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Sunday, January 5, 2014

2013: Studio in Review

 I noticed that Martha at  Thistle Rose Weaving has done a review of what she accomplished for the year and thought this was a fantastic idea! All those projects really add up and if they have been gifted or sold, a photographic line up is a nice reminder of what you made. So here's a review of what came off my looms in 2013.




Three scarves featuring silk / bleached camel warp and crossed with bronze bamboo, natural camel / silk blend and a fine tencel in white. Bronze one was sold right away...



Three scarves featuring a silk alpaca warp. First was snapped up by Bruce, the second was gifted to my brother Kent.  The third was woven with a fine black tencel weft and sold to a bride groom for a mid December wedding!



There was much cleaning and preening of the big loom which took considerable time!


Two scarves woven in a fine silk yak blend and a fine black silk for a classy herringbone twill. One for my Dad, the other... snaffled by Bruce (again)  


The studio was completely reorganized with new shelves..... and a big sell off of equipment and yarn on Ravelry's Warped Weavers Marketplace. Downsizing will continue this year with more books to go....



Two scarves woven in 100% tencel and featuring colour shifts from eggplant to olive.


More exploration of colour with two more scarves... again in tencel and this time featuring eggplant to teal. It was fun to have bright colours on the loom. One of these went to Switzerland!


A long runner in 16/2 mercerized cottons, featuring flax and indigo blue.....




Then a dabble into huck lace and softer colours, this time orchid tencel.






Then a dozen guest towels featuring mercerized cotton warp and bamboo weft, all with hemstitching.
Then in May we had a week to ten days away on vacation!



More towels but this time kitchen sized in a neat, almost 3D- like  12 shaft pattern. Cottolin warp and regular cotton weft.



More colour, but this time exploring with keeping an old 12 shaft tie up in place and playing with other threadings to see what I could come up with.  Rather successful combination!  Both scarves sold within twenty fours hours of listing....

We had a brief vacation to visit friends and family in July...


This was a painted skein of silk merino blend and woven with nutmeg brown dyed pure silk.... all from Germany, and sold back to Germany!



Then, I had a custom order for two silver and gray runners for a client in San Francisco.  (Could be another request coming from them again this year too). 



With Christmas starting to loom on the horizon, I wove two table runners in a deep bright red huck lace using a delightful French linen. Both sold and no doubt were featured this past holiday.



Two shawls in the successful colour combo that came back from the gallery sale. The navy / magenta one is now MINE... and the teal / magenta one went to Switzerland.


Using a repurposed warp from another project, I teamed the black tencel with a fine Persian red tencel.  This one stayed in Canada and was a Christmas gift in Ottawa, Ontario.


Its more sedate twin, featuring a silver tencel also put on some miles and went to Switzerland for Christmas.
(Then I had two weeks away on family business) 

Can you imagine how fun it would be to travel to hand deliver some of these to the customers? These were the destinations of sales from the items woven this year. (I had other sales but handwovens from the previous year).
  • Weaverville, California.
  • San Francisco, California
  • Folsom, Louisiana
  • Ottawa, Ontario.
  • Salmon Arm, BC.
  • Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
  • Riniken, Switzerland.
  • Rothenburg, Germany.
  • Bainbridge Island, Washington.
  • Homer, Arkansas.
  • Redwood City, California
Totals are:
  • scarves: 19 ( plus 3* more)
  • shawls: 2
  • runners: 5
  • guest towels: 12
  • kitchen towels: 9
I also have 3* additional scarves, woven in  late 2013 and finished in very early 2014.   Two more magenta and navy twill scarves (with one presold ) and one teal and magenta. Both are the same as those shown above.

So, all in all, a good year! I seem to favour scarves and hope to weave more towels these coming months. My weaving slowed as my knee became more cranky but I kept something going at all times.  There will be a fair sized interruption this year due to my coming knee replacement but I will resume when I can and use the treadling as 'exercise'  :)

Just a reminder that I have a blogiversary coming up on January 8th!  Leave a comment on this post, or my previous blog post and be entered for a draw to win a hemstitched guest towel, Be sure to leave some clear way to reach you. Please note that I have comment moderation turned on so your comment won't appear until I okay it to keep spam down.  It might be nice to add a comment what your weaving goals are for 2014 .... either projects or workshops.  Winner will be announced here on January 9th....



