silk doings

i've finished the woven silk shawl. i had wanted to bring it to colorado with me, but i wasn't done with the fringe in time. here it is in the sink, fulling. it's softer after the wash, a little less stiff, but still with some shape. though the muga and eri silk are soft and lustrous, the darker peduncle silk lends a fuzzy, slightly rough feel to the shawl which isn't unpleasant.

when i was at treenway silk, i picked up some more peduncle silk (the brown overshot thread used in the shawl above). as well as some spinning silk fiber, interesting double spun 60/2x2 yarn, incredibly fine 120/2 yarn, and recycled silk sari ribbons which i used for a small coiled basket bowl we crafted at the guild meeting.

i love silk; the smell, the crisp feel, the scrunch sound it makes when you squeeze a skein, as well as the softness, the luster, and the dual personality it has.

while in boulder i was also able to pick up some more texsolv heddles for the loom, giving me 125 heddles for each shaft. i hope it's enough for whatever projects may come!

work in progress

i've begun weaving again, first time this year. i mentioned this earlier, but after a slow take-off, i'm finally making some progress. something to do with 460 warp threads and only 400 heddles. so very, very thankful i realized it before i threaded too many of them, only a couple of centimeters. at 10 threads a centimeter.

i dug up the metal heddles that came with it and added some more to the harnesses. there's an easy way to do this and a hard way that only looks easy. after trying the latter, i recognized the sanity in doing it the correct way. the harnesses come out smoothly enough, even with the high castle tray which is on my loom (schacht thought of everything when they designed these things-the tray bottom pops out to create an opening to slide the harnesses through!).

this is the first weaving i've tackled with so many threads. you don't realize it until you have to go back and fix an error, be it threading, reed sleying, or confusion about the pattern. which brings us to todays happy fun! the piece is weaving with the lights and darks inverted, and i thought there was a typo in the book i got the pattern from, and spent a bit of time trying to figure it out, first by unweaving, then reweaving, then unweaving, then graphing, and eventually realizing i was looking at the back of the piece on the loom, and not the front of the piece as was photoed in the book. i think. blah.

i'm laying all the blame due to being rusty. i only wove five pieces last year, and those in the early half, and they were fairly easy patterns. all in all, though, i didn't have any threading errors once everything was tensioned properly, and that's a lovely moment!

studio time

after several months of inactivity, i've started a new weaving project. delving into stock on hand, i choose three skeins of silk; muga, eri, and tassar. the golden muga will form the warp threads, with alternating handspun tassar and creamy eri as the weft threads. it will be a diamond with borders pattern, and eventually a shawl. if all goes as planned it should be quite delicate and have incredible drape.

today i started threading the loom, the lighting was perfect to see the little threads, and the weather was just exhilarating; warm, breezy, and low humidity.

when planning a woven piece i'm constantly working on graph paper to get the math right, perfect the pattern, as well as charting out the varying colors and yarns being used. as a result, the bench in my studio gets a little untidy; yay for pull out drawers! just push them in and mess-be-gone.

i took a little break from weaving and photographed a clump of moss i noticed the other day. i could fill a memory card with moss and still want to take more photos of it. it's entirely too fascinating.

lace is fantastic

while glancing through a piecework magazine i came across some needlelace. i'm always entranced by needlelace when i see it; it's really pretty, with delicate webbing, curving arabesques, tiny areas of transparency. venetian rose point lace, italian reticella, 17th/18th century italian lace, coraline, 17th century gros point de venise, point de neige, punto in aria, are all gorgeous examples. i decided to try my hand at making some, and found it quite mesmerizing, with lots of possibilities (you can't get more travel easy, it's just a needle and thread). my first tries are a little wonky, but i find them charming anyways.

one of the pieces i wove awhile back needed something more; needlelace in green would be just the thing. i went for a bit of playful flora, and attached it with a small brad which i painted with nail polish. i find it strange that antique lace was mostly made in white thread (some exceptions being black lace for mourning, and spanish mantilla lace). it would make it easier to change between clothing, and it would be punchier against the rich hues of the fabric, but i think lace could be so much more modern if it were done in color.

