Fall Two-Day Rya Class at Byrdcall Studio with Melinda Purcell Byrd
Saturday and Sunday, November 5-6, 2022
at Byrdcall Studio in Woodbine, Maryland.
Saturday 9 AM – 4 PM and Sunday 10 AM – 1 PM
Join with Melinda for a comprehensive two-day class of learning all about rya rug making. The rya book will be in your hands in advance of the class, though I will cover most of the chapters as we progress.
The studio will have many types of virgin wool rya rug yarn in hundreds of colors including much vintage yarn from Sweden. You will have free access to designing supplies, yarn snips for color blending, threading cards, graph paper if you choose to graph, and markers if you choose to mark your backing with the design. I will accommodate your choice of backing type and size. Supplies will be invoiced according to what you select during the class. The smallest and least expensive backing would be about 16″ x 16″ requiring about 4-5 skein for a total of approx. $90. I have 2′ wide Swedish backing I can hem to any length you request, and Finnish surface knotting backing in five widths. See listing in my Etsy shop for details and various prices.
Students can select the type of backing they wish to use in any size available. A list of possibilities and prices will be shared with registrants. I will have all your backings prepared for you before you arrive. During the two days, student will learn more than the basics of rya rug making and will design their own rya, calculate or “guesstimate” the amount of yarn they need, and become proficient with the knotting techniques. No ryas will be completed of course,but student will leave comfortable in knowing they have everything they need to succeed. Class size will be limited to 6.
I will make some seasonal muffins to share Saturday morning, and a hearty grain salad so you will have sustenance. Please bring any food you need to get through the day otherwise.
The studio has air conditioning and heat, so most likely the heat will be on in November. We have a small bathroom, too.
Bring:
- Design ideas as photos, sketches, doodles
- Sharp Scissors (if you are flying with carry-on luggage only, you can borrow my scissors.)
- A small calculator
- Tote bag or basket for carrying supplies
- Any watercolor paint, colored pencils or markers if you have them (I will have mine available to use)
- Snacks/Food as needed, energy bar, water bottle
- Notebook, but you won’t need to take many notes since everything is in the book.
- Wear comfortable clothes
Tuition:
Class is for adults age 16 and older. Artistic ability, while helpful, is not a requirement–the yarn provides the beauty. General hand dexterity is helpful.
$150 for students who have my Rya book; $195 for students who do not have my book–I will send one to you upon paid registration. I’ll send paperback unless you request hardback for $10 more.
To register, email me at Byrdcallstudio@gmail.com. I will send an online invoice.
If you are researching local hotels, Westminster, MD has several and is about 25 minute drive. Turf Valley Resort is about 16 minute drive.
Byrdcall Studio is a nice little building in my backyard in a neighborhood in rural Maryland. The studio serves many artistic outlets for me, so it does have a real working studio feel to it.
What is the easiest way to make color transitions so smooth that they look like paints bleeding into one another? That was my goal when I sketched the design I call Red Sky at Morning (see page 169 in my book). I didn’t want to see the lines of shape designation as I blended colors.
I drew a big “sun circle” on my Rauma wool and linen backing by tracing a barrel lid. Then drew lines of energy radiation which I knew would take me from hot light yellow sun, through oranges, reds and into several shades of purple. I made a threading card as a guide–but a loose guide from which I would flex my color choices as I moved upwards.
I worked on it. Nieces and nephew worked on it (at a weekend family reunion), and it progressed.
Right before the pandemic closed everything down, I did a program at the Carroll County Library Branch in Eldersburg, Maryland. All who attended learned to make knots on Red Sky at Morning.
I moved slowly on it so I could save the knotting for classes I was to teach this summer, but due to COVID-19, those classes will not materialize this year. So I have not been holding back for the past few weeks as I plunge into the heart of the sun.
Now here is what I hope you will notice. If I stuck rigidly to the lines on the backing, you would notice the color separations. But the trick to diminishing the “hard line” is to skip a knot right by the borderline and place a knot from the next color combination by the dividing line. See if you can see what I’m talking about in these photos. It is very effective. Under the first arrow, do you see the orange strand in the yellow territory? Under the second arrow, can you see the yellow knot in the hot white sun area? That is what I think will help anyone working on “soft transitions.”
And here is where Red Sky at Morning is today, June 11, 2020.
The work of 8 years of my life materialized in book form on March 17, 2020. Since then I have been mailing out several books each day and enjoying the feedback I’m receiving. Yet there is the other major life change we’ve all been experiencing together–the new reality of living with the threat and the challenging consequences of COVID-19. We are all in this together.
Another thing you might enjoy is the Facebook Group off my Byrdcall Studio page called 
I tend to hang on to all the vintage rya yarn I find or buy on eBay. But 
So, all of the natural and earthy colors of Frosta are gone as well as many of my Bergå and Nordiskas yarns. Out with the old…and in with the new! 
“Since it had been some time since I had done any drawing, I warmed up by doing a free-hand pencil sketch of the photo, scaled to match the proportions of the Rya-rug-to-be.
“For additional warm-up, I made a color drawing of the scene with pastels.
“Because I know that rya rugs tend to work better when they are more abstract and that the recipient of the rug wanted something in blues, greens, and yellows, I simplified the design and adjusted the palette.
“I then blocked out the rya backing with black yarn and drew the design onto it with chalk, following a black and white version of the colored pattern shown above. My father and friend had rejected my earlier rendition of the tree, saying that it looked like “a giant and malevolent spider,” so I replaced it with a softer version (one has to compromise, sometimes, in a collaborative project).
“Next I retraced the pattern with a black Sharpie and chose my yarns.
“Many knots later, we had the finished project.”
Everyone creates their own path when designing ryas. Every now and then I like to feature a creative process–especially when it has been photo-documented so well. Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth. I’m sure your friend’s parents love it. Readers, kindly share your comments below. Comments might not show up immediately, so be patient. Cheers!
John Terzakis in New Jersey has made 3 1/2 rya rugs to date. It is his new passion.
I sent her lots of information directly from the book manuscript so she could do the process that would tell her exactly how much yarn it would need. In exchange for her doing this work (and helping me tweak the calculations worksheet) I agreed to drawn the design onto the backing for her. Good trade. At first glance she felt overwhelmed by the process I had emailed to her unexpected, and said her schedule and busy life would not allow her to do it. 
But on second thought she gave it a go and found that the process actually worked. (I did have to make a clarification or two which I have amended in the book–lucky for you all!) But she gave me a list of yarn needed which was quite exact from my perspective. She and her mother both put some time into figuring, but I was so impressed that it came out so perfectly.
When I removed my grid lines, the backing was ready to go. Then I gathered the ryegarn and prydvevgarn exactly as Elizabeth had specified, and shipped the whole kit off to John.
Here are a couple of the needle organizers he made for the business and probably made some for customers, too. I was just a kid back then.
But now that I have chosen to pick up the rya ball and run with it, I am reviving the needle organizer. I’ve been selling them on Etsy for a couple of years with very high acclaims from people who buy them. As I was getting low on my tulip poplar blocks, I asked my husband if he would be willing to prepare 50 more for me. He loves working with wood and chose to buy some gorgeous cherry wood for this edition of the needle organizers. So every evening for the past week or two he’s been cutting, planing, sanding, drilling, and apply multiple coats of finish to the cherry block. They are ready to go, and I am thankful.
