tactile things

i've been spinning some samples of various fibers; seeing how they twist, if they're springy, shiny, fluffy, soft. it's been fun! in the photo below i've sampled (from left to right): bison, qiviut, peruvian color grown cotton, alpaca, cashmere/tussah/mink, red eri silk, paco-vicuna, bombyx silk. the softest to still-soft-but-not-as would go; paco-vicuna, bison, cashmere/tussah/mink, alpaca, cotton, bombyx silk, red eri silk, qiviut (it had a lot of guard hairs).

i would love to get my hand on more bison and paco-vicuna, that stuff is so very, very soft. i don't know what it is with the soft factor, because i love fabric with a bit of stiffness such as linen, and sericin silks, but when spinning i adore fiber which is like petting a baby animal. i turn into a drooling homer simpson gazing at donuts...

the way of shifu

i think, perhaps, i am finally understanding how to spin paper. so far, my efforts with a drop spindle have gone awry; there's nothing like spending time carefully cutting paper into 2mm strips only to see it break apart every three inches when you start to spin it.

then, after putting it aside for a bit, i came across a comment about using a bobbin winder. so, having armed myself with some medium weight handmade paper, i set about winding it on a bobbin winder and was successful. here are the results of the first success, wound onto a kiwaku.

plans and things gone awry

i'm in the planning stages of setting up a big cartel shop for my weavings. i was thinking of just adding them to my etsy store, but then i realized they wouldn't fit in with the patchwork and pins. and as far as setting up another etsy store, the idea of having to log in and out of each one, build up feedback for the new store, and try to be found amongst the slew of products, makes my brain hurt.

so, instead, i will give big cartel a try. i like their simple layout, and it's fun to create banners and headers with a different colorway.

in dyeing news, the mistletoe was a disappointment. the green was so pale as to be called celadon, and though an afterbath of ammonia made a deeper color, once dry it wasn't as bright. but i'm not giving in yet! i will try a copper mordant to hopefully boost the green, use more plantstuff in the dye bath, and use wool and silk instead of cotton. there was a very slight difference in color between the leaves only bath (top left) , stems only bath (bottom left) , and a mixture of both (top right, and bottom right-no ammonia afterbath).

but strangely, the paper towels i was drying the samples on absorbed some of the dye and had blue and green areas. and, no, there aren't any dyes or prints on the paper itself. hmm.

inlay and boil, boil, boil

beginning work on a new weaving. i wanted to try out an inlay technique where the ends are left free to create a pile; i haven't any clue what it's called, i just saw it somewhere and thought it looked neat. i hope the piece will turn out well, it's hard to really know until you remove it from the loom.

this piece also gave me an opportunity to use my new obi shuttles which i bought while in kyoto. one thing is for sure, they make doing inlay incredibly easy. and they're just so gosh darn cute!

i came across a passage in an old dye book about using mistletoe to get a deep green. in town there's a group of juvenile trees which have mistletoe growing low enough to cut without needing a ladder. so today, while grocery shopping i collected some mistletoe. then, after separating the leaves from the branches, i boiled the stems for an hour. tomorrow i'll boil the leaves, then i'll compare how much dyestuff i get from them. i think three different dye experiments will be good to do; the stems, the leaves, then a 50/50 combo of both. for once, i think i'll do a lightfast test as well; if the dye passes that, and creates a lovely green, i'll be happy.