Fiber Artisans

08/31/2026

I haven't tatted in a while! But a gal at Art Sanctuary took a liking to a little tatted flower decoration I had in my studio. So I got out the tatting shuttle and created this flower decoration...for Jessica! Tatting can be pretty tedious, but this project was quick and fun! I think my next effort will have dragonflies or butterflies on it!

08/12/2026

This Friday, August 14, 6-9 pm is Open Studios Night at Art Sanctuary Martinsville. I am now in my new studio and Sallie Potter has joined me there. I've been working on some new weaving projects and trying to perfect my flax spinning to make linen yarn. Hope you'll come see us in our new space as well as all the other great artist studios at Art Sanctuary.
Free admission and parking...and great places to dine downtown Martinsville so make it a date night!
190 N. Sycamore. Parking lot and entrance on Pike Street.

08/02/2026

The loom is dressed, treadle pedals hooked up (with some minor challenges...corrected with help of fb weaving group), handspun yarn is wound into cakes, DeWalt drill winds yarn onto bobbins, and I'm ready to weave! The first 6 inches are just as I had hoped! Yes it IS worth it to labor through the hours spent in the warping process, when the woven pattern turns out nice!

07/31/2026

07/31/2026

Addendum to previous post on sleying the reed in horizontal position.

07/31/2026

Here is the conclusion of "dressing" the loom! After heddles are threaded as per pattern instructions, the reed gets threaded. I tried a new technique, threading with the reed clamped on a flat surface. Wow! So much easier this way! 12 thread bundles were tied on to the front rod, and the foot pedals are tied up! Ready to weave! Yay!

07/30/2026

It's called "dressing the loom." Today I finished threading the heddles! That's the most tedious and important part as any mistakes can mess up the pattern or weaving mechanics. But that's only a third of the effort! Next, the 190 threads must be threaded through the "reed" and tied on to the cloth beam. But there's more! The foot pedals must be tied up as specified in the pattern.
3 hours hovered over the back beam to thread heddles, is a good reason to bring out the ibuprofen! I hope to finish dressing the loom tomorrow!

07/29/2026

Am enjoying my new, larger, studio space at Art Sanctuary. I completed a scarf on the rigid heddle loom and now I'm venturing into a shawl project on my 8 shaft baby wolf loom that I brought from home. I haven't used it in a while so am getting reacquainted with her! Here's my progress so far!

07/21/2026

I finally figured out how to do fractal spinning of multicolored wool!
Divide the roving (top) in half lengthwise. One half will get spun as is.
The other half will be divided lengthwise again 3 or 4 more times.
Colors on the full half change slowly since there is more yarn. Thinner strips change color faster.
One bobbin with the full half is plyed with a bobbin of the split sections. The result is more interesting color repeats than just spinning/plying the undivided wool.
Wish I had learned this long ago, but now that I figured out the concept, I'll be fractal spinning in the future! (Thanks to Utube videos!)

07/17/2026

Fiber Artisans studio is moving! But only to a larger space just across the hall. I brought the Schacht baby wolf floor loom from home so will enjoy weaving without cat interference! And Sallie Potter's loom (that she made, herself!) is there for her to do some weaving too. By next week will be moved. We hope you will check out our new space...and all the other artists' studios at Art Sanctuary Martinsville, too!