Complex Weavers - All Weavers Welcome!

We stretch ourselves - and you!

News

WANTED Articles for Coming Issues of the CW Journal. Contact: Linda Davis, Editor, tomlin@bendcable.com. And see the Guidelines for Journal articles.

Suggestions? If you have suggestions or comments for Complex Weavers, the CW website, or the CW Board, please go to CW Suggestion Box and tell us about it.

Collingwood DVD's The 2-disk set is available from Marjie Thompson, email marjie@maine.rr.com. The price, including postage, is $18 within the US, $18.75 to Canada, $21 to Australia, and $20 to Europe. Prices for other countries will be according to shipping costs.

Temporary Address? When you relocate, even if only for part of the year, please e-mail the Membership Chair, Frances Alcorn, at alcorn@nwlink.com in order to update your information. Your doing this will help keep our CW Journal mailing costs down. For more information, see Bulletin Board/Announcements

This month's showcase

To Keep Them Sweet

In June, we showcase Michael Cook's "To Keep Them Sweet". Michael shows us that complex weaving need not take place on the usual loom. This work won the Complex Weavers' Award at the 2008 Dallas Handweavers and Spinners Guild. For further details, see the February 2009 Complex Weaver's Journal or Complex Weavers 2008 CW Awards, which include a detail of the moth and the actual quote used in the ribbon. Michael writes: " The draft for this [tablet-woven] piece is entirely original. Because of the technique, the threading is very simple, all tablets being threaded with 2 black and 2 golden threads. All the work is done following detailed charts which I designed. I created the lettering based on 14th century Textura Quadrata, and I designed the brocade pattern for the moth after an illustration in Luther Hooper's Silk, Its Production and Manufacture. "...This ribbon celebrates the humble silk worm and the amusing lengths that seventeenth-century Englishmen went to in their efforts to raise them. The ribbon is fgured with text along its length, and at either end where it adjoins the medallion, decorated with a brocade image of a Bombyx silk moth. The ribbon is decorated with glass beads, and the ends are joined to bronze cast leaves and attached with jump rings to the medallion. " Used by permission. This is the eighty-fifth item in our showcase of what members are doing. Watch this space - something else will be here around the first week of July, 2009. To see the items previously showcased, click Showcase

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CW Suggestion Box

Is it for .... You?

• If you want to learn more about weaving that is exciting, challenging, and complex, this is the group for you. Complex Weavers is open to anyone with a curiosity to know and a willingness to share.

• Journal, published three times a year, allows members to share their ideas and studies.
• A Membership Directory, published every other year, lists members' addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, equipment and areas of interest. This allows for easy contact and exchange of ideas.
• The Library has an extensive collection of books, manuscripts, and samples which members may borrow by mail. A Library List is sent to members every two years.
• Study groups and Sample Exchanges are an ongoing and vital part of Complex Weavers. They are self organized and financed and produce samples, newsletters or other materials for exchange among members. More groups are formed as demand arises. A Study Group Guide is published every two years, with updates between. See our Study Group List for a listing of all study groups and a description of each.

It is for .... Us:

• Promoting complex weaving through education, information, and technology related to complex weave structures.
• Inspiring through research, documentation, and innovative ideas.
• Encouraging members to discover and develop their own unique and creative ideas.
• Supporting the continuous exchange and sharing of ideas.
• Asking why it works and finding other ways to make it work.
• Being committed to enthusiasm, excellence and expertise
• Challenging and stimulating through an extensive library, numerous study groups, swatch exchanges and informative seminars.

• "Complex. The word can be scary. Many weavers shy away from weaving when associated with this word. Why? In weaving, complex does not have to be defined as difficult. I consider complexity better defined as a degree of depth as opposed to a degree of difficulty."
  ---Su Butler, Understanding Rayon Chenille. Butlerdidit! Press, Woodstock, IL (2002); p 73.
• For more quotes on what "complex" means to various members, go to Complex Weavers Thoughts about Complexity

Other Activities

• Regional Meetings are held throughout the world through the efforts of the Regional Representatives. These Representatives are just a few of the people who volunteer to make the organization work for you.
• Awards Program is designed to recognize excellence in complex weaving at juried shows.
• Complex Weavers Seminar is a three-day conference held in even-numbered years that further encourages exchange of information and formation of many friendships. The next Seminar will be held in the summer, 2010, somewhere in the western USA.

Join us!

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Update: Wednesday, June 10, 2009