A day in the life of looms

On the first day of the new year, Meg had been posting what's on your loom. This is my second time to participate in this. Once every few years, I have the opportunity to spend Christmas and New Year at home and get to weave in the new year.
So here are my looms:

KaTe has a 2/20 silk warp with weft Kasuri being woven. I have finished the first piece and am contemplating the second design. The wefts are being wound, then binding and dyeing to follow.

KaTe: Thorp 8 shaft countermarche

Chibi has a 150-thread black cotton pre-wound warp ready for Amy to come over on Friday to do some weaving. She had woven her own fabric before for her mum to make into an Arrietty bag.

Chibi: Saori SX60 2 shaft folding loom

Primo also has a 150-thread black cotton pre-wound warp ready for Ellen to have a go at weaving. I have set the loom on its stand so that it works with the peddles, like a floor loom.

Primo: Ashford 8 shaft table loom with stand

I will have to catch up on some blog posts but I have also been spending time here.
In the meantime, happy new year and happy weaving.

Small Piece exhibtion: Amy O'Brien

Meg from New Zealand has organised a virtual 'Small Piece' exhibition and I am hosting Amy's woven piece on my blog. 
Amy is 10 years old and this is only her third time weaving at a loom. Amy wove on a Saori loom, 2 shaft with a pre-threaded black cotton warp. She brought all the weft yarn with her from home. She wove this last Saturday and it took her about 3 hours.

"The idea of a ‘do whatever you what’ weaving piece sounded epic, but what the problem was … what should I do? At first I thought an aboriginal flag, then I thought about doing bubbles. Finally I decided an ocean landscape. I weaved different blues and greens together so it began to look like the ocean. Next was the hard part I made a sort of hilly thing and made clouds and sky above.

By Amy O’Brien"

Weaving by Amy O'Brien, Photo by Suzie Fry

Small Piece exhibition

Last year, 2 pieces of my weaving were accepted into the 'Petite' exhibition.
Meg has organised a virtual 'Small Piece' exhibition based on that idea, small pieces of textile work woven on a loom.

I repeated the 2 pieces that were acquired by Wangaratta Art Gallery, and added another 2 pieces into the series. This series of work was inspired by a lecture at the International Shibori Symposium in 2011.

'Yoshiko Wada explained at a lecture on ‘Slow Fibre’ that we must understand our materials in order to create something special.

My work explores the notion that in understanding how these fibres, made of different materials behave on their own and their interaction with each other.

It is then possible to manipulate them with calculated expectations.'

All the pieces were woven on a 2 shaft loom in plain weave with various yarn bases made from plant, animal and mineral fibres. All the pieces are approx. 23cm x 16cm.

From Left: Plant Mineral i, Plant Mineral ii. Plant Mineral Animal i

Plant Mineral Animal ii

Plant Mineral i - detail

Plant Mineral ii - detail

Plant Mineral Animal i - detail

Plant Mineral Animal ii - detail

This last piece is also new and is inspired by the Tour de France; the category climbs that the cyclists have to endure and conquer.

Col de Noir ii

Coinciding with this virtual exhibition, I have actually entered these pieces in the Brunswick Street Gallery 'Small Works' exhibition. If you are in Melbourne, you can see these pieces in real life and they are for sale.

Rebirth - Hilda

I was at an Ink and Spindle Open Day a couple of months ago and Teegs mentioned that she was given a table loom but she did not know how to use it. I said sure, come over and we can figure it out.

We had an initial inspection and decided on the parts that needed replacing. Teegs went to work, ordering new parts and refurbishing the loom.

Both of us are so excited that we needed to tell the world about the re-birth of Hilda and that Teegs is weaving! So this is a shared blog post:

Hilda is a portable 2 shaft/harness table loom, with a weaving width of just under 40cm. The 2 shafts/harnesses work by moving the handle on the top roller back and forth to create the shed. It was interesting to see that all the heddles were connected together, top and bottom. They were made of string with a metal eyelet in the middle. Unfortunately, they were very rusted and on the way to disintegration. The reed was 15 dent and also very rusted.

Teegs: Original, wonky, sad.

