Archive for June, 2007

At the end of any warp, when there is room, I usually experiment in a much more unrestrained way than when I weave the actual planned project. I obviously feel that the woven piece must be woven in some dictated and planned way to protect its integrity…but this is entirely wrong thinking.

At the end of my last warp, I just wove with the same colours but in different mixes and I liked the result so much better than the woven pieces! It’s rather like sampling but after the event. I call it ‘too late sampling’! My freer and more carefree approach produced a more dynamic cloth.

I also went to the camping shop to buy the clips for my new temple. Sandra Rude explains how to make a very effective temple developed by Bill Koepp of the WeaveTech list. I have two Glimakra temples which are never the right size for my weaving despite their adjustment capabilities. I bought them when I thought you have to weave very wide pieces of cloth and have hardly used them, even though times have arisen when they would be helpful.These crocodile clips are called ‘holdtight’ here in Australia and are sold in camping shops where they have attachments for tarpaulins.

I just love those niffy tools in weaving that I can make myself. Thanks Sandra and Bill…and the whole weaving community on the net that makes such communication possible.

I’ve been a bit quiet lately working hard on four long silk drapes. I swear I will NEVER use floating selvages again as they slow up and frustrate the weaving all over the place. I recently read on Weave Tech that I could use long eyed heddles in some way to overcome this frustration and the shafts will do the work for me. I’m going to work this out for the next run.

My peg plan art has moved beyond the virtual and into a real textile and it is working out beautifully. However, I can’t wait to get it off the loom to really see it. This is the real test of success or failure – the touch, drape and wear test.

My peg plan art weaving up and around the cloth beam
(Photo is clickable)

Reading through some old Weave Tech messages for 2001, I came across this salient post by Frances Dorsey which I would like to quote:

"I don’t think fibre is any more limiting than paint or marble when addressing any concern.

Every medium has its own “cargo” and will evoke a particular range of reactions in a viewer. This has to do with innate responses to formal material aspects like hard, soft, reflective, absorbent and so on.

Then there are the social constructs we attach to certain disciplines ie women’s work, domesticity, body and so on. But, that doesn’t mean that one material can never address a particular issue; just that the maker has to understand that the material is going to carry a certain amount of communication with it, above and beyond composition and subject matter.

The key is in recognising what you want to say and in understanding whether the tone you wish to use is appropriately supported by your choices of media. In theory you can talk about anything using any material and the will work like a dialect or language."

It’s wonderful how someone can write something so well and what could I possibly add! Does a functional woven textile create meaning in a weavers work? Does a woven textile evoke reactions in the maker, wearer or viewer?

I particularly like how Frances has suggested that fibre as a material can work as a language. I use fibre as an expressive language for myself but have always felt that it isn’t self evident as perhaps a cement sculpture would be represented. The functionality of my work, its wearability and material softness, is filled with ideas of change and uncertainty rather than certainty and durability such as a scultpture gives. But, as Frances has pointed out, fibre as a creative material is capable of addressing any issue or communication if we can have a better understanding of the social and emotive signals that weaving and fibre evoke. What do other fibrey creators think?

The storms down the coast of NSW last week have barely left a house or business untouched. Nearly every house in Old Bar was affected in some way but when the storm hit Newcastle and the Central Coast it really left major extended damage to property and restoration of essential services.Many are still waiting for power.

One amazing consequence is the ship which landed on Nobbys Beach in Newcastle.Newcastle has many ships waiting to come into the port lined up but one got loose. These photos are the best I’ve seen of the enormity of the ship in relation to the landscape. Everyone who has been down to see it is overwhelmed.