| Making
Pins for Convergence 2004
In February of 2003, our guild began discussing what we could
do for Convergence 2004 to be held in Denver, July 2004. After some
discussion, we decided to make woven pins for the goodie bag. It
was a daunting task as we would need over 2000 woven pins. We wondered
if we could do it.
Colorado means mountains, so we wanted mountains on our pin. Since
it would be woven by many of the guild members, we were limited
to 8 shafts and we felt that most members could handle 10/2 cotton
but not much finer. With that in mind we began designing... and
designing.. and sampling. It also had to be easy to weave on an
8 shaft treadle loom.
|
|
 |
 |
|
We finally selected a design, picked our colors, ordered the yarn
and were ready to put the warps on the looms. We chose a summer &
winter draft using 10/2 blue cotton for the background and 5/2 white
cotton for the mountains. The ground was a variegated desert 5/2 cotton. |
| Multiple looms were setup in Montrose, Grand Junction and Delta
with about 36 yards of warp. All summer of 2003 we wove. Many members
came to the houses with the looms to help with the process. .. And
we wove and wove. It was pretty exciting to take the warps off
the looms. The fabric was then washed and folded and sent to the Gunnison
gang for cutting into pins. |
|
 |
 |
|
With the winter snows falling, we finally gathered to start assembling
the pins. We had many "pin parties" where we glued, added pin backs,
pasted on the label and finally fringed the edges. And we talked and
talked while we worked. This phase allowed everyone including non-weavers
to participate in the project. |
 |
|
Finally, we had 2500 pins ready for Convergence 2004. We all felt
that it was a very uniting project and it was a lot of fun. We were
pleased to give weavers from all over the world a rememberance of
Colorado and its weavers. |
|