Robin assembles her new Saori sx60 loom and a busy week in the studio

This was a very busy week at the Saori Santa Cruz studio I have been weaving practically 7 hours a day getting ready for
Open Studios what is open studios? look HERE
So here are some messy studio photos of my  weaving week.............

 Robin was a teacher and is an accomplished harpist . She has been weaving on frame looms for about a year and fell in love with the saori loom. She came to the studio and a less than than a hour she assembled and  was weaving on her new saori sx60 loom . Robin is going to play harp at my open studio's both days! I am thrilled and honored. How fun it will be for the the customers too.

Robin just sent me this photos of her first woven wool scarf from her saori loom below.
I think she is going to be a fantastic Saori weaver. I just love it!

Monday Lisa came back and threaded her heddles, and dressed the saori loom in her 2nd class. her first class she wound a warp and sleyed her reed.

SHE was astounded how easy and user friendly Saori looms and equipment are to use. She left happy and satisfied  with a beautiful warp awaiting her on her 3 class to weave.

below first photo is a beautiful scarf ikat dyed and woven by Lisa she brought for me to see. she wove it in a class she took last year . She said that the warping for this scarf took days not hours and how much easier the saori threading holder and looms were to use.

 above: lisa's beautiful indigo scarf she wove in a college class last year.

 ok back to my work, besides weaving, dyeing , spinning, sewing, I also knit and felt here are  some my own designed knitted and felted bags for open studio I LOVE THESE BAGS AND THEY ALWAYS MAKE ME SMILE AND OTHERS TOO!........... It is not uncommon for strangers to follow me around working up the nerve to ask me about my purse while i am shopping. I am  totally delighted . So this is my featured photo on the open studio calendar. See below last photo "purse playground". (because who wants to carry around the same old drab leather purses with zippers and snaps that wear out  and catch when you can have fun with on one of of these.) ART YOU CARRY....... functional art with a distinct attitude. saori -ness ..........

PEACEFUL WEAVING

JILL

www.saorisantacruz.com

MAVENS OF THE FIBER FOREST beach day and SAORI weaving

 The mavens met at the beach friday for a fiber day. Our official 2nd annual maven fiber beach day.

 I brought my book charka and the piccolo Saori loom. I got to weave  about 10 mins. the rest of the day passers by and children flocked to  try weaving..... so I spun cotton on my charka, because once I showed one or two how to weave and advance the warp they all kept teaching each other! i stayed close by for minor requests like, "can I change the color bobbin?"
I supplied a bag of pre wound bobbins in many colors for them to chose from,

Jenny on left has been blind from birth. jon on the right is my student from years past who I taught to spin weave knit felt......

Jon has been teaching jenny for the last 1 1/2 years to spin. she is now selling her yarn and not having to fold pizza boxes like she did for years for money which she hated. 

cathy spinning

maggie and brenda . maggie made drop spindles to give to children and adults who wanted to keep spinning. Brenda donated some fiber to go with them.

park and draft spinning  new students

Then  scarlet 5 yrs old wanted to go on to the saori loom for weaving

Logan fell in love with weaving.

 Jenny with her assistant kristen plying

 Brendan LOVES orange he wove till the shuttle was empty.

A magical day many will never forget.

peaceful weaving

jill

www.saorisantacruz.com

Winding a warp, and threading the Saori way

Lisa came to the studio yesterday. She has woven at a community college class, has a table loom and wanted something more user friendly so she wanted to start with warping and weave a scarf in the Saori way.
Day one of four classes. In about 2 hours she wound a warp for a scarf in colors she choose. Look at her plaid blouse , she loves those summery colors so those are the colors Lisa chose for her scarf.

So all 100 ends, 95" long warp wound on the saori board and reed sleyed.
 " I can not believe how much i got done two hours" lisa said. She told me it was very long DAYS during her college classes last year to get the same amount done, "and it was easy with the saori warping , not hard on my back."
The new saori warping board can adjust so even if you want to sit down to warp you can. The pegs angled out  so to  keep  the warps on the pegs  effortlessly. Not to mention the option, which we did not use this time, of placing the cones mounted  right on the warping board holders and threading the warp through the eye hooks mounted on the board as well, to facilitate warping up to 5 threads at a time using just your thumb, not  a warping paddle, spool racks etc. LET ME REPEAT THAT. warp 5 individual threads with the crosses individual too, at one time with just your thumb, a fabulous technique.
Next class time is threading the heddles and beaming on the warp on the saori loom. So more to come.
 to be continued........


www.saorisantacruz.com

peaceful weaving
jill

Leila learns to weave at Saori Santa Cruz

Leila always wanted to learn to weave so she scheduled a introductory weaving class at the studio.
she lived in New Mexico before moving to Santa cruz and loves aqua and browns.
 she picked out her colors and wound her bobbins.

Leila studied Japanese and lived in Osaka for a year. She did not know saori headquarters are in Osaka!

I am always fascinated by  the color of yarn choices students make on there own. I lived in Arizona for 14 yrs. I was transported back to then and thoughts of native turquoise jewelry , high dessert flora, and clay pottery from her color choices. It is wonderful to be transported back in time  and fond memories just from the influence of colors.

Leila studies dancing, I think she has many artistic hidden talents........

 

Wow look at this, and LEILA never wove before!

"  I will be back to weave some more, this was GREAT"

peaceful weaving

Jill

www.saorisantacruz.com

Debra dives into Saori weaving

RAISE your hand if you  LOVE YELLOW. I do I do  with my arm strained  towards the ceiling! Okay look at these lovely Saori weaving with yellows then. Debora is weaving some amazing things for her first 10 days or so on her saori loom......

YES Debra really dove into the pool of creativity  and wove through all of her warp while using  amazing add-ins . Being  new to weaving and I am inspired by her foraging skill in her garden and her scrap baskets. Look at these ad-ins to her weavings.......

dried flowers

silk fabric strips beaten hard

silk  fabric strips not beaten

wish the sparkle in the yarns translated more in this photo because  it is lovely.

 YELLOW pages!!!!

off to the far upper left in the shadows lies a weaving she made and wanted to complement with her new weavings . In the  foreground is what she did.

  CHRISTMAS IN JULY? Debra is thinking of christmas,  i am too busy so it far from my thoughts right now, so at home she wove and added some charm to her christmas theme weavings . She broke up the red and green with cedar, dried rose buds, ribbons,holly and fabric strips. We are trying to figure out to keep fir or cedar from shedding and drying out. I guess if we figure that out we will be nominated for huge grants for all sorts of scientific  research.

 And  threading a new warp? well it is very easy on your body and fun to thread your harnesses and sley the reed comfortably on a table with the saori threading holder. Then take it to over to easily hang and place it on  the  loom.  Debra said, " you can actually carry on a conversation and thread this way at the same time and  be  comfortable  with out messing up".     I agree .

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