Textile Art Festival at Lang Pioneer Village.



BSP and I were casting about for something to do this weekend, so I googled "Ontario fibre art festivals" and found one at LANG PIONEER VILLAGE. 

Well of course, as soon as we found out it was Lang Pioneer Village, in the Hamlet of Lang on Lang Road we were decided where we were going!





As it turns out, the "fibre festival" itself was a total bust. No art displays, no classes, just vendors selling mostly roving, or things related to wool (wet and dry felting), woven rugs and such, and two native girls selling items they'd made out of Hudson's Bay Blankets (really beautiful things, actually).



But, the Pioneer Village itself was awesome.  We were going for the camp value of visiting our "ancestral home*", but Lang Pioneer Village had amazing workers who were knowledgeable, charming and interesting - AND it turned out there were fiber related things there.


There were spinning things of course (the big one is called a walking wheel) and there was natural dyeing -



...lots and lots of sewing machines - this one was fun with the hand crank which I hadn't seen before...



...and this treadle version. Although I had seen many treadle sewing machines many times before, I hadn't seen this particular one before. 




But the coolest thing was this jacquard loom.


You can see the woman amongst all those threads - she's actually hand-stringing the loom.



In this picture, you can see all the weights on the bottom that hold the strings (that bottom shelf is where the weaver would sit.)



...here you can see her busy hands. :)




...here are the punch cards used to determine the pattern.



Did you know that this jacquard loom was invented because Napoleon held a contest for someone who would develop a bigger and better loom so that he could have bigger and better silk carpets? And apparently, scientists and engineers have been building on the technology ever since!




Here is a piece that was made on a jacquard loom...


And a book about his story.


(this has nothing to do with anything, but I just liked the sign "free from defects". I only wish! lol)

I also did some rust dyeing with some uneven and rather disappointing results (but all usable pieces), and the driving back and forth provided some stitching time on the hand project. 




Kit 120



Kit Lang

1 comment:

  1. What a fun day. I actually love those pioneer villages. There is on in Fredericton, NB called King's Landing. The food prepared in the brick oven was sumptuous!!

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