Peter Tavy Guild Programme for 2024
We meet at Mary Tavy Coronation Hall (PL19 9QA) on the first Saturday in the month for the Main Group meeting and the second Friday in the month for the Weave Group meeting.
January 6th.Get Busy with the Dizzy!
Dizzing from a drum carder, blending board, hand carders or combs will give you a very different fibre preparation from carding. It introduces the possibility of blending colours, of blending fibres and of controlling the density of the roving you produce.
We will have lots of fibres in lots of colours and types for you to experiment with, available to buy at cost. The guild drum carders, blending board, hand carders and combs will be available for you to use.
February 3rd Spinning the Mix
This month we will be spinning our preparations from last month. How do you find the fibre mixes you blended and how do they feel to spin? Would more of this fibre improve things, would you get a lovely effect using half the luxury fibre you have? Did you like the results from the drum carder, combs, blending board or hackle best?
March 2nd Dorset Buttons.
I’m sure many of you have made, or are familiar with, Dorset buttons or the many varieties of fancy buttons covered with yarn. Bring your yarns and needles and we will have rings for you to play with. They can be simple, complicated, large small…whatever you fancy!
April 6th Flowers from Flax
New Zealand flax, that it, not European flax. And other sources of plant material are available, I’m sure. This workshop is a transfer of skills learned at last year’s Summer School and Hattie Payne and Welmoed Perrin will be showing and helping us to make some of these lovely decorations.
May 4th Silk
Jane will organize a pack of the various forms in which silk fibre is available to the spinner and show you how to spin them.
June 1st Mechanical Marvels!
A marvellous opportunity to see a spinning wheel unique in the UK and another that is very rare. Amanda Hannaford has very kindly agreed to show us these fascinating and extraordinary wheels. No pictures because we want those of you who haven’t seen them, get the full impact!
July 6th
Prepare to Dye
Stitching, pasting, waxing, tying, blocking, stencilling, whatever takes your fancy. This is the prep for our annual indigo vat that goes with the picnic next month.
NB: Please scour your dye goods before you stitch, paste, wax, etc!
August 3rd The Indigo Picnic
Indigo vat. Picnic lunch. Happiness! We can dip our preparations from last month.
September 7th Any Questions, Spinning
We’ve done a lot of work with fibre, spindles, wheels and preparation tools this year. Do you have any questions that occur to you now and that haven’t been answered? Do you know how to do routine maintenance on your wheel? Do you understand ratios? Do you need to (yes!)? Now is a chance to ask.
October 5th Julie Hedges
Julie Hedges is coming to give us a talk:‘From Camels to Contemporary Braids’. It covers my research on the colourful Textiles and Camel trappings from Rajasthan & Gujarat, North West India and the relationship between these and the development of the Ply-Split Braiding around the world.
On Sunday she will be offering a workshop, An Introduction to Ply-Split Braiding. This will be limited to 12 participants.
November 2nd Tassels
An opportunity to try your hand at tassel making. Ornamental tassels make a nice Christmas decoration and we can try our hand at various types from the very straightforward to the more complex.
December 7th AGM
This year the lunch option is the pub.
In house workshops: If you are interested in any of the in house workshops above, they are run on a skill sharing basis and the Guild supply necessary materials at cost. We try very hard not to overbuy but at the same time supply enough to cover all the interest shown. For this reason, we ask you to tell us in advance if you are joining in. If you haven’t said you would like to do a particular activity at least a month in advance, there may not be room or materials for you. Non-members, paying the visitors fee and the materials charge may join the workshop but need to tell us in advance they want to take part.
Print