Foundational Years, 1949-1970
During its first two decades, the Kingston Hand-weavers Club maintained a membership of twenty to thirty participants, and meetings were held in members’ homes. Mrs. Bannister returned regularly to Kingston to give presentations on topics such as how to dress a loom, and often brought samples of fabric and fibre to introduce the Club to new patterns and materials. Members did not often get the opportunity to practise on a loom during meetings, as they were held in private homes and not in a weaving studio, though various guest presenters expanded their knowledge of the technical aspects and history of weaving. Meeting minutes were published in local newspapers along with the address of the home where the next meeting would be held to inform the public of the Club’s activities.
The Club held its first exhibition in 1950 at the Modern Furniture Store on Princess Street. A local newspaper praised the “delicate table linens, fine woollen dress lengths, drapes, and, most exciting of all, [eveningwear] woven partly of gold and silver metallic thread.” The reviewer expressed surprise at the “considerable variety in the materials used by the weavers,” which included wool, cotton, nylon, straw, and the aforementioned metallic thread, and highlighted the range of the Club's membership, which was comprised of both men and women aged 10 to 85. Exhibitions of the Club’s work became regular fixtures of the Kingston community, with shows at the Kingston Frontenac Public Library (1951), the Kingston Industrial Fair (1952), St. James Parish Hall (1954), and many other local venues.
In November of 1952, the Club had its first “tea and sale” at the Sunday School Hall of St. James Parish. Sale items included placemats, towels, bags, pot holders, scarves, luncheon sets, skirts, "yard goods," and baby bibs, and tea and other refreshments were served. Approximately 189 members of the public came to support the local weaving group, and the Club earned a total of $253.30 which went towards inviting guest lecturers, hosting meetings, and preparing exhibitions.
Despite undertaking a number of initiatives in the community, by the end of the 1950s the Club experienced a dramatic dip in membership involvement. Co-presidents Mrs. George Stirrett and Mr. George Reid distributed an “Important Notice” to members in 1956, calling a meeting at the home of Ruth MacLachlan in Grenville Park and urging “any weaver who is interested in the future—or lack of it—of the Club [to] be on hand to express an opinion and to cast a vote” about its future. Stirrett and Reid pointed to low meeting attendance and the small number of members who were actually weaving as signs that the Club was in decline. They asserted that if the Club was to continue, significant changes were required and they called on their members to assist in the revival of the group. In April of that year, the Club, which was renamed the Kingston Hand-Loom Weavers, drafted a Constitution and took steps towards becoming an organized guild.
Doreen Jeffers joined the Kingston Hand-Loom Weavers in 1962 after moving to Kingston from England. She was inspired to weave after visiting an exhibition of the Club’s work at the Agnes Etherington Art Gallery and took evening classes with Cora Reid, a member and former President of the Hand-Loom Weavers, at the Calvin Park High School. When she joined, there was a greater emphasis on hands-on learning to encourage members to not only learn the theory of weaving, but to gain practical knowledge. Here, she describes how meetings were organized when she first joined, and explains how looms were rented to members to encourage them in their weaving pursuits: