Saori weaving with disabilities a sucess story

Jenny was born with physical dissabilites and has been blind from birth. My student Jon  who i taught to weave and spin has been teaching jenny to spin for the last three years.  When he met her she was folding pizza boxes and was not very happy. Jon called me up  asked me what I thought about him teaching her spinning instead and he rented a spinning wheel from me to teach Jenny spinning. What a sucess! She graduated to an electric spinner and is just starting to sell her hand spun yarns But This year Jon added Saori weaving for Jenny because he got his own a Saori loom this year, she is sooo excited.

  By adding the shuttle shelf to the saori looms it really helps with shutttle managment ..

less dropped shuttles. it was VERY helpful with jenny. she loved it!

Saori shuttle shelf

 while Jenny was weaving( the first time not assisted) Jon was learning about the Saori warping board.
he LOVED  it.  looms and accessoirs

THE STUDIO WAS BUZZING!

 Jon and Kristen( one of Jennys aids and absolutly fantastic) holds up what jenny has been weaving with them the last 5-6 months.

 Jenny squealed with joy when she found out Christmas came early this year, as she got to take home a new loom and accessories. "JILL CAN I COME BACK I NEVER HAD SO MUCH FUN"

 Sure you bet Jenny ! I think it was amazing she wove for 4 hours, and we wound bobbins but she changed them out and put them in the shuttle her self, and with the shuttle shelf she was sooo sucessful on her own! Such a sweet sucess story!

 what have I been doing with my hands? I  am sewing a custom tailored vest for my husband . The other brain side  from Saori. It was a bit of a sea change but it  all came back, I designed and sewed custom wedding dresses and bridal party clothing as one of my professions in my past life .

 A few more days and I should be done. But wait  I think I will take a break and spin some yarns and weave this week between students too......the other side of my brain needs my attention as well...
Peaceful weaving , sewing , spinning in the redwood forest
Jill Nickolene
www.saorisantacruz.com

Saori looms and peaceful weaving

I had the pleasure to meet Tracy yesterday. she had taken a Saori class from Terri  Bibby in British Columbia. Tracy wove  using some of her  own saori silk, and  her  own hand spun yarns and now wants to have a new saori loom some day she brought her first  Saori weavings for me to see.. She and I talked and shared life stories, and she tried out saori looms. She espically loved the saori wx60 A full size folding loom wx60 with a  weaving width  just shy of 24" .

 she brought her lovely  previous  weavings to show me, and  we discussed  ideas on how to display/hang  them.

  A LESSON ON THREE COLOR CLASPED WEFT.

 Tracie was heading up to the east bay to see her mothers good friend and wanted to stop by  to see  Saori Santa Cruz,  try out  Saori looms and to  go see the beautiful UCSC campus.
we felt very peaceful while weaving, why? Because with Saori philosophy you make no mistakes it is an  all encompassing accepting experience.

  BEAUTIFUL!

 She defiantly understood  and learned 3 color clasped before she left.

 Peaceful joyful weaving Tracy.

peaceful spinning and  weaving in the redwoods
Jill Nickolene
my Etsy shop

www.saorisantacruz.com

Saori weaving students

 Kacie is back this week threading her heddles with the saori threading holder after winding a warp and threading the reed last week on her lovely hand picked yarns for her warp .

 Ariel is back too with her Piccolo to thread her new premade warp( she wove the 6.5 yard warp that comes with the loom , off in one day she was so excited see the blue yardage in the foreground that is it!.) Ariel is using a saori ready made warp  saori premade warps, exclusive only to Saori looms.

 Thread and  then weave, you do not have to wind a warp or beam on! ready made warps come is 6 widths from 4" weaving width to 24" and lenghts  from 6 yards up to 33 yards long.

 The Piccolo's loom maximum weaving width is almost 16" wide, Ariel is using a 200x 20  16"wide on the 12.5 reed by 22 yards long.

The  Saori piccolo is all threaded !  Now to Return the warp roll over the back beam connect the warp beam and tie on to the front rod

and now it is time to weave

 out on the deck in the warm autumn sun to finish up the threading. (the saori threading holder is very easily  portable.

  This week's class is over but kacie will beam on next week and start weaving her scarf and Ariel is off to weave at home so that she can come back with her yardage  then  learn how to sew some saori clothing in another class saori santa cruz classes

I also welcomed two new" TRY IT" STUDENTS to the studio.

 Kori came with her mom to open studios , they purchased one on my hand dyed rugs, and Kori wanted to try weaving on a saori loom so lets look at what she did? she wove on the saori 60 classic loom. she picked up the treadling and boat shuttles very quickly.

 Teasing some  un spun wool for weft insertion

 Meet Mandy who came for a try it class too

 Mandy is a natural at weaving too! this was her first time ever to weave! She wore the this cool vintage 50"s apron she found and rescued from a garage recently . We discussed a class (because Kori loved her apron too). We will draft a copy of the pattern and sew a reproduction of this apron with updated tecniques and findings. I teach convention clothing construction as well as sewing with hand woven yaradage.

vintage apron

 VERY HAPPY WEAVERS

peaceful joyful Saori weaving in the redwoods

Jill Nickolene

www.saorisantacruz.com

my Etsy shop