Book Launch

So the trip to Friesen’s Printing was amazing. I watched the pages roll through the presses. How I love to see machines work. And it was my book they were printing!

A few days later 16 boxes were delivered to my house, taking up a whole corner of my work room. So now I’m needing youall out there to order books, so I can have my work space back again.
The booklaunch was last night, March 12, at McNally Robinson’s on Grant Street in Winnipeg.

Thanks to D’Arcy for the music. Thanks to Rachel at McNally’s for encouraging me to include an activity, seeing as how this is a ‘How To’ book, not a literary sort of thing. It’s because of her encouragement that we had the ‘Weaving Dance’. It was lovely to see so many former students and friends there to support me.Thanks so much you guys!
Now back to work on those Heritage sash samples for Manitoba Artists in Healthcare and the Manitoba Museum. The 4th piece, entitled ‘Woodlands’ is in the finishing stages. Someone passed me information on a similar piece, indicating that the fringes were tied with caribou hair. Not having any of that around my house, I’ve tried tail hairs from my bordercollie-chow cross dog. It’s a bit more frizzy a fibre than the caribou in the picture, but it seems to work. (I’ve got to figure out how to enter pictures into this blog.) Not certain of the results, I’ve consulted with Roland Bohr of the University of Winnipeg, Centre for Rupertsland Studies, when I visited his Material Culture class. He seemed to think the dog hair worked OK, so I guess I’ll be finishing up the other fringe the same way.
Then on to swatch #5 which is the classic Assomption pattern. I’ve chosen a fine silk cord for this one, and hand dyed it. I find the silk much more slippery than the wool. A firm hand is required to keep things from getting out of hand.
Word from the Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum is that funding for the Advanced Fingerweaving Class has been approved. The advanced class now should be starting up the last weekend of March. The Musée has also been receiving requests for another beginner’s class, so that one may well be starting up in April.