Bryony Studio

Two weeks ago, I warped up my loom with a new length of material. Weaving the lace at 10 dpi left an open and airy fabric, very lightweight and beautiful. As you can see, it is rather open, though not as much as I thought it would be. I have about six yards of material. Four of the pieces I wove off at shorter lengths, intending them to be made into a skirt later. What I hadn't expected was the shrinkage after washing the material. What was originally about twenty-four inches shrank to a little over eighteen inches. Yet, despite the surprises, I think this will wind up making beautiful garments. I think it would make a good summer top, or with a contrasting layer underneath, it would make a wonderful gown or skirt. I look forward to see what I can use this material for, and how it could be made with different materials.

So I ended last year with a warp, a beautiful burgundy warp of chenille and cotton. My intention was to turn it into a tunic of some sort, but it ended up being a Christmas present. Ah well, sometimes things happen, I've learned. One of my biggest surprises for Christmas was receiving a dressmaker's dummy. Very excited about this because now I can start to design clothes with the material I weave up. I currently have material on the dummy as I write, but I'm still mulling over the design. I have great respect for fashion designers who can make beautiful garments for the masses. I'll post photographs later on. I hope everyone has a happy new year.

This month, a group called Dessember (check out the website here ) focus their attention on ending human trafficking. The point of Dessember is to raise awareness and money specifically for International Justice Mission. Personally, I think it's a brilliant way to do something besides raise awareness. Often times, myself included, all we're able to do is talk about human trafficking, but this is one way to do something tangible. After all, few of us will go on trips to rescue slaves or spot someone being trafficked in our community. Awareness, however, is important, and if that's all we can do, then proceed. Yet, I wanted to try something in honor of Dessember. For someone who hasn't worn dresses often since college, I don't have a lot of dresses neither do I have money to buy dresses. What I do have is material, some handwoven, and some store bought. This month, my goal is to make one dress from handwoven material. Not the material in the poncho above, bu...

First, some news: the Saturday Artisan Market at Canalside didn't go as planned for the second time this month. We're on the terminal end of the Erie Canal before it goes into Lake Erie, and wind is always an issue. The last two Saturday Artisan Markets have had sustained winds in the 20 mph range - not good for tents, let me assure you. However, we will be there (providing the winds die down) the first three Saturdays of October should anyone want to come visit. I'll be at Appleumpkin in Wyoming NY this weekend. Now, the news aside, onto the scheduled post: Moonlight over Deep Waters. So, this poncho (which I think is gorgeous by the way) was partly inspired by my book, Azure Maris . The book cover is a link that leads you to the Amazon website where I do earn a little money off the clicks. For those who haven't had a chance to visit my Bridgette ni Brian site, and learn about Azure, she is a mermaid princess-priestess from the kingdom of Deep Waters. The po...

To give you a little background on the business, over the next couple of Saturdays I'm going to explain why I chose this path. Bryony Studios focuses on creating handwoven clothes and accessories for twenty and thirty something women. One of my Wraps The accessories I create be they poncho, wrap, shrug, shawl or something else are for every woman, but I specifically chose the plus-sized fashions for clothing. Why? It's simple - there was a need for quality items of artisanal value in this group. The other reason - it's my size. I'm considered plus-sized, and even as I lose weight to gain a healthier life, I will remain in the larger sizes because I'm tall (5'9") and curvy. Local, Fair Trade Clothes I've always struggled with my weight as many women do. We can take three approaches to our weight: (1) force our bodies into the "ideal size" even if that size is unattainable, (2) ignore our health, or (3) accept our bodies and ...