19 comments:

  1. Dear Susan,
    I would be oh so thrilled to be the lucky recipient of one of your towels. My weaving goals for 2014 are to do further exploration of Waffle Weave now that I have an 8 shaft loom, and to push beyond my confort zone. Focus on technique and developing my finishing skills are high up there as well. I have learned so much from your blog. Thank you! Laurie - lgervos@gmail.com

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  2. Thank you so much for keeping your blog--I love reading it. I'm such a beginning weaver that my main goal is to weave a lot of different things. So far that has been very successful! l.kluss at gmail dot com

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  3. Susan, what a wonderful full year of weaving you have accomplished. Each piece more lovely than the next!

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  4. The quantity of what you accomplish in a year is almost (but hard to meet) as impressive as the quality of what you produce. You can add Lancaster PA to you list, because I am thrilled beyond words to have one of those amazing, gorgeous red lace runners in my possession. My thoughts are with you as you begin another challenging year. I'm sure you will spend your non-weaving time working up pieces for the loom that will certainly make up for lost time. You're an amazing and inspirational weaver, Susan….and a lovely person to boot. May 2014 be a helpful, if not difficult year for you and Bruce.

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  5. A very productive year! The fuschia/teal shawl is gorgeous! I know its new owner must be enjoying it so very much.

    sue o
    sue3331@gmail.com

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  6. All of your hand woven items are beautiful!!!!! I use my own hand woven towels all the time and get so upset when I give them as a gift and people won't use them. For pity sake that's what they are for.

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  7. Linda....oops, I certainly didn't mean to forget Lancaster! I was using my list of sales from Etsy and of course our sale was private. Forgive me? :)

    I just plod away and certainly not fast, just consistent. I aim for no naked looms! They really do look pathetic with no warp on them :)

    Thanks everyone...
    Susan

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  8. Susan, your productivity is amazing with everything being such a lovely success! I aim for no naked looms but sadly life and work keep them with the same clothes for a long time. I don't give up and treadle as I can.

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  9. Hi Susan – it is amazing how “far and wide” across the world you beautiful weaving has gone. What a nice record to have of the work you did in 2012! You should be very pleased with yourself. I give you the “shuttle salute” for a job well done. All the best in 2014. Weaverly yours …….. Barbara

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  10. Susan, my day brightens considerably when I see "Thrums" in my email inbox! As a novice weaver taking classes at the local arts center, I'm inspired by your use of color and the fineness of your work. I love reading about your process and how you handle surprisees when things don't go quite as you expect. My goals for 2014 are to improve my weaving skills, to try my hand at some basic designing, and to acquire my own floor loom so that I can keep exploring on my own outside of class. Thanks! Peg - PS@PrancingOtter.com

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  11. Great idea-- to summarize all your projects for the year.
    I am just starting to do a blog and wish I had pictures of all my projects from the past year.

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  12. Just beautiful work. How I envy you your studio! I love the way you play with color and pattern. And how prolific....makes me itch to get back to work.

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  13. Oooooo...I'd LOVE to win one of your towels! As a regular reader, I am always impressed and inspired by your weaving.

    This year I plan to continue exploring clasped weft and expand my skills and designs in this area, plus meet my obligations for several custom baby wraps. I also want to get into 1-2 new shows, since I've dropped a big one. Increasing weaving income is always a goal.

    I think you can click on my name and reach me through gmail. If not, my business email is peg (at) handwovenscarves (dot) com.

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  14. Congratulations on the anniversary! I've enjoyed seeing your beautiful work throughout the years.

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  15. Your weaving is lovely-quite inspirational!

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  16. Wow!!!! Looking back on your past year's projects really is amazing. Your work is beautiful, and I would cherish anything that you've made.
    All the best to you in the new year!!!!
    twoguysandaloom@gmail.com

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  17. So much loving hard work has gone into your last year 2013! It's difficult to pick out a favourite.

    I must say that I truly loved the table runner in the indigo blue! Been looking for something for our dinning table as we have the Monet painting and a Persian glass bowl with deep richness of blue (indigo blue)and with our espresso brown colored table and picture frame.

    Looking forward to seeing what is coming up for 2014!

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  18. Such a lovely retrospective of 2013. I love seeing you work- so beautiful. Thanks for keeping this blog, and happy blogiversary.

    Lora

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Thank you for visiting... I love to hear from you! Sorry about the comment moderation but I will post them quickly. This is necessary to screen out some nasty spam. If you can't read the numbers in the little box, then click on the "circle with an arrow" and it will give you another. Keep trying until you get one you can read okay? If you wish a reply back from me then either check back here, or leave someway for me to contact you. My email address is available in my profile. Thanks for reading my blog, Susan