With kind permission from Amanda Hannaford from her website mandacrafts.co.uk
Editor’s note
Another milestone in GGWSD - YES! WE HAVE GONE GLOBAL. Thanks to Caroline Faulkner-Aston's technical skills GGWSD now has it's very own website, eventually it will be available through search engines but for now you will need to use the full address www.glos-weavespindye.btik.com It looks really attractive with colour photos of some recent work and details of our programme, Caroline has plans to add our newsletters later.
Plans for the Six Guilds Meeting in October are well advanced and details for your contributions together with the template for examples in orange of weaving spinning or dyeing are included with this newsletter. You will also find reports of recent meetings and plans for some exciting future events. GGWSD members have been, and plan to be, out and about with their spinning wheels at Stroud, Cotswold Farm Park and Cirencester .
Blue Faced Leicester is Sally's chosen sheep breed this time and there are some useful instructions on spinning a longwool fleece. Margaret's extracts from the Textile Forum South West encourage us to make more informed decisions about the environmental effect of some of the choices we make when selecting fibres.
We are grateful to Bryn Phillips for permission to reproduce The Throckmorton Coat (an inspired discovery by Sally) he can be seen singing it on youtube.
Thanks to Carol, Anne, Margaret, Gaynor, Denise and Liz for their contributions. Please send items or suggestions for the next newsletter to Sally or me by 31st August.
Janet Holman
Committee for 2009
Chairman Liz Davies
Secretary Carole Mitchell
Treasurer Cherry McClarron
Membership Secretary Elaine Allen
Programme Secretary Caroline Faulkner Aston
Members Frances Taylor,
Margaret Tattersfield,
Penny Harker,
Newsletter Janet Holman (editor)
Sally Dopson (production, printing & distribution)
Sales Table Ann Helmsley
Peggy Readings
Notice Boards Denise Williams
Teas Veronika Madsden
Sheila Rowe
Library Carol Mitchell
Fees for 2009 Full membership - £20.00
Friends - £8.00
Visitors - £3:00 per visit
Monthly meetings - £1:00 for members
If you have any ideas or requests for speakers for 2010 or Member’s Day workshops for 2009, could you please contact our new Programme Secretary, Caroline Faulkner-Aston.
Knitting workshop Edna Gibson
After a very enjoyable afternoon learning how to do Japanese braiding at the April Guild meeting a small group of us joined Edna again on Sunday to learn how to improve our knitting.
First we learned how to cast on invisibly (no! not us the cast on edge!) - brilliant. Casting off was not so easy but with a bit of practice we should be able to master this technique. However, Edna then started to teach us more challenging techniques. We can now shape shoulders and make darts invisibly (more magic!) and avoid holes. We can make very neat buttonholes in one row! Are you impressed?
Then we progressed to seaming. Edna has persuaded all of us to think more carefully about how we stitch our work to complete it. We spend hours and weeks knitting and must be prepared to spend time finishing the garments appropriately and professionally. (Lecture over). We tried out 6 knitted seams, 3 grafted seams and 3 sewn seams in both stocking stitch and garter stitch. We were getting better all the time. One of our group said that she hated grafting, but Edna, with her usual patience persuaded her to keep trying and a fairly competent graft was achieved.
The skills we were taught were really meant for a 2-day workshop, but we all worked hard and had a go at everything. We were sent home to practice and samples of our work were on display at the May Guild meeting.
We all enjoyed our day and found it time well spent. I know that my knitting willl be finished more professionally from now on as will that of other members of the group. Our thanks to Edna for sharing her expertise with us and to Clare for organising the weekend and providing hospitality to Edna. (The jam sponge was delicious!).
Anne Hemsley
The Newbury Coat
also known at The Throckmorton Coat
In the 19th century the cloth-making industry in the south of England was in decline due to the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of large weaving mills in the north of England. In an attempt to bring about a revival of the industry Sir John Throckmorton bet 1,000 guineas that he would sit down to dinner at 8 pm one evening wearing a coat made from wool that had been shorn from sheep at 5 am the same morning.
The attempt was made on 25th June 1811. At 5 o'clock that morning two sheep owned by Sir John were shorn by his own shepherd, Francis Drewett. The fleece was then delivered to John Coexter at Greenham Mills near Newbury in Berkshire. Here the wool was spun, the yarn spooled, warped, loomed and woven. The cloth was burred,milled rowed, dyed,dried, sheared and pressed by 4o'clock. This part of the process was completed in 11 hours.
The cloth was then given to Isaac White a tailor of Newbury, whose son cut the coat out and had it made up on two hours and 20 minutes. The coat was handed by John Coexter to Sir John who put it on before a crowd of 5,000 spectators, many of whom had travelled long distances to witness the event. The time taken had been 13 hours and 20 minutes.
Les Reeves
(Cutting selected by Denise Williams from unidentified magazine article)
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The Throckmorton Coat
The following are the lyrics to a song composed by Bryn Phillips who is a member of the Woodman Folk Club in Kingswinford. Hopefully Bryn will be at the Brewery Arts Centre on 21st June to sing his song to us while we spin, weave and sew!!
