Archive for 2007

Filling up jounals with drawings and snippets of ideas is starting to affect my posture; they are so heavy to carry around. So I had a go at making my own one, encouraged by Dan Price in his book ‘How to Make a Journal of your Life‘. It was so much easier than I thought and this simple pamplet stitch booklet (PDF) is really light to carry around and feels extra good because I made it. I used Shereen LaPlantz’s ‘Cover to Cover’ as my instructions as they didn’t seem to mention any mysterious tools which is always a turn off when you just want to have a dabble into something. I’m going to make everyone a journal now. Next I’ll try something more substantial like this one for when I want to elaborate on things in the studio.

Coincidentily the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers are going to run an artist’s sketchbook workshop designed around textile making in 2008. If you would like to keep a Weaver’s Journal but don’t know where to start. Try copying textile designs in a fine felt tip or Pigment liner pen. Everyone is so fearful of copying designs today but this is the best way to learn in your private journals. Each page doesn’t have to be a work of art. I’ve just photographed a few of my better pages but most don’t look like this. It is very relaxing to do and makes me appreciate design more deeply. I make sure my designs have dark and light areas and ‘grey’ areas which are crossed lines called hatching.

I’ve lots of handwoven fabrics lying around waiting to be re-incarnated into something useful. A new ultra compact camera initiated a little bag project which I’m very happy with.

I had a small piece of fabric with some nice pick up design on it. I was unhappy with the cloth when I wove it, but now looking at it..it’s quite beautiful. The fabric has rya knotted ikat dyed thrums within it, which became a lovely long fringe for the bag.

It really was worth the effort in making this little bag – It’s just a delight to carry around and handle.

I love to photograph my own textiles and here is the method I have devised afer years of trial and error. It’s another good excuse to deeply look at textiles.

I like low, natural lighting so I always photograph on a bright but cloudy day. This is more for Australian conditions as the light here is very bright and throws strong, deep shadows.

I just set up near a window, which sometimes has to have greaseproof paper taped to it to soften the light. I use another light source to counteract with the window light if necessary or use a large sheet of white cardboard. This lights up the shadows of the draped textile to varying degrees.

I use a good digital SLR camera with a tripod and remote shutter release. These accessories are important because my photos require a long exposure. Too long to hold the camera still.

I use a manual setting on the camera with the aperture set at F16. This is not negotiable, as I want the entire depth of field to be clear – no blurriness. I then set the shutter speed to achieve an appropriate exposure. This may be quite long.

To make sure the exposure is good I take a photo either side of the chosen setting (called bracketing). With digital photography I don’t have to wait for the photos to develop and can enjoy them immediately. How great is that!

During the past year I’ve been preparing for a group exhibition at my local regional gallery.
I don’t find this easy at all. Beyond my employed work and family commitments I’ve had to think about design deadlines all the time. In one way this is very motivating – in another it’s a constant pressure and I’ve never quite worked out the right balance! Also for over a year I’ve been unable to sell or gift any of my work due to the coming exhibition. This has also been difficult. Even though I appreciate this opportunity it may well be my last exhibition of this type.

To exhibit is such a strong ‘out there’ word and I’ve never really felt comfortable with the concept although I’ve always believed it was a proper way for an artist to show creative work and possibly gain commissions or other work. However, after watching the series "Not Quite Art" I’ve changed my perspective entirely.

Art and design are an essential, everyday focus of our lives. To create or to just to see – its everywhere in some form. According to Not Quite Art art is raging on the laneway walls of Melbourne and in derelict Glasgow warehouses despite and without ‘proper’ gallery space. It is of the people – art from the ground.

How my work could fit in these venues it’s hard to say, but I felt really excited and encouraged about what is happening in some streets.

Anyway I’d like to share some photos of my completed textiles, as the Internet also allows a public exhibition forum for anyone.

Just how much can you play around with drawn or painted images and transfer them into a woven, loom controlled textile other than tapestry weaving?

To do this successfully you need to know about weaving structure – its possiblities and limitations. This in itself almost drove me mad, in those ‘incubation’ to insight days of frustration.

I wanted to use double weave and Photoshop to create the patterning, but I really had to study up on the double weave structure. Battling though all my pattern structure books I wondered how all those authors write so calmly and authoritively on these confusing subjects. I appreciate the authority of their knowledge but they really need to include a few screams now and then. Perhaps this blog entry will now appear to you as a ‘self evident’ calm and easy progression from idea to fuition. Sorry that wasn’t it at all! And I’m still only at the sampling stage.

In Photoshop, I set up a preset pattern to fill the peg plan design. (See Peg Plan Art). The pattern is 4 x 4 squares, one for the dark on top look and one for the light on top look. I then filled my painterly design with these patterns and voila!

The magic of designing lies in the 4 x 4 squares red marked squares. If you only have eight shafts just mix and match these in the tie up and you can make all sorts of squared patterns.

The weave on the loom went nicely. The dark threads were 50/2 bamboo and the light ones 30/1 wool crepe. It was a good mix with the wool shrinking up when washed.

I now have images of sheep in bamboo groves. Does bamboo and wool really go together?