Päivi Suomi is a handweaver with a special interest in
Finnish-style textiles and the use of hemp in weaving.
Professional Experience: Päivi worked in Vancouver
for 20 years in the accounting and high-tech field. Over ten years ago,
for a change of lifestyle, she moved her family to the Kootenays in British
Columbia. She has since studied weaving and developed her hobby into
a successful home-based production weaving business.
Päivi was employed by About.com as the Weaving & Spinning Guide for about 5 years, where she maintained a site devoted to the craft of weaving and spinning, writing weekly articles, updating links and resources and managing an active forum and chat.
Education: Päivi graduated from Simon Fraser
University with a Bachelors in Business Administration. Upon moving
to the Kootenays, Päivi studied textiles at Kootenay School of
the Arts, under the teaching guidance of Judith MacKenzie and took classes in Beginners and Intermediate Weaving, Handspinning and Colour Theory.
From Päivi: "Growing up in a Finnish community in
northern Ontario, some of my first memories were of looms. Watching the
fabric grow on the loom was and still is amazing to me. I also learned to knit, sew and crochet at a very early age and I love to work with all fibre crafts.
I consider myself to be very fortunate to have studied textiles with Judith MacKenzie. I studied beginner and multishaft weaving and learned to dye with both chemical and natural dyes using wool, mohair, flax and cellulose fibres. I also took an extensive course in handspinning. I learned about the nature and characteristics of different fleeces, how to spin at different ratios and twists, to create colour and interesting effects through carding and blending fibre. I had the opportunity to spin many exotic yarns: fine merino wools, mohair, alpaca, llama, angora, silk, ramie, flax, hemp, cotton.
Thank you, Judith:)
I love to spin my own yarns and exotic fibre combinations and to weave on my 16 shaft countermarche loom. I also like to play with dyepots and see what unique colours can be created. The more that I
learn about weaving and spinning, the more I find there is to know.
At this new website "All Fiber Arts" I hope to continue the work that I began at About.com, but with an extended focus. Please join me in learning more about some of our favourite hobbies. I look forward to sharing my discoveries with you.
