Monday, March 12, 2012

"Prayers"

A shawl, 50cm by 198 cm plus fringes, 100% cotton in two widths.

I like the hand/drape, but as a piece it feels heavy. There were some draft mishaps because I left a lot to chance; there were a few unintended skips I left in the piece as well. After it dried completely, the piece took on a silk-like sheen that is characteristic of the 2/20 yearns I use. Technically, I give this about 35/100, but overall, around 85/100.

I took a few photos but most came out blurred, and the colors are a little strange compared to the real piece.

I've felt ho-hum after finishing the piece and a void as well. I can talk about the concepts behind this piece until the cows comes home and write blurbs until your eyes water, but it doesn't change anything, that a) people I know are still sick or dead, and the invisible cloud is still contaminating my country, and b) I think feel the finished piece has anything to do with the concept of prayers. I had thought a 4-blocks-in-4-shafts idea was a good one way way back when I first made this draft. In this respect, I think it's been a great learning experience that my making has nothing to do with concepts, ideas or challenges; I am much better off aiming to make pretty things that please me.

Next please.

I think I'm going to use much fewer colors in the weft, and try some more of the basic-then-slightly-modified-then-slightly-more-modified-draft approach.

11 comments:

  1. Okay, I realise that I know less than nothing about weaving but I do like this piece. I like the colours, the design... Oh Meg, I understand how you feel but it is beautiful, really. xxoo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Carol. There are quite a few technical problems with this one, but I'm not dwelling on that this time. Moving on...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Secondo me è bellissima!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We do leave our prayers to chance, don't we? I love this piece. It is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think it has turned out beautifully. Of course, I can't compare it with the thing you had in your mind when you started, but the result certainly stands on its own merits! The picture at the top makes me want to scoop it up and dive into it all at once.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I always have some sadness, a bit of a let down, when I finish a piece. And often I think to myself: Hmm, I could have done a better job, technically or in terms of the meaning of the piece. That's a beautiful piece of fabric, but I get that you're not completely satisfied with it. Would you consider making it again, but with some changes? Or would prefer to move on entirely?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think it is beautiful too. A little story that might have some relevance... Last night before sleep I was mourning about how the sofa pillow covers I spent the weekend sewing wrinkled immediately on the pillows, and the button plackets didn't overlap enough, and altogether they just weren't worth the wait and the effort (I laboriously picked apart the stitching on some Indian block printed place mats to make them, and spent a lot of effort finding a complementary fabric for the backs), and my husband said, "Give it some time." And then I complained some more, and he laughed and said it again. So that's what I'm doing. Even when I don't think time ought to help, I know it often has in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ah, grazie, Doni.

    Margery, I guess we do.

    Cally, because this is a guild exhibition, I do not so much worry but feel annoyed by the piece's many technical problems. I think I would like it more if it were some other purpose. But it IS scoopable, yes.

    Lynn, a kindred mind. No, the next piece that I'm moving onto is on the same warp, but in terms of weft colors, much simplified, and in terns of drafts, more subtle. Which will be more to my taste, but with less wow factor, I expect. I also feel a strange mix of wanting to make something spectacular, (and I think colors are the easiest way in the first instance,) vs I myself not wanting attention as a person.

    Trapunto, I know what he means. If I didn't have to post it to the exhibition contact immediately, this would have sat under the couch for more than a few months, which is where many of my stuff is cellared and aged. LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love the color its so amusing. I thought weaving is hard to do but with your inspirational material I am open to learn it too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AML, the basics of weaving is very very very simple. Good luck with it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's Friday afternoon and I'm at Ben's work looking at the photos on one of his HUGE screens, and boy, the colors don't look right at all. Oh, poo!

    ReplyDelete

I love comments. Thank you for taking the time to leave one. But do be sure to leave your real or blog name.