This Friday, about half the UK contingent of Complex Weavers gathered for a study day with Jennifer Moore in central London.  Jennifer is over in the UK to teach a series of workshops on double cloth for both Handweavers Studios and also the Handweavers Studio Diploma.  Jennifer is a highly accomplished double cloth weaver from Sante Fe, New Mexico, and had a stunning exhibition at the 2010 HGA Convergence which was at Albequerque, New Mexico.  She focuses on beautiful artistic work using double cloth pick-up – a laborious, time-consuming and intensive technique allowing her to place her designs exactly where she wants them whilst continuing to use a shaft loom to give her basic blocks.  The colours she uses are vibrant, in 5/2 perle cotton and the work really shimmers as she combines close hues to give extra depth and zingyness (professional term!!)

Jennifer agreed to give a special condensed version of her ‘Beyond the Basics’ double cloth workshop for the UK Complex Weavers group whose experience of double cloth is quite varied.  Starting with the basics, she ensured that everyone had the ground knowledge before going on to show different ways of developing designs on 4 and 8 shafts.   It was interesting to see a different way of describing and working out double cloth and I hadn’t realised that overshot threadings could also be used for double cloth designs.  I find overshot patterns to be incredibly versatile in the techniques that I use, but this was an unexpected aspect that has me thinking in a slightly different way.

It’s not often that the UK Complex Weavers get the opportunity to meet up, and this was a wonderful opportunity to meet up with some weavers that I had not met before, and to catch up with familiar friends!  Quite a few of us will be going to Complex Weavers Seminars in September in Washington DC which will be lovely!

A huge thanks to Wendy Morris for arranging the study day, and to Jennifer for agreeing to compact her normal teaching programme into just one day.  If you want to see some of Jennifer’s pieces in person, you have until Wednesday to visit Handweavers Studio and Gallery in Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park!

Enjoy!