Wendy Garrity is offering a series of workshops in Bhutanese weaving from September to November.

Participants will learn the techniques used to weave the intricate brocades (kushutara) used for Bhutanese women’s festival dress.

Wendy learned to weave kushutara while living in Bhutan for a year, and has adapted these techniques for shaft looms in order to share them with Western weavers. Kushutara is woven with supplementary weft pattern threads, often twined around the warp threads to produce a brocade that looks as if it has been embroidered.

The workshop is designed for those who can dress their own loom and are confident with plainweave. Participants will learn with thicker yarns than are traditionally used by Bhutanese, and later can progress to weaving with finer yarns that require the use of a pickup stick.

The series will commence with an all-day workshop on the Monday public holiday 29th of September, 9am – 3pm at Alexander Park Craft House.

Students can take this workshop as a stand-alone introduction to Bhutanese weaving, or as the beginning of a series of follow-up classes to be continued on Wednesday evenings.

Wednesday evening continuation classes will be held 7-9pm at Alexander Park Craft House on every Wednesday of October and November.

Cost for the 1-day workshop only is $60 per person. Cost for the 1-day workshop plus 4 follow-up evening classes (recommended) is $160 Further evening sessions are $25 each

Bookings close on Friday 20th September and must be confirmed with at least 50% deposit, with the balance due on Fri 27th September.

Instructions for dressing your loom for the workshop will be sent to each participant as bookings are received so that you can make a start (allow up to 10 hours to dress your loom prior to the workshop)

To obtain further details and a booking form, contact Wendy at [email protected] or 0431 275 821

Images of work from previous
workshops can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/textiletrails/posts/662777960463589

Images of Bhutanese kushutara can be viewed at http://textiletrails.com/2011/05/08/khoma-kushutara