Fine Craft

Over this summer I have stumbled on some wonderful weaving videos, everything from an historic reenactment of working with flax and wool in the Bronze Age to a number of videos showing tapestries in progress, to a Google video about high tech weaving with threads that have conductivity and can be attached to a very small computer chip imbedded in the cloth.  Huge thanks to everyone who makes these terrific videos–sharing their knowledge and their weaving talents and information on such fascintating endeavors with the rest of us.

Here’s the video about conductive threads that have been designed for use in weaving fabrics for clothing, upholstery, and other applications where the cloth will then be compatible with any computer device.

So now it might be fun to see the other end of the weaving spectrum:  Bronze age flax and wool processing and weaving in northern Europe during this time period.  The Center for Textile Research, which I believe is associated with a university in Denmark,  has documented this period of history so beautifully!

Here is a great stop action video of weaving one of  the “Hunt for the Unicorn” tapestries that were re-interpreted and woven by weavers from West Dean College in Sussex for Stirling Castle in Scotland. The original tapestries (from around 1500 which were woven in Flanders)  are hanging in the Cloisters in New York.  This project of recreating the seven tapestries in the series began in 2001, and was not finished until 2014.  The last tapestry in the set was hung at Stirling Castle this summer, 2015.  The weavers made a number of trips to the Cloisters to study the originals.  I met a few of them on one of their trips, and it is something I’ll never forget!

Isn’t it wonderful to watch the unicorn’s horn get woven?  On that note, I’d better get back to weaving myself!

On the right hand side of this blog page I keep a list of the exhibitions where my tapestries have been shown.  Yesterday was the opening of a show in a venue I’ve never participated in before.  The focus was all kinds of fiber work, and when I dropped my pieces off for the jurying I was quite intrigued with a number of pieces already there.  There were quilts of course, and different kinds of felting from felted landscapes to nuno felted vests and jackets.  There was a beautiful double weave scarf displayed on an acrylic rod in a deep black frame that enhanced the glowing colors of the fabric.  There were a set of free form coiled baskets made from linen and coiled with waxed linen.  There was a bit of knitting and a bit of handmade paper forms.  It was the most diverse exhibition I’ve ever been part of, and I was looking forward to meeting some of the artists who made these works at the opening.

I do not have any photos from the opening because I was too shocked to actually think of taking any.  Perhaps they just accepted too many items into this show…. some walls were beautifully displayed and others had too many things jammed together.  So the crowded walls had things displayed salon style, and the sense of the whole was just a mish-mash because the pieces had nothing to tie them together…..in fairness maybe color, not technique, and not with a sense of cohesion.  It was just painful to look at.  I couldn’t help thinking that the pieces that were well displayed were the pieces that were valued by the judges–the award winning pieces.  But this was not the case.  Some of the beautifully arranged walls had no awarded pieces on them at all.

Bob took two photos of my works at the opening.  “Hudson River Idyll” got an honorable mention.  It was hung quite high above a quilted piece , and our two pieces are quite jarring together.  I’m trying to put a happy face on it!

And “Sunset on Wilson Cove” was hung in a place that was not even part of the show.  There were three gallery rooms and a long hallway that had works on display.  Then the very back of the long hallway was separated with some architectural molding and this is where  there was the coat room, the bathrooms, and an exit to the stairway that leads to the lower level.  THAT is where “Sunset on Wilson Cover” was hanging–the only piece that is not in the actually gallery area.  Frankly, I think it should have been rejected from the show entirely rather than put it in such a disrespected location.  I was quite embarrassed by this….  and I don’t understand it.

The walls that were carefully chosen were stunning.  The walls that were over-filled just made everyone’s work look bad…..even cheap.  And having one piece of work off in a different place entirely was just mind boggling to me.  There comes a point when accepting more pieces into a show than the space can handle just deters from seeing anything well.  The other shocking thing is that some pieces still had stickers on them–stuck right to works themselves, not on the sides or backs–with the entry numbers written on them.  Luckily I can say the volunteers who checked me in at the drop off put stickers on the stretched fabric of my frames, not directly on my tapestries.  But the pieces hanging on the walls for the opening had stickers stuck right to the pieces themselves.

