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Please see our events page
Please see our events page
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Library Books
Please click the links below to see which book titles we have to borrow (still in progress)
Information on local weaving, spinning and dyeing groups
SOME OF THE EVENTS WE HAVE HELD OR TAKEN PART IN, OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS
DEVON COUNTY SHOW 2023
One jumper and a Modesty Covering Skirt/Wrap and only in 3 days!
Well done to the Amazing team who gave it their all!
Too many of our fantastic members to mention but would like to also thank Peter Tavy and Somerset spinners gave us huge support. The knitter Dee, (not Amanda as I called her on the news!) must have knitted her fingers to the bone!
The usual suspects from Devon Guild turned up and I think we all had an amazing time, lots of fun and a serious amount of spinning, chatting to the public and giving many an impromptu spinning lesson.
Thank you everyone for all your amazing hard work and being such a pleasure to be with.
Day One of Devon County Show
The Red(ish) Results Are In!
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Here are the results from April's continuation into dyeing. The pinks and purples were created from cochineal. The orange shades were from onion overdyed with cochineal. what a stunning variety of shades created from this amazing techniques! |
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Skills Evaluation 2023
The whole competition reinforced my belief in the amazing and diverse skills of which our group are capable.
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Buckfast Abbey Contemporary Exhibition 2022
The Medieval Hall at Buckfast Abbey again provided a wonderful backdrop to celebrate our ancient crafts. Despite the passage of time and modern adaptations to our equipment and fashions we still mostly follow a very traditional path.
The guild has been running since 1951 and that too has evolved over the years into the lively band that frequent it today. Despite the spinning, chatting, cake eating and tea drinking the exhibition shows that there are many wonderfully creative people amongst us who provided displays of dyeing, weaving, peglooming, all stages of wool preparation and many more skills we encouraged our visitors to engage in.
The uplifting and positive responses we had from our many and varied visitors made all our efforts worthwhile which has left me feeling enthusiastic about our next event in two years time.
The guild has been running since 1951 and that too has evolved over the years into the lively band that frequent it today. Despite the spinning, chatting, cake eating and tea drinking the exhibition shows that there are many wonderfully creative people amongst us who provided displays of dyeing, weaving, peglooming, all stages of wool preparation and many more skills we encouraged our visitors to engage in.
The uplifting and positive responses we had from our many and varied visitors made all our efforts worthwhile which has left me feeling enthusiastic about our next event in two years time.
The centre piece of our guilds history is two altar pieces commissioned by Exeter Cathedral in 1982. By 1984 the guild members had sourced the best fleeces, prepared the fleeces, spun, dyed, designed, made tapestry frames and made the tapestry. Not to be left out the the loom weavers also sourced and wove the appropriate materials needed to proved a strong but light, protective backing cloth. A feat that I, as present chair, have nightmares about.
The absolute cream on the cake was to be able to reunite the designer of these tapestries, Pat Johns, with them and despite the passing of time and the effects that has had on her, I think we can safely say she was overjoyed by the occasion.
The absolute cream on the cake was to be able to reunite the designer of these tapestries, Pat Johns, with them and despite the passing of time and the effects that has had on her, I think we can safely say she was overjoyed by the occasion.
Great Success at the Mid Devon Show!
Well done to our our fabulous member on their successful day at Mid Devon show. Such a fabulous display of their beautiful efforts won them not one but two trophies! Go to our weaving, spinning and dyeing galleries on the home page to see pictures from the show. But before you do check out the sneak peak below to see what they won!
Dyeing with Nature
What a truly wonderful dyeing day. Sheilagh is an excellent teacher and brought out the magic of using natural dyes.
We started out the day experimenting using cochineal, dyers coreopsis, weld and madder. After an initial demonstration we were soon left to explore through our own creativity. Hapa Zome was also on the cards, as we bashed indigo leaves to dye the cloth. The patterns that it created were beautiful!
As the day progressed we moved onto modifiers which reacted with the initial dyes we were using. These included iron, copper, bicarbonate of soda and citric acid. This created some of beautiful range of colours you see in the images above.
For me, the real wow moment was dying with indigo. We spent the afternoon using silks and wool and carefully plunging them into the indigo dyes. The real life magic was watching the colour changing before our eyes! It was incredible to see the whole group so invested in their work and to see the group collection of colours at the end was breath taking.
Look out for one of Sheilagh’s Natural Dyeing Days advertised on our website, facebook page and at guild meetings. They certainly come highly recommended!
They are also highly sort after so it is best to book early to avoid disappointment.
We started out the day experimenting using cochineal, dyers coreopsis, weld and madder. After an initial demonstration we were soon left to explore through our own creativity. Hapa Zome was also on the cards, as we bashed indigo leaves to dye the cloth. The patterns that it created were beautiful!
As the day progressed we moved onto modifiers which reacted with the initial dyes we were using. These included iron, copper, bicarbonate of soda and citric acid. This created some of beautiful range of colours you see in the images above.
For me, the real wow moment was dying with indigo. We spent the afternoon using silks and wool and carefully plunging them into the indigo dyes. The real life magic was watching the colour changing before our eyes! It was incredible to see the whole group so invested in their work and to see the group collection of colours at the end was breath taking.
Look out for one of Sheilagh’s Natural Dyeing Days advertised on our website, facebook page and at guild meetings. They certainly come highly recommended!
They are also highly sort after so it is best to book early to avoid disappointment.
Devon County Show is a Huge Success!
Well done to all those who have helped to create a fantastic display of our guild's work and skills at this years Devon County Show. The Chair Person wanted to give a quick update and also spin you an idea...
Yesterday, we had such an amazing day at Devon County Show! The whole thing about it was so healthy, normal and very exciting and I came away thinking I haven’t laughed as much as that since pre covid, and with added sheep.
What a wonderful day.
The converse of that was the updates I had through the day. My son had been running an ultra marathon up and down Snowdon and at the end of the day we both felt the same except I had fewer blisters (must spin faster).
At one point I was in general conversation with the most delightful family who had paid £5 for a fleece they had just seen shorn and discovered the fleece was worth virtually nothing. So we’ve ended up with yet another fleece to clean, spin, design and knit a jumper for a substantially built young man. I’m hoping to finish it in time for him to wear to his wedding, which I do believe he’s the sort who would.
This got me thinking and the next Chairs Challenge is to take a fleece from the start of shearing to finished garment in less than 4 hours 54 minutes and 53 seconds. Current world record.I don’t mind if you work in groups but seriously recommend you chose a good fleece at next weeks fair to start practicing on and hone your skills as Devon County Show has been moved back to May next year.Sadly as judge I’m unable to take part but wish you all gods speed and happy if not frantic spinning and knitting.
Good luck!
Find out other's feedback to this idea on our facebook chat along group. Click the facebook icon above for direct access!
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