September 2008

Greetings | News | Silkster's Gallery | New Products | Specials | Pulse of Treenway

Greetings from Salt Spring Island

The crickets started chirping last weekend and that always means a time of struggle for me to stay in the present moment and enjoy the last days of summer. Crickets mean the coming of fall and abundant harvests from the veggie garden which is fabulous. They also mean the scurrying to prepare for the rains which will set in including getting the firewood in, putting the garden to bed, finishing plastering the house and getting the sealer coat on. Crickets are the harbingers of autumn and the gathering of materials for winter projects. Thoughts begin to turn to the studio and to the first art works to start or finish.

We had a product development day here at Treenway and created some fun and unusual things with cocoons. We have added a new page to our website, Projects, and will periodically be adding ideas for using some of our products to spice up the creative time in your play room.

Clay/Straw House Update

We had a fun and busy plastering weekend in June. Family and friends, new and old, came and went, plastered, sang, ate and drank for three days.

A half inch mixture of clay, straw, sand and water was applied to the clay straw walls for protection and the finished look of the house. This consisted of making a small ball of the "mud" in your hand and smearing it on the wall. We got all of the outside done and the inside of my studio. It was thrilling for us. We are so thankful for our many friends and family that came to help us make a house.

Right now we are finishing the application of a thin second coat of earthen plaster on the house. This seals any cracks that formed, adds another protective layer and smoothes out any wobbles in the walls. We will have just enough time to get a second sealer coat and the first pigment paint coat on before the rains come. We will put the pigment paint coat on in the spring along with sculpted artwork of sunflowers, celestial sky and sprouting vegetables.

The windows are in and the doors will be hung in another month. Then we can get some heat going to work in the dry and warmth over the winter.

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News

Silk Workshops

Karen Selk will be in the Mid-west (Minnesota) in February 2009 and on the east coast of the US (NY) in March 2009. There is still room to add a couple more workshops to each region which would help defray travel costs for everyone.

Choose from two weaving workshops, Silken Kaleidoscope and Sumptuous Silk Clothing, both at the intermediate level, as well as a workshop on Silk Fusion at the beginner level.

Karen has five slide lectures from her tours of Asia and study of silk spanning Asia from India to Laos. She covers all aspects of silk including its history, the geography and cultures of the peoples, raising silkworms, spinning, and weaving and the making of silk fusion. She can also present a lecture tailor made for you.

Please contact Karen if your guild would be interested in hosting a workshop and/or lecture during one of these tours.
Toll free: 1.888.383.7455
Email: info@treenwaysilks.com
→ for more information on workshops and lectures.

Silk Tidings Newsletter

Print Newsletter
If you would like to receive a print copy of Silk Tidings, please let us know and we will mail you a printed copy for $10/year.
Order here: order on–line

Back Issues
Find them at → www.treenwaysilks.com/
newsletter.html

Note
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We so enjoy being in touch with all of you. Please remember to let us know when you change your email address. Update your info here: update on–line.

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Web Site

Projects Web Page

Something new coming to our web site...

Some products look so interesting, you just have to have them. After it arrives you think, What am I going to do with it? We had our first Professional Development day in August and concentrated on playing with our hand-dyed silk cocoons to give you ideas of some of the fun things you can do with them.

Here are the results of some of our efforts!

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Feedback

What do you want and need from Treenway? We are all ears!

All of you, our customers, are a big part of our business. It is important for us to provide the best product and service we can to meet your needs and desires.

We would like to hear from you about how we are doing, how we could improve and what we can provide other than our current products. Please drop us a line with any thoughts or requests, we always look forward to hearing from you: info@treenwaysilks.com

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The Pulse of Treenway

We are a busy little operation with many people doing a variety of things to enable us to offer the best products in a friendly, caring and efficient manner. In this issue we would like to introduce you to our graphics wizard.

Susanna Kong

Susanna flew from downtown Vancouver to Victoria's Inner Harbour for an interview with us just before we all moved to Salt Spring Island in the summer of 2001. She worked through the chaos of the move learning a new business and the language of fibre and silk.

Susanna has been an integral part of Treenway ever since, doing everything from taking orders and sending parcels, setting up the accounting system, and much more. As her computer and graphic skills emerged her role has evolved into that of our web mistress, ad diva and all the other things that make us look beautiful in the print and web world.

She is an artist who creates individually designed knit and crochet work for the Saturday Market and dabbles in drawing, painting, sculpture, spinning and weaving. We are fortunate to have her technical and artistic expertise.

Susanna loves poetry, walking home in the moonlight, eating, riding her bike, asymmetry, mowing the grass, her family, her friends, seeing her garden grow, day dreaming, living on salt spring, good coffee, her four legged friends, languages, hard work, colours, fiendish sudoku, sharing, making discoveries, the feel of sunshine on her skin and the smell of the air after a rain shower. Susanna is not naturally patient or punctual but is working on both (having less success with the latter).

