where stuff happens

This little mouse came to me from Steph during the DBM episode. She said I needed to get in touch with my inner mouse! It has now found its true role in life, as indicator of my having decamped to "The Workshop" - the idea being that I place it on the dining table where the Good Man cannot miss it.

"The Workshop" is our garage, never used for cars, with the addition of a very fine sink, a water heater, some random furniture, a print bench, and two skylights for natural light

The rug in front of the sink was hooked by Mum back in the early 1960s to her own design which sat in front of her gas fire all of my life. It is now sadly on it's last legs, but gives me a soft spot to stand when working there and is a link to her. Our coastline hangs on the wall, four pathfinder maps laminated to a large board, so I know where I am in case I get lost - a project from many years ago. Some ancient mirrors and one of Jen's GCSE artworks, also from long ago give the end where the garage doors are some interest.

Looking the other way, there is a door to the back garden, which means I can go in and out from the back of the house. There are shelves and cupboards for storage, and I am beginning to get things organised

In the corner by the garage door is my ponder spot, two chairs of Cecil's, one an upright beautifully caned chair, the other a little low legged upholstered chair which used to sit by her bed and hold her clothes ready for the morning. Again, I have known it all my life and it is another link to deeply loved people. Here it is, still holding clothes, but this time my workshop apron and clothkits smock

On the bench in the foreground is one of my Coronavirus project pieces, the textures I was collecting from the garden to reflect activities that have been part of our isolation experience. I did further rubbings yesterday and have now added a new layer of dye.

The other place that "stuff" happens is here. In theory it is the spare bedroom. In reality it is my sewing and "whateverothercraftactivityI'mdoing" room. Yes it is a bit of a muddle, but I know where everything is (honest)! One of Nanya's oil paintings hangs above the fireplace.

I can sit and plot and design and cut out stuff, and baste things together at the table (another piece of Cecil furniture). I can clamp my little tapestry loom to it's edge (yes, I'm tapestry weaving again) to do a bit of weaving, and on the table behind me is my sewing machine to stitch things together. The room is south facing, so again plenty of natural light to see by.

I am thankful every day that I have these places to retire to and explore the various creative activities that bring me joy - I know that many have much less. I am thankful too for the network of folk who share these interest with me. In particular Christine's wonderful transferral of Studio 11 to an online space has encouraged me to really make use of my garage-workshop. It has been a long time coming, but walking in there every day, turning some music on and using the things I have gathered together over the years to explore the current Studio11 projects is a huge pleasure.

I hope you too are finding time for creativity in the these strange lockdown days

weaving inspiration

My weaving is really taking over my creative time at the moment. Not completely dominating it, but I have been weaving pretty much every day since my last post. This is the result, hanging on the line to dry after being washed - I didn't even know you were supposed to wash things when they come off the loom, but it helps the warp and weft to meld together into a fabric. This was an experiment in colour and a practice piece to improve my understanding of weaving evenly, getting those edges straight and not loopy and finding out what happens when you weave colours together. I'm really pleased with the outcome, and have learnt all sorts of things. In particular, I was hoping for a more thorough blend of colours in warp and weft, but I've used too wide a sett on the warp, which means that my weft colours are dominating, though you do get a hint of the warp stripes running through.

I did have two days of not weaving though, travelling up to the big city to see two exhibitions. The first was the Anni Albers show at Tate Modern. A friend Steph and I had been looking forward to this for some time, she also being a stitcher and part of our little breakaway tapestry weaving group. We almost ran out of time, as it closed last weekend, but a quick bit of planning meant that we were able to get there on Thursday. The works on show were incredibly inspiring for a new weaver; each piece repaying close observation. For me that means pulling my glasses half way down my nose and getting it as close as possible to what I'm looking at - always a bit unnerving as I keep expecting a solicitous museum attendant to leap up and banish me for getting too close!

Her combination of colour, texture and technique was a real lesson in how to create beauty on the loom and, even more inspiring, many of her experimental pieces were woven on small simple looms, rather than the beautiful piece of equipment that greeted visitors as we entered the gallery.

Here, in La Luz (The Light), she has used a combination of linen and metallic thread to create a shimmering plane of colour and light - the central cross moving in and out of view as you change your position in relation to the weaving

Anni Albers. La Luz. 1947

In the detail here you can see how she carries the metallic thread across the piece so that it appears to be couched on the surface, rather than woven. The subtle colours and the way she uses differing weights and shades of thread enhances the sense of layers of light moving in and out of view

Anni Albers. La Luz. 1947 (detail)

This detail of "Two", which is woven from Linen, cotton and rayon, encapsulates the complexity of her weaving - I kept finding myself thinking "how on earth has she done that?" and wanting to look at the back.

