Fiber Arts

Fiber Arts in the SCA include a wide range of activities, including dyeining, spinning, weaving; fabric embellishment; tool creation and use; and research in all of these and more.

Activities & Groups

Caid

• The Order of Arachne's Web: A guild dedicated to the study, teaching and creation of lace. Dedicated to keeping this unique fiber art alive through research, instruction and production of lace using forms within the SCA’s historical period and beyond.

• Blue Nails Dyers: The Blue Nails Dyers Guild invites all who enjoy dyeing, whether with natural dyes, laboratory-made dyes, earth oxides, powdered drink mixes, or miscellaneous insects.

• Company of Clothiers: The Right Noble Company of Clothiers is a medieval and Renaissance costuming interest group in Caid, Co-founded by Mistress Angelina Nicollette de Beaumont and Mistress Astra Christiana Benedict.

• Fiber Playday: Fiber Playdays are free, hands-on, open workshop and playday for sharing ideas and skills between beginning, intermediate, and advanced Inkle Weavers, Card Weavers, Spinners, Braiders, Lacemakers,and Fiber Artists of all types, under the direction of Dame Lynnette de Sandoval del Valle de los Unicornios and Unicorn Fiber Arts.

• Sheep to Shawl: This event involves a group of fiber artists who turn sheep shearings into a wearable shawl in one day. Previous Sheep-to-Shawl activities have occurred at:

• GWW Spinzilla 2015: GWW 2015 marks the first time that Caidan fiber arts participate in the annual international [1] "Monster of a Spinning Week"

SCA-Wide

• The Inter-Kingdom Intensive Needlework Study group holds a yearly Inter Kingdom Needlework Symposium (IKINS) that alternates locations between the SCA kingdoms of Caid and the West. The Yahoo Group group is a forum for teachers and students to talk together, ask and answer questions about the classes, and so on.
• West Kingdom's Needleworkers Guild, which was started in 1970 and chartered in 1983 promotes the art and enjoyment of historical needlework; furthers our knowledge and develop our skills in different needlework styles; and has fun doing it! (The first official Needlework Guild in the SCA was founded in August 1979 in the Barony of Windmasters' Hill, Kingdom of Atlantia. Its registered badge is: Argent, fretty azure, a pair of scissors opened in saltire, points to base, Or.)

Bibliographies

Articles

• Embroidery Applications: How embroidery was used in our focus areas of history, by Éowyn Amberdrake‎

Lace Making

• Needle Lace Annotated Bibliography by Charlene S. Noto, (member of the Calontir Fiber & Needle Guild) 1996 (Link broken - 5/4/2010) -- “Unfortunately, there is no one book on "This is how you do needle lace for pre-17th century studies". It is a hunt and peck process. Most lace books tend to deal with the extremely fine needle laces of the 17th century or they lean heavily toward information on bobbin lace. What I decided to do here was to list the books that I have actually studied and give you my opinions of them for our use. Again, these are my opinions and in no way should be used as reference for the worth of a particular book. My comments are based on using the books strictly as a study of needle lace done prior to 1600.”

Needlework

• NeedleWork Books -- "I've listed the Needlework Books I own with comments about their contents"

Tablet (Card) Weaving

• An Annotated Bibliography for Tablet Woven Brocades -- This is the bibliography created by Nancy Spies for her book Ecclesiastical Pomp and Aristocratic Circumstance: A Thousand Years of Brocaded Tabletwoven Bands.

• Bibliography of Sources for Information on Period Tablet Weaves -- Carolyn Priest-Dorman's bibliography as well as photos of her work.

• Linda Hendrickson -- Her favorite books, tools, people, organizations, practices and web sites

• *The Ultimate* Tablet Weaving Bibliography -- Peter Collingwood has offered the bibliography from The Techniques of Tablet Weaving as the beginning for the *The Ultimate* Tablet Weaving Bibliography. It will be a co-production of all the tablet weavers.

Weaving / Spinning / Dyeing

• Weaving, Spinning, Dyeing Books "I've listed the Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Books I own with comments about their contents"