Archive for 2007

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!

The next problem was HUGE. As my loom is a jack loom system I’ve never really had relaxing weaving on it because the bottom threads of every shed are loose and my shuttle gets stuck just about every time. I have cursed my shuttle throwing technique and my warping methods but now realise it is the down side of the jack loom system. I weave with fine yarn and this doesn’t help. Also it is easier with a narrow warp than a wide one.

After searching Weave Tech list I tried raising the back beam, then inserting the lease sticks at the the back of the heddles, but nothing worked. I then refered to the Master Weaver Series by SA Zielinski and he illustrated a decepively simple solution.

My ‘lecture’ went well this week, and my artist audience was generous and lovely. But I was shocked that I could have talked for nearly two hours! My friends and husband weren’t surprised though. Don’t worry I gave them all a coffee break in the middle and I didn’t see any of them fall asleep. The biggest surprise was that I was in a proper lecture room like in the movies. The set up of the room made everything great. I particularly like a lectern or table to put my notes on when I talk as sometimes my hands shake even when I don’t particularly feel nervous. I guess it’s easy to talk when you love your subject. Even though apparently many people are more terrified of public speaking than dying!

The other exciting weaving development is the arrival of my Saori weaving loom from Osaka. It is a really beautiful loom. It is finely engineered with simple elegance and a pure pleasure to weave on. No wonder Saori is accessible to so many people. The loom really says it all. I’m very, very impressed.It already has its first appearance booked at another lecture.