Ending my blog

I've decided to call it a day for Material Girl.

I've completed A Creative Approach (the course I set the blog up for) and I want to give myself a chance to make a better presentation.  This blog was set  up  in such a rush and I've never really fully explored it's possibilities.

I'm starting Exploring Ideas shortly and I plan to start a completely new blog for it.

http://exploringib.blogspot.co.uk/

If you've dropped in to Material Girl I think it will be more of the same really.

Thanks for looking.

Wire weaving with Helen Meakin

I've looked forward to this workshop ever since I saw Helen's work at the Dome in Buxton earlier in the summer and I wasn't disappointed.

Helen weaves in wire and yarns and uses beads and sequins as embellishments.

https://www.google.co.uk/#fp=238ebefbc6aa347e&q=helen+meakin+textile+artist

A friend and I shared a day long workshop and in the morning we both had a look at what a dobby loom is all about (I understood just a little) and made a sample using our chosen color scheme.  I chose blues, lilacs, dark grey and cream yarns of various textures.  I used a pale pink pearl bead along with a clear larger bead and a pale blue ribbon. All this went onto a .02 mm brown wire warp.  There were many, many more warp threads than I'm used to. The loom was set up to work in a six row cycle - one open weave and one much closer that gave a satin finish.  This can be seen clearly on the cream boucle yarn. The lower rows are open and the top much closer together.

My sample

I decided that I needed some pizzaz in there so my final piece included a deep plum ribbon

After a good lunch at the Wharf Cafe we each took about an hour to make our weaving.  It grew quickly but only because I welcomed help every step of the way.

My finished piece is 20 x 45 cm 

Showing the variety of yarns and the way the beads separate the warp and add extra texture

The inclusion of the dark red makes such a difference

I can't see a way that I could use wire warp with my Kromski harp loom but I could use a wire weft and see what happens.

I had a lovely day and I think I produced something really worth framing.  Thanks Helen.

More weaving

I worked this in cotton and silk.  The cotton was a selection of  Wendy Supreme 100% luxury cotton DK and the silk was a lovely variegated yarn in roughly the same colours.  I chose to do a plain weave so I got lots of tension practise.

I warped up using multi colours and for the weft used my yarns doubled (two colours).

I inserted some merino tops for a bit of variety.

The finished piece measures  87cm x 29cm and will make a lovely table runner.

This is anything but boring because of the array of colours.  Variety was achieved  with the multicoloured warp and the decision to use two colours of thread for the weft.

The space between courses

My loom

Sending off my final piece of work felt like a real milestone but it left a gap that being the person I am I have had to fill.  And I've missed writing in my blog; it's become something of a habit. Yes, I know I have to prepare for assessment but I have become the proud owner of a 24" Kromski Harp loom so I have been having a play. Whilst it's not exactly course connected I think it's worth recording. 

My 29cm x 67cm sample

Considering the problems I had with tension on my tapestry work I'm quite pleased that the width of this is much the same throughout.

I warped up with some 4 ply wool and found it very stretchy and I had to keep tightening the warp threads or the heddle fell down constantly.  I have used several types of yarn in the weft; more four ply wool, some chunky synthetic yarn (some variegated) and a small amount of cotton.  As with my tapestry I found the weft showed best with the chunky yarns.  I have the Ashford Book of Heddle Loom Weaving (Hart, 2002) and I have used this as a guide.  As ever, I'm impatient to get a good result so I wasn't happy with my first rows.

Difficulty with turning - it got better

Various yarns and patterns

"Bronson" as described in my book

All in all I pleased with what I have made.  However, I'm itching to use a few more adventurous yarns and see what happens.  Running before I can walk again.

Warping up the second time was easier

My husband fashioned a lovely oak stand and this has made life easier because I am more comfortably positioned.

Masson Mill

I spent a lovely day in the White Peak.  The aim was to show Richard Masson Mill which I visited a few weeks ago.  He brought his engineer perspective to the Museum and was as fascinated as I knew he would be.  For me it was a chance to take more photos which have generated some ideas.

I liked the colour and texture contrasts here

Spools

We also had a walk.  We parked in Winster and took in farmland, moor, woods and almost anything else you can think of.  Again I was looking for opportunities for photos with possibilities.

Debris at the quarry

Cat Rock.  I love the carved initials.

