December 2021 Newsletter

​(Fiber) Community Connections

Last week, three awesome and lovely Whatcom Weavers Guild members spent the morning sorting magazines upstairs in the Maple Street Studio. The Guild has an extensive collection of Handwoven Magazines, dating from 1981 through 2019. Moving them from the church had upset the chronological order quite a bit. We now know fully what we have, have a list of which issues are missing, and the collection is shelved in order by year! We have a printed index for every article published between 1980 and 2000. Online indexes are available for the years since then.

Of course, the four of us did take short breaks to look at an issue when a cover caught our eye! Tapestry, twill, music as inspiration for weaving. Variations on the infinite themes of fiber, color, structure, surface design and embellishment. Even though we have the internet as a resource now, many of us prefer to look at the printed copies. As a Guild, we can support and share this resource!

A question of what to do about the older magazines, preceding Handwoven, came up. We have Handweaver & Craftsman Magazine from 1960 through 1970. The photos are in black and white, and the articles rather different from the mostly project-based publications we are used to. Are they of any interest to our generation(s) of contemporary handweavers? Flipping open a random issue, an article on designing double weave advanced both my understanding of the weave structure and our connection with mid-20th century handweavers weavers, quite serious about advancing and sharing their craft. It’s fun to look at the historic advertisements too and think that these publications were the weavers’ information network of their day.

Another member dropped by to donate three cones of weaving yarn for our monthly giveaway “goodie Bags” and left with a book from the library. She also recommended a book to me, which we have in the library, that I was not familiar with, and promised to write a review for the newsletter!
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After almost two years of caution and restrictions, I am so proud that our Guild has not withered but grown! Thank you all for sharing your skills, your questions, your enthusiasm and photos of your work. Our December program will feature what we all have been doing, and I can’t wait to see it!

Warmly,
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Carol Berry
WWG President
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