The Seattle Weavers' Guild meets on the fourth Thursday of the month, with exceptions for holidays and the summer break. If you are interested in guild membership or a particular program we invite you to join us. Visitors are always welcome. Meetings are located in Bloedel Hall, behind St. Mark's Cathedral: 1245 10th Ave East, Seattle, WA.
The meeting starts at 10am, followed by "Hot Off the Loom" (members exhibit their latest work), and the morning program. Program speakers typically bring woven samples to accompany their talks, which are displayed on tables in front of the stage. After a lunch break at noon, the afternoon program follows, sometimes a hands-on project.
- 9am - 2pm - Library open (SWG members may check out materials)
- 10am to 12 noon - Business Meeting, "Hot Off the Loom", Morning Program
- 12 noon - Lunch
- 1pm to 2pm - Afternoon program
For more information about Seattle Weavers' Guild Programs, contact programs@seattleweaversguild.com
Photo by Marilyn Moore
February 27, 2020
Laura Viada
Morning Program: Southeast Asia - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Singapore
Laura and five of her weaving friends have made two trips to parts of the world with rich and varied textile traditions. Traveling with other weavers for the purpose of exploring textile culture is an amazingly fun and rewarding experience. Laura will share what she learned and experienced in a lecture/slide show, and will share how her travels have influenced her own work. She will also bring textiles collected on her journeys for everyone to admire.
Afternoon Program:Sweden
Laura continues to share her adventures, this time from her time in Sweden.
Laura Viada
Website: http://www.lauraviada.com/Laura Viada has been a handweaver and fiber artist for 25 years. While Laura employs many different techniques, she focuses primarily on transparency weaving, diversified plain weave, and triple weave. Her guiding philosophy is that humans have an intimate relationship with the objects that surround us - the things we see, touch, wear, and use - and that the human spirit thrives when these things are beautiful and meaningful. Laura lives in Houston, Texas and has been an active member of Texas's fiber art community for over two decades. She has taught workshops for guilds all over the country, as well as for regional conferences and Convergence. In 2008, Laura spent 9 months as an Artist-in-Residence at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. She currently shows her work at Archway Gallery in Houston.
March 26, 2020
Lucienne Coifman
Morning Program: REP - RIPS - REPS
All you wanted to know about Rep weave. Let's start with the first placemat of 40 years ago to the 3-D pieces of the 21st century; we will explore both classic and nontraditional rep weaving. Participants will discover the progression of complexity from 2 to 8 shafts as well as the many different applications functional or decorative.
Afternoon Program: Exploring Rep Weave 101
This technical lecture will give you the tools that you need to weave a firm rep weave piece. We will review the fundamentals of rep weaving from 4 to 8 shafts, its characteristics and the many effects that we can obtain. Color, design process and practical details will also be presented.
Lucienne Coifman
Lucienne Coifman has taught weaving for more than 40 years at the Guilford Art Center and Creative Arts Workshop and in her own Connecticut studio. She has also conducted workshops throughout the Northeast and Midwest, including in the last 3 Convergences. Her work has appeared in many juried exhibits and in Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot and Handwoven magazines. For the past 30 years, Lucienne has been studying variations on traditional rep weaving techniques. Working with as many as eight harnesses, she experiments with different fibers, colors, and patterns, using pick-up techniques when needed. Her rep weave designs offer innovative variations on traditional forms and familiar patterns.
Lucienne's recent book, Rep, Rips, Reps: Projects, Instruction, and Inspiration,(2015) is a complete rep-weaving workshop for both beginning and advanced weavers.
April 23, 2020
Annie MacHale
Morning Program: Inkle Weaving: Narrow, But Not Limited
Visual presentation (show and tell) accompanied by stories of many diverse items woven over the decades on inkle looms. The goal is to open up viewer's perception of what can be done on this small loom and provide inspiration.
Annie MacHale
At the age of seventeen, Annie MacHale first discovered the inkle loom, sparking a lifelong affair. She built her first loom in 1976 with the help of her dad and a library book. Since then she's woven miles of bands. She loves to play with color and pattern and finds the inkle loom a very satisfying way to do this. Annie is known to many through her blog. The popularity of her patterns shared there have led to the publication of a book, In Celebration of Plain Weave: Color and Design Inspiration for Inkle Weavers.