On the other hand, I did meet some of the very interesting artists!  I was happy to see that some works were made by men.  The most interesting person at the opening –to me– was a felt artist.  She had done a wonderful nuno felted jacket as well as a hand felted mandala (for which she also got an honorable mention–and I have to say it–there was a sticker on this piece) and she had made a large quilted wall hanging.  She happened to be wearing the most interesting top of all the interesting garments that fiber artists can dream up to wear to openings, and by the end of the opening I just had to approach her and ask about her garment.  She had made it herself, from a commercial pattern to which she added some handpainted designs and a very funky set of closures to the assymetrical line of the front opening.  I wish I had asked to photograph her…..but the upside is that I have her contact information and she has offered to help me learn fitting techniques so I can possibly have better success at sewing!  So, all in all I enjoyed meeting the other artists as the highlight of the event.

There is one other positive feature about this gallery that I should mention.  The windows are very tall and they have been covered with balck venetian blinds.  For this exhibit the blinds are closed, keeping the textiles from too much UV exposure over the next few weeks.  Of course the halogen spotlights are screamers, but the the gallery is only open from Thursdays to Sundays in the afternoons each week, so not full time.

Looking back at my admittedly narrow experience in showing fiber works in public spaces, I’ve been quite fortunate to be part of exhibitions in large spaces that allowed such very different techniques to be seen to good advantage.  I guess it takes a bad experience to better appreciate the good ones.  Meanwhile, for the next month my tapestry of the sunset on my son’s face can greet people as they retrieve their coats and visit the ladies’ or the men’s….. (snark)…

It’s quite hard for me to believe that I have not written a post in more than six weeks now.  I have been working like a woman with her hair on fire….and that usually goes hand in hand with having a LOT to say–or write.  For some reason I’ve been strangely mute.

Finally I have turned my attention to a project that has been lingering on my big Toika loom for several years.  I managed to move that loom with the warp on it when we relocated here in Connecticut, and I’ve managed to play with it for short bursts over the past few years while we’ve lived here.  Suddenly I want it off the loom and on the wall!  That’s always a good motivation!

I’m chronicling the 40+ years that Bob and I have known each other.  The piece starts with a row of autumn trees to represent our first outing together: a walk in the woods, in the nature preserve called Devil’s Den in Weston–back in 1972!  What do you think of my boundweave loom?  I can’t take credit for drawing that gem.  It is Karen in the Woods’ design which she posted on Weavolution.  I learned to weave in 1976.

The past couple of days I’ve worked on wedding rings, sailboats and kitties.–wish you could see their green eyes.  I’m now in the early 80s.

When I settled down to weave this project I could not concentrate until I completely picked up and reorganized my studio.  There was way too much clutter everywhere I looked.  Now that I’m in the thick of boundweave my studio has become messier than it was when I couldn’t stand it any longer.  Funny how that happens.  Now I cringe a bit when I enter the room, but I really had to pull out all that yarn out for picking the colors and the softness I need for my little boundweave figures.

It was a beautiful summer although, aside from the linen tote bag, I did not knuckle down to any floor loom weaving until August.  There was SO much I wanted to do–I won’t bore you with the list….

We had more hummingbirds than we’ve had in previous years.  One of the females would sit on top of the iron plant hanger and chase away all other birds who came to feed.  I grow lots of red flowers on the deck to keep everyone happy.  The hummingbirds were constant companions for us.

In September I was invited to give a presentation on tapestry weaving to the Rhode Island weavers’ guild.  There are several women in that guild who are also in the CT guild so I already knew a few members.  They are a dynamic group who do some amazing work.  You can find articles that various members have written in back issues of Handwoven.  There are some well known weavers in Rhode Island:  Antonia Kormos, Norma Smayda, Jan Doyle…. I could certainly learn more from any one of them than I could possibly teach them!

For the presentation I collected images from all the tapestry weavers whose work inspires me.  I was impressed how willingly each of these weavers shared their photos with me so I could share them with the RI guild.  Such beautiful work!–Joan Baxter, Tommye Scanlin, Jon Eric Riis,  members of the Wednesday Group, of course!–along with Archie and Susan.

And in the afternoon an adventurous group of guild members tried their hands at weaving on chopstick looms.  Sally’s husband made the looms, and he did such a stellar job that it made all our Wednesday Group looms look pathetic!  I’m not going to give out Henry’s last name or he might be inundated with requests for these beauties!

Here are some of the portraits, all well woven!

