Sometime last year, I was reading something about an artist I'd never heard of in the Polytech library late Friday afternoon. Two, and later three, male Sub-Continent-looking students were chatting happily very near me. Since I didn't understand the language, (couldn't even begin to guess what language it was) and since they were low male voices, it sounded more like pleasant background music. I remember I enjoyed the experience.
Last week I started to listen to the Italian Rai Radio Tre on the Internet. Among other things I have been spending much too long on the computer, usually playing mindless games as I try to figure out where one sentence ends and another starts. Increasing I've been able to pick up words here and there, and some common phrases. Mind you, I still don't understand most of what's going on, but at least the voices don't sound like one long drone. And I'm pleasantly pleased this happened a lot sooner than I expected. I'm enjoying classical music for a change, and even some cacophonic modern music I would never listen to otherwise.
The down side is, the talking part no longer works as background music. My brain looks for words I know, or more precisely, sounds that sound like works I know. :-<
2010/11/20
2010/11/18
Being * Productive
I ended up being productive yesterday, but without show-able results.
I photographed some color inspiration shots from two recent issues of "View: Textile View Magazine" for my scrapbook. It's a heavy, glossy magazine with loads of visuals out of, I think, Amsterdam, but fear not, it's in English and if you can get a hold of it in your library, you may unexpectedly spend a pleasant afternoon gazing at the pictures. (I've been disallowed to view the video and cannot go do the "tour" of the site. If you can, can you please let me know what's there?)
I read one article in the Jul/Aug 2009 issue of "Crafts" magazine, published by the UK Crafts Council. It was related to "Telling Tales: Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design" exhibition held at the V&A, July - October last year, and there is a catalogue/book to go with it.
The article's title was "Tales of the Unexpected", and under it was written, "Coinciding with the V&A's 'Telling Tales' exhibition, Gareth Williams explains why today's designers love narrative..." So I was expecting a kind of a reflection on art education's penchant for concepts and processes; I could easily have missed the point, but I didn't find the answers to the "why" question. Instead, I learned that the "world" is now divided by movable, blurry lines into art vs craft vs design, and within design, there are design (mainly industrial) and design art (closer to craft and sometimes fetching art prices). And where a particular piece of work belongs to depends on rarity and connoisseurship.
That simplifies things, doesn't it?!
Then I tried to identify a threading mistake in my purple warp. Summer & Winter has such a predictable threading it's supposed to be dead easy to spot a mistake, but after two hours of checking from all conceivable angles twice or more, I still could not figure out why I had two extra ends. I'll do some more sampling and if I still can't see it, I shall make them float.
I'll probably find where I've gone wrong halfway into the scarf.
* * * * *
I had to sit down and make myself read the article yesterday, because over the last few days I've discovered a quirk in my view of life.
Hay fever this year hasn't been as bad as the last two years, or so I keep saying, but last weekend, what with the sun and the heat and the wind, was bad. And as ready, willing and able as my mind was to be productive, the body had a different idea. That's when I noticed that since my mild-to-moderate depression has been better, I've been so busy trying to be productive I forgot how to simply be. Instead of regretting not winding a warp or fringing a scarf, and literally pacing the house like a trapped beast, I could have sat down and smelled the roses, since I've been bringing in many from our rose patch this season. Or I could have sat down with a nice cup of tisane. I knew this, I was aware of my options, and still I paced.
I could have read, but I then couldn't, and I knew why. See, we don't have comfortable chairs in our house, and it's mostly because I'm so short and have short legs my legs dangle and circulation is cut at the knees. I've seldom been comfortable on any chair as long as I can remember. So when I read, I often lie down on the bed or on the floor. And because I lie down, I associate reading with either bedtime or sick days, (even when I'm ready about weaving structures and studying,) and feel guilty about reading during the day when I'm not sick.
So it was Sunday afternoon that because I wasn't sick and the sun was out in full force, I couldn't even allow myself continue to read the Summer & Winter book. I can't remember what I ended up doing. I had much better work/relaxation balance before depression, but since I've not done much in 2009/2010, I'm in a rush to do things, anything, before I get sick again. This is not a self-fulfilled prophesy, but the reality of my life.