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Washing & Dyes

Water all across North America differs from area to area. We hand dye all of our yarns in four different locations. Our dyers rinse the yarns until the water runs clear at their studios. Due to the differing minerals and chemicals in a water, you may see some colour rinse out of your Treenway yarns or a piece woven with Treenway yarns. Because of the differences in water composition, we strongly suggest you wash your items in cold water.

Treenies Work

Don't forget to check out the new work we Treenies have been up to (under what's new!) as well as the great work done by our customers and friends in the Silkster's Gallery.

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Learn more about....

→ silk yarns

→ weaving with silk

→ spinning with silk

→ silk fusion (silk paper/felt)

→ embroidery & needles arts with silk

→ care & washing of silk

→ the history and processing of silk (including a short glossary)

Printer friendly versions of the newsletter:
→ for screen silk tidings (853KB)
→ for print silk tidings (4.61MB)

Previous issues → back issues.

To download a free version of Adobe Reader go to www.adobe.com.

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Silkster's Gallery

We have a new gallery of creative and diverse pieces on our web site to delight you. As always, the work is awesome. Please take the time to have a look Silkster's Gallery (find it under Galleries in the drop down menu).

Thank you all for sharing your talent and beautiful work.

Sue Earle of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, (also known as Bootsie at Treenway Silks) used our threads and ribbons for the exquisite stitching on her shirt.

Tabi Ferguson from Waterloo, Ontario, spins fine silk and silk blends for lace knitting projects, weaving and for sale.

Jean O'Connor of Edmonton, Alberta, creates beautiful baskets using silk yarn.

Louise O'Donnell from Rosedale, British Columbia, constructs fabulous temari balls with silk thread.

Abra Palumbo of Black Creek, British Columbia, collaborated ideas with her daughter to weave a stunning wedding shawl.

Robin Reid from North Vancouver, British Columbia, fuses silk to make enchanting fairy shoes for us humans.

Marie Seabrook of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, used her imagination to make a lovely silk cocoon necklace.

Call for Entries

Our next Silkster's Gallery will be in our May 2009 issue. We encourage all of you to send photos of your work using Treenway silks. It is fun and inspirational for all of us to see what unique work is being produced. We reward you for your time with silk product from Treenway.

See the Silkster's Gallery for details of what we require from you to participate in this exciting gallery. We so look forward to your entries.
→ www.treenwaysilks.com/gallery.html

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New Products

funky silk fibre collection | silky play pack

Funky Silk Fibre Collection

We have updated our collection of Funky Silk Fibres – they are now available in four colourways. We were inspired by four of our annual community events on Salt Spring Island: Apple Festival, Fall Fair, Sea Capers and Saturday Market.

Each package includes a selection of colours from the colourway.
Fibres are shown below from left to right.

Apple Festival is organized by Captain Apple (Harry Burton), who we are proud to say, lives here on Salt Spring Island. The first settlers arrived here about 1860. They were farmers and grew numerous varieties of apples and some of the trees are still producing. Many people here still have a strong connection with the land and are serious about local organic food. During the apple festival 15 farms open their doors for us to come and tour, taste and buy apples. Fulford Hall has a display of the 250 varieties of apples grown here and the pie ladies sell a delicious assortment of pies.

Reds, pinks, russets, yellows greens and bark give Apple Festival a crisp edge.

Fall Fair is something our rural community looks forward to all year. Vegetables, fruits, flowers, canned goods, quilts and much more are judged and hung with blue, red and white ribbons. The chickens, goats, llamas, sheep and other animals kindly put up with hordes of humans oohing, ahhing and reaching for a touch. Friends meet, get something yummy to eat from their favourite food stand and listen to fabulous music or watch the kids on the rides.

Fall Fair is composed of harvest colours including oranges, burgundy, soft greens and earthy browns.

Sea Capers is always a lot of fun and provides great entertainment. During the boat building segment, participants arrive at the park with $50 worth of materials donated by one of our local building supply stores and in just three hours build a sea worthy vessel that can be sailed, paddled or otherwise manoeuvered through the water. The launching and sailing always prove hilarious. The vessels must travel approximately 250 yards to a marker in the bay and back. Nearly half of them make it back without any assistance.

Blues, turquoises, greys and purples represent the fun and whimsy of Sea Capers and the ever changing ocean.

Saturday Market is an exciting destination for locals as well as many people who visit the island. Lunch or the week's groceries can be found in the form of fresh bread baked in an adobe oven, fresh goat or cow cheese, vacuum packed salmon, fruits and veggies of all kinds, fresh baked goods or homemade chocolate for dessert and fresh flowers to adorn the table. We love good food and our farmers. A wander down the other side of the park provides a dizzying selection of handmade arts and crafts ranging from hats, soaps, pottery, jewelry, lotions, clothes and wind chimes.

Saturday Market is a rainbow of primary colours.

Silky Play Pack

We introduced this bundle of fun in our last newsletter and it has been very popular. This fun pack provides a great opportunity to explore those new silk fibres being incorporated into creative textile arts and mixed media.