Teegs: The restoration & dismantling begins

Teegs replaced all the screws, the tying rods at the back and front beams, and the top and bottom timber bars supporting the heddles. She ordered a new 10 dent reed and Texslov heddles. The reed had to be cut down a fraction to fit within the frame of the beater.

Teegs: In pieces, hoping I'm as good
at puzzles as I'd like to think!

Teegs: Reconstructed, with a thick, fresh
coat of homemade beeswax & olive oil
timber conditioner for her very dry, thirsty wood.

Hilda was put back together again, in a much better condition! We just had to put the heddles back on with some adjustable Texslov loom cords.

Teegan: Hilda! Weaving!

The loom was made in Melbourne by Dyer and Phillips Pty Ltd. I did a brief search on the internet but there was not much information on the company. The address was in Flinders Lane, previously the centre of Melbourne's rag trade for the middle decades of the 20th century.

Teegs made a 7.2m long warp, 10 inches wide at 10epi, of Bendigo Classic 2 ply wool in black. We put the warp on front to back - sleyed the reed first, clamped to the table and then threaded the heddles. (Yes, I do work with a mix of metric and imperial measurements!)

The loom in action!

I had previously shown some of my Saori weaving to Teegs and she was quite interested in that. It has more of a focus on colours and textures, and is quite suited to a plain weave structure.

Weaving with a shuttle stick.

It took us from 11am to just before 6pm with a very short lunch in between to get to this stage. Teegs worked really hard all day and I just did a lot of talking.

Some tapestry techniques and fleece insertion.

Well done Teegs and Hilda! and all the best for your new adventure together. (Yes, Hilda is going sailing as well.) I cannot think of a more appropriate thing to do on a Easter Monday!

PS, I do wonder where did Hilda come from and what was woven on her before!?

Up for air

Thank you for weekends and public holidays, whoever invented them. It gives me time to catch my breath and to create.
A few weeks ago, I had a 5-day weekend and managed to get something on my loom. I have upgraded my 2 shafts (harnesses) Saori loom to 4 shafts. I did a lot of things that were new to me. I put the new hardware onto the loom (it now has 6 treadles). I wove with silk, in both warp and weft. I put my warp on to the loom from front to back. I was very satisfying knowing that I had enough time and did not have to rush! I enjoyed the process.
I used my new toy, the Saori cross box to keep my threads in order while I sleyed the reed.

I turned the reed setup around so that the chain of warp threads was at the front of the loom.

I threaded my heddles from the back of the loom and then wind the warp around the back beam.

I have never woven with a silk warp before and had some tension problems. There is almost no stretch in silk. Wool is a lot more forgiving. 

I started weaving and thought, this pattern does not look like what I had in mind. Maybe the variegated weft made it difficult to see the weave structure. There was a nagging feeling but I could not pin it down. Halfway through, I checked my tie up. I had done it correctly with the treadles but had forgotten to fix it to the same sequence at the shafts. Duh!
I liked the pattern though and decided to run with it........... 

I love the look and feel of the silk. I had enough warp for 2 pieces. The second one has a single solid colour weft and a straight forward twill weave structure. It looks and feel so different.

These are both Christmas presents so I will show images of the finished items next month.

Fragments

It does not seem like more than 2 months had passed. I have been on the looms a bit this winter. Probably the most that I have woven in a long time. All 3 looms had warps on at one time or another.

There was the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show - Kaz and I took our looms there and had 3 days of intense fun with lots of people weaving on the Saori looms. Many of them trying it for the first time.

There was the trip to Wangaratta and Beechworth - my mum and I went for a weekend and saw the exhibitions at the Wangaratta Art Gallery and the Old School House Gallery. It was great to see those red dots next to my pieces!

There was the Olympics and I signed up for one of the challenges on Ravelry. I wove a baby blanket for a friend. Her baby girl was born last week.

There was a commission.

There was a young convert who came to weave on my loom and made her own fabric.

There was a football scarf long overdue (finals are this month and Spring is here), and I tried to make it not look like a football scarf!

There was craft camp, but that is another story.

It seems like I packed a lot into the last couple of months. Maybe the latest project on the loom is a reflection of how I feel...... a bit fragmented.

Still experimenting with more of the same.........