Website: http://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/
Afternoon Program: Plaid Llama Sale
May 28, 2020
Denise Kovnat
Morning Program: Echo and Jin: The Possibilities of Extended Parallel Threading
This lecture, with PowerPoint and samples, illustrates how threading on opposites - known as 'Echo' threading - offers weavers many options for different fabrics and color palettes, just by changing tie-up and threading and varying the weft yarns and sett.
Afternoon Program: Dorset Buttons
In this lecture, you'll get a hands-on opportunity to learn how to make colorful, whimsical buttons - for jewelry, surface decoration or fasteners for your handmade garments - using only curtain rings, a tapestry needle, and yarn. Based on 19th century patterns from Dorset, England, these buttons are easy to create and customize to match your own fiber creations. You will learn the history of these buttons as well as the many styles and resources available for fiber artists.
Denise Kovnat
Website: https://www.denisekovnat.com/Denise is a weaver, dyer, occasional spinner and "free-range seamstress" who loves painted warps, collapse weave, and extended parallel threadings -- all to make colorful, textured fabrics used in garments for teaching samples, shows and sales. Her pieces have been juried into the HGA Convergence fashion shows since 2008. About 15 years ago she started teaching at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center in Rochester, NY, and now teaches at conferences and guilds in Canada and the United States. Working out of her home, she weaves on a 16-shaft Toika compu-dobby loom, a 12-shaft Macomber jack loom, a 16-shaft Germaine table loom and a 12-shaft LeClerc table loom. In addition, she likes to travel with her 8-shaft Structo: Just take down the castle, put it in a suitcase, and she's good to go.
| September | Judith Mackenzie | Morning | Repairing the King's Carpet |
| Afternoon | Fibers and Cloth from First Nation Weavers and Spinners | ||
| October | Joan Ruane | Morning | Cotton from the Field to your Loom |
| November | Susan Weltman | Morning | Weave a Real Peace |
| Afternoon | Finger-Loop Braiding with Marilyn Romatka | ||
| January | Linda Hartshorn | Morning | Color Fundamentals for Fiber Artists |
| Afternoon | Textile Tour of Guatemala |
| September | Maren Beck and Josh Hirschstein | Morning | Traditional Silk Weaving in Hill Tribe Laos |
| Afternoon | Above the Fray Trunk Show | ||
| October | Sandra Swarbrick | Morning | Weaving Traditions in the Peruvian Highlands | November | Marilyn and Rainer Romatka | Morning | Interlacements: Threads and Lives |
| Afternoon | Interlacements: Threads and Lives--continued | ||
| January | Janet Dawson | Morning | Weaving Traditions of Turkey |
| Afternoon | Overshot on Four or More | February | Sarah Saulson | Morning | Window into Weaving: My Life as a Weaver | Afternoon | Handmade Cloth: Exploring Ritual |
| March | Joanne Hall | Morning | Swedish Weaving: The Weavers and Their Weaves |
| Afternoon | The Vavstuga and the Swedish Loom | ||
| April | Wendy Garrity | Morning | Kushutara: Weaving My Way Across Bhutan | Afternoon | Kushutara: Single-faced Brocaded Techniques |
| May | Karen Donde | Morning | Spice Up Your Recipe Weaving: Project Design Tips |
| Afternoon | Go BIG with Color-and-Weave Effects | ||
September |
Rosalie Neilson | Morning | The Power of Blocks |
| Afternoon | Kumihimo - From Defense to Decoration | ||
| October | Teresa Ruch | Morning | Inspiration From Commercial Textiles |
| November | Children's Hospital Volunteers | Morning | Vintage Fashion Show: The History of American Fashion as Represented by the Nation's First Ladies | Afternoon | Vintage Hat Show |
| January | Pat Spark | Morning | Pat Spark - Growth of a Feltmaker |
