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Archive for July, 2008

Jul 31

16 Comments

Clasping the Weft…again

clasped weftAfter selling my digital loom I’m a bit lost and almost forgot about my beautiful Saori loom. I’ve brought it inside near the fire so it’s easier to weave on in some warmth.

On one of the weave lists recently there was a query as to why you would buy a Saori two shaft loom as they are quite expensive and viewed as uncomplex as far as looms go. I didn’t get to respond to this but it got me thinking. I think I purchased mine more for the story it has! Last week I went to a big second hand book sale…full of boxes of books everywhere, people rumaging through the books and kids lined up cross legged on the floor reading books. It was a wonderful sight and I came to the conclusion we were all there for stories. Isn’t life all about stories. We create stories about ourselves, our beliefs, views, other people, other places. Stories are the way we live. People who are good at stories fare well in life.

The other attraction about the Saori loom is its simplicity. With so much complexity going on in my life, simplicity of design and function offers a dreamy pleasant story that clears my head. Sounds like an advertisement – yet another form of story.

I wanted to try using video for a while on this blog and have managed to take a short tutorial on the clasped weft technique. What do you think? Any more ideas for video?

 

 

 

Jul 17

5 Comments

Slightly Loomless

loomlessWell now I’m slightly loomless as I’ve sold my digital loom and looking to revamp my studio space – with more – SPACE. The loom has gone to a great home at http://fibresofbeing.wordpress.com/ so it will grow and develop more beautiful textiles under another artists hand.

Packing up a loom isn’t easy and almost overwhelming but with lots of bubble wrap and cardboard I felt more in control of it. It went off in a backload with a company that specialises in pianos and antiques so it was well cared for. They even had a padded truck.

Strangely the space it leaves in my studio is allowing me to think more clearly about what I want to do and how to progress in textiles. What does the word ‘progress’ mean in this situation. I think it means to develop work that is more focused while maintaining my very diverse interest in textile technique and construction of all kinds from around our world. I am just so curious about how textiles are made that I want to understand and have a go at every loom and technique on the planet.

For example, an abstraction of weaving that I love is the soumak technique. Soumak Workbook by Jean Wilson is a terrific place to start to learn about this technique. It is really a variation of macrame but executed on a warp. Rodrigo from Brazil has a video on how to do soumak on his site (scroll down to the bottom).

Whole rugs are made with this technique and it’s fun for human fingers to do, gaining skill and speed with every twist. It is also often used as a base and finish in tapestry frame weaving but its decorative and surface texture provide a wonderful variation in traditional weaves, especially within a plain weave.


Illustration from Soumak Workbook by Jean Wilson

Jul 8

6 Comments

Beginnings

My ikat dyeing on this piece is working out great. See the little white stripes on the central warp- they are staying together much better than previously without shifting too severely. I know that a slight shifting of the threads is an inevitable and desirable feature of ikat but if they go too far off the patterning dissolves completely.

I put this success down to much better warping on my part and because it is a very narrow warp, the warping process was easier. This is the same warp that I painted in Loving that Dyeing post…so it changes colours beautifully as I weave. I guess you are wondering about the reasoning for this textile…we it is sort of under wraps and you’ll see soon. I hate keeping secrets especially about presents which is akin to this. Keep posted!

Thanks for your comments about this blog previously. It’s so encouraging to keep at it. I used to think that getting a blog up and running was pretty straight forward especially at blogger or maybe wordpress servers with that push button approach but no. Even the push button approach in its efforts to make things easier for us are actually becoming more like software that you never really understand completely. It feels daunting and only the bravest in the land  web would attempt it.

Amanda is a new blogger who has done a fabulous job even on her first post. Straight into luscious weaving and interesting technique. Find her at http://sampling-sampling.blogspot.com/

My first blog entry was much more tentative. Here it is with a reference to my blog mother. The one who triggers ‘I think I’ll have a go’…. and the blog is born. There was no photo, just a nervous “hello world”.

Thursday, November 25, 2004
New Commission & New blog

I am designing a woven commission for a ‘celebration’ cloth as a wedding present. I decided to use silk as it weaves up with such luscious handle and drape.
This is also my first attempt at the blog! I have returned again and again to Sarah Bradberry’s site at www.knitting-and.com and have enjoyed it so much that I thought I’d have a go myself.

 

Pretty interesting! Well no, but then I don’t really think that’s the point of blogging although it is a definite plus for readers. For ourselves as craftspeople and artists it’s a public web diary of our work and thoughts with the potential for extending our community with others.

Jul 3

7 Comments

The Pick Up Stick in Dyemaking Cloth

 Craving to get into dyeing again I tried to marry my current bamboo sampling with shibori. All my shafts were taken up with this luscious pattern from Thrilling Twills. So why not hand pick up the shibori threads. It doesn’t have to be exact and it’s another opportunity to use this nice pick up stick I found locally.

Picking up a monks belt style of line is easy but it’s also possible to create quite freeform patterns.

I want to see how the shibori looks on a fancy twill, although for the finished textile I will pre-paint the warp as well. This is a fine bamboo warp and a silk weft sett at 65epi. I was really surprised at how incredibly soft the bamboo wove up. Much softer than I could of imagined with a very silky handle.

I’m still working on the new blog here so there may still be things askew etc. The whole upgrade thing is such a scary deal! I run this blog with WordPress but fluctuate between “upgrading is a necessity to do regularly” to “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. Usually the whole page disappears in the upgrade process and I have to struggle to get it back from the ‘somewhere’.

Sometimes I ask myself why I have a blog and other times I just think that it’s so worthwhile because I have connected with the fibre and weaving world and met lots of weavers (via email) which has been so rewarding.

This week I left my day job and I’m excited that I’ll be able to dye and weave much more resulting in  more blog entries on my adventures in the studio – at least this is the plan! Also latter in the year I will be delighting all weave readers with photos of the one million handlooms and their weavers living in Bhutan. It’s a textile tour so I will have to take millions of photos.

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