Oh, overthinking, including the tag problem, is just another tendency of the depression. I need to be quicker on my feet to get busy thinking about/doing something else at times like these.
* * * * *
The Summer & Winter book, is turning out to be a treat, when I do read. I can't remember which books I concentrated on when I first learned about the structure, but it wasn't the Sullivan book. (Wow, isn't this embarassing, I mention the Sullivan book in April, but earlier this month, I had forgotten I had it!) It starts from the traditional use of S&W, i.e. the traditional American coverlet, so it makes sense the weaving software shows the design with the pattern weft and it investigates how to modify/extend the structure. For now I'll just read it, and I'll later read it again taking notes, so a post on my discoveries is forthcoming. Suffice it to say, I'm glad Ali put me on this track or else I would have never looked into a two-shuttle structure myself.
* * * * *
Now that I'm not going to India Flint's workshop, I was going to put away my to-be-dyed swatches for the time being. But Collen has planned an evening of Indigo dyeing and pot luck for next Monday, so I'm thinking of sewing up a simple garment made up of the swatches I prepared for the workshop; it'll be a patchwork of different kinds of cotton, in white and in color, some machine-embroidered and some in gingham checks. They are on the thin side to be a proper garment, so maybe an overskirt or top to go over a T-shirt, but I'd like to construct the garment first and then do the stitching so the dye design covers the entire garment and over different fabrics.
It's just an idea in my head at the moment, but I'm really keen on it.
I photographed some color inspiration shots from two recent issues of "View: Textile View Magazine" for my scrapbook. It's a heavy, glossy magazine with loads of visuals out of, I think, Amsterdam, but fear not, it's in English and if you can get a hold of it in your library, you may unexpectedly spend a pleasant afternoon gazing at the pictures. (I've been disallowed to view the video and cannot go do the "tour" of the site. If you can, can you please let me know what's there?)
I read one article in the Jul/Aug 2009 issue of "Crafts" magazine, published by the UK Crafts Council. It was related to "Telling Tales: Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design" exhibition held at the V&A, July - October last year, and there is a catalogue/book to go with it.
The article's title was "Tales of the Unexpected", and under it was written, "Coinciding with the V&A's 'Telling Tales' exhibition, Gareth Williams explains why today's designers love narrative..." So I was expecting a kind of a reflection on art education's penchant for concepts and processes; I could easily have missed the point, but I didn't find the answers to the "why" question. Instead, I learned that the "world" is now divided by movable, blurry lines into art vs craft vs design, and within design, there are design (mainly industrial) and design art (closer to craft and sometimes fetching art prices). And where a particular piece of work belongs to depends on rarity and connoisseurship.
That simplifies things, doesn't it?!
I'll probably find where I've gone wrong halfway into the scarf.
* * * * *
I had to sit down and make myself read the article yesterday, because over the last few days I've discovered a quirk in my view of life.
Hay fever this year hasn't been as bad as the last two years, or so I keep saying, but last weekend, what with the sun and the heat and the wind, was bad. And as ready, willing and able as my mind was to be productive, the body had a different idea. That's when I noticed that since my mild-to-moderate depression has been better, I've been so busy trying to be productive I forgot how to simply be. Instead of regretting not winding a warp or fringing a scarf, and literally pacing the house like a trapped beast, I could have sat down and smelled the roses, since I've been bringing in many from our rose patch this season. Or I could have sat down with a nice cup of tisane. I knew this, I was aware of my options, and still I paced.
I could have read, but I then couldn't, and I knew why. See, we don't have comfortable chairs in our house, and it's mostly because I'm so short and have short legs my legs dangle and circulation is cut at the knees. I've seldom been comfortable on any chair as long as I can remember. So when I read, I often lie down on the bed or on the floor. And because I lie down, I associate reading with either bedtime or sick days, (even when I'm ready about weaving structures and studying,) and feel guilty about reading during the day when I'm not sick.