weaving plums and purples

i love the look of entrelac knitting, but don't feel like having a lap full of wool right now. so, instead, i decided to work on some weaving. i chose to mimic the feel of entrelac by using an m's and o's pattern, which created a lovely texture.

looking at my yarn stash, i found several purple hues in my wool box; enough for a shawl. the body of the piece is a tweed wool that has a bit of stretch to it, along with some cochineal dyed merino i did while in japan, grey bamboo, and plumy alpaca (which decided it wasn't going to shrink at all once i fulled the finished piece).

for the shawl ends i finished them by starting and ending the weft with a chain stitch, and tying the warp threads into chunky tassels. i'm very happy with this finish and will use it again.

framing

i love the moment right before sleep, when the brain is no longer distracted by sight, and solutions are found. i had a particularly beneficial moment of inspiration a few nights ago, and solved the puzzle of how to finish my little weavings in an aesthetic way. essentially, mounting them between pieces of wood, and creating an open-backed frame around them. the backs of textiles are sometimes more interesting than the viewable side, so why not make it available?

the 1 inch width also allows you to perch the pieces on a bookshelf, instead of being constantly mounted on a wall. i am awaiting some cherry wood for a richer frame that would look amazing next to some of the weavings, and am quite pleased with this solution.

sometimes i wonder if i should try my hand at wood working, as i am oftentimes inspired by details such as dovetailing and butterfly joinery. lately i've been obsessed with all the varieties of wood there is; pink ivory, amboyna curl, zebrawood, cocobolo, purpleheart, bubinga, vera. it doesn't help that there are so many exceedingly fine drop spindles and shuttles being made out there with such nice woods.

little weavings

i've been struggling with my last couple of warps. i get an image in my head, not clear or precise, just go with it, and put planning aside. pretty much just warping first and thinking about the weft later. with this set of weavings it worked out well, as i was able to experiment with a variety of warp threads and techniques.

using a fine paper yarn and a strip of bunny fur created a light, tiny weave with open spaces woven in silk. i need to frame this one, but am still working on that part.

this one was a mixture of kasuri remnants from a previous piece; very speckled.

the curly weft threads all but lost the linen warp, which is cool, as it brought focus to the pile weavings. it was quite fun to try these surface embellishments, hopefully i can use them in future pieces.

linen on linen can be boring, but the pattern really comes through, and the shots of cochineal dyed cotton add interest.

this yellow thread was really fun, so chunky, and made the pattern huge compared to the first one. i played with some pile weaves and a chain stitch like weave in purple yarn.

there was a tiny bit of warp left, so i finished off with some cottolin and bamboo.

i have another linen warp now on the loom, but i'm a little lost as to what weft will be going on it. i had wanted to use a tsumugi silk yarn, but it completely overwhelms the warp, so i need to do some planning. i shall spin some wool, and think some more.

at play

for the last several weeks i've been doing some weaving while i waited for the dyes to simmer. the joy of a linen warp is that it's a perfect way to try different things and use a variety of yarns. i used a narrow width and a fine thread on a 20 dent reed. paper yarn, rabbit fur, cotton, linen, random kasuri, pile weaves, colors, neutrals, and tapestry techniques were things that i used.

keeping busy

today was a classic spring day; i cleaned the studio, i gardened (well, watered my seedlings really), i dyed, i wove, i cooked (black beans and yellow rice, yummy!), and then i had some serious thoughts about visiting the chiropractor.

it's finally staying warm enough for me to put my orchids out for the summer, and i figured right by my studio would be lovely. so, yesterday i crafted some wire hangers and attached hooks into the fence, and hung them with very little difficulty. they're happier outside then in (maybe it has something to do with the sparse watering schedule they endure at my hands?).

i also cleared a patch in front of the studio for the weld and indigo seeds, so i'll be watering for a couple of days and waiting on tenterhooks until they sprout. i checked on them this morning and found a line of ants tunneling down the middle of the patch, i hope they're not carrying away my seeds!

