Culture Days 2017 – Weaving Past & Present

Weaving Past and Present is this year’s Broadway Avenue Culture Days Hub theme. Taking place on Saturday, September 30, 2017 from 10 am to 5 pm at the Saskatchewan Craft Council, Handmade House, and Clay Studio Three in Saskatoon. Please join us! These activities are on a drop-in basis, and are FREE! Everyone is welcome!

The theme, Weaving Past and Present, was inspired by the SCC Gallery exhibition that opens September 16. Prairie Woven – From Utilitarian Roots to Contemporary Art features contemporary and historical fibre works and demonstrations by the Saskatoon Spinners & Weavers Guild, as well as historical information and artifacts that reflect the importance of the Searle Grain Company weaving initiative to the daily lives of prairie women and their families in the 1940s.

“The Searle Grain Company weaving courses, offered free of charge to farm women, were held in communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and to a lesser extent in Manitoba from about 1942 to 1944. The idea behind the courses was to ‘improve the home life’ of farm women and to teach them a skill that could be used both to offset the need to purchase textiles and to potentially generate income” (Source). We wish to introduce the techniques of spinning and weaving to the public and hope to help participants gain understanding and insight into the work in the exhibition.

Saskatchewan Craft Council Gallery

SCC Gallery (813 Broadway Avenue) will feature artist Shelley Hamilton and other artists from the Saskatoon Spinners and Weavers Guild. There will be three different weaving and spinning activities – appropriate for a variety of ages:

  • Teaching people the basics of weaving using small popsicle stick looms. This is an appropriate task for older children and adults. The looms will be pre-strung and the public will be invited to weave threads and various fibres through the loom.
  • For younger children, they will have a sheep frame cut out of cardboard. The little frames are intended to be woven. The participants will insert fleece into holes in the template to build a fluffy sheep.
  • For their last activity, the artists will demonstrate spinning using a makeshift portable spinner apparatus. The portable spinners are made using a dowel and a CD, and participants will be taught how to spin wool into yarn.

Handmade House

Handmade House (710 Broadway Avenue) will have artists Heike Fink and Winston Quan leading activities outside the store, under canopies:

  • Heike will be leading a collaborative weaving/woven art piece project. The piece will be in a wooden frame and will be approximately 180 cm high x 50 cm wide. You are invited to weave in the collaborative project using different kinds of fibre, mostly wool and other natural materials (willow, driftwood, flowers, etc.) following a pattern mapped out by Heike. The completed piece will be displayed outside Handmade House.
  • Winston Quan, a jewellery artist, will be leading a braiding and beading bracelet activity. Participants will make a bracelet by braiding and tying the cord and threading on 1 to 3 beads each.

Clay Studio Three

Two artists from Clay Studio Three (#3 – 527 Main Street) will conduct an all-day hands-on workshop in the store in introducing the public to working with clay. Participants will be able to experience the joy of doing a piece of pottery (using air dry clay) which they will be able to take home with them to use.

  • In conjunction with the weaving theme of the hub this year, CS3 will be doing small lattice work plates, the creation of which incorporates a weaving technique.