Saori and color

Denise came to the studio this week for a saori introduction class. she is an amazing painter http://deniseschryver.com/  . even with a broken finger she loved weaving on the saori loom and it did not impede  her learning. she also is a spinner and loves producing art yarns.  she put her color skills to work right away as you can see. she wants to weave on her saori loom in her art gallery, what a fantastic combination. A gallery full of paintings and art sitting there artistically weaving in the saori way. Her gallery is in Atascadero http://olivetreefinearts.com

a first time Saori weaver

I HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED!

SIMPLY KNITTING is the largest knitting magazine in the UK. I was interviewed this year and they did a full page  story of my huge knitted gnome/tomten I knitted. The article appears in the new January 2011 issue #75. It has been out in England for a few weeks but should hit our book stores this week or next. The grand children love to hug the huge tomten.
Lee my husband seat belted him in the car yesterday I drove off to teach a serger class in town and we were getting all kinds of second glances. But the people with children in the cars smiled and waved. And tomten waved backed. That was total fun!
MERRY CHRISTMAS and I hope you had a wonderful winter solstice as well.

Happy winter solstice

Happy longer days of light to come! My DH in the father christmas , or as we call him, boppa noel, costume I made him a few years ago  and a tradition now with our winter solstice family celebration. we have craft stations set up, this year clay ,hand built stoneware, was a new one, we do cut out out of paper celtic knots , soap molds of moon and stars , rubber stamping, weaving......... busy!

our 5 yr old grand daughter weaving on the piccolo saori loom

boppa noel ascending with real amish brass sleigh bells  wrapped around his waist ringing announcing his arrival.

no the beard and wig are not his, hair not grey......yet

last minute woven scarf for A holiday gift

Rick is our rural USPO letter carrier. His work ethic is amazing, for more than 20 yrs. he has gotten out of his mail carrier jeep and trekked up the 14 steps to our covered front door to leave boxes and parcels. other "fill in " carriers leave a note  and will not get out of there vehicles and THEN it is  days sometimes before we can pick up the parcel or sign for something! I usually bake from scratch for the holidays but this year no time, and Rick needed something very special  for sure, because lugging up saori loom boxes up the 14 steps is above and beyond the call of duty i think.
 I wove him a scarf in his favorite color blue. THANK you rick for doing your job perfectly,  a real model to the community for over 30 yrs! hope this keeps him warm on his winter rounds.

The holiday gift of SAORI weaving

SAORI Santa Cruz studio on the winter solstice

granddaughter teaching her "nana" 

Nora 6 yrs loved weaving 

nana caught right on  to weaving and look at her piece!she never wove before

maureen's lovely sample

pieces cut off the looms 

Three generations very happy from there fun learning to weave holiday gift

About one month ago I received a email from Maureen inquiring about scheduling A surprise weaving session with her self and daughter and her mother  for a christmas gift . Yesterday they arrived at Saori Santa Cruz studio from A lovely drive down highway 1 by way of the california coast then up through the red woods. They were wide eyed and curious about there surprise! Within minutes of arriving all were  busy weaving on there saori  looms.
 Maureen had woven a bit before, and nora her 6 yr. old daughter has been in hyperdrive weaving pot holders I was told. "Nana" maureen's mother was visiting form New Jersey for the holidays and enjoyed weaving next to Nora who would periodically get up from her loom to teach grand ma nana and give pointers! Maureen wanted to learn clasped weft and was happily weaving away learning very quickly and creating a beautiful piece. All enjoyed weaving as the laughter and cookies and hot cider and shuttles flew. The 3 generations weaving was such a special adventure , I enjoyed being  part of there surprise and introducing them to the world Saori weaving.
SAORI weaving is for all ages,  and abilities .

A SAORI WOVEN NO SEW CAP

The holidays are impinging on my weaving! Finely I decided I had time to squeeze in a fast project and save my sanity! The saori woven cap designed by Su-chan in her Saori studio in Japan has been on my mind for 8 mons now ever since I saw  one at Terri Bibby's studio.
There is no pattern for the hats, the idea belongs to a designer  in Japan and out of respect I can not give details, sorry.
  COME TO THE STUDIO TO SCHEDULE A 2 DAY  CLASS IN  WARPING AND WEAVING THE SAORI NO SEW HAT for more info contact me here click.  for current saori hats for sale go to my etsy shop here saori hats for sale click here

 1st bright cap

warp for both caps

so in 24 hours I did it! I woven two caps. these are all cotton  and  mix rayon yarns.  I wound the warp yesterday afternoon, and sleyed the reed and threaded 1/2 the heddles. This morning I jumped out of bed and ran to the loom where I finished threading the heddles then beamed on and wove my first hat. Braked for lunch then started on the 2nd hat cap. The  2nd darker one is my winter solstice cap. Finished  it by 3:30 pm. today  loaded the photos and here they are, . The first cap , the brighter one, has shorter braided tassels. I like the longer ones on the second cap better, but I am going to break out the beads and add them to the shorter tassels to add length and sparkle.

bright cap

1st bright cap

2nd winter solstice cap

2nd cap

JILL NICKOLENE SANDERS

WWW.SAORISANTACRUZ.COM

my etsy shop