out for each towel asking for information on you and your towels, including loom, draft, yarn info, inspiration, etc.
Hang onto your finished towels until the June 2023 meeting; we’ll collect them at the meeting, or if we’re unable to meet, we’ll tell you where to mail your towels.
When you turn in your towels, we’ll be asking you to tell us your color preference: warm colors, cool colors, neutrals or potluck. We’ll do our best to honor your preferences.
You’ll get three towels from three different Black Sheep weavers at the 2023 CNCH meeting in early August. If you are unable to attend CNCH this year,, we’ll arrange another way to get your towels to you.
Want to get back more than 3 towels? Go ahead and turn in more! Please make them in multiples of 3.
You turn in 3 towels, you get 3 towels back. We are only accepting multiples of 3 towels
Questions? Contact 2023 Towel Exchange coordinators:
Stefanie Selck (sselck [at] gmail [dot] com)
Barbie Paulsen (weaverbarbie [at] gmail [dot] com)
