Friday, July 24, 2015

The Woven Path: Inge Dam

THE WOVEN PATH: Inge Dam   by Line Dufour
Runic Symbols Inge Dam. Handwoven, tablet woven embellishments, hand dyed, sewn. - original design.
 Photo credit: Inge Dam

Earliest samples of tablet or card weaving were discovered in the fifth century BC, or early Iron Age Europe, and historically they have usually been used as trim at the edges of garments, woven as narrow strips, and usually with elaborate motifs. Tablets are individual cards – most square, with holes at each corner. Each hole is threaded with a warp thread. The more cards are threaded, the more elaborate your motif can be. The fundamental operating principle is to turn the tablets in a certain sequence and direction, which lifts selected sets of threads in the warp, giving you your pattern. Today, Inge Dam has become a world renknowned expert in tablet weaving.

Her quiet and unobtrusive demeanor is such a contrast to the extravagant and spectacular garments and fabrics she creates. The word extravagant in late Middle English is derived from two latin words. In Medieval Latin, extravagari is a latin verb meaning to ‘diverge greatly’. Extra in latin means ‘outside’ and vagari means ‘wander’. Inge’s refined results from her loom make it evident that she has spent many hours wandering creatively with great skill. Beneath what looks like riotous colour and spectacular garments, are rigourous self control and discipline. Though it is true few people would have the time to dedicate as much time  to their weaving practice as Inge has done, she has nonetheless always taken her weaving very seriously.
Purple Waves, Inge Dam. Handwoven, tablet woven embellishments, hand dyed. Photo credit: Inge Dam. 

Though Inge seems shy, quiet spoken, reserved, modest, humble, and introverted, these qualities are her greatest assets, and the springboard of her successes, for without them, she would not have honed her self-discipline nor developed the reservoir of knowledge and experience she has acquired over the years. To add to these qualities, she has incredible focus, determination and tenacity, required not only for the precision required of her weaving practice, but a consistent and dedicated practice. Above all, she doesn’t let these characteristics stop her from having an incredible amount of initiative, which takes even more courage than for someone who is outgoing. She takes full responsibility and action in promoting her weaving and herself as a teacher. She seeks out opportunities to exhibit her weaving, enters call for entries, and writes articles. Though she finds teaching requires that she go outside her comfort level, she puts all that aside and teaches workshops all over North America and is now in great demand. People appreciate not only her expertise in her tablet weaving, dyeing,  fabric weaving, and garment construction, but enjoy her gentle, thoughtful and polite manner. She finds teaching rewarding because workshop participants appreciate and value her labour intensive techniques in a world where garments are often made to be discarded, rather than prized gems that one could be proud of and cherish.
Ocean Voyageur, Inge Dam. Handwoven, tablet woven embellishments, hand dyed. Photo credit: Inge Dam

Inge first attempted weaving in1982 with Edna Blackburn in Caledon East, an icon of weaving in Ontario. It took Inge a while to make weaving a habitual practice while she was raising her children, but in 1986 she decided to commit herself to obtaining her OHS Master Weaver Certification, which at the time was offered at Georgian College. Three semesters in an academic year made for a very rigourous and demanding weaving schedule. From 1990-92 she worked on her in-depth study to obtain her Master Weavers designation. She researched iron age textiles from Denmark 500 BC to 800 AD, inspired from the book Ancient Danish Textiles from Boggs and Burials: A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textile by Margaret Hald, which she had picked up  in a Danish museum shop.  Many of the textiles she saw were large pieces of fabric with tablet borders which is how she started creating her tablet borders and  inserts. The key technical innovation Inge brought to this technique, was to simultaneously do the card weaving strips while weaving the fabric, where traditionally they were done separately.

In the 1990s, Inge did some production weaving for a designer called Marilyn Blumer which lasted a year or two, weaving up to 45 yards of fur strips.  Since then, she has become more of ‘one of’ weaver and what I like to call, a weaver’s weaver. Inspiration is derived from several sources. She often looks through magazines and books, and takes many workshops from other people to keep her own creative juices flowing. The motifs for her card weaving are often inspired by Peruvian iconography as well as words and letters.  Inge dyes the warp herself using Procion MX dyes, often using silk, tencel and/or mercerized cotton. She selects a weave structure which she modifies. The weaving of the pattern is computerized which frees her up to concentrate on manipulating the tablets. With the inclusion of card weaving, the weaving process is slowed down considerably. She thinks it makes the weaving process more interesting and  keeps her engaged in a mindful way. The number of cards used varies for each yardage and she has used up to 66 cards per band in a fabric. Some fabrics have as many as 4 and up to 6 bands. Each yardage, usually about 5 yards, takes about ¾ of a year to complete. Once a yardage is completed, she submits it for a call for entry at Convergence, where they have often been exhibited and have received numerous awards. When they return from exhibition, she’ll move on to the next step of the process, creating a garment. The design for the garment comes after she has created the yardage and she has no idea what she’ll create with it when she starts out. The garment construction and design process is intuitive. She uses pre-existing patterns making adjustments and modifications and does all the sewing.
Inge at her loom. Photo credit: Inge Dam. 
In my mind, what distinguishes a professional weaver from an amateur, is one who takes her/him self and work seriously, and it’s not so much about how much weaving product one sells. Though she hasn’t sold any of her garments, she makes money because of them indirectly, for instance, by giving workshops, and doing trunk and fashion shows for weaving guilds. She also has an etsy shop where she sells smaller cost items. She has had a part time job doing income tax which allow her to weave for her fulfillment, growth and enjoyment rather than succumb to the pressures of production weaving and selling,  This approach enabled her to slowly build her inventory and reputation for her technical and creative endeavours. In addition, over the last 20 years, she has been writing articles on weaving for various publications, culminating in her most recent endeavour, a book entitled Tablet Woven Accents for Designer Fabrics: Contemporary Uses for Ancient Techniques on incorporating tablet weaving into yardage.  This book is available for sale from her website: www.ingedam.net. Inge does what she needs to do to promote herself, and what she is selling is her knowledge  about  and skill in, a specialized technical area of weaving, through her many workshops, exhibitions of her work, articles she writes, and now the book she has written.  She makes it clear that she could not have done this kind of precious work if she had had to have a full time job.

