Beth & Tom Poirier
JUNE 3-5, 2022
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
For Beginners
Course Fee: $275
Class Capacity: 9
Artist Statement
A mother/son team, we weave on traditional manually-operated looms. Using cotton, linen and other natural fibers, our textiles are functional and luxurious.
About the Instructors
As a child, Tom learned the craft of weaving from his mother, Beth Poirier. He rediscovered weaving as an adult, and was captivated by the complexity, technicality, breadth, and expressive possibilities it offers. He enjoys making functional textiles like towels and scarves, as well as more esoteric things made with unusual materials like hair-fine metal wire and tiny LEDs.
Beth took her first weaving class in Alaska in 1981, and trained at the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts. She started making towels as samples for clothing, then decided to focus on them because of the daily pleasure of using something beautiful, functional, and long-lasting.
Website: www.bethpoirier.com
Website: www.tompoirier.com
Email: beth@bethpoirier.com
Course Description
It’s unusual for us to give much thought to the origins of fabric we use every day. Jeans and dishtowels and rugs come from the store, right? There’s a change of perspective that happens when a person learns about weaving, when the sheets on the bed cease to be a single flat object and instead become many thousands of tiny individual threads, each precisely intersecting and interacting with thousands of other threads.
“The web” as weavers call it. Weaving is a complex craft to learn, with an intimidating number of preparatory steps before getting to the actual weaving part. We’ll walk through each stage hands-on, using the simplest tools and techniques, to develop an intuitive understanding of how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
This is an in depth course constructed to introduce all of the elements involved in making woven textiles. Students will learn to interpret and create weaving patterns, then work through the process of transferring a design from concept to the loom, and finally the techniques and skills of actually weaving the project you've prepared.
Students will gain a hands-on working knowledge of yarns, looms, weave structures, project planning, and loom set-up. With practice, one can use these skills to create almost any kind of woven fabric.
Course Details
** Please note this course has been cancelled. Please click here to browse other amazing courses and workshops in beautiful Parrsboro, Nova Scotia!
Day one:
After covering some weaving history, we’ll tale a look at different kinds of cloth, looms, and yarn. Then we’ll dive right in and work through the steps of choosing and planning several weaving projects, and begin setting up the looms.
Day two:
We will continue setting up our looms, and then get started on the actual weaving, as well as experimenting with different tools, yarns, and patterns.
Day three:
We will continue weaving, and go over various techniques for turning raw cloth into finished items.
Supplies to bring
Good sharp scissors
Notebook and pen/pencil
Recommended but not essential:
iWeaveit software
Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler
Mastering Weave Structures by Sharon Alderman
COVID- 19 Notice
Should our country still be gripped by COVID-19, Art Lab will only persist in offering our calendar of courses as common sense and regulatory recommendations dictate. If courses must be cancelled registrations will be refunded in full. The personal security of students and instructors is paramount.
HOW TO REGISTER WITH ART LAB
Contact Art Lab to ensure there is still room in the course. If there is a space in the course for you, we will ask you for payment via e-transfer or cash. If you would like to pay via credit card, please note there is an additional 4% transaction fee. Please indicate if you would like to pay by cheque and we will do our best to accommodate.
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Cancellation PolicyIf for any reason the participant wishes to cancel prior to two weeks before the commencement of the course, the full fee minus a 10% service fee will be refunded. Please note that there will be no refunds if the participant cancels within two weeks of the commencement of the course.