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| Barbara Herbster, one of the instigators of the Boston Bra Project, wears her handwoven bra during a guild presentation. |
The Weavers’ Guild of Boston wins Handwoven’s first FUZ-E $500 Award
One of the largest, longest-established guilds in the country has created an event that is both BRAiny and BRAve. Noting that some of their nearly 300 members, including two past Deans, are breast cancer survivors, the guild set out to create a fanciful exhibit of, yes, handwoven bras! The event’s goal is to generate publicity and funds for cancer research, to highlight the caring, creative nature of guild life, and to show handweaving as a modern, living, and lively art form.
Burlington Handweavers & Spinners win Handwoven’s FiberHearts $500 Award
Inspired by a lecture given by a local textile artist and professor lamenting the lack of studio space for graduates, the Burlington Guild started a weaver-in-residence program. The guild has a beautiful studio in the Burlington Art Centre located in Burlington, Ontario. A win-win for guild and guest artist, the artist agrees to have an open studio policy and act as a weaving ambassador to the general public. In addition to the $500 cash award to support this innovative program, the first weaver-in-residence, Laura Marotta, who is studying Fine Art at the University of Guelph, will receive fifty minicones from Halcyon Yarn’s Signature Yarn line to keep the guild’s looms warped
and ready.
The Weavers Guild of Greater Baltimore maintains its own weaving school! Twice a year the guild offers a six-week beginning weaving class at the Bloomsbury Community Center. To support the task of winding bobbins for all those students and in honor of its sixtieth anniversary, the guild is awarded a Golding bobbin winder.
The Alpine Weavers and Spinners Guild of Kalispell, Montana, bought a used table loom many years ago to lend to new weavers who join the guild. The guild also hosts many innovative community demonstration programs using this loom, including weaving with recycled T-shirts. To support these activities, the guild will receive a brand new Jane table loom from Louet.
Woodstock Weavers Guild in Harvard, Illinois, is a relatively new guild (formed in 1997). Woodstock weavers have provided weaving support and outreach to an area that previously did not have an organized community of weavers. They will receive a beautiful Kessenich table loom to support their programs.
Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati is celebrating a sixtieth anniversary. With over two hundred members, this guild has added fifty-five of them in just this last year! The guild has a permanent home where members will put their new Flip loom, awarded by Schacht Spindle Company, to good use.
The Chilliwack Spinners and Weavers Guild in Chilliwack, British Columbia, is a small guild with a big heart. The guild’s Scarf City exhibit was featured in the May/June 2008 issue of Handwoven (page 24). Chilliwack Spinners and Weavers will receive a complement of small portable looms to use for weaving demonstrations, including a Schacht inkle loom sponsored by Bountiful, a J.K. Seidel tape loom, a Journey Loom from Weaving A Life, and a Good Wood peg loom. |
