Imagine having the luxury to take a year-long workshop with your favourite weaving teacher. An internship really.
Well, that is exactly the experience I had by following Jane Stafford and the JST Online Weaving Guild for 2018. https://janestaffordtextiles.com/online-guild/
Over the course of the year Jane delivered eleven episodes and seven sample warps in Season Two: Colour and Design.
Thanks, Jane Stafford, for a superb year. Now that the last piece for the year has been woven, I am taking the time to reflect on this year of weaving and playing and to think about what I learned and gained from this experience.
The focus of Season Two was colour and design in plain weave (mostly).
For a mere $99.00 I received over 19 hours and 25 minutes of high-quality video instruction.
But wait, that’s not all! I received seven complete drafts exploring Colour and Design. I made seven warps, totaling 58 yards. For these warps I sleyed and threaded 2,473 ends, and then re-sleyed them all over again to change setts throughout the projects. A whopping total of 20,458 yards of 2/8 cotton was used in the warps.
The weft used 8,520 yards of 2/8 cotton, 1,380 yards of cotton boucle, 5,244 yards of silk, 1,814 yards of bambu 12, 2,083 yards of zephyr wool/silk, and 149.86 yards of other materials.
The grand total cost of materials directly used for warp and weft: $526.14.
I made 9 pure samples, 21 tea towels, 1 table runner, 8 shawls and 2 scarves.
Hours of experience – designing, measuring warps, sleying, threading, tying and winding on, weaving, hemstitching, finishing, pressing and ironing, sewing hems, twisting fringes: approximately 500 intense hours.
What I learned from this experience:
- Not to be afraid of a longer warp. There is so much to do and change that I can’t be bored.
- There is a system and method that can be learned, so that mixing colours is easy.
- Start with a graphic and build from there, pouring in colour, texture and pattern.
- Changing sett changes everything – and gives you the drape to match the function of the cloth.
- Play with numbers and sequences, but don’t be bound by the numbers.
So much more than you would ever get from a one-week workshop.
Learning, playing, and finding inspiration: priceless.
Looking forward to the new year and “Pushing the Boundaries of Plain Weave” and it will be so much fun to see all the variations of plain weave: denting, cramming & denting, log cabin, warp-faced, weft-faced, double-weave, collapsed weave and supplementary warps. Can’t wait. And all for just $99.00
spinweaverbarbara 
This sounds amazing (and a lot of work!) You really stuck with the program and produced so much! The $75 price is a great bargain.
Yes, I didn’t get a whole lot else done this year, but it was great fun, gave me something to look forward to each month, and I have so many new avenues to explore.
I also took this workshop. It was amazing. I.did all the projects and learned a lot. I’m not a ne weaver. I’ve been weaving for 12 years. I feel this workshop has taken my weaving toma new level. It’s been a great year and I can’t wait to see what Jane teaches me in 2019.
I know, looking so forward to 2019. Others in my guild worked on this as well, and even those who took the same workshops at Jane’s said they learned so much more through this format.
This season was fantastic. I’m looking forward to being reunited with my loom so I can play along next year!
I agree with you on your experience with Jane. She is helping many weavers to become fearless.
I’m working on the second colour and weave project in season two. A fabulous course which is taking me to new heights and teaching me to be fearless trying new things.