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.

I’ve always found the prospect of recyling fibres into yarn fascinating. The emergence of something new for a discard seems so noble! Many years ago I wrote a booklet ‘T-Shirt Yarns‘ (PDF File) based on a workshop by Catherine Mick (Canada) on creating beautiful yarns from stretch fabrics. She was an inspiring woman and I was impressed by such a creative approach to making yarn from discarded T shirts.
In this same light, Anne Howe from the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers directed us to this site, about yarn from newspapers.The artist Greetje van Tiem spins newspaper into yarn then weaves/knits it. Of course paper yarn is not new, but being reminded how easy it is to create and how we can use and experment with it is always great.

I just HAD to have a go…

My first experiment used the Woolworths pamphlet and this was far too shiny for the purpose. Ordinary traditional newsprint was a bit too weak. I then tried the higher quality newsprint found in various ‘lifestyle’ sections of newspapers. These are usually stand alone booklets with staples. I used the Spectrum section of the Sydney Morning Herald.
I cut the strips about 10mm-12mm wide in a continuous fashion as shown in the photos above. I then used a spinning wheel to spin the yarn dampening it down with a light spray of water as I spun. I had to manually feed the yarn into the spindle sometimes but on the whole it was quite easy to do. I think as I experiment more I will be able to get the yarn to wind on more efficently.

What an empowering way to deal with the news…spinning it.

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?

As a recipient of a Nice Matters Award from Bonnie, I’m now honoured to pick seven blogs that inspire good feelings and inspiration. Of course there are so many to choose from and Bonnie and Leigh have covered many that I would have chosen, but here I go…

Number 1:
Thread and Yarn Handling Days
This is an amazingly creative and inspirational blog. The author, Am-tm uses knitting and crochet and other yarn techniques to create textiles that, I think, reflect a unique Japanese inventiveness and innovation. The site makes me feel excited about textile and clothing construction possiblities. Am-tm also maps her processes of inspiration which is particularly insightful.

Number 2:
t’katch – The Language of Weaving
This a new site I’ve been reading by Scottish weaver, Cally Booker and I’ve really enjoyed. She studied Handwoven Textile Design Bradford College UK and she includes photos of weaving and drafts combined with writings about life. Writing of why she started blogging "My plan is simply to keep a journal of my weaving, to ponder on the reasons why I weave, and to reflect on how weaving is connected with the other loves of my life, especially language and liturgy." Although my other loves of life are different this certainly struck a chord with me.

Number 3:
My Little Kitchen
This is a most delightful blog. Cathy, who also weaves, bakes biscuits (or cookies!) from Maida Heatter’s books and asks her friends to comment, rate and, of course, eat her cooking! I just think the whole idea of baking for others and sharing it so wonderful. Cathy provides wonderful artistic photos of the biscuits which make me want to appraoch cooking in a more mindful and committed way. I’ve since baked all sorts of food with a new enlightened mind approach to it all.

Number 4:
Narablog
Japanese textile photos are the basis of this blog, so it is a visual feast more than a written one. There are alot of close up views of the textiles and if you are interested in Shibori you MUST go to the August 07 archive to see the video clips on shibori weaving and tying – they are exceptional.

Number 5:
Curious Expeditions: Travelling and Exhuming the Extraordinary Past
I first came across this site referencing this extraordinary entry on a Compendium of Beautiful Libraries. The photos are amazing about amazing things!

Number 6:
BibliOdessey
Another site along similar lines to number 5 containing obscure visual material and eclectic bookart. Very inspirational and has a great search facility.You’ll need a few hours to saturate yourself with this site.

Number 7:
Unravelling
Meg Nakagawa is a weaver from New Zealand with a lot going on. She documents her exhibitions and weaving progress extensively. Meg also duplicates the site in Japanese.

What I’ve left out! After writing up these links I’ve realised that I have a leaning towards Japan somehow, have exhaused my limited supply of adjectives to describe great sites and haven’t included an Australian site, an origami or basketry site or a tech or political one. My favourites in my browser are very, very long. I’m interested in so many things that writing up only seven links is really impossible…hope you enjoy these anyway.

I’ve never warped my loom with a warp made by another person before…and it was an enlightening experience.

This is one of the hand-painted warps that I ‘won’ by Syne Mitchell of WeaveCast. So I haven’t met or even talked to Syne in person and only know her via her podcasts and emails Only through Internet technology and a shared passion for weave have our paths crossed.

Every weaver knows the many times every warp thread is handled in it’s transformation to textile. Disregarding handling at manufacture through many hands, the warping process, the dyeing process and the washing out was handled by Syne. Then I found the raddle and threading crosses marked by Syne to warp my loom, across the world from her, in a shared tradition of understanding the process. I wound the warp then threaded the heddles, handling each thread once again ready to start the weaving.

Never have I been so aware of the direct association of many human hands to make my textiles. And from here someone will wear and handle the textile until it deteriorates.

The human hands aren’t the limit to this process. Colours were chosen and mixed, structure was chosen, lives were lived, worries were negotiated. All of this goes into our woven textiles and I was so pleased that I had the opportunity to share a warp in this way.

This is usually how my yarn arrives. In white or natural cones (or skeins). To your average non-textile type person it must seem drab, colourless and uninteresting, but for a weaver it is a cone of potential energy. This is the medium of the Weaver, much like paint or charcoal are to an artist.

This collection is a mix of different wools and crepes with some very fine (50/2) bamboo yarn shown. Sometimes a yarn will ’speak’ to me and the bamboo seems to be saying "double weave" – at least I hope I understand it’s tactile, sensual language.

I’ve also added photos of how I am using a conventional temple on my current cloth.

As you can see in the first photo the wooden temple has a ‘nasty’ looking run of spikes underneath it which pierce and grab the cloth to stretch it widthways to its full width. This helps to ensure that the beat on the cloth at the fell is even and prevents selvedge threads breaking all the time if this is a problem – and it was in my case. This type of temple slows up the weaving process, but I didn’t have to replace any broken threads repeatedly.

This warp has given me loads of frustration but it was worth persevering with and I’ve nearly woven it all off. More photos soon as I’m on a couple of weeks leave – time for turning drab cones of yarn into exquisite textiles…or perhaps just dreaming about it!