If I imagined that the end of my course was going to provide a holiday I need to re-evaluate.  The looking and thinking I've been encouraged to do over the past year has got into my bones and its influence pervades throughout my life.  I'm reminded of my therapy training - you can't "un know".

Hart, R. (2002) The Ashford Book of Rigid Heddel Weaving.  Ashford Handicrafts Ltd.  New Zealand.

Multi media rooks

This lovely photo is of a 30 feet tall ash tree at the bottom of our garden.  This year the rooks are once again busy building and raising their babies.  They must know I'm doing a textiles course because they've gone multi media with their nest building material.  The white plastic flaps in the wind and must make a real racket up close.

Felting

My husband has made a musical box for each of our granddaughters and now it's Esme's turn.  He asked me to line the bottom so I decided to make some felt.  The music mechanism he chose was La Mer so I looked at my blue shades.

I made two pieces of felt, got them to the pre felt stage and planned to weave them together to make a single piece of fabric with no gaps for tiny precious things to get lost in.

I was unsure how to weave them so I practiced a bit using contrasting wallpaper.


Straightforward even strips

Uneven strips

Wavy strips








I was amazed at how different each of the samples looked.  I chose to do wavy strips because I liked it best and it has sea connotations.

This is how the felt developed.

Weaving wavy strips

Weaving complete (I put some angel fibres in as well)

Fully felted

I'd never done any weaving before and I tried to leave no gaps but it was so difficult especially as I neared the end..  However, any small gaps that I couldn't quite close up disappeared when I fully felted the piece.

Doodling

Last night I was looking through my sketchpad and came across a mark making exercise I did by removing pencil with an eraser.  

I had enjoyed doing the piece of work and I began to doodle in the space left by the eraser.

I had been reading Gwen Hedley's Drawn to Stitch and was inspired to try weaving as shown on P 41. I photocopied a section twice then fastened them together to make something like an A4 sheet.  I made 2 copies.  I cut one sheet into wavy line strips and the other (also wavy) almost to the top then wove them together. This is what I got.  It looked jumbled and the weaving got lost.

Hedley, G, 2010, Drawn to Stitch, Batsford, London

 This morning I decided to try something else.  I arranged the section of the pattern differently, more consciously try to align things

 I repeated the copying process but used two colours of paper so the weaving would show.

This time the paper was cut into straight strips.  The colour contrast made such a difference (although the photo doesn't really show it) to the final piece.  I'm not sure the more careful placement of the pattern was that effective because everything becomes very random.











I had to think hard about this as I was doing it and try to anticipate the outcome with the placement of the pattern.  I was interested in the differences between the wavy weaving and the straight.  I had thought the wavy would be the most interesting but it wasn't because of the lack of contrast.

This was really enjoyable even if it did wander a bit away from what I should be doing.  I'm hoping that I can use what I made in some future project.

Goldwork

I've had a lovely day learning to do goldwork.  It's what adorns alter cloths and church vestments. It's very ornate with a high bling factor.  I wasn't sure this was the skill for me but I really enjoyed it and am pleased with what I've done so far.  I think I've another couple of hours work until it's finished; it's a very slow process for a beginner.

The tutor was Jane Drummond,  highly skilled in goldwork and textile conservation.  I talked to her about the possibility of incorporating goldwork into a less traditional setting and she was very enthusiastic about the ways it could be used.

Jane had worked hard putting together little kits of the materials we needed and had even stuck the silk to calico with bondaweb and traced the pattern for us.  She gave us clear instruction about how to do this for ourselves and it involves cuttlefish!

It's a good job we didn't spend time on the prep because no one finished the embroidery before the 4.00 pm deadline.

The pattern we used

After one exhausting hour

Various sorts of gold thread are laid onto the fabric and couched on, sometimes with coloured thread. 

The wonderfully named pearl purl, cord and twist , T69 and Jap no12 were a plunge into the unknown.  Talking of plunging that's the term used for forcing the gold through the fabric. It makes a quite unnerving ripping sound.





At lunchtime I had to go and buy some 3.5 reading glasses!

This is where I got to by 4.00pm

This is the finished piece.  Unfortunately when I pressed it the bondaweb went a bit bumpy. Gold work isn't  something I would pursue enthusiastically in its own right but it is another useful skill I can incorporate into my work as appropriate.