i was able to add samples of the madder dyeing i did on monday to my dye book. i've been having fun with the wool roving bits i put aside for the dye book, as i've found it really fun and easy to spin them on my bobbin winder. i'm thinking this technique may work for paper spinning.

one of the metalsmithing tools that's been loitering in my studio is a large crockpot which i keep forgetting to bring to goodwill. but luckily, procrastination paid off and i can use it for an indigo vat! now i'm just waiting for the mail system to deliver the ground indigo. i'm very excited, as i'm missing blues in my dye experiments.

a couple of weeks ago i put a linen warp on my loom and have been playing around with different yarns, piles, and random weft kasuri. i've enough left to try one more thing, maybe something sheer.

i took some photos of the studio before i cleaned, and i don't think the desk looks all that bad. i'm really happy with the way the inspiration board is fleshing out.

off the loom

i'm trying to work on my backgrounds, and thought the grey color of the aged wood would help the creamy color of this scarf pop better. but today was a bit sunny, and no matter how i hoped for some clouds to filter the light of the sun it was all in vain; so i think the contrast is a little too much. better luck for tomorrow, i hear there'll be rain! but hopefully not before i can take more photos of my freshly woven scarf.

starting up

i've added two things to my new big cartel storefront, *a n a s t a s i a ~ weaving handmade, please check it out and let me know how it looks. i'll be adding pieces as i finish them. for now, mostly scarves and shawls. then, later, some wall panels. what do you think of tea towels, or table runners? yes, you love them or definitely not?

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.

things we create

well, as i await the necessary unbuffered acid free tissue paper so that i may mail it off to japan, i thought i would finally unveil the piece i've been working on. i'm quite fond of it, and would like to keep it forever, as it's the first truly artistic piece i feel i've done in awhile.

i used cochineal and osage orange on a tin mordanted silk to get the various salmon hues, cochineal for the raspberry color, and osage orange for the weft kasuri. the binding process took awhile, as there were many lengths of fiber that needed to be resisted. dyeing was an interesting experiment, as i wanted a soft gradation of lighter to darker pink near the top. this was the first serious natural dyeing that i did without a clear formula for proceeding. i used my notes from japan, the book indigo, madder and marigold, and random recollections from my memory of things i've read. now, my hope is that the dye colors will all hold up to time and the environment. well, fingers crossed.

glimpses of the whole

i'm not quite ready to show you the entire piece yet, but here are some glimpses of my naturally dyed kasuri weaving. i am in love with the texture and feel of the viscose silk, and really want to create more pieces from it. it took the dye really well, considering the stiffness and texture. the dye worked itself into the core of the silk, so i think it will last okay. i will be mailing this piece off to japan next month to be in an exhibit of work by students of the kawashima textile school, where i studied a few months ago. i'm very excited, as it will be first piece in an exhibit.

process as a start

i've become a green tea addict, and to further encourage this obsession i keep some yummy genmaicha extra green tea triangles in my studio. storing them was going to be an issue until i came upon a wooden cigar box at the local wine/beer/cigar store which didn't smell, removed the so-so label and replaced it with pretty paper where it was still sticky. i'm quite happy with my $2 find, and it fits 30 tea envelopes at a time.

i finished my cotton kasuri sampler today, and have begun the weaving process on my first project since coming home. i have the loom mostly threaded now, but i thought i would post some photos of the progress.

my inspiration board has a photo of a flamingo along with some fabric swatches to give myself an indication of what color direction i wanted to head in while dyeing. this was a starting point mostly; i also drew up a version on graph paper and a color drawing to get a more exact idea of placement and measurements.

the dye process took two days, and i learned a lot from this; i'm thinking exact notes on what i did are going to be a problem, as i tinkered with the dyeing as i went along in order to get the colors i wanted at that moment, depending on what was happening in the pot. but with everything dry, i think it will work out. the hardest point i had was developing a gradient range of one hue; it was moderately successful, i won't know for sure until i've woven with them.

hopefully tomorrows work goes well, and i will try to remember to take photos as i go along. i won't say anything as corny as "new year's goal".