Jurying the Weavers' Guild of Boston Show

So, yesterday's jurying experience was fantastic!

The amount of handwoven items was unbelievable - when I first saw the sign-up sheet for the jury, I was surprised at how many people were acting as jurors. Now I see why! The only way to get through everything in a three or four hour time frame was to have about 10 teams of jurors going over items...

My partner and I only got through three people's work - we did get one of the *very* prolific weavers, though, who does really beautiful work. (And I can't remember her name, argh, I can't believe it! I'll find it and post it here - with some photos of her work, too.) She works mostly with rayon chenille, done in plain weave, with supplemental warps of novelty fibers (ribbons, boucle, etc.).

It's her color sense that makes her work special - just out of this world beautiful combinations of color in her warps, where practically every thread in a scarf, e.g., is different from the one next to it. And to top it all off, she dyes most of her own yarn. Wow!

Her art-to-wear coats were fabulous - I tried a couple on, how fun! My jurying partner was like - "you *have* to have that coat, it's fantastic on you" - tunic length, with wide sleeves, fantastic antique/ethnic buttons, etc., I can't really describe it. $1200. Eeks. Definitely a fair price for the amount of work that went into the item - but at this point in my life, $1200 would buy a whole heck of a lot of yarn! LOL. Maybe someday... I would absolutely *love* to have lots and lots of extra money to spend on things like that, and to support artists. (Buy Handmade!)

** Edited to add - hooray for people with better memories for names than me! :) Maureen identified my mystery weaver for me - Barbara Willis. I do believe she also shows her work at the Cambridge Artists Cooperative gallery in Harvard Square, as well. (59A Church Street, Cambridge, MA). Thank you! **

I completely forgot to bring my camera. Duh. I am hoping to scoot down for part of the sale tomorrow before it's over, though, so I'll bring my camera then and take some pictures and get them on line.

The variety of the work was astounding - and very inspirational! You'd think that after my mad rush of weaving/finishing/getting ready for this sale, I'd take a night off... But, nope, I spent the evening warping some merino yarn I dyed a while ago to give a Wall of Troy twill scarf a whirl, just to see how it comes out.