Archive for 2008

Winding with Spider

Cosmos is Coming

This ship is bringing my loom home.
It is the MOL Cosmos and I’m naming the loom “Cosmos”.

I had a discussion recently with Amanda about how many weavers name their looms. I’d never thought to do this and was drawn to the idea. I’d always expected that the loom would be female rather than male – I don’t know why. But the name Cosmos, although genderless, seems a male name like Cosmo, which I like.

According to my dictionary Cosmos means “..refer(ing) to the universe as the cosmos, especially when considering it as having an order and pattern.” What a perfect name. Does anyone else name their looms? And does naming make a difference?

~ Jing ~ Colour ~ Fiberworks ~

I was recently introducted to Jing. It has worked out really well in producing screen videos. Check it out. This one is about using the color tools and menu in Fiberworks.

I’m excited about receiving TWO blog awards this week!! Thanks to Shirley and Meg. Now I have the very difficult task of passing this on. So many fantastic blogs which I love to read. I’m still thinking on how to go about choosing.

Purses and Change

Weavezine has just published a little article of mine on making purses from narrow fabrics such as Inkle loom woven bands. The trick to success with this type of fabric is to use a fine yarn such as 20/2 cotton and have all black ends on the selvedges. This way you can butt the edges together using a zig zag machine stich and a piece of commerical selvedge strip or tape on the bottom to reinforce the seam. Different purse shapes could be devised and some shapes could be more professionally finished with the addition of a piped seam. Look to upholstery sewing techniques and processes for how to do this. When I have made upholstery I have always used a piping from car uphostery makers.
This is much harder and more versatile than soft fashion piping so will be more durable.

Syne also had an article on Kente cloth -Pacific Northwest Kente-which is one of my favourites. If you look closely at the threading it produces plain balanced weave, weft faced tapestry type weave and an inlay weave which has plain weave interspersed within it.

It is a threading of great simplistic beauty and ingenuity. I have made several tops with this method combining ikat weave in the plain weave base as shown. Here you can see the weft faced weave which completely covers the warp and allows tapestry weave effects and the inlay style which is more ethereal and allows the ikat and underlying balanced weave to glimmer through.  

I have always appreciated the great gifts of knowledge handed to me over my life by other people.  I look to books and the internet -immersing myself in ‘knowing’ ideas, techniques and processes on every textile technique.  I studied dressmaking and pattern design at TAFE,  taught myself to weave, spin, crochet and braid and imagined that everything I have learnt from others were ideas that I could then share or adapt building on my actual experience. However I’m slowly realising that this is no longer possible or even desirable. Today, ideas must be completely original and new to share and I’m not capable of this or of knowing which ideas belong to others. I look to past skills and ways of doing things and like to build on these…and depend on them. This is what gives me great pleasure. I look at ancient fabrics and see how the weft end is turned into the previous row and glow knowing that I do this exactly the same way today. It makes me feel connected…..but it’s not original. The technique belongs to others. Of course, I’m still weaving and creating but my ideas are ‘knowledge and experience’ of techniques not unique techniques themselves. I find that most innovative ideas stem from the development of new tools, materials or an increase in people being able to access them.

 In this line of thought it is fitting that the last of my looms will go off to Melbourne shortly. It is a radical change for me as looms become part of you. This Thorpe CounterMarche loom has more than paid for itself and sustained my craft as my children were growing up. It has woven many metres of wonderful fabrics and you can see my oldest daughter, all grown, helping with its unassembly. This loom was in the lounge room with the TV for most of her upbringing!

But my loomlessness is more about revitalisation. I’m changing my direction and getting more space and I’m doing it by buying another loom! I had originally intended to buy a Digital AVL studio loom which is really compact and small but still had a computer interface. But then I heard about a digital loom with a countermarch action. Could this be possible. I thought they were all jack style looms. The Finnish Toika looms fit this bill. The advantage of this loom is:

1. 1. It is a 24 shaft digital loom
2. 2. It has a countermarche action
3. 3. It has one pedal which is electric for shaft selection

Most reviews I’ve heard or read are very positive about the loom so I’m pretty confident it will create the best features of both my sold looms into one loom which also gives me more studio space. Clever eh~!

Moo For Weavers

Look what I got in the post!  And it took only a few days to get to Australia from London. They are moo cards. About half the size of a normal business card they come packaged in a lovely white recycled plastic box. You can have up to 100 different photos or illustrations on the cards and a basic six lines of text on the back. I used photos of my work and will use them as a business card and swing tag. They are so cute.