Weaving Away....

Warping the rigid heddle loom. 

Christie weaving on the rigid heddle loom.

Here at Hope Center for the Arts we have many talented artists.  Christie and Ana are two of our prolific weavers.  After receiving a grant from The Orange County Community Foundation Hope was able to purchase several rigid heddle looms for the students to weave on.  Many of our students have been able to use the looms to create beautiful scarves for us to sell, both on our Etsy shop and at local art fairs.  Having new tools to expand the students choices and opportunities to create is invaluable to our program. We have even discovered exceptional weaving talent and ability that would never have been realized without them.  Thank you Orange County Community Foundation and Schacht Spindle Company for making the looms possible and providing new opportunities for self expression and accomplishment. 

New Year and New Items in our Etsy shop!

"Purple Taffy" hand woven scarf.

Hand woven scarf.

"Lavender Meadow" hand woven scarf.

Hand woven scarf. 

It is 2014 and the students of Hope University are looking forward to another fun filled year.  Field trips, performances, parties, and fun with friends top the lists. 
Our Etsy shop has some new items for purchase.  We have listed a new item, our hand woven scarves.  The students do enjoy creating these one of a kind pieces.  Using a rigid heddle loom is a new skill that we were able to add to the fiber arts classes in 2013, and it has proved to be very popular. 

Yarn Bomb?

Clients and instructors visiting from AbilityFirst.

Terry is very happy to be knitting on the loom.

Karen G. and her mother create pieces for the installation.

Michelle Miller/Fickle Knitter discusses knitting with Cindy H.

Pei-Lin and her mother enjoy the fiber arts together.

Objects from the 'wrapping' station.

Rene and her mother work together on the knitting loom.

Pieces of bright colored weaving along with the many tubes that will be installed.

Our videographer Stephanie Serna interviewing student Frank L's mother. 

The students of Hope University are preparing for a bomb...a yarn bomb that is!  We received a grant from the VSA to create a 'yarn bomb' and present this concept along with knitting, weaving and other fiber related arts to other facilities and the community.  We have done knitting and fiber arts workshops at several other facilities including Social Vocational Services in Norwalk, AbilityFirst in Long Beach and Fairview State Hospital in Costa Mesa, California.
On March 14th, we hosted a 'knit-in' here at Hope to bring together parents, volunteers and clients from some of the other facilities we visited to get together and have some fiber art fun!  We had a weaving station, a knitting station, a stitching station and a wrapping station.  The weavers worked collectively on our rigid heddle looms, the knitters used both needles and the knitting looms, the stitch-ers sewed and embroidered while the wrappers, wrapped various objects with yarn. We were also assited by the knitting celebrity, Michelle Miller, the 'Fickle Knitter' who helped us knit a piece for the installation.  Thank you Michelle!
 As you can see the 'knit-in' was a success!
Our installation will be at the Westfield Mainplace Mall in Santa Ana, California on the 19th of April, ready for the VSA celebration at the mall on Saturday the 20th, where several of our Hope U students will be performing along with other persons with disabilities from around Orange County and beyond.  We will also have demonstrations and a 'mini class' of weaving so anyone can create a piece for the yarn bomb.  We hope to see you there!

New Happenings in Fiber Arts at Hope!

Christie learns to weave.

Ana has caught the weaving bug.

A warped and woven Cricket loom.

Crystal shows off a weaving shuttle.

Tanette loves to weave.

A point of view of weaving view.

The weaving station is attracting a lot of attention.

The Hope University Fiber Arts program has expanded into WEAVING!  We have acquired 4 new Cricket rigid heddle looms for the students to use.  As soon as they were warped and ready to go several students jumped at the chance to weave.  They are enjoying it so much and are feeling very successful creating beautiful fabric on the loom.  You can look forward to seeing new items appear in our Etsy shop and at our various Boutiques during the year to come as we explore the therapeutic fun of our new rigid heddle looms.