c u r i o u s w e a v e r » curiousweaver

Bring Back Doughnuts for Weavers

curiousweaver — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:52:19 +0000

	Amanda and I had a actual weekend of weave and this is one of the the beautiful presents she brought with her. A ceramic doughnut shaped warp weight from Japan.When I hold this in my hand I’m sent into another dimension – I think of other people and other times where textile production had it’s own specialised tools also created by gifted craftspeople. Attention to detail, function and beauty. A time or place where where beauty isn’t considered irrelvant, unnecessary, inconvenient, costly, pointless..such as shown in my usual weight which had a previous life as a film canister.Having said this, the humble film canister performs well and I can adjust the number of lead weights inside to suit the situation. But it sure lacks any visual beauty. Now that film canisters can’t be bought, where to now for our odd warp weights.
The Japanese ceramic weight on the back of the loom

Amanda believes this indicates the weight. There must be specific weights for different weave/yarns. This one was a bit too heavy for the 2/20 silk ends I was using.	This initially looked like wear on it, but it could be cleaned off. It may be purposely there to provide a grip of sorts. Or it may reveal to someone what it’s original function was.

Pics to Picks Confidence & Time

curiousweaver — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:39:45 +0000

You may have noticed how most of my posts are up on the same day! This is because of extreme lack of time and lack of confidence. I’ve found this in others post’s too, which is a comfort.

Anyway, how do you design from an image when loom weaving has so many restraints and restrictions to imagery and placement. It’s these limitations that are part the creative aspect in this challenge. The designs going on in our heads are mixed with our technical knowlege of what is possible on our looms without setting out to create a full imagery in tapestry weave.

So I’d like to quote a couple of paragraphs from the great American writer – Annie Dillard in her book ‘The Writing Life’. Writing about writing she offers this as a comfort to others discouraged by their writing or thinking they just haven’t got it. Her brilliant style of writing strikes at my very core. Let me know what you think…

It takes years to write a book – between two and ten years. Less is so rare as to be statistically insignificant. One American writer has writen a dozen major books over six decades. He wrote one of those books, a perfect novel, in three months. He speaks of it, still, with awe, almost whispering. Who wants to offend the spirit that hands out such books?

Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks; he claimed he knocked it off in his spare time from a twelve-hour-a-day job performing manual labour. There are other examples from other continents and centuries, just as albinos, assassins, saints, big people, and little people show up from time to time in large populations. Out of a human population on earth of four and a half billion, perhaps twenty people can write a serious book in a year. Some people lift cars, too. Some people enter week-long sled-dog races, go over Niagara Falls in barrels, fly planes through the Arc de Triomphe. Some people feel no pain in childbirth. Some people eat cars. There is no call to take human extremes as norms.

Hope this makes you feel braver, as it did me.

Pics to Picks – Print to Loom

curiousweaver — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:16:16 +0000




Well here is the images of my bamboo experimentation with more to come. I’ve started with the sampling on the warp and will probably go with the fine bamboo weft which has a silky handle and soft ribbing effect. I don’t seem to be able to weave white successfully. I know it’s needed and we can’t do without it on the web and in our blank journal books but it’s an unfulfilling colour for me – it has an uncomfortable yearning about it. So into the dyebath all these will go. I’m looking into stencilling with dye or stencil resist if there is such a thing.

Bamboo Textile Patterns for Print

curiousweaver — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:11:06 +0000

Stylised bamboo images are well known in textiles and wallpaper.

I found these and liked the incorporation of the bamboo ’seams’ and leaves together. My image for pics to picks didn’t have the leaves but they offer another dimension to the patterning.

I also experimented with a peg plan possibility. But my experiments didn’t go too smoothly but I will try again. I need to get the scale and proportions correct for the small pixel size of the peg plan.

The pegplan experiment

Enjoying Images

curiousweaver — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:04:01 +0000

Although I’ve decided to go with the bamboo image for my Pic to Picks weave challenge I’m still fiddling with all the other images that Meg gave me. The more I look, the more I see.Notice the blue image in the corner of this image. It was very interesting because it was on a curve and I was able to draw several various versions of this.

I’m not sure how these will be used in my work but they are filling up my journal pages nicely.

Bamboo meets Ribbed Weave

curiousweaver — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:06:56 +0000

	Progessing with the Pics to Picks challenge I’ve managed to wind a long 9 metre warp onto my loom ready to test out some ideas and yarns in the weft. I know the warp is long (at least for me) and I promised myself that I wouldn’t put on long warps anymore because I get a bit bored sometimes… but here I go again. I must admit that it is totally fun now winding and beaming warps with my new AVL warping wheel, so maybe it’s all an excuse to use my new tools.Using the bamboo image I’ve isolated the actual bamboo from the photo and used this as a basis for a ribbed weave with 3/1 and 1/3 twill stripes in 2/20 silk. Meg’s explaination about the use of bamboo in Japan and China in connection to food has challenged me to look again at the project. Either I create a piece that can be used in conjuction with food such as a table runner…or should I just eat nice food (or health food such as chocolate) as I’m weaving it. I was going to weave collapse style scarves but I could easily include a non-collapse table textile on the same warp, perhaps allaying any boredom with the long warp if it creeps in. Look at the ’seams’ on the bamboo photo. These are more interesting than the bamboo itself for weave design. So I’m trying to include lots of these in an intermittent way. This possibility is only achievable with lots of shafts. I have 4 shafts devoted to the basic ribbed weave structure. The other 20 shafts offer another 5 arrangements of bamboo ’seams’. By changing the tie up again I can also combine arrangement to create more ’seams’. The ’seams’ are simply an exchange of the 1/3 twill with the 3/1 twill in small areas. Here is a design showing the front and back view of the structure, followed by photos of the warping process. See all my Pic to Picks entries so far.

