NEW WEBSITE

We now have a new free website  which can be reached at the following address:-
www.bedfordshireguildwsd.weebly.com

There are some finer details to be added, such as a gallery of our past meetings/activities etc.

This blog will have no further entries after the end of this month.

May the joy continue!

Merry Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas 

and

Happy New Year to You All

from Members of Bedfordshire Guild WSD

FibreEast 2017

What a wonderful weekend we had at FibreEast!
The Beds WSD stand was put together with lots of examples of our work, from the workshops we have had, guild challenges, and home work. See the photos below to see just how much we were able to show! Thank you to everyone who contributed, and we had loads of people who spent quite a bit of time looking at them all, in detail sometimes.

A huge thank you to all those who came to volunteer on the stand during Saturday and Sunday - Chris, Anna, Yvonne, Helen, Elaine, Julie, Roma and Liz. We couldn't have done it without you. We very much missed Hilary who was unable to join us due to ill health, and hope she is now getting better.

The "Have a Go" tables were hugely popular. The CD spindles with a puff of fibre will be the starting point for many new spinners (thank you Hilary). We had loads of people trying kumihimo braids, felting with Kinder eggs, making orifice hooks, weaving, and many more activities. And finally, most of the guild equipment was on display, and being used for demonstrations.

So a successful weekend, and lots of positive feedback on our interesting and impressive stand. We're hoping that we see some of the faces we met over the weekend in the guild meetings in the future, and everyone is welcome! Please get in touch via this blog if you have any questions or need any information about our meetings.

I'm looking forward to next year already, but I might need to start saving now!

Tuesday 6th June Meeting

I'm glad to say that our meeting was both interesting, lively and attended by a good number of people. Three of these were new to the guild. May this interest continue!

Roma was able to help Andrea sort some alpaca that she had been given.
Angela helped Janet and Claire take their first steps in spinning.

Chris had brought an impressive amount of foliage and other materials that we need to collect for our session on Eco Dyeing next month.

Open Day

OPEN DAY 

 BRING & BUY

Tuesday 7th March

A Social Tuesday Evening Meeting

     There was a buzz about last night's meeting with a variety of activities going on.
Jean got her rigid heddle loom warped and ready for her to 'get weaving' on her return home.
Participants of the papermaking workshop, at the last Saturday meeting, brought their dry sheets of paper to show us. Hopefully, those workshop participants unable to come last night will bring their work along to the next meeting.

    The sound could be heard of Spinning wheels, knitting needles and straw being plaited, making the familiar 'music' of eager, productive crafts people. Everyone was working on an individual project.

    A prospective new member made her first visit. A brave thing to do on your own! Hopefully convinced of the friendly, helpful nature of our group, she will soon return.
    Maggie brought cones of alpaca weaving yarn that could be purchased at the extremely reasonable price of £6 per cone. The remains of stock which had been spun for a lady keeping a small 'herd'.

   At our meeting on Saturday 18th of March Sarah Root will pay us a visit to talk about Cotton, as well as show and help some of us to spin this short fibre, considered by many to be a 'tricky customer'.

Papermaking Workshop

HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY!

   These were the words heard coming from participants towards the end of our papermaking workshop on Saturday and there were, smiles all round!
   Thanks to our member, Chris Dobson, we had a well prepared and interesting workshop, with a wide choice of materials and additions to our papers.
   After Chris' demonstrations on making sheets of paper from two types of recycled, pulped paper, kindly prepared for us, ahead of the day, with the help of her husband - mustn't forget the unseen labour force! - she showed us how to make sheets of silk paper using wallpaper paste as a binding medium. These took a little longer than the pulped paper and necessitated us getting sticky along with the use of a squeegee to get rid of excess paste.

Galanthophile in Our Midst! but have no fear!

  One of our workshop tutor's enduring interests is her collection of snowdrops. To brighten our day further Chris brought a posy of flowers from her garden. Among other beautiful things were snowdrops....20 different snowdrops, each with a different name and all from her collection.

  

 

Chris challenged some of us to find the bloom with the name 'Grumpy'. Not a 'handle' you'd expect! If that is the first snowdrop , then the second is 'Cross'. Certainly not names you'd expect for a flower that brightens us up at this time of year!

This is one small swathe of the 'common' snowdrops in my garden. What name could we give them?
'Hump backed bridge' ?

AGM and Guild Challenge 2016 'Colour'

Well, we had an interesting and lively meeting yesterday. Formalities attended to, challenge entries voted for, two new members and, as usual, lots of support for those undertaking a skill new to them. But then there's nothing unusual in that at Bedfordshire Guild!
With timber and materials already at the hall for new flooring under the stage, our equipment storage trolley, which means we can have safe and easy access to 'tools of our trades' in the very near future, is nearer to completion.