When she is not teaching workshops, Inge spends her days in her studio weaving, dyeing, and and/or creating a garment. Her time at the loom and in the studio is a sanctuary. Her work space is also modest, reserved, and humble. No wonder it’s such a surprise when you see her exuberant use of colour and the lavish and extravagant garments she creates. She talks quietly but her work speaks volumes. She often and easily sits at the loom from 8am to dinner time, preceded by a walk outdoors and stopping for lunch. She likes long uninterrupted periods of time at the loom and the ‘flow’ that happens as a result of such focused activity.  Though she is sparse and frugal with her words, she is effusive, dedicated and passionate in her weaving practice. She enjoys the solitude that her practice requires and the sense of autonomy that it imparts. Her weaving is deliberate, slow, meticulous, precise and requires that she pay attention to each weft and be exacting in every detail.

It was an honour and privilege to see Inge Dam’s woven yardage and garments when I interviewed her. Had Inge had other circumstances, she may have been a painter and artist -  for she is certainly a great colourist . Each yardage is a canvas. Each garment, a work of art. All the joy that weaving gives her, is transmitted in the fruits of her labours.  Each yardage and garment is a celebration conveying her happiness through her vibrant use of colour, which in turn, leaves one feeling completely in awe!

Inge Dam will be giving a 4 day workshop organized by the Toronto Weaving School at Burr House in Richmond Hill, August 10-13 2015. Please contact Line Dufour at linedufour.tapestry@gmail.com

© Line Dufour. All rights reserved. 

This article is part of ongoing series entitled The Woven Path. It features a person that uses weaving in their practice. Line teaches weaving at the Toronto Weaving School and is a practicing textile artist, currently exploring marrying new and unrelated technologies with weaving. 
She launched an international tapestry project entitled Fate, Destiny and Self Determination/Le Sort, Le Destin et L`Auto-Determination, co-created by 181 people from 19 countries. You can view the progress of the installation as well as view exhibitions, and the submissions received. on its Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fate-Destiny-and-Self-Determination-An-international-tapestry-project/194385150700425. The project is ongoing and you can still contribute to it by contacting linedufour.tapestry@hotmail.com

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

TABLET WEAVING WITH INGE DAM


CARD WOVEN EMBELLISHMED  FABRIC WEAVING 
with Inge Dam
August 10-13 2015

 Inge Dam is known for her meticulously crafted and artistically hand dyed woven yardages with card woven embellishment inserts,  from which she creates luxurious  garments . She has garnered many awards for her weaving and has taught extensively, in particular throughout the United States, including for many Convergence conferences, organized by the Handweavers Guild of America. She has recently authored a book on her techniques, Tablet-Woven Accents for Designer Fabrics Contemporary Uses for Ancient Techniques which you can purchase from her at any time.


Through her studies of ancient textiles Inge became fascinated with the concept of weaving tablet woven borders jointly with a piece of fabric on the loom. This technique was used on many of the ancient garments she  studied. Students will be introduced to this type of weaving through a brief introduction to its history and hands on practice. They will set up a loom with a simple weave structure and learn how to make a tablet warp and how to arrange it beside the fabric warp so the border and the fabric can be woven together using only one shuttle, rather than attached separately. The students will also be taught how to avoid tension problems between the border warp and the fabric warp and how to accommodate for the differences in the take up of the two weaves. A simple tablet weaving technique will be employed and the students will learn how to add embellishments to the tablet woven border, such as tassels, twining, beads at the edges and on the surface, braiding overlay, wrapped warp ends, loops, Ghiordes knots, and brocading.


Level of expertise : participants should know how to weave plain weave and 4-shaft straight twill.
Location: Burr House, 530 Carville Road, Richmond Hill
Time: 10am – 4pm
Maximum: 12
RSVP by July 31 2015
Cost: $350 plus $2 material fee

This workshop is a great opportunity to study with someone who is an internationally respected weaver which you should take advantage of. To take her courses in the US would cost you 10 times as much, what with the exchange rates, accommodation and transportation!

Direct questions to Line Dufour   linedufour.tapestry@gmail.com

 [] Send Cheque for $350 to Line Dufour,
25 Beckett Ave, Holland Landing L9N 1E6. t

WORKSHOP: A VARIETY OF DYES AND DYE TECHNIQUES


August 17-21 2015 Burr House, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada

Students will be introduced to a variety of warp painting techniques and media using fabric paints, markers, Fibre Reactive dyes  and acid dyes.

An assortment of dye application methods will be demonstrated and practiced. Technical information regarding the mixing of dyes will also be discussed. Students will learn the basic procedures on Low Water Immersion, (LWI) with fibre reactive dyes. Students will learn to mix the dyes, and learn about chemical water, soda ash, batching and the necessity of safety precautions when using dyes. You will have the opportunity to also dye wool .


A limit of 15 lbs of yarn can be dyed. No other articles such as existing clothing are permitted except on the last day if we don’t want to waste remaining dye baths.  You will also be able to practice shibori techniques off loom either with a plain weave scarf that you have woven, otherwise there will be pre-woven silk scarves available for purchase either during or before the workshop. If you have yarn that is 100% polyester, this can also be dyed.

Maximum of 10 people.
$350.

Contact Line Dufour at linedufour.tapestry@gmail.com for more details.