I grew up in a fiber-arts household and am a second-generation weaver, basket-maker, and fiber artist, and countless-generations-rich crocheter and knitter. My mother taught through the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, and across her ten-year stroll through an MFA in the Design Department, focusing on Textiles, at the University of Minnesota. The workshops she took and folks she studied with were in and out of our home, and she brought home her studies and allowed us to play along. Just as I learned ledger lines and page design and layout at her elbow as a child first learning my letters at all, so I was exposed to and began to soak up a love of fiber arts.
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Here is the first scarf I ever wove - it's Peruvian Alpaca in three natural colors, purchased at Depth of Field on Cedar Street in Minneapolis in about 1971; it was woven on a Kircher 16" rigid heddle frame loom. The shop Depth of Field is still there on Cedar just south of Riverside; the Weavers Guild of Minnesota moved from Como & Carter to Dania Hall just down the block from Cedar-Riverside, then to the Chittenden & Eastman Building on University just into St. Paul, and are now gladly housed in the Textile Center of Minnesota at 3000 University Avenue just into Minneapolis! I myself removed to California in 1993, and didn't come back to weaving again, except for my trusty inkle loom, until 1998. In 2006, however, a family owned loom followed me home, and I am now possessed of a 40-inch cherrywood Norwood four-harness floor loom, which is a joy to work with. Color has Arrived! |
 Plaid scarf, 1972. |
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My ongoing love-affair with the inkle loom continues, as I churn out straps for camping gear in cotton twine to fancy edge-trim in Manos del Uruguay heavy kettle-dyed wools for jacket facings. I wrote an article published in the Fall 2008 issue of the online weaving magazine, WeaveZine, which remains archived as a good how-to piece with pix, here. I'm a member of the Black Sheep Handweavers Guild that meets Third Thursdays on the Peninsula, and the fiber spinner's guild, Spindles & Flyers that meets last Sundays in El Cerrito. I gather with spinners on Monday nights at a friend's home. I weave in my home studio, and sell through art shows and occasionally at online galleries. I am available for cooperative study sessions and am plotting workshops here in my studio and beyond. I'm an active fan of the Knitting and Crochet social media website Ravelry that has incorporated weavers adn our projects since December, 2009 and am a delighted member of the community over at Weavolution
Check out WeaveZine, the online weaving magazine, and home of the WeaveCast internet radio program: Teaching Workshop in Handweaving, Pantheacon 2010. I put a small hands-on project into the hands of around 58 weavers at Pantheacon in February 2010, many tablet-weaving samplers and patch- or pocket- pieces on small cardboard looms went home with folks; we had three inkle looms, two table looms, and one woman brought her tapestry loom to warp up and troubleshoot. A nice taster, with contacts and info for folks to take away. Very satisfying. I gave a workshop on Beginning Frame Loom Weaving for Green Planet Yarn in Campbell, CA, 11 April, 2009, using (and selling!) the shop's four Glimåkra Emilia frame looms. I am available to teach beginning frame loom weaving as a one-day workshop, inkle loom basics as a four-hour workshop, and am open to individual or group tutoring, as well as collaborative projects and study sessions.
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Updated January 2009. Contents created, hand-coded, and Copyright ©2004-2010, Ruth Temple.
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