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Archive for 2009

Oct 25

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Warp Painting and Ikat in Melbourne

With another opportunity to run  a workshop with ‘live’ weavers  I was over the moon….and in Melbourne too. Double over the moon! Thanks to the weavers and especially Amanda  (and Mae) for being a most generous host.The workshop was fantastic. We focused on ways of warping with a horizontal warping mill, a vertical warping mill and a warping board using multiple cones of warp to speed up the process. Most of the weavers were or had studied at RMIT School of Textiles but had never had the opportunity to warp with multiple cones. To do this we needed a warping paddle or a rigid heddle to create the cross as the warp is wound. Very different handling techniques were needed with the different warping tools. I usually use a vertical warping mill so the other types were of interest to me too.

I am so motivated to continue in my craft by these types of workshops. I learn so much from other weavers as well. We started comparing tips and ways of doing things.

Could we improve this or that? Would this work in my situation, with my tools or would this be better? 

Most of the weavers used a guide string to measure their warps, something I’ve never done. Michelle even had coloured warping guides for different warp lengths.  I think I learnt more than I ‘taught’. I don’t believe you ever ‘teach’ adults because they are so full of experiences possibly quite different and more diverse than mine. I just try to be open to a learning exchange within this.

Here are photos of the warping, the dyeing and ikat tying and Amanda’s weave in progress and completed textile. Beautiful.

 

 

Sep 14

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Inkling Workshop

Nikki - New Inkle WeaverThe Textile design and weave workshop was beyond great. It was so wonderful to have a group of students, even for such a short time,  that were excited by the prospect of learning how to create and design textiles for the first time. This is something I haven’t experienced for a while as I’ve been teaching subjects that aren’t so immediately hands on and creative like weaving. I didn’t even have to engage them as they were highly motivated and ’self primed’ when they got there!

Nikki, pictured here, designed, warped and completely wove off her first textile in the 4 hours, closely followed by all the other new weavers.
All the weavers wove the same design but used different colour selections, each full of vitality and individuality. Each wove a different self into the work, which was particularly rewarding to my teaching persona. What a way to see experiements and variations in colourways without doing it yourself.

The next workshop is on Saturday 14 November and I can cater for more advanced or experienced weavers too, if you let me know beforehand. For beginner everything is supplied for a small fee.

Sep 8

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Sticky Inkle Textile Design


I’m teaching a Beginners Weave workshop with Inkle and Saori weaving at Adult Education in Taree on Thursday (10 September)  and wanted the participants to explore textile design in a quick, easy, taster sort of way. I thought about coloured pencils and paint but the restricted time of the workshop didn’t really suit this approach. So I opted for adhesive coloured board which is easy to find in the abundance of scrapbooking supplies.

Essentially I use cut strips of coloured card to represent stripes which are the basic building blocks of  all warp faced textile design such as those woven on an Inkle loom. These can be any colour or multiple gradings of the same colour or any width. It’s best to combine a number of different widths for visual interest.

The next basic building block is the horizontal bar. These bars alternate with 2 colours only i.e, black and white, and are created by threading one black, one white etc. These can be different widths and by doubling up on a colour in the middle of the bar you can interupt the bar, changing its look.

Sep 7

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Learning Challenges – Weave and Music

This week has been a great learning challenge week.

Two new experiences; the fly shuttle on my Toika Loom and playing the three stringed Strumstick. Each came with their own enticing guarantee. The fly shuttle enables wide cloth to be woven which is beyond the normal human reach for the shuttle and the newly invented strumstick touts ‘no wrong notes and no talent required!’  The strumstick is beautiful but I still managed to get some ugly notes out of it. The fly shuttle is amazing but, like a musical instrument, it too requires the deft, subtle, skilled touch of experience.

I’m just shy of a metre woven with the fly shuttle and already the memory of my learning is leaving it’s mark.

As you can see in the montaged second photo, the mean looking metal tip of the fly shuttle has bashed repeatedly into the side of the right entry box. It has also occasionally flown off in high speed and  gouged  the wooden studio floor. I don’t mean to scare you off with all my adjectives of the process but people have been killed by these things. I’ve also photographed the string which propells the fly shuttle being worn off on the left side which helped the bashing process and eventually snapped off before the metre weave mark was reached. I was amazed at the damage I did in such a short time and the evidence of my uneven strength when pulling one side.

I had read that it could take a few days to get the skill of weaving with a fly shuttle so I’m prepared to do the time. I think this applies alot in weaving ….and music. You just have to enjoy the time to build skill.

Sep 2

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Comfort Weaving

The recalcitrant warp from my pevious post became too twisted a short time after I began weaving.There wasn’t much I could do about it and I sadly had to cut it all down and wind off the warp of 11 metres. It is certainly wasteful but more frustrating to continue so sometimes you just have to cut your losses and get on with it.So with encouragement from my husband, I made myself immediately wind up a new warp with only 19 epi rather than 72 epi and get it on the loom. It’s also a great excuse to set up my new fly shuttle and get weaving.

I had alot of 6/1 wool with nice colours so decided to make a couple of woollen blankets in a standard twill weave design.

Part of what is holding me back is the growing demand that everyone has to develop their own unique patterns to weave with and the need to weave in new ways. I can’t always do this all the time and look to patterns of the past, guiltily. When I first started weaving this wasn’t an issue and I could weave all sorts of patterns and experiments using patterns I’d found in magazines and books gradually finding my own way of designing by standing on the shoulders of others. If it was up to me to think up the weave process or a pattern beyond plain weave it would never have been invented!

 

 
 

Jul 29

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Weaving – at last

Coming through the reed, at last! I finally had a small slot of time to finish my gigantic double weave threading job and the threads started coming through the reed and forming the textile. It’s looking good. You can see the two layers of fabric here and the reed marks are quite prominent as I have 9 ends per dent on an 8epi reed which equals 72 dpi.Strangely, I had this real feeling of excitement as I was nearing the completion of the threading. Now I can settle back and weave. I’m really so busy with other work committments at the moment that I hardly get a chance to do anything but knit in odd moments. I have another niece on the way so all the knit patterns are out again.

Laverne - BackStrap Weaving

Laverne - BackStrap Weaving

Back Strap Weave Delights

On another note in relation to backstrap weaving, weaver Laverne has some wonderful photos of weaves,  process and teachers in her flickr site. She’s an Australian living in Bolivia and has the most wonderful exposure to specialist teachers.

Laverne says ‘ …I spend my time weaving traditional Andean designs on a backstrap loom. Every chance I get, I travel within Bolivia or to neighbouring Peru and Chile or farther afield to Ecuador or Guatemala searching for indigenous weavers to spend time with and learn about their weavings and techniques.‘ See more of her photos on Weavolution
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