Long time, no see
So this is what they mean by being behind the 8-ball! Needless to say I have been rather busy recently simply helping to get products into boxes and into the postie's van. There has been a bunch of news to share so here goes.
Majacraft on Facebook
Yes, we have a Facebook page finally! It is being managed by the lovely Donyale Grant as our resources in the factory are already tapped out. Included on the page are tidbits from the workshop as well as inspirational resources, people and ideas from the wide world of the internet. You are welcome to come and join in the conversation!
Patsy and Rich Zawitoski
Patsy Zawitoski and her husband Rich visited us recently at the workshop and we had a lovely time sharing spinning...stuff 
with them both. You can read about their international adventures on their blog here or alternatively go straight to the Majacraft bit here.
Dynamic Heddle Loom
As more of our very unique looms make their way around the world, we are seeing some very interesting and creative work coming from different artists. If you are keen to see some of the amazing stuff that weavers are making, try visiting these web sites
Rather than edit this post for days getting it just so, I think the wisest choice is to publish it quick to let you know that we are indeed still alive at Majacraft! Hopefully I will get back to the blog real soon and maybe I will be able to share something about the progress of Blue Sun.
Andy
Anna Josefsson’s custom Rose
Recently we had the opportunity to engrave another custom wheel, this time a Rose for our friend Anna Josefsson. I was very pleased with how it came out, particularly the little frog on the handle nut! This was the first time we had tried engraving on to the nut and it was very encouraging to see it work so well.
Anna Josefsson Rose
Anna Josefsson Rose detail
Anna Josefsson Rose detail
Anna Josefsson Rose detail
Until next time
Andy
Joan Ruane – cotton spinner extraordinaire
Over the past few days we have had the pleasure of hosting the lovely Joan Ruane, cotton spinning guru from Arizona USA. She has been in NZ teaching some workshops and catching up with friends made during her time living here in the 70s.
Joan was a wonderful source of information and ideas which she freely gave. We spent quite some time working with her making little tweaks to our lace spinning tools to refine them further still. What was fascinating for both her and us was the amount of things that Majacraft make that she and spinners around her didn’t know about. The stylus, High speed head and flyer varieties were all a pleasant surprise for her.
Joan Ruane spinning with a Suzie Professional and high speed head
Joan Ruane spinning hands
She also gave our local club an excellent talk and demonstration of cotton spinning and the members were buzzing afterwards. Cotton is not spun a lot in NZ and this was a real eye opener to the possibilities.
In the evening we had Pat Old (past Creative Fibre President, author of “In A Spin”, and tutor of note) around to chat with Joan further. We had a great night and Joan was very generous with her knowledge.
Joan Ruane with Pat and Gordon Old
She was a wonderful guest and if you are interested in inviting Joan to teach, we would wholeheartedly recommend her. Find her at www.cottonspinning.com
Until next time
Andy
Fibre art rolags by Wooldancer
Our friend Wooldancer (Michelle Snowdon) in Australia posted a very nice video to YouTube recently of Fibre Art Rolags she is producing. The work she is creating is very beautiful and I have included the link below. I found it really inspirational what talented people like Michelle are creating on their Auras.
I have also added a link to this video in the video resources area of the Majacraft web site - it can be found under "Inspiration".
You may wish to keep an eye on her YouTube channel as she is indicating this is the first of a series. Thanks Michelle!
Andy
Photos from India – Rob and the Majacraft tour
Rob has been in India for the last week and from what I have seen on Facebook, it looks like he has been having an awesome time around Rajastan and Northern India. Here are a couple of pictures he has shared recently.
Rob's 'motel'!
The ladies at morning tea
An interesting view of the Taj Mahal
In front of the Taj Mahal
If you are ever interested in taking part in our journeys to India, drop us a line. I went about three years ago and found it to be a fascinating and quite profound place to visit so, if you are on the fence ... Do IT! 
Andy
Custom Aura design
Several years ago, we created a custom Aura for our good friend Therese Cruz. She provided the design which was drawn by a Dutch artist Mark Storm.
So anyway, long story short , I am looking around for inspiration on Bing images this morning and I come across this site amongst the search results!
I recommend visiting the link below to see more of the images.