| Afternoon | Felt-Understand and Manipulate the Basics for Creative Design | ||
| February | Jannie Taylor | Morning | Echoes and Iridescence: Designing Rainbows |
| Afternoon | Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Tied Weaves, But Were Afraid to Ask | ||
| March | Sarah Fortin | Morning | The Design Process - From Inspiration to Finished Project |
| Afternoon | Shadow Weave in Polychrome | April | Kris Abshire | Morning | Esoteric Cloth | Afternoon | Plaid Llama Sale |
| May | Ruby Leslie | Morning | Lost in Translation...or Why Color Theories Don't Guarantee Good Cloth--Part 1 |
| Afternoon | Lost in Translation...or Why Color Theories Don't Guarantee Good Cloth--Part 2 | ||
| Summer | Amy Green | Felted Animals |
2016 - 2017
September |
Jane Stafford | Morning | Jane's Big Adventure to India |
| Afternoon | Jane's Big Adventure to Africa | ||
| October | Marilyn Moore | Morning | Wire as Fiber: Where Inspiration Meets Technique, Color, Form and Texture |
| December | Robyn Spady | Morning | Couture Passementerie Through the Eyes of a Fiber Artist |
| Afternoon | How to Create Couture Braids | ||
| January | Kelly Marshall | Morning | Weaving by Design |
| Afternoon | Designing in Rep | ||
| February | Kathrin Weber | Morning | Seeing Color in Everything |
| Afternoon | From Thread to Fabric | ||
| March | Anastasia Azure | Morning | Dimensional Double-Cloth |
| Afternoon | Weaving with Fishing Line | ||
| April | Barbara Herbster | Morning | Understanding Supplementary Warp: Creating and Developing Designs for Handwoven Cloth |
| Afternoon | LENO Yesterday's Design, Today's Application | ||
| May | Elizabeth Buckley | Morning | From Idea to Woven Form |
| Afternoon | The Element of Light in Tapestry | ||
| Summer | Kathleen Carpenter | Locker Hooking |
2015 - 2016
September |
Sarah H. Jackson | Morning | One Thread at a Time; A Weaver's Journey |
| Afternoon | Sample is Not a Four-Letter Word! | ||
| October | Anita Osterhaug | Morning | Weaving in the Digital Age |
| December | Melanie Burgess | Morning | The Art of Costume Design and Fabric Modification |
| Marcy Johnson | Afternoon | Wheat Ornaments | |
| January | Giovanna Imperia | Morning | Weaving with Unusual Materials |
| Afternoon | Braiding with Wire | ||
| February | Jette Vandermeiden | Morning | The Noble Napkin |
| Afternoon | Blocks and Profiles | ||
| March | JoAnn Bachelder | Morning | Towels: Transcending Tradition |
| Afternoon | Transcending Tradition continued | ||
| April | Sandra Swarbrick | Morning | John Landes Sample Project |
| Afternoon | Plaid Llama Sale | ||
| May | Inge Dam | Morning | Fashion Show |
| Afternoon | Threading and Turning Defined Patterns | ||
| Summer | Kathleen M Hewitt with Barbara B. Suess | Temari - Long Live the Chrysanthemum! |
2014 - 2015
September |
Elaine Palmer | Morning | The Making of ‘Interlaced’ |
| Afternoon | Photographing and Styling Handwovens | ||
| October | Polly Adams Sutton | Morning | Sardinian Basketry |
| December | Jan Paul | Morning | The Art of Japanese Paper Weaving |
| Marilyn Romatka | Afternoon | Baumschmuck ‘Tree Jewelry’ | |
| January | Madelyn van der Hoogt | Morning | On the Shoulders of Giants |
| Afternoon | Tips and Tricks for Weavers | ||
| February | Tien Chiu | Morning | Evolving Designs |
| Afternoon | Wedding Adventures | ||
| March | Dianne Totten | Morning | Cone to Clothing |
| Afternoon | Commenting on Crimp | ||
| April | Daryl Lancaster | Morning | Parallel Threads that Parallel Life |
| Afternoon | Color and Inspiration | ||
| May | John Marshall | Morning | Dealing with What's Been Dealt |
| Afternoon | Treasure and More Treasures: John Marshall Trunk Show | ||
| Summer | Flora Carlile Kovacs | Make a Felted Pouch |