My Celia Quinn Workshop Experience -- A Prelude: the Materials List....

A Prelude to My Celia Quinn Overview....

I've thought about how to present all the information in my blog 'journal' of my Celia Quinn Silk Spinning Workshop experience.  I think the best way to organize this information is to give you my prelude (below), followed by a class overview, and then breaking up 'what I've learned' into individual sections in separate blog postings.  Otherwise, my already effusive writing could become an epic! So....




...this was the class description that lured me in, with excitement about experiencing silk and blending it other fibers - namely my beloved alpaca...
Pikes Peak Guild: Silk Spinning with Celia Quinn

"Immerse yourself in luxurious silk, as we spin many forms of the fiber from smooth and lustrous top, and the exotic blends with other fibers, to the extremely long caps and hankies, as well as the textured carded silks, and the shortest form, silk noil.  Expand cocoons to make squares of silk called Mawata, traditionally used for batting in Japan.  Dye silk caps and hankies for different color effects.  Experience the wonder of reeling a sheer thread from cocoons.  Lectures include fiber properties, sericulture, care of silk, and spider silk.

Celia has taught workshops extensively across the U.S. since 1983.  She knits, weaves and crochets, with an emphasis on garments and household textiles.  She has spun everything from rope to sub-sewing thread, and still holds Spin-Off Magazine’s fine spinning record for cotton at approximately 83,000 yards per pound.  Her thoughts on spinning can be found in many back issues of Spin-Off.  She calls Alaska home."

So, I jumped on board and signed up.  I was then sent the somewhat daunting material list.  I'll be honest, I had second thoughts about whether I should be signed up for this class.  Maybe I should stop a moment and explain my level of experience with spinning....  I have some self-taught experienced birthed by my innate curiosity, stubbornness, and frugality.  You see, my husband had often said he would like to have a spinning wheel.  I said I did not have time to spin - I don't have time to crochet let alone prep the fiber we have to spin.  But, Father's Day arrived and I had the perfect gift.  But, after he spent a frustrating night mangling some of our better alpaca fiber (argh) and set it aside, it sat and sat on my desk.  I looked at just about each night, and then finally decided *I* would try to spin.  I cleverly used the wool roving that was generously given to us with the wheel, rather than trying to figure out prep/carding as well.  But, I had a smashingly clumsy and frustrating time as well.  But, that's where my stubbornness and frugality come in.  I could not let this expensive thing just *sit* there!! So, I've kept at it.  Now, to shorten an already too long story, I have a passing expertise, augmented by book learning and the 'school of hard knocks'.  I decided I could probably keep up and I would certainly further propel my spinning skills as well as learn more about silk....

Student Materials List

• Treadle wheel (have one bobbin wound ½ full if you have a Louet, or other wheel with a strong pull…it reduces drag on fine yarns. You could also put a piece of foam pipe insulation on the bobbin’s core, and tie a leader to it for the same effect. Or use a fat core bobbin if you have one.)
• Oil for wheel
• Small, smooth niddy noddy (preferably one that has a pin for collapsing it)
• Carders (cotton carders, if possible)
• plastic wrap
• Ziplock Bags (a few)
• Rubber gloves (for dyeing)
• Apron
• Surgical gloves too (for handling caps & hankies)
•  Masking tape
• Permanent marker (or ball point pen
• Notebook / pen
• Stencil brush  (optional -large is best)
• Dishpan 
• Hand lotion
• Dyed fleece (handful), to spin between samples as markers
• Ball winder or lazy kate and bobbins for plying
• Photo album and index cards to display samples (some colored cards for white samples)
• Frame, approx. 10” square (can be between 8-10” in a square) for making Mawata (hankies)…you can pound four finishing nails into the corners of some wood to make a 10” square, or you can buy stretcher bars, to make that size, from an art supply store. (No need for nails on the stretcher bars, because the corners are sharp enough to hold the hankies without them).

Before the class was set to begin, I had word that Celia had added a bonus segment to the class -- Silk Fusion. This Silk Fusion (sometimes called Silk paper) was essentially the silk version of wet felting.  Since silk doesn't have the scales of wool fiber, you had to help things stay together using an acrylic medium.  I was of dual minds... I also have a passion of felt designs, but I was wondering if this was going to take away from the dyeing and spinning.  Boy I was wrong.  It was a blast and I think I have another fiber passion to add to my list.  This was the materials list from this portion.  She provided the colored silk roving and the natural tussah silk roving for the base....

Silk Fusion (Paper) Class

To make a cover for a blank journal with a wonderful medium called silk fusion, silk fibers are laid down on a fiberglass screen in 3 layers (like felting), and an adhesive medium is painted on to create a fused silk fabric. 

Material List for the Silk Fusion Class:

• Fiberglass screen (hardware store), at least 13” x 36”
• 2” paintbrush (not foam)
• 2 C. plastic cup measure (not to be used for food after this)
• Apron
• 6 clothespins
• Plastic dishpan (bringing also for other things on original list).
• Hotel size bottle shampoo without conditioner (or Orvus)
• Blank journal, approx. 5” x 8”
• Things to imbed in your silk, such as: feathers, dried pressed flowers, ribbons, fancy threads
• Garbage bag (for underneath your screen….screen will be folded to be 13”x 18”, and you want a piece of garbage bag cut slightly bigger than this).
• Ruler
• Sponge
• Measuring spoons (not to be used for food after this)
• Variety of colors of  sewing threads (in case you sew your cover in class….we can choose one that will look nice on your cover)

So, I'll give you a last review before I sign off on this 'segment' of my blog journal of my Celia Quinn workshop experience.  You may want to substitute if you can or share with others, but will need pretty much everything on these lists to do these activities.  Do you immediately need wheel oil?  Not really, and you can probably borrow some.  Do you need to have two kinds of gloves, not really but you do want gloves. Apron?  Yes, unless you like being wet and possibly having acrylic medium on your shirt.  Garbage bag?  Depends on if you have a table you can wipe down to remove the medium.  Spoons?  Depends on if you are very precise.  Lotion, really?? YES, your hands are amazingly rough and silk catches on EVERYTHING.  It will keep you from going insane. A 10" frame?  Yes you need a frame for the making of the mawata but you can use the back of a picture frame. Cotton carders?  Not absolutely required but really nice to hold the silk in a nice drafting triangle to save on cramped hands.  Ball winder and niddy-noddy?  Well that depends on if you know how to do a peruvian bracelet type plying and how precise you want your sample mini-'hanks' to be.  But in all, you need to have the stuff on the list :)  Sorry!

Till next time....