Anni Albers. Two. 1952. Detail

Pasture, felt joyous - the wonderful play of green and orange, with little sparkles of white in counterpoint to the black thread beckoned me to close my eyes and imagine walking through fields of summer flowers.

Anni Albers. Pasture. 1958

Six Prayers, below, was a commission from the Jewish Museum in New York for a memorial to the Jews who had died in the Holocaust. They were beautiful to sit in front of, luminous, meditative, those wandering lines evoking lost journeys but also perhaps, curling plumes of smoke rising into the receiving sky.

Anni Albers. Six Prayers. 1966-7

By the time we had reached these weavings we had both come to the end of our museum feet, so parted ways, Steph going back to the station to catch a train home, and me walking down to the tube station to get a tube to my next destination, Russell Square, where I had booked into a hotel for the night (how very grown up!). This got me close to the British Museum for my exhibition visit the following day, I Am Ashurbanipal. I won't go into detail here; suffice to say it was marvellous, and fed my interest in all things Mesopotamian. But I was, of course, in one of the great museums of the world, and had been looking at weaving, so felt an quick visit to see the Coptic weavings would be a lovely counterpoint to what I had seen the day before. And they were, little snippets of colour and imagery, so fine you could hardly imagine a human hand creating them; so fresh and vibrant and full of delightful detail.

Having marvelled at these, I wandered through to the Mesopotamian and Ancient Levant Galleries, for some sketching and browsing. They are full of marvellous objects, including these curious half human half something entirely other figurines dating from the Middle Bronze Age (2400-2000 BC)

Weary at last with my wanderings, it was time to come home, but not before visiting my favourite image in the downstairs display from Nineveh. This relief of a captive woman bending down to give her child water is such a tender moment amidst all the killing and pillaging. I pay her my respects every time I visit.

You can see more of Anni Albers' weaving here, on the website of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation

first "proper" weaving done

Se here are the three little mats I've just cut from the loom. They are all slightly different and by no means perfect, but I'm really happy with them. They all have a plain weave background with trees and snow in the "Branoe" or "Overshot" technique. The first, on the right just has a little row of white trees; the middle one uses a thicker, slightly crinkly yarn with a lovely sheen for the trees and snow, while the one on the left uses two strands of the same white that I used in the first one. All three have a dark blue warp; the first one uses a lighter blue for the weft, but the second two mix the lighter blue with the dark warp thread to try and suggest the darker sky. These two also have a border in a different technique using a pickup stick behind the heddle. 

I've learnt all sorts from these; how to carry more than one strand of yarn up the side (very untidily it must be said); that I needed to leave more warp between each mat to have a hope of creating a fringe (or grow mouse fingers); that I should have found out how to calculate the amount of warp you need before starting, rather than guestimating, hence there are only three rather than four; and what fun weaving is.

So now, instead of little fringes on each one I shall do my best to fold the fringe under and back each with some appropriate fabric, fused and then stitched on, which will be fun. Then on to my next learning project; the scarf of many colours. I'm really looking forward to seeing how these blend in the loom and to the more simple process of plain weave, but I may need to buy some more shuttles so that I have enough for each colour I'm using - I used bits of card for the shuttles on this as each used only a small amount of yarn. I'll also make sure to calculate the right amount of warp - which will involve maths; never my strong point!

So thank you to Kelly Casanova for her very fine tutorial, and for a very helpful post on good books to buy on her lovely blog. Did I need any more books in the house? Really? Of course I did, but I only bought two of her recommendations. I should confess, though, to a third book, very necessary as I and the good friend who sold me her loom are visiting London next week; first for this, and then, just for me as I'm staying in London overnight, this. So the catalogue on Ashurbanipal was a must, especially as I'm still musing and stitching on my Studio 11 theme of Mesopotamia. I will post on this when there's something worth seeing - honest! There's more musing than stitching happening at the moment.

Weaving experiments

One of the things that I was really taken by in Bhutan was watching the weavers crafting their wonderful textiles. Their concentration, dexterity and sheer skill was mesmerising. You'll have seen some examples in my earlier post, and if you've been following for a while you'll have seen my experiments in tapestry weaving (really must post an update on this too!!), but this was weaving on a totally different level. A couple more pictures will give you an idea of the variety of the weaving in the various places we visited. You can find out more about Bhutanese weaving, for which they are rightly famed, here and I've embedded a video below.

