Upcoming Events & Teaching Dates
Sept. 8 - Oct 7, 2017: West Coast Fiber Arts Exhibit at the Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery, 262 East Grand Avenue, Escondido, CA . I was juror for this show and some of my works will be on display. There is concurrently a Designing Weavers exhibit in the gallery as well including my work. www.escondidoarts.org Gallery hours Tues 11am-5pm, Thurs-Sat 11am-4pm. Opening reception: Sept 9, 5:30-8pm.Sept 15: Lecture presentation to Bobbinwinders Guild in Covina,CA, on leno weaves: doup leno, bead leno and hand-manipulated.
Nov. 5, 2017: Southern California Handweavers' Guild Weaving & Fiber Festival at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, adjacent to 3341 Torrance Blvd., Torrance, CA. Demonstrations, fashion show, exhibits and fiber arts vendors.
Nov 18-19, 2017: Designing Weavers Art for the Home, Body, and Soul at the Sierra Madre Woman's Club, 550 West Sierra Madre Blvd, Sierra Madre, CA. 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday. Handwoven and fiber art clothing, home textiles, jewelry and more.
Dec 2-3, 2017: Holiday Artisan Faire at Chemers Gallery, 17300 Seventeenth St., Suite G, Tustin, CA.
Sprang: Contemporary Applications of an Ancient Technique
Sprang is a way of producing an elastic fabric that has been in the repertoire of makers in fiber for millennia. Deanna presents a lecture with slides, giving an overview of sprang, its structure and method of working, its prehistory and history as well as traditional uses, followed by a sampling of works by more recent and contemporary fiber artists working in sprang . The lecture will then turn to Deanna's own work, covering a progression of various ways to incorporate sprang with loom-weaving, and how she sets up and works the sprang on the loom.
Introduction to Sprang: Make a Sprang Pouch
Sprang is a stretchy fabric formed by twisting only warp threads, which are fixed at both ends. Deanna leads a 1/2, 1 or 1-1/2 day hands-on workshop resulting in a small bag formed of sprang fabric. Participants will learn how to distinguish sprang from other structures, prepare a warp on a simple frame loom (included in the workshop materials fee), perform the basic single sprang stitch with the hands/fingers and with a hook, make a looped mid-line closure, and stitch up the edges to create a pouch. The class will also cover tips on making the fabric even and how to watch for, recognize and correct mistakes. Students will have the option to start a second project using a different stitch or different yarns as time permits.
The Unwoven Warp: Layering Sprang on Woven Cloth
Learn to add sprang braided accents to your handwoven pieces by leaving some of the warp unwoven in select areas, using a modified twill structure that creates supplementary warps. Prerequisite: students should have some familiarity with working sprang. The workshop covers warping and tensioning the loom. An 8-shaft loom is preferred, though it is possible to use a 4-shaft loom with pickup technique. This is a one and a half to two and a half day workshop.