In August, after the wedding,  Bob and I spent a week sailing on our new Pandora, all the way to Nantucket and back during the most mild and beautiful week of the summer.  I’ve got a new stash of window box and front door photos from all the pretty houses there.

Maybe I’ll post more of these another time, as a ‘postcards from summer’ type entry. I can’t help myself when it comes to gardens, and there were a lot of wonderful gardens on Nantucket….and I visited the oldest house on the island for the first time.

I’ve got warp ideas filling my head, and hope to get at least two of them on looms before we leave for the winter.  Lucienne Coifman is in my guild and has just published an intriguing book on Rep weave.  I bought it after also borrowing it from my guild library.

 This is the project that is calling me!  I think it would make wonderful placemats and runners (in a different colorwary) for my son and his wife’s new dining room.  Naturally, I don’t have any 5/2 cotton which is the weight I’d like to try for a rep project.  So it looks like a big order is looming….ha ha!  I hope I can get it all together before I leave.  I know from experience that it is a wonderful thing to come home to a loom just waiting for me to sit down and weave!

 

The draft for this pattern is from a workshop Laurie Autio gave our guild in fall of 2014, called “Designing for Block Weaves Using Twills as Profiles.”  In the post I wrote I about this I called it a ‘blended draft’ which Laurie says it is NOT!  So I’m not certain what to call the procedure of taking a twill circle (1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5…etc) and using that sequence as a profile draft for plugging in a different weave structure, such as huck.

Here is the plaited twill draft that was used for the profile:

 Here is the draft.  The huck draft of little sections of 5-thread repeats that create either a weft float or warp float are threaded according to the twill pattern above.  There has to be a better way to say this, and when I find it I will rewrite!

I  wanted a subtle woven huck fabric so for the warp I used three very close colors of 2-ply wet spun linen whose weight is a bit heavier that 16/2 linen.  I’m sorry I cannot say exactly what it is.  I have a large stash of unlabeled linen cones of linen and silk cones from a dear weaving mentor, and none of them are labeled!

WARP
Laurie recommended that I give the McMorran yarn balance information about the yarns I used.  I have never felt confident in trusting this little device.  When I perform the procedure on the same yarn multiple times I never get the same number!  My three warp yarns gave me a range of yardages from 1325 yards per pound (ypp) to 1750 ypp.  They are slightly different  grists, so it is conceivable that their yardages would be somewhat different, but a difference of over 400 ypp is a bit untrustworthy to me.   And here is another reason that it is hard for me to trust this little gadget!  My cones of linen are thicker than 16/2 Bockens linen, yet they also look like they have less twist.  That might make them lighter weight in spite of looking thicker.  Yardage for 16/2 linen is 2700 ypp, and my ‘thicker’ yarns ranged from 1325 – 1750 ypp.

I made the warp by holding the three yarns together, separated between my fingers.  I put the spools on a spool holder and ran the yarns up to a hook in the ceiling and then down to my finger tensioning technique.  I made a 1 x 1 cross since the yarns are a little hairy and I didn’t trust having adjacent yarns in the same cross.  My warp was sett at 12 epi, and sleyed 2-per-dent in a 6-dent reed.  The warp was 25″ wide and I used my Baby Wolf for this project. The pattern repeat for this draft is 30 threads.  At 12 epi with 10 repeats I needed 300 warp threads, which was 10 pattern repeats across the warp.

WEFT AND WEAVING
The weft is a single ply linen that is rougher than the warp.  It has lots of thick and thin areas, so I think the McMorran yarn balance will be even less accurate.  I measured three times and averaged my findings for a result of 1900 ypp.  I wove to square the pattern. After weaving the necessary yardage for the front and back of the bag, I wove plain weave to the end of the warp for the handles and the top of my lining.

FINISHED FABRIC
I wanted the front and back of the bag to be roughly square before doing the box corner at the bottom.  I have a tote that I made from commercial fabric that I cut 24″ square to begin and I love the proportions of that bag.  I knew I would not get a finished fabric 24″ wide on the Baby Wolf, so I thought I would just use whatever width I did end up with for making my size determination.  After washing the width of the bag was about 20″.  I put in cutting lines (two plain weave picks in a contrasting yarn) after weaving 24″.  I thought the shrinkage would be greater lengthwise than in the width, but my cutting lines ended up longer than my fabric was wide.  If I had not woven in these cutting lines, I could have changed the proportions of my bag.  With the cutting lines I put in, the bag became somewhat taller than it is wide.