There was the shearer the spinner and the loom weaver
The dyer and the drier with their hands chapped sore
And then there was the tailor, the tailor with his dummy
And Good Sir John Throckmorton in the coat that he wore
At the rising of the sun two fine sheep were brought
To Francis Druett with his shears sharp and keen
He divested them of wool as the crowd stood all a-cheering
Such a blurring of the shearer's blades they had never seen
Mr John Coxeter the owner of the mill
Stood hands on hips as he surveyed the fun
Then he gathered up the wool and he took it up the hill
There was so much to be done before the setting of the sun
Well they spun it and they spooled it they warped it and they wove it
Such a throng of busy women there have never been
Then they washed it and they dyed it and finally they dried it
Such a roll of finer cloth you will have never seen
Sir John had earlier been measured by the tailor
Including inside leg, though there had been no need
And when the cloth was brought the whole crowd were cheering
It was only four o'clock and they had made it in good speed
Now, James White was given the great honour
To cut and sew the cloth according to the plan
Drawn up by his father, Isaac the master tailor
A fine coat for generations of the Throckmorton clan
Finally it was ready in thirteen hours and twenty minutes
Sir John Throckmorton proudly put the garment on
And paraded like the gentleman he was through noble breeding
Before the cheering of the crowd that were by now 5,000 strong
Six Guilds Day 24 October 2009
I know October seems a long way off, especially as we are all looking forward to the promised hot summer, but special events need a lot of planning to be successful. There are two speakers booked, Tim Parry-williams who will talk about the history of the famous Stroud scarlet/red cloth and Bobby Kociejowski who will talk on Colour.
One of the features of the day will be a large colour wheel with six segments and each participating guild has a free hand as to how they utilize the space. Our Guild’s chosen colour is orange and two very different designs were presented at the April meeting. One a simple hexagon patchwork relying on the variety of texture and disciplines used. A democratic design in terms of everyone being able to be part of the whole. The other a more challenging project inspired by the title of Jeanette Wintersons novel "Oranges are not the only fruit" The design consists of a bowl of fruit incorporating the title of the novel. The members voted on these designs, with the result being 50/50 our speaker Edna Gibson was asked to give the casting vote and" Oranges are not the only fruit " was chosen.
We hope members will allow their creative imagination to run riot. The contrast and form can be distinguished by the shades of orange used from the lightest peach to the deepest copper and using any or all of our three disciplines - spinning, weaving or dyeing i.e. knitting, crochet with handspun/ dyed yarn, felting with hand dyed fibre or any form of weaving. In terms of the fruit, the bananas, pineapple and pear will need to be two-dimensional and the bunch of grapes three-dimensional. If you are interested in making one of these fruits Gaynor will be at the June Guild meeting to discuss ideas. The equally popular hexagon design will now be used to make a panel that will be displayed in the exhibition area. Everyone is invited to make one or multiples of orange hexagons using any or all of our disciplines. The template of the hexagon, giving the actual size, is enclosed with this newsletter.
We will also want items which can be of any size to be displayed at our exhibition, the only criteria is that they must be in our allotted colour Orange!
Gaynor Thorpe
Bella Peralta - Listening to the threads March meeting
Bella Peralta spent her childhood in the Cotswolds where she learned to weave from her father Gerald Carter , who was a member of the Guild of Gloucestershire Craftsmen. She trained as an artist and printmaker and now lives half her time in North California where she started a weaving centre in the remote Trinity County to preserve the traditions of the Hoopa Valley Tribe of Indians, drawing on her experience of running workshops with her parents in Lesuto. For the past seven years she has been involved in organising cultural exchanges between Europe and America.
Bella sees weaving as a basic skill that is valuable in promoting emotional health by creating with natural materials and therefore important to keep alive by passing on to future generations.
Her woven pieces show the combination of her training as a painter and printmaker and inspiration derived from the materials themselves. " I have an idea in my head, I may sketch what I'm feeling, then that gets translated into choosing my yarn and design..."
Bella brought with her some examples of her weavings based on waves and using silk on a linen warp, much of the warp left visible to accentuate the contrast between the different thread textures. She also showed us some triangular prayer hangings inspired by the Hoopa Indians' spiritual attachment to their river. The technique used is based on that used by the Hoopa Indian women to weave waterproof baskets originally used to collect and carry the acorns which, with deer and salmon historically formed an important part of their diet.
Carol Mitchell
Blue Faced Leicester
History of the Breed
The Bluefaced Leicester, an English Longwool type sheep, originated near Hexham in the county of Northumberland, England during the early 1900's. They are descendants of Robert Bakewells’ improved Dishley Leicester. They were bred to produce top quality crossbred ewes from the ‘native’ Blackface and Swaledale draft ewes. It was found that a darker coloured ram, with a finer skin ‘fleece’ produced a better cross ewe from the blackfaced hill ewes, a cross traditionally called the ‘Mule’. From its original home in the Northern Pennine’s, the Bluefaced Leicester has spread through the upland areas of England, Scotland, Wales, and into Northern Ireland. In the 1970’s there was an importation into Canada and from there they migrated down into the USA.
General Appearance
The Bluefaced Leicester should have a broad muzzle, good mouth, a roman nose, bright alert eyes, and long erect ears. The color of the head skin should be dark blue showing through white hair, with no wool on the head, or neck. Though predominately a white wool breed, the Bluefaced Leicester does carry a recessive black gene and natural coloured lambs do appear. The wool is tightly purled, fine, dense, semi-lusterous creating high quality luster yarns with beautiful drape.
Technical Information:
Staple length of 3- 6”
Bradford count 56 - 60s
Micron meassurement 24-28
Fleece weight - 3 - 6lbs
Preparing for Spinning