The winner of the 2016 Challenge:- Su Brown, who had woven a striped table runner using 3 shades of clasped weft, a tricky technique with a great effect.
Congratulations again Su!
The Whole Runner: -

Season's Greetings

Members of Bedfordshire Guild send Seasonal Greetings to all!
Especially those members who were not able to to get to the Christmas Party on Tuesday. Not forgetting our life member Jenny Dean and other members of The Association of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.
A toast to everyone made with Claire's festive punch.

Fun and Laughter

    We had a great meeting on Saturday.  November saw us gather together to do our own work.
    As the year draws to a close we have started to pull out out woolly things, from hand knitted socks to an arm knitted scarf,
    We learned about arm knitting, how Kinder Eggs are the thing to have and that we can eat an alarming amount of chocolate brownies.

    We also found the answer to this riddle:-
What can you do with a kinder egg that you can't do with a salad spinner, Kenwood food mixer(other makes available) or warm tumble dryer and a little soapy water?
Answers on a postcard please (or even an email.)

The answer is in one of our photos!

Some photos from our Open Door session earlier in the year

Our next meeting will be our end of year party - bring a plate or similar .....

November Meeting

Hi there,

It has been pointed out to us that there is a mistake for the date of the next meeting on our Programme.

It is on Saturday, 26th November not the 19th as listed.  Calendar now amended!

Hope to see lots of you on the day.

October 15th Weaving and Weaving Narratives

Last Saturday was our meeting specially devoted to weaving and it was great to see how many members took part.

 In Flitwick Library, very close to our meeting place the village hall, a group of people who had taken part in a project called 'Weaving Narratives', organised by the Bedfordshire Archives, were having an exhibition of their work.

So, we took the opportunity to invite the participants of the project, as well as those members of the public who visited the library and viewed the exhibition, to visit the guild, discover what we are about, the work that we produce and partake in tea and cake specially brought for the occasion.

 
Several members brought some of their work to show the variety of skills and projects achieved in the last few months.

   We, in turn, went to look at the interesting fruits of their labours.

   

    This piece called 'Silver Street' was created by one of our members, Helen. 

Spinning, weaving and interesting talk

Our month of visits is over and business returns to normal in September, with our monthly Saturday meeting at Flitwick Village Hall.

As well as member's carrying out their own work, there was advice for a new weaver who had just finished her first scarf.  One of our members walked her through taking the weaving off the loom and various finishing options.

In other news, we saw samples from the Solar Dyeing skillshare held in the summer, ranging from a soft yellow to a darkish red.  Talking around the results led our conversation from there to indigo, to recent finds in Peru, East Anglia and the history of textiles.  There aren't many afternoons one gets to spend eating cake, doing something you love and having an interesting conversation!

Fibre East

After cold and running rain last year, when woolly items were in danger of being hoiked off the display to be worn, this year was an about face. The weather was positively tropical and fairly relentless in terms of heat.

We had a new home this year inside the main buildings with the other Guilds, which collectively made a great entrance, giving inspiration to everyone for shopping.

Our display team had worked hard behind the scenes to get everything organised, with little time to setup, it all came together beautifully.  Members were, as always, very kind in donating their time to demonstrate on two looms, spinning wheels, blending board and drop spindles.

We had lots of visitors through the day - one of the great things about belonging to a Guild is the passion, support and knowledge that is freely shared.  Visitors old and new got to play, advice on everything from processing fleece to warping looms, and a warm invitation to come visit if they are in the neighbourhood.

Our display this year was based on our Guild theme - Colour.  Members brought in work they have done in workshops, own work and home work!

Willington Dovecot and Stables

Yesterday (Sunday June 26) Maggie and Su represented the guild at an open day/crafts event at a National Trust owned property in the county.

The Dovecot and stables were built in Tudor times when the owner Sir John Gostwick, wanted to impress visiting Henry VIII.

They are magnificent buildings. The dovecot can house 1,500 pairs of doves.

Check it out on this link because it is surely a beautiful place to visit.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/willington-dovecote-and-stables

One of the Trust volunteers asked the guild to join other crafts people on this month's open day and very pleased when the invitation was accepted.

All crafts people were inside the stables, showing and hopefully selling their wares, the guild there to advertise it's existence and encourage the public interest in our crafts. The beekeeper that Su met previously at Bletsoe fete was also there, but thankfully outside, in what turned out to be a dry if not too sunny day.

A great deal of interest was paid to the solar dyeing as well as the different fibres in the sample skeins of yarn on the display, wool from various breeds, alpaca and silk.

Art yarn and Bring & Buy sale

Today we held a talk/ hands on squishing session about art yarn, in preparation for our art yarn skill share later this year.

Members brought sample art yarns , both hand made and commercial, that we examined to see how they were constructed,  colour balance, and texture.

Our bring and buy sale was well stocked with some of us disposing/acquiring goodies and the Guild getting a small proportion. This all helps the Guild in making purchases on behalf of members.

As well as our usual mix of spinning and weaving, one of our members was busy making lace. Beautiful work.