Custom Aura design by Mark Storm
Until next time
Andy
Majacraft web site updates plus a new Aura Tutorial
I have spent much of today working on the Majacraft web site. You may notice a few changes next time you visit.
Firstly, the blog posts now feed directly on to the front page of the web site - this is going to make it easier to keep up with Majacraft news and views (when I take a break from building to work on the computer). I am very pleased with this as creating the hooks into WordPress proved to be a bit ... tricky...
The other big modification is improvements to the Resources area. I have been working on building a better platform that hopefully makes the content more discoverable and should also set the stage to easily add new tutorials, videos and so forth.
In my frenzied activity, I have also put up a new tutorial as well (Resources->Tutorials if you want to find it) on "Lace Spinning on the Aura". I was written by Seattle spinner Evanita Montalvo as part of a Ravelry post so thank you very much Evanita for providing this valuable instruction.
If you have not been to the Majacraft Resources area, I suggest having a little look about, you might find the answers you were looking for!
Until next time
Andy
JazzTurtle on ABC TV!
Our friend Esther of JazzTurtle fame appears in an ABC segment showing how to do tailspinning (and she uses and Aura ! ). Go Esther!
Until next time
Andy
Shelob yarn by Woolwench
One of my Facebook friends is Woolwench (Suzy) who is based in Holland. She is also the owner of "The One Wheel" limited edition Aura that we built last year for her Kickstarter campaign. She recently posted on her Facebook page pictures of a new yarn she had produced which she has called "Shelob". Here is her story about the yarn
I dreamt about this yarn, and it was one of those dreams where everything just happens magically, which of course I discovered as I was spinning it and realised it would have been much easier if I had an extra hand or more fingers. My goal was a very lumpy yarn wrapped in silk just like a spider cocoon, in my dream I had seen the fine cobwebby silk fibers wrapping around the yarn and encasing it in a thin layer. It was a bit like how a spider wraps its prey in silk, somewhat gruesome but hey, it was a dream and they can be weird right! It was tricky to spin, I first corespun a single, then coilspun it to make a coiled yarn, and then coil spun that again, in my left hand, while drafting a silk hankie with my right to wrap around the outside of it, spreading it back along the yarn to open out the silk fibers. I used a commercial spun eyelash thread as the core to add extra texture too. I also made a second yarn using a black sparkly base yarn with a white silk layer over it, hoping for an even more spidery look - I am going to add this to my LOTR yarn collection and have named it Shelob, for the giant spider that Frodo met in the Two Towers book.
Shelob yarn
Shelob yarn
Here are some pictures of a Shelob style yarn that was the first iteration of the design
Spiderwebby in process
Spiderwebby on the bobbin
Spiderwebby skein
I find it amazing to see what people around the world are creating with Majacraft tools and what we in a small way are part of so congratulations Suzy and thank you for sharing it with us.
Suzy is "WoolWench Handspun Yarn" on Facebook if you would like to connect with her and see what she has been up to recently or visit her site at www.woolwench.com
Until next time
Andy
We’re back – and Spin Artiste
Welcome one and all, we have started back at work for the year and boy is it hot in the workshop! I am anticipating Autumn and Winter with relish at the moment as the afternoons are so very humid and the workshop has very little breeze moving through it. The irony is that come June I will be bleating about longing for Summer again. I guess I am hard to please
We have some interesting changes coming up soon and I hope you will see some of the fruits of these before long. As a hint, we should be able to produce much finer reed segments which will increase the versatility of the Dynamic Heddle Loom - everything going to plan, these should be underway in about 8 weeks.
I have been doing CAD design work on a very exciting new product (well to me at least ), however I am pretty confident that others are going to be pretty interested when it materialises.
Over the Summer, Arlene from Spin Artiste did an interview about Majacraft and in the last fortnight posted it on her web site. There are some never before seen pictures of Aura and loom prototypes and she asked some really insightful questions. If you would like to learn a little more about Majacraft and what makes us tick then take time to have a read. My daughter Sophie has a little feature role as well (proud Dad!). Click the image to visit Spin Artiste and read the interview.
Sophie in the Majacraft workshop - Spin Artiste interview
Until next time
Andy