A couple of experts you should meet!

Lotta and one of her creations!

Day 10

It was the final class day and our class merged with another for an hour so both classes could hear about Catharine Ellis's innovative shibori weaving. Shibori is usually done by taking a length of fabric and sewing small tucks and folds into it before dyeing to get very intricate designs. Catharine is a weaver, and so she has developed a way to weave 'pulling threads' into her woven fabrics, so that by pulling them the shibori designs are created without the need for the hand sewing step.

Catharine also collaborates with a small mill to have her patterns produced into blanks for dyers to purchase and dye in their own color ways. The pulling threads are woven into the patterns by the mill.

The instructor for the second class is Yoshiko Wada. She is an amazing fount of information - and as her website says:
"Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada is an artist, author, exhibition curator, textile researcher, and film producer and has long been an exponent of traditional and sustainable practices in fashion and textile production."

My friend Lotta Helleberg was in Yoshiko's class and the intricate work they did was incredible.

Tomorrow starts the Surface Design Conference, so more excitement to come... but one special excitement for today: a trio of bears! Outside of my studio, a mother bear and her two cubs were exploring the hillside. Evidently they are "regulars" to the area, and just mosey along at their own pace.

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