Thursday, July 27, 2017

The Weaver Weaves

Life seems to be back on the old/default track, albeit much slower; I've been gardening a bit, weaving a bit, cooking a bit, and... wasting a lot of time dithering. The only thing that's different from before when it all went downhill is that somehow I'm keeping up with the drawing-every-day thing: I don't draw every day, but manage between 8 and 10 a week, so numberwise, I'm ahead, but then they have become super quick, (mostly blind,) line drawings. I think the goal this year is to stick with the plan, although I keep drawing the same faces by Matisse, Modigliani and van Gogh, so I'm learning a bit about a few.

This week's weaving has been the familiar twill, double width; the warp is Merino/Mohair, the weft is merino and I'm doubling it to make the width approximately the same as the warp, 20EPI/40DPI and slightly sticky. The weft repeat is short for me at 156 picks. I don't make very nice centers with double-width, but for the client, if she still wants these, this is sixth, and the seventh will be on the same warp, same threading, with mid-blue merino of the same size and a different draft.
 Seen from the side. 
The weft is a pale gray marl, which is why I wanted the Merino/Mohair, to better show the design. I'm always taken aback when I need one or even three whole days to finetune the draft because the basics don't take that long; it's the fine-tuning and fixing the long floats without destroying the overall look, (even though they may be indistinguishable in the end,) that takes up time. Perhaps if I spent longer in the earlier stage my twills will be more varied.

The reason why I moved on to this piece, why I had the gumption to find/fix two threading mistakes I marked almost a year ago, was because I got lost/fed up with the tapestry-technique piece.
If you remember, I got started; the treadling was tricky but I color-coded it in small segments; and Pat clarified the technique so I was good to go, in my head. (It took a longer to get the body used to it.) But the way I switched colors was the usual zigzag, (what I call "kasumi", or "mist/cloud", a Japanese visual device used when depicting bird's-eye view,) and I wanted a less fussy pattern so I started over. But they don't look all that different, just slightly less fussy, so I'll keep going, mixing things up a bit. I think.

By the time I started the second time, I had half the treadling memorized so the weaving went somewhat faster, but I need breaks every two repeats lest I get tired and cross-eyed.

I want to write more about this piece but I'll wait until I'm happier about it. Or at least have made more progress.

10 comments:

  1. Good to know the weaver is doing what weavers do! How long was the hiatus? I wondered if the face I saw was based on Modigliani, but it is more expressive than most of his (which seem aloof to me). Keep drawing!

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    1. About a year, oh, Wise One; yesterday I discovered I kept no record of the last time I setup and sampled the same white warp, but I think it was August sometime. And then I've been playing with the smaller loom with cashmere and colors since... mid-July, so strictly speaking about 11 months, but I'm going with a year. And you know, when the person drawing has opinions/attitudes, they tend to seep into faces. LOL!

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  2. Curious and happy to see where you take the kasumi pice, Meg. ❤️❤️

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    1. We shall wait together, eh. I feel these spontaneous pieces need careful planning. Oh, dear.

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  3. They look beautiful from here

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    1. Ummm... Just remember. you are looking at it upside down! :->

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  4. I love those sunset colours and the way they fit together - looking forward to seeing more, when you can manage it

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    1. Thank you. They are what's left of the 2/20 to be honest. And some achromatics. I wished I had a real red, and perhaps ultramarine or even, gulp, teal, in addition. I've been thinking of starting over with a simpler treadling, though, otherwise the weaving is... crap.

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    2. Nobody ever has exactly the colours they want. Why is that, when our homes and studios are so full of yarn?

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    3. I guess it means we must buy more of the colors we love?? That sounded so good in my head.

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