WARP:  Weaving Arts Resource Page

Cathy M Koos

While social media sites can often be a plague on humanity, there are some bright lights out there, such as Facebook’s WARP: Weaving Arts Resource Page, which is a beacon for textile artists.  Not to be confused with Debbie Chandler’s WARP (Weaving a Real Peace), founder and administrator Jan Miller’s Facebook group is a treasure trove of resources.  Jan suggests an “annotated bibliography” might be a more apt description.

The resource page came about because Jan started a personal research project on weaving, using Google as her search engine.  Her search revealed totally unrelated topics like “weaving in traffic.”  A subsequent search for spinning brought up “spin classes” at fitness clubs.  So, Jan decided to forge new territory and create her own resource page on Facebook.

Two years later, Jan’s Facebook group has over 5000 followers.  While most followers hail from North America, 20% come from such far-flung countries as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and South Africa.

Not designed as a “kudos and conversation group,” WARP focuses on resource for weaving, spinning, dyeing, basketry, and the allied arts.  Jan’s aim is on projects as inspiration and topics like standard sizes.    She avoids posting drafts as that topic is already thoroughly covered on Handweaving.net.

Providing support to guilds, teachers and even costuming for reenactors, Jan has thoughtfully organized the resources into 112 searchable units and files with multiple posts and citations in each unit.

A sampling of the units and files include such topics as health and safety, loom maintenance, cordmaking, knots, hacks, weaving schools, folklore, felting and more.

WARP is a private group, so if anyone wants to join, Jan recommends following directions on the entry question (Name at least three specific things you already know or want to learn or do in spinning, weaving and dyeing…) or their approval will be delayed and possibly not go through.  If it does not go through for any reason, try again.

Once you are on the page, it is a rabbit hole you will be glad to dive into!

 

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