On the loom - Bumthang weaving centre

These two are very similar in style, but totally different in their colours. I seem to recall that the one above uses solely plant dyed yarn, which may explain the more subtle colours, though we were assured everywhere we visited that only plant dyes are used.

On the loom, Yathra weaving centre

Horizontal looms - Bumthang weaving centre

tempting weaving wares - outside Kurje Lhakhang,

Thimphu - backstrap weaving at Gagyel Lhundrup weaving centre

Gagyel Lhundrup weaving centre - temptations

Lengths of cloth - Yathra weaving centre

What came across most forcibly when we were there was that all this lovely weaving was being done for a practical purpose. The cloth was being woven to wear and, in the case of the weaving centre in Thimphu, the fabric was of the finest quality, fit quite literally for a King or Queen. When we weave here in the UK, we are doing it for our own pleasure, leisure, artistry, but on the whole the result is more likely to be hung up on the wall, or be a transient item. We don't normally wear what we have woven. In Bhutan the national dress, Kira for women and Gho for men is based around the dimensions that can be produced by hand on a backstrap or horizonal loom, and this was very apparent in the more rural areas we visited.

Bhutanese weaving in action

So, where has all this led me?

Well, one of my good friends in our little tapestry weaving group bought herself a rigid heddle loom early on in our forays into weaving, but recently decided that she wasn't using it and would like the space in her study back, so offered it to me at a very generous price.  I leapt at the chance and have been practicing ever since. No, of course I've not produced anything remotely like the weaving I saw while in Bhutan, but I've been doing my research. I started by learning to warp up the loom using the very helpful videos on the Ashford Looms website and some orange and deep brown yarn, bought centuries ago and never used (it always comes in useful eventually, you know that). Then I just wove. I played about, experimented with alternating colours (more yarn stash busting) to see what patterns emerged; using a knitting needle to hold down some of the warp threads so that the weft went over more than one warp, making raised patterns on the surface; learning what the best way of keeping edges straight is. All tremendous fun and resulting in a four foot length of what vaguely resembles fabric - a sampler in fact to use a stitchy reference. The image below is from part way through my experiments.

Having taken this off the loom I felt it was time to be a bit more adventurous, so again trawled YouTube for instruction. I came across this delightful and very seasonal design by an Australian weaver called Kelly Casanova. So now I'm enjoying myself making little squares of blue with white Christmas trees on them, as per her very fine instructions. This is the second square - I'm hoping I have warped up enough yarn to do four of them, each one slightly different. You can see that my edges are a bit wonky, and I'm still very much a beginner, but at least this does vaguely look like something.

Once these are done, I have yet more yarn (no of course I didn't deliberately buy some) and will begin another larger project just working with several colours in both warp and weft to see where I get.

Watch this space :-)

Practice too

One of the pleasures of Christine's classes is the lunch time discussion. Last time we talked about the benefits of using sketchbooks and also a daily practice like 1 year of stitches. In both you take yourself out of, analytical, active rational brain mode, which tends to predominate in our day to day lives, and relax into doing and being mode. We talked about the way this sort of practice can release creativity. One of our class members was very dubious so it's got me thinking about it as I stitch or weave. What is happening here?

I would liken it, in part, to the hours spent practicing scales, arpeggios, five finger excercises and then my pieces, when I learnt the piano. I think in part you are developing muscle memory; allowing your body to do just this thing, whatever it is, without thinking about the why. You are being with your needle and thread, piano keys, the shading in this bit of the sketch, these colours of weft and the rhythm of the weave. You are getting into the zone.

But the other thing that is happening is that the act of doing allows the subconscious to make associations: it resembles when you're trying to remember something, and the minute you stop trying it pops into your head, or a day later, or the following week. The trying can act as a block, but in doing, you are opening yourself to the possibility of something, without worrying about what.

With my tapestry weaving, still very much in its infancy, I am just watching what happens as I work. My fingers are learning the shape of the weft on the loom, my eyes are absorbed in colour and form, I have a sort of plan, but mostly I am learning how to do that thing; how to make shapes, to change colours, to put colours together.

So, having noticed that my weaving wasn't covering the warp threads, I loosened out my tension, creating "bubbles" to allow the yarn to flex at round the warp, shown here before beating down.

