Monday, 24 February 2014
Tawe Guild Newsletter
Tawe Guild of Weavers,
Spinners and Dyers
NEWSLETTER -January 2014
As it is still
January, I think it’s not too late to say Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year.
If you were able to join in the Guild’s
Christmas and New Year celebrations, I’m sure you’ll agree the Christmas
Dinner at the Brecon Beacons Centre, and also the New Year lunch at the Cross were
both very enjoyable; guessing the spinners of our skeins was a great idea. Then
on January 18th lots of us did Inkle Weaving with Lindsay – a brilliant
workshop, with lovely lunch as usual (though since the workshop my inkle weaving
has come off its loom, as a result of my failure to follow Lindsay’s advice
about rubber bands!)
Gift
from the Netherlands
There was an extra surprise at the New Year
lunch, with the arrival, via Heather, of the parcel from the Netherlands. When
we opened it, we saw that the group who visited us last summer, had all
contributed squares (knitted, embroidered, woven etc.), to make a quilt to show
their gratitude to the Guild. It is now hanging up in the spinning room and
looks lovely.
Rent
Increase
Unfortunately, this newsletter is not all
good news. The bad news is that Neath
Port Talbot Council are having to make a lot of funding cuts and have told us
that they will be doubling our rent from April. It will be approx. £1944 next
year, for our 2 rooms. At a committee
meeting last Tuesday, it was decided that we should ask for a meeting with the
appropriate NPTCBC officers, but we don’t expect that there will be room for
much negotiation. It is most unlikely that we would be able to find a cheaper
meeting place with the facilities that we have at present, so we’ll have no
alternative but to increase our income to pay the new rent. The committee
decided that a significant increase in subscription fees would need to be
proposed at the AGM in September. It was felt that the option to pay in 3
instalments might be a good idea. More
information will follow. Even with an
increased fee, our Guild will still be one of the least expensive and will
still provide very good value, considering the studio facilities which are
available Mon – Fri.
The committee also
discussed ways of bringing in new members by publicising ourselves more, for
example by articles in community magazines, posters etc. A beginners (evening)
course might be a good idea. We also discussed the possibility of demonstrating
at the Swansea Hobbycraft store; Del has already made some enquiries and has
been told that they would love to provide a space for us to demonstrate on a
number of occasions (and they’ll even give the demonstrators a staff discount
while they’re there!
If you have any ideas of your own for increasing
membership and increasing our income, please share them.
Tea/coffee
money.
We all enjoy our wonderful range of tea,
coffee, chocolate, biscuits etc.! However, there hasn’t recently been enough
money in the tin to pay for them. Because of this, the tea money payment is
being increased to 50p per session (including workshops) and so that we don’t
forget, there will be a register that we’ll fill in each time we come to the
Guild. So please fill in the register, and pay up, as soon as you arrive!
Future
Events and Workshops
There are some exciting events and
workshops coming up in the next few months. Remember to put Wonderwool (Builth)
in your diary for April 26/27. Apparently it is going to be bigger than ever
this year. Our Guild Saturday workshops between now and June are:
February 24 and
25 – Weaving with Janet Phillips. Still one or two places available – please
contact Clare for details.
March 15 –
Felting with Pat Johnson
April 19 –
Spinning and blending short fibres with Eirian (at Craig y Nos)
May 17 –
Knitting with Anne Holvey
June 21 –
Skills day organised by Heather.
Glamorgan Guild Inkle Weaving – If you’d like to follow up the skills
you learnt at Lindsay’s recent workshop, Glamorgan Guild have some places
available on their Anne Dixon workshop on 10/11 May. Its £60 for the two days.
I’ve recently forwarded Rhoda Luzio’s email about this to everyone.
Friday
Sessions
At the end of last year, there were 2 Friday
knitting sessions led by Anne Holvey. Anne was particularly focusing on lace
shawl knitting, but was happy for all to bring along their projects. I’ll email
everyone with the next date when it has been fixed. Some of the Guild members are now coming to
the Cross every Friday (to spin, weave, knit etc.) instead of on Thursday, so
please think about coming along. You
could even come swimming at lunchtime at the Pontardawe Pool ladies’ only
session!
National
Exhibition
The date for submitting photos/samples for
selection for the National Exhibition in Norwich is 7 March, and the cost is £3
per entry. More details are on the notice board. If you’d rather not enter the competitive exhibition,
everyone is invited to submit bags (no more than 20cm in each direction), for
£3 per entry. They can be woven, dyed, felted etc. and all will be displayed.
More information about this is due shortly from the Association. Regarding the Dylan Thomas joint project by
the Guild, it’s generally felt that there isn’t enough time to submit this for
the National Exhibition, but that we should go ahead with it, and display it in
other places.
Equipment
If you have any Guild equipment which have
borrowed and are no longer using, please could you return it. In particular,
please could you return bobbins, as we are now short of these.
I hope I haven’t
forgotten anything important in this newsletter. Please let me know if there’s anything I need
to tell all the Guild members about. My
email address is gratwhit@btinternet.com (or you can send your email to taweguild@gmail.com)
Happy spinning, weaving, dyeing, felting and
more.
Hilary
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