After more than a year of teaching through a computer, speaking only to a green dot while screen sharing, I actually stepped off a plane and into a weaving classroom last weekend. I was face-to-face (all fully masked) with 13 weavers experimenting with Turned Beiderwand at the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center.
The Center is a wonderful facility focused primarily on teaching handweaving to Hartford-area seniors and people of all ages who are blind or visually impaired. The artisans’ weaving room is huge, with dozens of looms holding projects in process. Here the artisans, guided by a small staff and many volunteers, not only learn to weave, they weave a variety of products sold on site, at exhibits and shows (in normal years) and recently online.
In the process, they build self esteem and a sense of accomplishment, enhance motor and cognitive skills and earn a little income, while enjoying social interaction in a safe environment. You can read more about Hartford Artisans Weaving Center on its website or in the Sept/Oct 2021 issue of Handwoven Magazine.
Financial support for the Center comes from generous donations, plus a portion of product sales, other on-going weaving classes and an annual workshop, which is what brought me to Hartford. I had been scheduled to teach the workshop last August, but the planet had other plans so we pushed until this year. With assurances that all participants were vaccinated, the workshop filled with weavers from around Connecticut, Western Massachusetts and New York.
In July, the Weaving Center began requiring masks for everyone. Having never taught wearing a mask before, I was wary, but then thought about the thousands of school teachers, medical workers and others who wear a mask all day every day. I could do it from 10-5 for three days. Everyone complied without complaint, even when the unusually warm temperatures tested the limits of the AC. What we were talking about became much more important than what we were talking through.
The workshop took advantage of two available rooms on the lower level: a weaving room and a classroom with tables for lectures and note-taking. I shared what I’ve learned about the structure and technique in five different slideshow lectures, then sent them off to weave the samples, which we viewed and discussed on the final afternoon.
With plenty of looms, tools and yarn available, Center volunteers had already warped most of the looms, so participants could walk in, do the final tie-on and tie-up and start weaving. A few brought their own pre-warped looms. I must say, this was a very industrious and adventurous group. Most finished all the samples, and many were willing to push the tremendous design potential of this threading system with their own ideas.
A big part of this Turned Beiderwand technique is managing two separate warps that take-up differently during weaving. Two people used two warp beams, but the rest had both warps wound on the same beam, with tensioning added to the pattern warp when needed. As some weavers approached the ends of those warps, the tensioning got pretty creative to get those apron rods over the back beam and up behind the heddles.
While in Hartford, I enjoyed marvelous hospitality, great food, engaging conversation and the one thing I have missed most in the shift to online teaching—having lunch together!
I do hope for more of those shared lunch breaks in the future, though I have no further teaching trips scheduled until Convergence next July in Knoxville, TN. Until then, and perhaps even beyond, I will content myself with travelling no further than my personal Zoom studio to connect and share knowledge with other weavers.
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