Annual show at St. Mark's expected to attract more than guild members
You may bob and weave if you are a boxing fan, but the operative words are warp and weft for members of the Seattle Weavers Guild, which marks its 70th anniversary this year. Among its 300-plus members are novices, working with small looms at odd hours, and master artists who work full time with computer-driven looms.
Some 100 to 150 guild members will participate in the guild's annual show and sale, offering handmade items for sale Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 25 to Oct. 27, at the group's annual fundraiser sale in the basement meeting room of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral on Capitol Hill.
The Seattle Weavers Guild began meeting downtown at the Dolly Madison Tea Room in 1937. If, at that time, the guild consisted of a crowd of sweet little old ladies, such an image no longer applies. Today's Seattle weavers are a disparate group ranging from 20-somethings to aged veterans; some of them are even men.
The annual show and sale is not only an opportunity to buy high quality, handmade holiday gifts but also an opportunity to meet scores of textile artists and learn more about the art and tradition of handweaving and related crafts.
"I want the public to know that we exist and how many really fine artists and crafts people are working in textiles," said Marise Person, a full-time textile artist. "I want people to understand that weaving is not just a craft, it is an art."
Person, who lives in Olympia, began weaving 32 years ago with a table loom - a frame loom that is set right on top of a table. She still has that loom, but she also has two floor looms in her studio, one of which is computer-driven and can create a piece of cloth up to 60-inches wide.
"I grew up in a house of fine art," Person said, explaining that her father was an art professor at the University of Washington and her mother was a classical pianist. "I have always been exposed to art and I have always been interested in textiles." When her daughter was born, Person decided she needed something more to do at home than raise children, so she took a weaving class at an Olympia community college.
The art of weaving definitely dates back 7,000 years. It was entirely home-based until the 18th century when factories began displacing the cottage-based industry. With the industrial revolution, home weaving fell out of favor, freeing up people to do other things with their time. In the 20th century, weaving has gained a rebirth of popularity, and the Seattle Weavers Guild is at the forefront of its renaissance in the Pacific Northwest.
Many members are from outside Seattle, belonging both to the Seattle guild and a local guild in Olympia, Tacoma, Port Townsend or other Washington cities. Belonging to the Seattle group allows the weavers to interact more widely, and the larger membership of the Seattle Weavers Guild (largest in the state) allows it to finance programs and speakers that small groups could not afford.
"I like history," said Laurie Williams, who is chairing this year's sale. "I like connections. What attracted me to weaving is that I could control what I produce [get the textiles she wanted without relying on commercial outlets]. But there also is a connection to those women before me."
Even though men have been involved in textiles, weaving is still popularly linked with the women of all ages. In fact, a well-received recent history of textiles, culture and society by Elizabeth Wayland Barber is called Women's Work: The First 20,000 years.
"Not only is weaving still around," Williams said, "it is evolving."
There will be lots of scarves and table linens, towels and caps at the sale, but there will also be items created from grasses, bamboo and even metal weaving. There will be both wearable textiles and serious art work. Some of the items include baskets, baby items, pet sweaters, catnip mice, blankets, shawls and clothing.
"You can get items from a couple of dollars to a couple of thousand dollars," Williams said. "There is nothing that is commercially made and embellished. It has to be handmade by the weaver."
Although the name of the group is Seattle Weavers Guild, and the foundation of the groups activities is weaving, there are other textile arts that come under the umbrella of the group, such as spinning, braiding and other fiber manipulation.
Spinning and weaving demonstrations will be held throughout the event.
"Most of my weaving is aimed at wearable art, and I also do surface design," Person said. She said one of the large categories of weaving art is called shibori, a Japanese word used as a catch-all to describe controlling where you want color on a fabric with resistance, something to block the dye. Very familiar forms of this are tie-dying, to get that sunburst of color on t-shirts, or batik, where wax is applied to cloth in designs where uncolored areas are desired.
Person said that shibori also includes techniques where the resistance is put on the yarn for dying before it is woven.
Person is unusual among local and regional weavers because she has a large, computer driven, floor loom. The computer drives the harnesses on the loom so she does not have to work the treadles (foot levers, not to be called pedals) herself. Is that cheating?
NO.
"What the computer driven loom does for me is make the foot treadling unnecessary," Person said. "I've designed the pattern and I have put it into the computer."
What comes out is her own creation without the manual (pedal?) labor.
Some exhibitors will have just a few items to sell, others will have literally hundreds, according to Williams, "and we are bursting at the seams."
The Seattle Weaving Guild annual show and sale is in Bloedel Hall at St. Mark's Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. The show and sale begins on Thursday, Oct. 25, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday, Oct. 27, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
