THIS CLASS IS FULL!
If you'd like to be added to the wait list, in case someone is not able to make it, give the shop a call.
Monday + Tuesday, October 28th & 29th - 9:00am-4:30pm
The ancient craft of backstrap weaving is still practiced by many indigenous weavers across the world today. The loom, which comprises nothing more than a set of simple sticks, allows a weaver to produce anything from narrow simple bands to wide pieces of cloth covered with complex pick up patterns.
In this two-day workshop, students will start out on pre-warped looms to learn the basics of backstrap loom operation in which the weaver uses movements of his/her own body to adjust tension and open the sheds. The weaver is the loom! Other skills include making continuous string heddles, sword management and inserting the weft correctly to create even selvedges.
We will weave plain-weave bands and then quickly progress to learning the principles of complementary-warp pick-up patterning using the patterns that are typically learned by young weavers of Andes. These principles will then be applied to wider warps that the participants will themselves create allowing them to advance to more complex patterns.
Students should have some weaving experience.
Cost is $225 plus a $10 materials fee to be paid directly to Laverne.
Please bring: a pair of metal C-clamps, scissors, a pencil and eraser, note-taking materials, and a lunch.
About Laverne:
Laverne Waddington has been learning to weave on simple looms with indigenous teachers in SouthAmerica since 1996. In her home in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, she draws on ethnic design influences from around the world to create pieces on a backstrap loom using the various techniques and structures she has studied in South and Central America as well as with backstrap weavers from Vietnam and
Mayanmar.
In 2010 she published her first book on one of her favorite warp-faced patterning techniques, Andean Pebble Weave which was followed by More Adventures in Warp-faced Pick-up Patterns in 2012. In 2017 she released her first instructional dvd on Operating a Backstrap Loom followed by her third instructional book Complementary-warp Pick-up. An accompanying pattern book to the 2017 publication was published in early 2018. In 2019 she published a manual on eye-patterned tubular bands as well as instructions for Andean Pebble Weave on inkle looms.
Her articles on backstrap weaving and indigenous textiles have appeared in Handwoven magazine and Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot as well as in the published proceedings of the 2012 and 2016 Braid Society conferences. Her work has also appeared in Spin Off.
She has shared her skills and experiences with many visitors to Bolivia over the years and now reaches a global audience with her weaving tutorials and travel tales on her blog. She provides online advice and support to weavers through forums such as Ravelry and teaches and speaks at guilds and textile conferences around the world.
