Meet us at the Royal Highland Show from the 19th to the 22nd of June 2014

Hurray, GalGael is going to the Royal Highland Show with wood craft and wool craft. Tomorrow we'll get ready with all the gear weaving looms, spinning wheels, wool, hand  carders and more and head up to Ingliston, West of Edinburgh. 
Come along and visit our stall and see us hand weaving, hand spinning, carding and wood carving.

Inkle loom

At last the inkle loom has got a new cotton yarn warp and is ready to be used.

Floor loom with rug from recycled material

We do recycling! For our floor loom we use material like unwanted clothes, bed sheets, curtains... We cut, or tear the material in strips and weave beautiful stripey rugs with them. 

Hope to see you at the Royal Highland Show and have a chat with you and show you our craft skills! 
You might like to have a go at weaving too :-)

   

The next 2 Thursday evening, 21st of April and 28th of April 2011, from 5-8pm you could have a go on the weaving loom

 

A wee Video of Rug weaving here 
from a few weeks ago

The next two Thursday evenings we will again give you the opportunity to have a go on our rug loom, learn about wool processing: teasing, carding and spinning. We are currently weaving with plied hand spun sheep's wool either natural plant dyed wool or just natural coloured wool.
A shared meal by donation will be on offer too.

That's how it looks now on our rug loom

Woven with plant dyed hand spun wool

Any more questions???
Just send us an email or call GalGael 0141/ 4273070

Cutting down the 3 rugs

A big moment that day: the taking 3 rugs of the loom: months of individual and team effort: the rugs are                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ready to be getting the last final touches!

watch it as film here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuMgHL8so-8

"They have been many months in the making by many merry hands - and now is the time for the truth: what will they look like on the floor|/ But, first more steps need to be taken: such as.....

see on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuMgHL8so-8


enjoy!

why when? aye see : Weaving the Clyde is done!

Slowly but surely, or actually fastly and vastly, the Weaving of the Clyde nears completion at last:

the last stages for the  "Weaving the Clyde" tapestry,

At long last:

The "Weaving the Clyde" Tapestry is nearing completion. on the 19th September it looked  like the above, and on the 19th October it looked like this, as Gillian completed what Mary had left unfinished:

 

Now only the threads and edges need to be tidyied up and the backing needs to be mounted. Watch this space!

Roots & Heritage woolcraft Tuesday sessions at Galgael

“Family Fibre Craft Fun Day at Penicuik House” on Sat. 4th of Sept. 2010

This was a drop-in workshop, planned in single sessions about 45 minutes, offering wool carding, spinning, weaving and dry and wet felting for children and adults.

Another sunny and warm day was inviting us, using the space outside. There were 2 spinning wheels, a drum carder and a peg loom standing outside in the open air. Anneruth, Marjorie and I were demonstrating how to use these tools for wool craft so that folks could have a go on them.

After a slow start at 10am it got really busy about 11.30am until after 5pm. There were many interested people from all ages, participating in one or even two workshops to have a go and learn about using and processing wool. They were spinning a thread, weaving a rug, felting beads and brooches, little pictures and woolly animals like bears, hamsters and sheep. Beautifully dyed merino wool or natural coloured wool from scottish sheep inspired young ones and adults to be creative. What a joy for a child or an adult to take something home, made by themselves with their own hands!

The participants were looking like having real fun and having learned excellent new skills during the workshops in Penicuik House! We wool crafters were enjoying two brilliant days with lovely folks. Thanks to you all, it was amazing!

Big thanks to the Scottish Lime Centre Trust being a great host for the workshops.

week ending 6-3-09: lots happening!

Meet Jerry, who has been looking after John's Hebridean flock on Iona this wild winter, and who is over the moon to see how we are processing their fleeces into beautiful rugs. So we got straight down to fulling one for him to take back to Iona:

Which, at this Friday's Stakeholder meeting, meant Galgael Stakeholders were able to have a go at it as well!

Having a go at rag-rug weaving was the interest of many folks that day too. Here is a good old friend, Miriam the murial artist, looking close as Laryna demonstrates.

And then, inbetween, it was time for a song or two by Jerry, paying homage to the Hebridean fleeces - that one there is right now being processed (stitched & needlefelted, the stage after the washing and before the fulling) by Ali, and this one here is for Barmaddy, the Galgael venture in Argyll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLu4fCqfNnI

watch a wee clip of Jerry's homage to the Hebridean fleece by clicking above

And whilst you are on you tube, you might also like to catch a brief glimpse of Laryna dancing her heart out at last and some others too. {Just click on the embedded links!)

Or you might like to take the opportunity to more fully see that very special event of this Friday, the poem-song writing, music making, performance gig of Luke Concannon with Manjinga 7 at Galgael. Click here for the youtube playlist and here for the photos.