I have been experimenting more with the combination of silk stainless steel, felting wool and non-felting alpaca and alpaca/silk yarns. I am getting to understand their behaviour more and so can control the outcome better. 
Here are 2 scarves that I have submitted to the Scarf Festival at the Wool Museum in Geelong.

Scarf 1

Scarf 2

 .........and some more sampling/experimentation for a submission to another exhibition.

on loom

after washing

On the loom......

Blink and it has been a month.......

I have not been idle but have been in a making mode rather than a recording one. I felt like I had to keep making and let out the ideas in my head, otherwise it would explode.

Here is a preview of what is on Chibi, the Saori loom. It is a 30cm wide black cotton pre-wound warp with a variegated colour wool weft from Lara Downs.

I am off to craft camp tomorrow and hopefully will have lots to show next week!

Wovember: wool + wove

When I first read the word 'wovember' I immediately thought it was 'Woven in November', not surprising when weaving has been on my mind. Upon reading the contents, I realised that it was about wool.

Beautiful, soft, warm, comforting, are some of the words that came into my mind. So here is some wool content from my world:

When I arrived in Vienna, the weather had just turned cold that weekend, I wasn't quite expecting the chill. Winter had (supposedly) just finished in Australia and mentally I wasn't quite prepared for it.

We found this beautiful shop ( GEA shoe shop) that sold felted slippers, woven scarves, blankets, hoods, hats, socks, and fingerless mitts/gloves. All made of wool, 100% wool. It was a very good idea that we bought some. If we are not heading into Summer, I would have bought a pair of those felted slippers........... 

I have been searching for some 'loom' socks all winter. I don't wear shoes when I weave on 'KaTe' (big loom) or 'Chibi' (Saori loom) and I have been searching for what one of my friends calls 'Yeti' socks. They need to be warm and thick enough. I looked at possum/merino ones but they were beyond my price range. I even thought of taking sock knitting classes and some friends had said that they would show me how but I did not want another 'hobby' to distract me from the already many things that I do.........

These organic wool socks are beautifully made, minimal seams, beautiful pattern and colour combinations and just the right thickness and fit.

Kaz also came down for a 'flying visit' this weekend (yes, there are a lot of short visits at present) and brought along the pre-wound wool warp from Saori that I have been drooling over, ever since I saw it on her blog. The warp is 12m long and 225 ends (approx 50-60cm wide depending on the sett). It is predominantly brown but when you look at it closely, there are reds, greens, yellows, greys and pale blues. It is absolutely stunning! And the variety of textures.......

As usual it was a 'want vs need' purchase. I have no idea what I want to weave with a 12m warp. The thought of the yarn selections and the warping already done for me though is temptation indeed!

We went to the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia and saw the Tjukurrtjanu, and living water exhibitions. I could see weave designs everywhere, inspired by the patterns and the colours of the paintings and discussions with Kaz ( and Dave) as we wondered around. Some of the work in the Tjukurrtjanu exhibitions had very similar colours to the warp.

I was totally inspired and have some thoughts about what weft colours I can try out: black, whites, reds, pale greys, etc.

I am so pleased to see that she is renovating her studio in preparation for Saori workshops! hopefully, ready for next year......... can't wait!

Finally, 3 colours

There had been a few distractions since the last post.
I seem to knit or weave but had not seem to be able to do a bit of both at the same time. I wonder why? I got some Avril lamb linen left over from a friend's project and tried this pattern:

It was fun and quick! and made me feel like I achieved a lot while figuring out the next step with the P2P2 weave.

It had also been a while since I tried this technique, and I had to refer to the book to figure out how to do the 3-colour clasp weft properly. The knitting may just have been an excuse.......

I am happy with this, much more so than just weaving the green as per the last post. This green yarn is also a better colour and is not a super-wash yarn. It will be interesting to see how it behaves with the wet finish.
In using the green against the white, it also reminds me of this! the junction between the carefully raked sand and the velvety moss that grows adjacent to it.

Further development.....

After the success of last sample, I am trying out a different colour combination. It is the same black cotton warp, black cashmere weft, and a white silk SS weft. The white will crinkle up and look more like snow.

I am also introducing the highlight colours of the tree and bird but I have to test out what is the most effective way of doing that. 

This first attempt is just adding a new colour on top of the 2 base weft threads.