Colouring the underworld for babies

curiousweaver — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 09:33:53 +0000

With so many babies being born in Australia’s baby boom I’ve taken to jazzing up singlets so the little ones feel connected to the textile world from the get go.

I used to buy the pale coloured singlets and do bullion roses on them. This looked great but the roses are a bit lumpy for their little chests. Also who wants insipid colours on a child when you can have your own shades of tie dye flocked with simple flower embroidery or applique. I was disappointed that some of the neck bands, from the same packet of singlets, didn’t dye with my cellulose fibre reactives as they must be polyester. Don’t you think the manufacturer would warn us of such horrors! Perhaps if weavers ran the world this would attract a major fine or even a jail sentence with the Textile and Weave Protection Board!

These photos are especially for Alex – the mum to be - so she can see how to make them. I just concertina folded (or pleated) the singlet then wrapped string around them very tightly. In another lot I used clothes pegs to do the resist rather than string. You can see this effect in the two purple singlets above.

Circle Clothes

curiousweaver — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:42:31 +0000

	Exploring the new Japanese sewing pattern books is a delight for looking at clothing design in a fresh way. Converting 2D Cloth Into 3D Works (1) by Natsuno Hiraiwa has a collection of beautiful simple designs which have inspired me to get sewing and use some of the fabrics in my stash..I’ve made several things out of this book. The ‘jacket top’ at left is cut from a beautiful Japanese traditional width (15″) ikat silk that I bought in Melbourne. Even though most of the patterns are cut from wider widths joining the 15″ widths together still works. Great for handwovens. This pattern is basically a circle and many of the other patterns are variations on this idea.The only problem I encountered with sizing was in the expected length of the top. I found I had to add another 10cms (as a bias cut) to the bottom. So I think the patterns are designed for neck to waist lengths that are shorter than the average expected in western sizing.The other problem is missing out on pattern details because I can’t read Japanese! It’s enough motivation to learn how to.
The top is more like the richer blue above.

I purchased the book from yesasia	This is how you put the top on.

Saori Children

curiousweaver — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:11:51 +0000

	Easter was so full of fun and activity. Not only did my daughter come home but also my sister in law with her three children. Any children on site get dragged into the studio for activities around here. Painting easter eggs, building with duplo, drawing pictures and, of course, weaving. Darby started weaving a flower garden on the Saori loom with her 3 year old, super inquisitive brother supervising. It is a few years since she first wove on this loom and I was amazed and very encouraged by her ability to work the pedals and shutlle so efficiently and f a s t!. She was also able to change the shuttle bobbins and pick up the shed she was weaving on after a change of colour quite intuitively. We had some silk flowers to insert in the warp to make the garden. I’m off to study Saori weave in Osaka later in the year….just can’t wait.
Darby and Lewis ‘working’ the Saori loom

Darby weaving flowers into the weave

Lighting up the shadows

curiousweaver — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:57:12 +0000

	Shadow weave is on the loom at the moment and just cut down. It was nice getting into a rhythm with the two shuttles and teaching your hands to do place them quickly. Slowly at first, then working up a speed of sorts. This is a weave I’ve done before and really like it. It has an African kente cloth feel because it is sectioned with large cells of different designs. I’ve used 20/2 handdyed silk at 24 epi and the drape is lovely even though it is technically a plain weave.
	When I’m weaving at the loom for periods of time I’m finding that I need better light….getting to that age I guess. I purchased a Daylight lamp from Scissorman (Ott-Lite 13W task light) not thinking that it would be of any use at all on the loom because it was a table lamp but my husband attached it with the slots underneath made perfectly for a loom lighting situation. Here you can see the slots.
	See here how Dave attached a screw to the castle of my Toika loom – Cosmos.
	I can just place the secured screw into the slot at the bottom of the table lamp. Initially I wasn’t confident about it’s ability to stay up there but it worked.
	Here is the light attached to the loom and shut or off.
	When I open the light up it is on and gives great daylight showing true to life colours and helps with the details in weaving for those of us who need it! No excuse to get weaving now. In another post I mentioned the weaver Laverne in reference to Bolivian/Sth American back strap weaving. She now has a group in Weavolution and you must check out her blog. The pick up designs are amazing and very inspiring. You don’t need a fancy loom to create breathtaking beauty you just need to grow the skills in yourself.