Thursday July 18th will be an evening to share your inspiration. Bring examples of your favorite weave structures, hand knits, quilts, hand spun yarn, hand dyes, what ever you’ve been working on that has inspired you to create. Come share your creative process and what you find inspiring.

Mollie Freeman:

Creating Texture On The Surface Of Handwoven Fabric,

The Use Of Textile Paints And Discharge Paste For Added Design 

My work focuses on creating garments using many different surface design techniques.  Piecing, couching, twin needle stitching and bobbin work are just a few of the techniques that use the sewing machine.   Hand work is also used in many garments.

Stamping, stenciling and silk screening are all part of my design process.  I work on painted warp fabric so the added color and design of a stamp or stencil can be very subtle or quite dramatic.

I find each garment and adventure and a surprise.  A plan is only a beginning!

Our March program is being moved from the Woodside Village Church to the Sequoia Yacht Club’s meeting room. The address is 441 Seaport Ct. Redwood City, Ca.

Directions to get there are here: http://www.sequoiayc.org/node/49

Check your emails, we will be sending additional information as we get closer to our next meeting.

As one of our speaker free meetings, our February meeting will be an opportunity to share what we learned in recent workshops and in our various study groups. By the time our meeting comes around, we will have had two Black Sheep sponsored workshops.

Tien Chiu’s Exploring the Design Process workshop in January and Daryl Lancaster’s Jumpstart Vest and Finishing Techniques workshops the beginning of February.

The Friendship Coverlet group will have finished their weaving and maybe even a finished project will be shown.

I’m sure the Creative Endeavors group will have plenty to report on, as will the Spinning and Weaving study groups.

We are not keeping this to only study groups and workshops within Black Sheep. If you’ve taken a class or workshop outside of Black Sheep, please share with us what you’ve made and learned, we like to hear about other events too.

Join us for an evening of inspiration and see what your fellow weavers are creating.

One of Holly’s textile themes has been multiple layered art pieces and quilts.  Some work uses multi-fibered handwoven fabric and the dévoré technique to chemically eat away part of the textile. Because of her understanding of dyeing techniques, she combines a variety of dyes, pleating, digital imagery and the transparency of dévoré to create her textiles.

Holly Brackmann is Professor Emerita of Textiles and Art History at Mendocino College, Ukiah, CA, and author of The Surface Designer’s Handbook:  Dyeing, Printing, Painting and Creating Resists on Fabric, which won a prize for the best how-to textile book. She has had an interest in weaving since childhood. She has woven architectural scale wall hangings, as well as miniature pieces.

To learn more about Holly, visit her website at http://www.hollybrackmann.com/

Deborah Bennett is coordinating the August guild meeting. We will be having a spinning wheel show and tell. If you have an antique, unusual or notable spinning wheel, please consider bringing it to the Woodside church fellowship hall on Aug 16 for our monthly guild meeting.
Spinning wheels do not have to be in spinnable working condition, although it is more fun if they are!

If you are bringing a wheel in August, would you please send Deborah an email (degb@alumni.rice.edu)  with some information about your wheel. Information could include its age, general type, how it came to you (bought it, inherited it), whether it is in working condition, what you like to spin on it, what it spins well, etc. If it is an antique whether you know the maker or where it was made, any initials or engraving on it, etc. I would like to present a summary of the wheels at the beginning of the meeting, and perhaps group them by type in the hall.