It's been a busy month at MSW!

Well despite the frigid temperatures and snow storm after snow storm, we have had an unbelievably busy and productive February. Every loom was full and as you can see below in the photos, lots of beautiful projects were woven. Our most exciting news is that we are now exploring warp painting, thanks to Dosia Sanford's impetus and although we still have alot to learn we are making some headway. Her second project was much more successful then the first and after a brief time away in March, she will come back to pursue more painting on fine wool. Stay tuned. We had three new students join us - Emily Falta from Cabot, Nancy Hart from Tunbridge and Karen Parsons from PA. Along with our monthly regulars we had an old former student - Sue Cain - return after 30 years and another former student - Taylore Grymonnt - came to weave throws. Our new work study student - Lesley Finneran from NYC finished her first month and will be staying on for a second month to complete more of the Dowry Textiles. Quite a busy month!

Taylore Grymonnt was back this month to weave throws and baby blankets.

The finished throws in Taylore's unique style of multi-colored stripes.

Sue Carpenter moved on from being our Eaton Hill trim weaver to doing some cotton
napkins for herself.

Close-up of the fabric.

Or they might also make a nice scarf!

Neighbor Emily Falta was here to weave her first wool throw.

Karen Parsons drove all the way from Pittsburgh to weave a wool throw
and a set of Summer-Winter placemats….in one week!

Our second work study student of the winter - Lesley Finneran -
weaving cotton towels.

Lesley is working on Dowry textiles as her focus and here is her
finished summer blanket/winter sheet.

One of our busy Monday lunchs!

Rose Diamond stopped by one day to show off her handspun, handwoven,
hand sewn tweed coat…and matching hat!

Sandra, Susan and Lesley checking out Lesley's overshot fabric.

Dosia and Lesley setting up our first painted warp.

The painted design for Dosia's rug.

Weaving the warp painted rug.

Dosia's second project for a 10/2 cotton shawl.

Detail of the set up.

The finished piece….not too bad for a second attempt.

Nancy Hart over from Tunbridge weaving cotton towels.

And former student from 30 years ago - Sue Cain - weaving M's & O's linen.

Our first winter work study student - Kristen Rosser

We started off our winter season of work study students with Kristen Rosser form Phila., PA. She was a recent graduate of Tyler Art School in Philadelphia, looking to hone her textile skills. It wasn't until some weeks into the session that we found out how Kristen makes a living - shearing sheep….and what she likes to do in her spare time - swing dancing! For her project focus, Kristen decided to explore different clothing fabrics that she could sew with and she started out with a beautiful piece of Scottish style tweed. She then moved on to a 5 Shaft Cotton Spot Weave and then finished up with a fine cotton shirt fabric in four beautiful colors. In between all those, she also hand dyed some wool gleaned from her shearing jobs and wove a warp of a three color twill. All in all, a very productive four weeks!

Kristen threading her Spot Weave.

Winding Bobbins.

Justin and Kristen tying up the Spot Weave.

The fabric!

Cutting off the finished fabric.

The hand dyed yarn for the throws.

The finished throws.

16/2 Cotton Shirt Fabric.

Getting started on the Shirt Fabric.

Close- up of the Shirt Fabric.

How Kristen makes her living!

Celebrating the Dishtowel Exhibit - Dec. 2014

Last summer the school was asked to exhibit the work of our staff and students
at our local Marshfield library and we thought that the humble dishtowel
would be the perfect medium to show how incredibly versatile they really are.

The reason's why weaving dishtowels is important…thought it might be more legible.

The upstairs reading room at the Jacquith Library where the show was hung.

From the left - Norman's tartan and striped towel, Kate's ikat and calimanco
striped towels and Lynnette's herringbone towel.

L to R - Kate's houndstooth, Debroah Livington's plain weave, Norman's plain weave,
Deborah Bede's huck, Susan Osterman's huck, Jacques Tremblay's cottonlin twill.

L to R - The edge of Taylore Grymonnt's twill, Norman's striped twill and two
of Jacques Tremblay's cottolin twill.

L to R - Ada Schenk's twill, Jane Quimby's striped twill, Rose Diamond's
three shaft twill and Pat Mayhew's  M's & O's.

Zoe Sheehan Saldana's reproduction of a towel from Ikea (in photograph) which
she wove and then replaced at the store.

Norman's first dishtowel, woven 60 years ago.

Kate's first dishtowel woven in 1982 and still used in the MSW dye-room.

A collection of Norman's early linen towels.

L to R - Kate's linen 8 shaft turned twill, Jane Quimby's Shibori towel, Stevie
Spencer's Overshot towel.

The night of the opening we had over 50 people….and lots of good food!

Ada's mother - Melaine Viet admiring her daughter's handiwork.

Three generations of dishtowel weavers - Justin Squizzero, Kate Smith and Norman Kennedy.

Norman singing songs and telling stories to a very rapt crowd.

November projects….

November was a quiet month at the school but there were still wonderful projects that came off the looms. We also had two waulkings, thanks to Norman, which was a nice way to spend a few afternoons when the weather was cold and stormy outside.  The first was for our 13 year old apprentice, Ada Schenk, who wove a piece of tweed for a jacket and the other was for Norman's friend Weldon, who came all the way out from Colorado to weave a Scottish wedding blanket.  Weldon also wove a piece of fine linen for shirting and all is just two weeks!
Our neighbor and Shibori instructor, Jane Quimby, was here to try weaving for the first time on a length of dishtowels and our monthly student, Sandra Robinson also wove a warp of towels for our dishtowel exhibit - "Celebrating the Dishtowel".  Another of our montly students, Jerusha Fox, finished her length of tweed and Susan Osterman wove a warp of Venetian carpeting for two of her children who are getting married this year.
Stay tuned for our next blog on the infamous dishtowel exhibit!

Jane Quimby working on a dishtowel warp.

Jane cutting off her towels.

The finished warp.

Sandra's dishtowels for the dishtowel exhibit.

Melanie Viet and son Ezra here to waulk Ada's tweed.

Waulking Ada's tweed. 

Ada, mom Melanie, and Ezra.

Rolling up the finished tweed.

Jerusha Fox with her tweed just off the loom.

Susan's warp faced carpet warp.

Weldon weaving his Scottish wedding blanket.

Another waulking of Weldon's double bed blanket.

Norman and Weldon with the finished blanket.