This Friday was really a wonderful opportunity to collect and display our creative projects, too, such as Jackie's Hebridean felts: the mittens and the baby booties.

Laryna's luxourios green bag and the stylish wristwarmers:

This beauty here, young David's vessel (remember him from the felting at Liz event last November?) we finally managed to capture -

You can see more shots of it and the other modest and mighty master pieces of our members on the photoalbum here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/woolcraft.atgalgael/March2009#

And here over to Laryna: who wrote:

We had a great day on Friday the 6t in GalGael. I loved especially the afternoon activities with the gorgeous band from Bristol. Such talented guys and full of inspiration, joy and love. They inspired us guys from GalGael to make our own songs out of words we gain by a brainstorming process written on a huge piece of paper. "There is so much talent in the room!" inspired us to do our very best. Later the band on stage was brilliant and eventually Luis was the first dancing and pulling everybody on the dance floor. I had great fun dancing. Then it became very noisy, because everybody was playing an instrument, mostly percussion ones. Fun was in the air!!!! I could feel the love and the joy and the fun of everybody.
GalGael, I am happy to be part of you!
From the wool ladies Anneruth, Alison, Lynsey and me have been there in the afternoon. Verene needed to go to another dance event with Biodanza.

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Woolcraft log 11-7-08

Full bothy today again! We are real miracle workers to fit all and everything into that tiny space!
Luckily people came at different times over the day: Anneruth, Eileen, Flora, Hazel, Laryna, Linsey, Mary, Naomi.

The last one first:
Hazel came in just before shop closing and took commission for some felted items as demo for Plantation Project. Hopefully she will be enthused to join in at The Portal and will be enthusing folks there.

Lynsey, a community art worker with experience in weaving, made it along today ("at last", she said, "been meaning got come for ages ever since I saw this exciting bothy - there is nothng like that in Glasgow!") and went hood line and sinker for weaving action: threading up the little loom Nori gave us....

Meanwhile Eileen continued weaving her choice of green weft on the frame, learning successfull how to make a weft facxed weave.
Both processes - threading a little loom frame and weaving on it - are actually quite tricky and taxing and take a lot of practise and training of the small hand muscles before it comes with ease... And, above all: yes, the weaving processes all in all are VERY SLOW processes.
Even professional and long experienced weaver Laryna, when today at last seeng the finished rug laying on the floor - sighed deeply: 'So small - and it took so long.'

YES, the ca 1 meter long and 50 cm wide beauty with those fabulously neat edges got cut off the frame today (see picture on top of blog and on our July album) at long last! Down came with it also the small (50cm long) but thicker rug that got started by Anneruth last year and woven on by several people learning. It did not reach perfection as the beginning is slightly wider than the end - but it is a good examply of a chunky rug. They got both tied off by Laryna (deciding together with us it should only have two rows of orangey end threads) and taken home for washing.

Taking about washing: Anneruth had washed 4 lots of wool over the week at home (as drying wool in the garden is still the best in summer) : the gorgeous grey-blend North Ronaldsy from the Woolfest (for fine spinning and fine felts), a whole Blackface from her 2007 Pentland lot (for rug weaving) as well as some Blackface-Texel (for spinning demos), and some of the moorit Shetland-Jacob from Kilmichael Glassary.

Under the pressure of the River Fest approaching next week, and the rug getting finished, Naomi slaved away at the newly regained drum carder, and Mary prepared the Texel-cross wool for spinning demo.
Anneruth tried to keep her head together and making sense of her lists of rota and to-dos for next week, Riverfest as well as planning felting practise sessions with Flora, as well as not loosing it over the Bothy PC simply not going online....
Well, all in all, it was avery busy day, ahead of the VERY busy week next week..
=>

GLASGOW RIVER FESTIVAL is a big event for the whole of Galgael to go to every year. You can see our all input on a photoalbum of the 2006. When the River Festival got launched around the turn of the Millenium, the Orcuan was top feat. Looking at this year's website of the Festival it looks ever bigger and every more fun fare - BUT: very unlike every other year: the Galgael are not mentioned! Strange, given that the pay Galgael is getting to 'put on their show' as well as set up general stuff on the ground has not gone up and that they get asked ever more to do...
Real craft is still not quite valued in the fast race....
lets see what we meet this time next week..
see you there...

Woolcraft log 3-7-08

This week Galgael is closed on the Friday, and with most woolcrafters away on holidays anyway, it was not too bad to have to cancel at very short notice.
As Laryna's day off work was Thursday this week, it was just as well that Anneruth and Eileen came as well to catch with loose ends and from the trip to the Woolfest last weekend.

