Four members of our spinning/weaving groups went down to Grand Rapids to
visit Convergence on Thursday. We had day passes because of helping
with the goodie bags before the event. We live about 3 hours' drive
north of GR, so we met at 7 am and toodled on down.
There were certainly a LOT of vendors! I had wish lists of things I
wanted to get in the areas of herbs/soapmaking, basketmaking, weaving,
spinning, and knitting. To my infinite surprise, almost nothing on my
list was there. I did get some wonderful cottolin at a great price from
the Yarn Barn. But that was it. It wasn't very crowded at any point on
Thurdsday while we were there--nice for customers, not so nice for the
vendors; I hope it improved Friday.
Beads dominated by far. I would say we saw at least 12 bead booths, out
of about 60-70 vendors (can't find the list of vendors I printed off, so
I'm not sure exactly how many). Most booths were primarily machine-made
beads, but several had nice selections of hand-made beads. One booth
was for the bead (or glass) artisans of West Michigan, and there were
some really lovely glass beads with glass swirls making leaves and
flowers applied to them. Another booth had some wonderful kits for
bead-woven pouches of various types, with intricate, very nice designs
ranging from animals (but no sheep!) to a flag to flowers, etc.
I guess the next biggest category was probably textured, hand-dyed
yarns--not whole booths, but as a major category in 1/3 - 1/2 of all the
booths. It would appear Convergence attendees don't do much dyeing,
because there was only a couple booths with dyes and very little undyed
fiber or yarn to buy.
To my surprise, there were quite a few booths--probably 6 or 7 at
least--with fabrics (mostly silks or kimono scraps that were definitely
NOT silk), and a similar number of booths with handwoven garments and
accessories. Seemed strange to find that sort of thing at a weaving
conference. I did get to see some of Randy Darwall's work in person,
and can report it's just like it looks in the magazines :)
Of course, all the major loom and wheel manufacturers were there. Not
being in the market for any equipment, I didn't stop to look much.
Treenway Silks was there, as was another company with incredible skeins
of hand-dyed 20/2 and 60/2 silk. Both were primarily brights, but there
were a few more subtle colors as well. Colors in all booths seemed to
range right around the spectrum; I didn't pick up a strong sense of any
color or color range dominating--purple's queendom is temporarily
abated, I guess. Warm greens were in evidence, which is rare, but not
any more than any other group of colors.
I spent some time in the Webs booth, and was quite disappointed. Either
they sold out all the good colors, or didn't bring any, or don't have
any in the Valley Fibers line, as what I saw in the booth was drab at
best. They did have some Valley cottolin, at a great price--$16/pound.
But the colors were yuck and didn't work with each other at all. This
product isn't listed on their website, so I guess they've just
introduced it. Looked also in the Lunatic Fringe booth, but they didn't
seem to have a lot actually for sale--mostly on display just to show
folks, seemed like. I did get two cones of 8/2 unmercerized cotton that
will do for Christmas table linens.
There was only one basketry booth, if you can call it that. No reed, no
wood splint. Bundles of incredibly long pine needles, and a few odds
and ends of embellishments (including more beads!), some raffia and
waxed linen and seagrass--pretty much everything but reed and handles.
Absolutely nothing in the way of herbal or soapmaking stuff, which
seemed very odd, since that category is common at fiber shows.
Not much for spinning fibers, or 'ordinary' knitting yarns. Woodland
Woolworks wasn't there, which was disappointing to me. I remember their
booth from MFF in 97, it was wonderful; plus I had a gift certificate I
wanted to use without putting it toward shipping. There were some tops
of various brands, some hand-dyed. Was almost tempted by some
tussah/camel down top in lovely colors, but none of the colors were
quite what I like, and then what would I do with the yarn? :)
Really didn't have time for a decent, thorough survey. I guess we had
less than 3 hours altogether, in 4 chunks of time, and since my daughter
wanted to see all the beads, I couldn't shop quite like I would have
liked. I am pleased with the cottolin I got, though, 250-gram tubes for
$14, an excellent price in a wonderful range of colors (16
altogether!!!!). That blows my weaving budget for the year, so I hope I
can sell some of the stuff I produce from it :)
As to exhibits--only one was in the same building. Well, I guess it was
sort of 3 in one room. A juried show, the COE show, and a show of small
items that were juried in--maybe the small expressions show. I wasn't
sure as signage was definitely lacking.
I won't go into my opinions of fiber art that doesn't include fiber :)
But some of the pieces were superb. One belonged rather in a quilt show
than a weaving show, I would have thought, but I gladly sat down to
enjoy it. It was large, hand-dyed I think, and machine appliqued and
quilted. I can't describe it, but the colors were lovely and the
overall effect both soothing and interesting. Helena Henmarck (if I'm
remembering her name correctly) had a piece in her signature style of
large florals that are almost photorealistic--but it wasn't a tapestry!
It was given as 'random overshot' with thick pattern weft in multiple
colors to make large red tulips. Wonderful use of value to define shape
in a flat piece. Apparently all the tapestry pieces were in a different
building, so we didn't get to see them. One goes where the driver wills
when one doesn't drive.
The COE exhibit was extremely disappointing. There was ONE piece by
each person. I had thought there would be at least a wide sampling of
the pieces submitted for the COE judging by each person.
There were no garments in this room, but an area was cordoned off with
lots of dressmaker dummies in it. I guess the items in the fashion show
would be placed in there, but the show hadn't been held yet.
If there was a weaving for the home display that I thought Handwoven
sponsors a prize for each conference, it wasn't in evidence either
there, or listed as anywhere else on HGA's website. I would have liked
to see that, in counterbalance to all that 'art'.
We tried to go to one off-site show, Destination 1111. We had
directions from a friend, who was the person in charge of accepting
items and hanging this show. It was hard to find, a really strange
location, and the signage stunk. Then we got there, within the hours it
was supposed to be open, and found it locked shut. Another person in
the building said someone had come on Tuesday, but that was it. My
friends were disappointed, as they had items in that show.
Overall, I can't say I'd be interested in going to Convergence again. I
spent far more on pitching in on gas, parking, and food than I saved by
buying the cottolin on special there. Of course, I have to balance that
against the fact that I wouldn't have any cottolin if I hadn't gone and
splurged like that :)
Holly
planning on combining different fibonacci sequences in color and texture
in a two-block twill set of table linens.....
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