This photo was taken after I machine washed the fabric on a normal setting and set outside to dry.  You can see the cutting lines and where I switched to plain weave (at the top of the photo) for the handles and part of the lining.  I used a commercial linen fabric for the lining;  it is brown/tan/black plaid that you can see in the little loop for the button in the next photo.

SEWING THE TOTE BAG
You can use the directions I wrote for the smaller tote bag that I made last summer, changing the size of the pieces you cut to match your fabric, roughly 20″ wide by 22″ long.

For this particular bag I used the directions below.  After some thought (and because I did not have enough handwoven fabric!) I decided to omit the zipper that is detailed in the beginning of this video.  I am now happy that I decided to omit the zipper since the bag opens wider with only a button and loop closure.  The contstuction method for this bag has different order of sewing the pieces than my written instructions from the previous bag, and I just loved having the handwoven fabric at the top of the lining.  I think that is more professional looking.

 

It is glorious in southern New England and I am thoroughly enjoying all the perks of living in a house!  Laundry!  Cooking!  Puttering in the dirt!  In spite of the harsh winter all my perennials are showing signs of life–except one peony, but I’m pretty sure it had died before last fall’s first frost–and I have scattered some seeds which causes me to excitedly search for signs of germination each morning and evening when I walk around the gardens to take stock of new life emerging.  As of this morning I have poppy seedings! Rejoice with me!  I plant poppy seeds every year–and never get any.  Dare I hope??  Rain is expected tomorrow and I sure hope it will be gentle on my tiny seedlings.

There are a couple of wonderful volunteers in the lawn this year.  Some pansies from my window boxes self seeded along the front walk.

There are violets everywhere in the lawn… makes me want to dissuade Bob from mowing. He’s not here now to mow down these sweet gems.

And this is a new volunteer this year, and something completely unknown to me.  I have just googled yellow wildflowers in spring and found that this is Leopard’s Bane (Deronicum).  It blooms at the same time as daffodils.  I hope to transplant this into one of the gardens before Bob arrives home with mowing on him mind…

My first bouquet from the garden….daffs, hellebore and forget me nots on a handwoven runner on my desk where I write these posts at my computer.

And now, along with getting as much weaving done as I possibly can, I am turning my attentions to my older son’s upcoming wedding.  It’s time to look for a wedding outfit.  I am in the unfortunate, but not so unusual, predicament of having two, yes TWO, mothers of the bride, so my fashion choice must accomodate theirs!  Anyway, I have decided to attempt making my own outfit.  This decision is entirely based on catching up on two seasons of Downton Abbey since I returned home one week ago.  My son calls that ‘binge’ watching–and he’s right!

I am thinking of making a boat neck tunic out of pale to medium blue silk charmeuse and embellinging the neckline with ribbon embroidery….. very like this tunic that Lady Crawley wore in a couple of episodes. (I have a collection of photos of Downton Abbey costumes–taken while pausing the show to snap the pix! I wonder how many others do this too!)

I am imagining trailing vines in greens and browns with some roses and other flowers thrown in (color choices will be based on the overall effect going with my favorite brown silk pants with the pretty Chinese knots that run down the outer leg). I will stop by Banksville Fabrics on my trip to New Jersey later this week.  If I can get a lovely blue silk there I will then make a trip to Thistle Needleworks in Glastonbury to get the silk ribbons for the embroidery.

I am also dabbling in some Romanian Point Lace that intrigued me at Saturday’s monthly lace gathering.  My friend Mary is trying it and she shared the information that she has found recently.  There is a lot on Pinterest, and there are two older issues of Piecework that describe this technique  (March/April 1998, and one from 2001).

I must have garments on the brain (too much Downton Abbey for sure!)….I think a border of this lace would be stunning on a tunic.  This time I envision a handwoven silk fabric with Romanian Point Lace at the neckline.  It would also look wonderful on the collar of a melton wool coat.

So, with puttering in the gardens and doing just the smallest bit of spring cleaning in the house, I have not yet managed to touch any of my looms.  As I finish this I plan to bring up my portable easel and get back to my small Portuguese Man of War tapestry that I started on the boat.

Today is a glorious day for weaving outside!