Each package contains elements of texture, colour, layering, freshness, imagination and fun.

Silk cocoons, rods, hankies, degummed throwsters silk (or cocoon strippings) and silk ribbon in dazzling hues inspire the creative spirit to venture out and experiment with something playful.

At Treenway we have fun stitching, needle felting, fusing, spinning and trapping with these funky fibres.

Cocoons A perfect form for necklaces, earrings, flowers, tassel caps, bird's eggs, flower buds, shells and much more.
Rods Can be split, pulled and manipulated for flowers and other shapes or left as they are for a more organic presence in your work.
Degummed Throwsters The curly character adds texture for things in nature – clouds, leaves, blossoms, moss or creating layers in something more abstract.
Hankies Peeled into a thin veil, hankies can trap treasures onto a quilt or window dressing while more layers create 3 dimensional vessels and bags.
Cocoon Strippings Provide a more controlled, flat and firmer texture.
Ribbon Offers elegance to outlines, finishes, stitches, tassels, fringes, jewelry, collage, paper arts and more.

Each pack contains at least 20g of colourful silk fibre plus 5 yards of 7mm silk ribbon. Colours vary.

$17.25 each.

→ learn more about silk fusion
→ learn more about embroidery & needles arts with silk
→ learn more about spinning with silk
→ see all our natural silk fibres
→ see all our hand–dyed silk fibres

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Specials

20/2 silk noil yarn | dyed funky fibres

20/2 Silk Noil Yarn

100% Silk

Short fibres left behind after making higher quality spun silk are made into noil yarn. The shortness of fibre length results in a textured yarn with a matte look. It is much less costly than higher quality reeled and spun silks and combines beautifully with them. The hide and seek between dull and lustrous threads lends a coy playfulness to a cloth.

Silk has a distinctive silk aroma. Noil has the strongest scent due to impurities in the yarn. The majority of the smell dissipates after washing but can return again when wet.

Each skein weighs 100-105g (approx 3.5oz) with about 900 yd/skein.

Regular price: $7.80/100g skein
Discounted 20%.
Sale price: $6.25/100g skein.

→ see all our silk yarns
→ learn more about weaving with silk
→ learn more about silk

Dyed Funky Silk Fibres

Cocoons, Carrier Rods, Cocoon Strippings & Natural Silk in Sericin
for interesting and textural fibre art!

While supply lasts.

We have created a series of colourways for our Funky Fibres based on special events that take place on Salt Spring Island (see New Products). We still have an assortment of fibre packages stuffed with random colours which we would like to pass on to you at a good 20% savings.

Each of the fibres has their own distinct character. For those of you who have not worked with these fun and cutting edge treasures before, here is a little description of each one.

Carrier Rods are a by-product of reeling silk from the cocoon. As the silk filament is unraveled from the cocoon into skein form, some of the filaments get wound around the machinery. This silk with the sericin still in it is then slit and removed. The rods are 5 - 5 ½" (13 - 15 cm) long when whole and unscrunched. There may be some short pieces and partially wound cocoons in the mix. They are wonderfully textural for stitching, silk fusion and any application needing depth. They can be pressed flat or pulled apart to reveal the interesting criss-cross of the fibres. These rods have so much personality; you won't know what you can do with them until you try.

Regular price: $4.25/10g
Sale price: $3.40/10g

Cocoons are the egg shaped metamorphosis home of the silkworm. It contains nearly a mile long strand of uninterrupted silk. The cocoons are stiff and hollow. They can be cut and pierced to make all sorts of things from jewelry to clam shells.

Regular price: $4.75/10 cocoons
Sale price: $3.80/10 cocoons

Cocoon Strippings look like slightly disorganized puffs of carded fibre. This fibre is the first silk extruded by the silkworm which is used as a hammock while the caterpillar spends three days spinning a cocoon. There is still some sericin in the cocoon strippings which means they can become stiff when wetted. A little teasing makes them soft and fluffy again adding texture to any of your art work or easy to spin.

Regular price: $4.25/10g
Sale price: $3.40/10g

Natural Silk in Sericin is a by-product of the twisting of filament in the reeled silk industry. Fibres get tangled around machinery or are otherwise unable to be used for finished yarns. This source of high quality, long silk fibre contains a mix of curly fibre and lengths of fine yarn. It gives character and surface interest to all of your work.

Regular Price: $4.25/10g
Sale price: $3.40/10g

→ see all our natural silk fibres
→ learn more about spinning with silk

Note about Specials:

1. Prices do not include shipping.

2. Specials end December 31st, 2008.

3. Regular 10% Discount:
Our normal Bulk Discount for orders of silk yarns and fibres over $150.00 Cdn does not apply to Specials items.

Remember!
All prices are in Canadian funds.

Web Site Specials

We offer new specials on our web site approximately four times a year. We notify those people on our email newsletter list each time we put up new specials. If you would like to be on our email list register here!

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