Arrowmont Day Two

I cannot say enough good things about this place.  Although it was a scramble to arrange for our alternate class, everything is going beautifully.  The staff is amazingly responsive and the weaving studio is spacious and well equipped.  Today we tackled ikat.  This is a resist dyeing technique where the yarns used for weaving are wrapped in areas to resist the dye such as pictured below.

See these wrapped little bundles almost ready for the dye pot.

Sasha going over acid dye basics.

Below Sasha demonstrates untying the yarn bundles to begin weaving.

This is Katsuri, an even more labor intensive method of dyeing.  Sasha is wrapping yarn precisely over a comma.  Then you mark the fabric so the image of the comma is covered with the resist tape.

Below is my sample weaving as I practice weaving with my ikat dyed yarns.

Day two at Arrowmont  is done.  Tomorrow we will begin weaving larger peices, putting into practice the tecniques learned today.  Sometimes life brings you surprises that are just what you need.  Learning these ikat techniques from Sasha is actually more applicable to my tapestry practice than the Navajo class would have been.  Go figure!