Beginning weavers classes

A local Yarn store in Santa Cruz ,The Golden Fleece, has a wonderful new owner as of June this year.
 Her name is Gunilla, she was born and raised in Sweden lived here about 15 years and is the nicest person, a talented fiberest , an incredible knitting "doctor" and much more. We talked and she was excited to introduce knitters to weaving with a new class I would teach . She advertised the class  2  weeks ago and I had 5 Emilia rigid heddle looms, and she had one  so we offered the class to 6 students. It was sold out in 3 days.
Yesterday was the class. The Golden Fleece is an adorable shop but has  limited  floor space, so I brought any and every thing that would fit in the forester to hold looms and warping pegs. It was a good thing I did because the students were sprinkled all throughout the lovely shop doing our warping and threading in little pods!
What a lovely mix of  fun students, eager to learn, catching on fast, and choosing fantastic colors and textures of yarn to there individual tastes.
The students will take there looms home and finish there and be back in 3 weeks for a finishing class so I will take more photos of there  lovely scarves..... stay tuned.

 peaceful weaving jill     www.saorisantacruz.com

Lisa is weaving in the SAORI way

A few months ago  I posted my new hand wrought shuttle sign  that was made by Jon Bailif. I commissioned him to fabricate another , this time  a spinning wheel. It is really fantastic, all hand forged and cut from raw steel. jon is vary talented.

 My husband lee bolted the spinning wheel sign up this past week end to greet all who come to the studio. thank you Lee. 

 I am very pleased with Lisa's progress as her threading and beaming the warp on was finished. This week she starts to weave  on her saori scarf .
She has specific colors in mind and knew just what cones and balls she wanted from the studio's shelves to wind and fill bobbins with .
I would like to mention here how easy the saori looms are to treadle. Lisa has some major physical  disabilities and finds the saori  loom easy to thread and weave on. Not only is she an  intelligent loving mother of two, and a wife, sister and daughter in a wonderful family, she has an amazing sense of color and is very creative. She is so happy and positive and independent. I feel like I gain as much or even more through our saori weaving classes.
peaceful weaving..........jill

 clasped weft

very very nice lisa.

jill@saorisantacruz.com
www.saorisantacruz.com

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