Ontario Handspinning Seminar
You Can’t Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear... This expression was a proverb from the mid-1500s, meaning to produce something refined, admirable, valuable from something which is unrefined.
Your challenge from this Seminar is to make a ‘purse’ out of the “unrefined” items found in the bag handed out in 2019. You must use at least some of every fibre in your baggie and you may also use additional fibres from your stash if you wish. We hope that you will share the item you made in our virtual Display Room in 2021*. Then, we would like you to bring your item to our next in-person Seminar which we hope will be in 2022 where this baggie challenge will be judged and eligible for the Baggie Challenge $50.00 Award that is selected by ballots cast by that year's Seminar attendees.
2019 Baggie Challenge
2021 Baggie Challenge
Read on and choose your sustainable spinning adventure...
Following our theme of Sustainable Fibres we are challenging each person to open up their fibre stash:
Step ONE:
Assemble and those fibre odds and ends leftover from previous workshops (about 100g)
OR
Assemble those fibre odds and ends leftover from previous spinning projects (about 100g)
Step TWO:
Take a PHOTOGRAPH of your ASSEMBLED FIBRES
Design a small project that features our theme of Sustainable Fibres using your chosen fibres
Step THREE:
DESIGN and SPIN your YARN(s)
Supplement your odds and ends (from step 1) with other fibre as needed
Step FOUR:
CONSTRUCT your PROJECT
Step FIVE:
BRING and DISPLAY your PROJECT + PHOTOGRAPH of FIBRES to the SEMINAR in 2022!
Baggie Challenge
The $50 award recognizes an item created from fibre received in at the previous Seminar, following guidelines set out in the Challenge. This year we will have three Baggie Challenges to award! Winners are chosen by ballots cast by 2023 Seminar attendees. If you attended the 2019, 2021, and/or 2022 Seminar, bring your Baggie Challenge items!
This year we encourage you to collaborate with your fibre friend(s) to design and make a spinning-based project. Remember the fibres you got in the mail? Use these fibres as your starting point to create a community-based project that you will do together with your spinning friends over the upcoming year.
Can you invite folks to join your spinning group if they were unable to attend the 2022 Seminar? Of course! The more, the merrier… Our theme this year is all about celebrating the joy in spinning with our fibre friends. Gather your spinning community far and wide to enjoy the pleasure of each other and create some fibre-y goodness 😊
Attend the Seminar in 2023 to share what you and your fibre friend(s) made to be shown in the Display Room. Bonus consideration if you and your community of spinners all come together to the Seminar with your spinning projects!