Then I realised that my weaving was putting on weight, a diet was needed. I had begun with three colours, one thread of each, to allow a level of refinement in the shading ....... however

So I cut down to two colours on the go at a time, with the odd insertion of a single pass, or half pass in a different colour, just to see what will happen.

And meanwhile the sort of design, shady in the back of my mind, continues to emerge

Likewise, with my stitching ......

Tapestry Update

Once a month the little group of us from Sussex Stitchers still get together to do our bit of weaving. You'll remember I started with this - which has a few nice bits, but is basically about learning various techniques. 

I enjoy the colours, and they have a relationship with the photo collage that I started with, but the forms are uneven and don't relate to the design.

"Life is for learning"

Here is where my current piece has got to - shown upside down, as that will be the orientataion when it comes off the loom.

loosly based on the Nazar symbol, but there will be more below. Shapes symbolic of house and home if I have the space.

I'm rather pleased with it so far, though looking at the bottom, lighter area, I can see that I need to rework it to cover the warp better. I either need to loosen the tension on my weft thread or use a slightly narrower weft. I'll see which works, and refer you to the quote above :-)

still here

just quiet for a while, but still doing when health permits ....

a total change of direction, though I am still stitching as well, and had my first session at Studio11 this month.

These are from way back in 2011, the year after Mum died.

Looking back now, I realise they were worked during March and April, the year she would have been 85. March was her birth month.

They have been brought back out again, and finshed, in response to some weaving classes we're having with Claire Buckly. The bamboo is fresh from the garden - cut today, the warp knotted round - still some trimming to do.

A little smidge of we embroiderers have got together and are learning about small scale tapestry weaving - on a frame loom, at Steph's house. Claire's teaching is quite different from the course I did in 2011, so I'm glad I have a little bit of the basics to start from, and can learn more.

We assembled last Monday, five of us ready to learn. We warped up our looms, we tore up strips of paper and made a collage,

we were allowed to choose six balls of weaving yarn, to tone with this

We've made butterflies, little bundles of neat yarn to pass in and out of the warp. and learnt about colour blending - using a sewing cotton, for example, to nudge the base colour one way or the other

We are preparing designs to weave. Next time we will design, based on the collage each of us has done.

Now I have the fun of thinking about how to translate this into a woven piece. Quite a different mood

Sorry I've not been here xx

Saturday Weaving

And today is my last class, so here is what has happened so far.

This is the first attempt, now severed from the frame and waiting for me to do something creative with the fringe top and bottom. It's a bit skew wiff here and there, but I'm very happy with the middle section and in this picture all the visible warp threads where Ii ended up in the wrong shed are quite INvisible, which is a good thing.

Then, with this still on the frame, I warped up a bit of space at the side of this one to try out some techniques from Kirsten Glasbrook's very useful book. I think her work is inspirational, her use of colour and the subjects of her tapestries intrigue me and make me want to practice and practice until I can at least try and do something similar. Her book is a really useful guide to techniques, with plenty of clear pictures of "here's how to ..." and some lovely pictures of her own work at the end to draw you forward.

So far I have managed this, which is not a great deal. but what there is pleases me.

Today, our last class, I am going to try and get this finished and warp up for a larger piece to give me more space to experiment.

Meanwhile, my knitting and my other bits of stitching are taking a bit of a back seat.

As my school reports always said - should try harder!!!

gradually growing

This is where my little tapestry is now.

Next class tomorrow. I'm worrying that I shouldn't have done so much, will look like a show off, will have done it all wrong and all that silly nonsense, but the activity is so fulfilling I just kept going. To begin with I was just trying out stuff; how does this colour weave in with this? why have I got two warp threads above the weft and how do I fix it? what happens when things meet and merge? But gradually the  rhythm of weaving takes over; in out in out, then easy through on the way back; colours blend and I felt the need for something planetary at the heart of the piece. I have a stash of yarns that I must have bought a good ten years ago as they "might come in useful"! They have been moved with me several times and cost all of £1.75 for a goodly pile of different colours and different lengths, all off cuts from something or other, found in a craft shop and perfectly suited to someone who is trying out some thing new but would be worried about using anything "too good" for that trying out. The shades are soft and natural and gradually this warm sun-like shape emerged. I had in mind sunsets and Jupiter. My dear one, who grew up in Africa says it is a perfect African sun sinking on the horizon. So be it. I shall take that thought and try and weave more warmth and light into it, but also darks, as without the night we have no balance or rest.