Threadbenders Guild of Union and Baker Counties in Eastern Oregon wish to thank WeGO for the $200 educational grant we were awarded.
The funds were used as part of the payment for the instructor for a Beginning Weaving Workshop held October 12-13-14 at the Baker County Library, which generously provided the use of their meeting room and video setup free of charge.
We had ten participants, the maximum for the class. A few were brand new weavers, others had woven 20 – 30 years ago, but wanted a refresher before getting started again, and a few were active weavers who were self-taught and now wished to find out how an expert approaches things.
The instructor was Vila Cox from Boise – http://warpedandwonderful.com – who had a great program prepared and was quite open to questions, so the class became interactive. After introduction to the subject, Vila started by demonstrating the use of a warping board, then handed out pre-wound warps, so too much class time was not used on that part. The rest of the time alternated between discussion of the next step in warping and then doing it: figuring set; how to slay various sizes of reeds; reading a draft and threading heddles accordingly; tying and winding on to the back beam; tying on to the front and spreading the warp with a header – then finding and fixing errors, almost the most important part, the comment empowerment was heard! Sunday was used to start weaving a twill gamp that could be finished at home.
The workshop was fun with lots of learning and cooperation. Everybody was tired, but had very positive comments when packing up to leave Sunday afternoon.
All in all a great success leading to an enriched guild.
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