Anneruth had finished weaving 2 test pieces on the wool-warped little weaving frame:

one with grey milling wool as well as handspun Jacob, and one with a mixture of 2-ply milling wool, exploring patterns possible in this tabby weave. The outcome of the 'set' (the relationship between warp and weft, as it sets) was especially for the handspun wool fairly 'see-through'. Each strip had a brought and a narrow end, due to the non-conformed spread of the weft: more weft length in a shed => weftfaced set; less weft length in the shed => warp showing. Anneruth did not like the outcome of her long efforts of that weave, nor did Laryna!
But, Eileen was keen to practise a bit of 'waulking the cloth' with this strip, and gave it a good hour or so of fine fulling on the donated glass washboard (sorry, no pics of that feat!) with a precious handmade plant soap.
The outcome was phantastic: a soft and fragrant piece of woven material, where the gaps had closed and even any uneven edges had been nudged away. It shrunk by 10%, though!

You can also see Eileen getting down straight away to starting a new piece on the little frame loom - her first weaving experience!

Laryna and Anneruth meanwhile calculated the next warp for Anneruth's rigid heddle loom on the 50/10cm reed. And Laryna came up with the great idea to use a pegloom as rattle (a spacer for the threads as they get beamed onto the warp beam)! She also mobilised Davey in the workshop to cut some flat sticks to be used as warp sticks (stciks put in the warp whilst beaming it up, to stabilise the threads on the beam). Anneruth took them away for sanding and - as the weather was nice, she used the lovely eve at home to set up the warping pecks on the garden table to make a woolwarp (with the red effect millen wool plied x 2) - as well as getting the chimnea going to take away the chill.

Slowly but surely, step by step, we get the equipment needed for the complex art and craft of weaving together - esp as much of it is woodwork...

Later on that weekend Anneruth's friend Stephanie came round to help with the beaming up - just as she helped with the first warp on that little rigid heddle loom, the narrow silk warp.

The camera was not always at hand for much of the various stages of this week's wool actio, but you can visit our July Album for some shots of the goings-on.
Oh, and one the things you will not see a picture of, but which was what Laryna did devotely otherwise all day: teasing more white wool for her rug as some other Galgaelians were out and about with the drum carder!

woolcraft log 13-6-08

Who was there?
Anna, Laryna, Janna from Czechoslovakia/Glasgow (friend of Laryna), Naomi from Cardonald (who got 'hooked' when at the May Reschuffle she made first moves on the big frame loom and with felting loose rainbow spheres for a mobile), Flora, Mary, Ruth, Verene

A big crowd today huddled up in the small bothy, some a little bit later than others, to explore and get on with various new and ongoing projects:

Anna stitching together her two woven pieces and then take it home with her for the next stage: the washing and shrink-felting, to even it out etc.

Anneruth brought in her little rigid heddle loom with the finally finished silk warp, to cut off the last 2 pieces: a handspun-silk scarf and a little handspun piece to be a wallhanging (alpaca with madder, birh and onion dyed wool effects).

And Verene brought in her first piece (the big one) of her knit-felt bag in progress. Then, after some jewelry balls felting, Verene proved to herself that she can spin after all! :-)

woolcraft log 6-6-08

Who came today?
Anna, Laryna, Olivia, Ruth, Samantha, Sarah, Sarah-Jane,

Sarah-Jane seems to have had the final breakthrough and can now spin the most beautiful thread as well as sing (that was most beautifully anyway!! )
Watch it live right here:

Olivia (her friend and fellow art student) who had come along too today got stuck into wet-felting the basis for the book cover for the Barmaddy Comments Book. We started from scratch, teasing and carding the Hebridean wool,

then layering it on a piece of prefelt, pre-fulling and the fully roll-fulling it in the workshop later.
You can see here pops having a good time with yet another beautiful girl of the woolcrafters' Friday morning at Galgael.

For the bookcover the next step is to make an apt needle felted decoration. Sadly Olviia will be on vacancy in the US when the piece she felted is dry. But she vowed to have a go at a needlefelt piece when she gets back in autumn.

Shaun's partner Samantha joined us today and - as a real Govanite women should - took to weaving! And not only was she satisfied to learn the plain principle of weaving on the rug-practise strip on the big frame, but she also wanted to experiement with in-laid patterns, and here is the first of her two hearts: the blue one.

And taking about blue: here is Sarah knitting blue after at last finding a shop with wool (can you imagine: superstore Lewis let her down!)

Meanwhile Anna finished weaving her second patch for the seating cushion. Now, apart from sewing it together, the challenge is how to use it as a seating cushion without getting the white Blackface-wool kemp onto one's clothes ! Sarah made a couple of good suggestions... more about them when we try them out....

more pics of today in our newly started June Album