So it was Sunday afternoon that because I wasn't sick and the sun was out in full force, I couldn't even allow myself continue to read the Summer & Winter book. I can't remember what I ended up doing. I had much better work/relaxation balance before depression, but since I've not done much in 2009/2010, I'm in a rush to do things, anything, before I get sick again. This is not a self-fulfilled prophesy, but the reality of my life.
Oh, overthinking, including the tag problem, is just another tendency of the depression. I need to be quicker on my feet to get busy thinking about/doing something else at times like these.
* * * * *
The Summer & Winter book, is turning out to be a treat, when I do read. I can't remember which books I concentrated on when I first learned about the structure, but it wasn't the Sullivan book. (Wow, isn't this embarassing, I mention the Sullivan book in April, but earlier this month, I had forgotten I had it!) It starts from the traditional use of S&W, i.e. the traditional American coverlet, so it makes sense the weaving software shows the design with the pattern weft and it investigates how to modify/extend the structure. For now I'll just read it, and I'll later read it again taking notes, so a post on my discoveries is forthcoming. Suffice it to say, I'm glad Ali put me on this track or else I would have never looked into a two-shuttle structure myself.
* * * * *
Now that I'm not going to India Flint's workshop, I was going to put away my to-be-dyed swatches for the time being. But Collen has planned an evening of Indigo dyeing and pot luck for next Monday, so I'm thinking of sewing up a simple garment made up of the swatches I prepared for the workshop; it'll be a patchwork of different kinds of cotton, in white and in color, some machine-embroidered and some in gingham checks. They are on the thin side to be a proper garment, so maybe an overskirt or top to go over a T-shirt, but I'd like to construct the garment first and then do the stitching so the dye design covers the entire garment and over different fabrics.
It's just an idea in my head at the moment, but I'm really keen on it.
2010/11/17
Tags Continued
Maybe it's me. Maybe it's New Zealand, or Nelson. But things are never as straight forward as one might expect, and that's why I was so elated when my tags came out so beautifully.
On Monday I started folding, punching holes and putting twisted yellow cotton through them so I can visit the galleries in town and swap the old ones with these beautiful new ones. I didn't notice this while working with the tags, but afterwards when I was counting, I noticed that some had uneven edges.
Of the 40 I prepared, (I only needed 15 but it was so fun I kept going,) about 10 were perfectly shaped, about 10 had the front cover with the logo were a little wider than the back cover. But the rest had front covers approximately 2 mm than the back.
I took the whole lot to the print shop, and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, and after I offered, a staff and I folded all of 450 tags on the shop counter and sorted them into good, not good, and unacceptable piles. They're going to cut the edge off the unacceptable ones, (the logo is not centered so they figured they can gut the edge and keep the integrity of the tags; we'll see how the care instructions on the inside looks.) They'll see what they can do with the not good pile as some of the edges are too skinny to slice off.
The problem was caused, from what I understood, because they cut too many cards at once, and as they progress, the pile becomes ever so slightly skewed, ergo the discrepancy. The staff who did the work, who did not speak to me directly, said he compensated for it by changing the angle of the pile or some of the sheets. I didn't ask why they didn't cut fewer sheets at the time.
So I came home with the good ones and some of the not good ones. They have the unacceptable ones and some of the not good ones. And they'll see what they can do.
The good part is, the staff are always very nice, and Tina, who helped me with the folding, had, I believe, the same level of expectations for what is acceptable and what is not. The bad part is, I have this horrible foreboding that some are going to come out looking really bad and I'll have to negotiate reprint of them. And all the tags now feel much too much "handled" and soiled and I can't stop overthinking this.
It is still a very good business; they are popular, inexpensive, and most of all, very reliable. So I'm hoping they'll do the right thing. But it still makes me frustrated, and adds to my feeling of having been defeated once again.
Even though life is hardly all bad news for me. The strange thing is, I can't really think about the good things this morning. Maybe this afternoon, yes?
On Monday I started folding, punching holes and putting twisted yellow cotton through them so I can visit the galleries in town and swap the old ones with these beautiful new ones. I didn't notice this while working with the tags, but afterwards when I was counting, I noticed that some had uneven edges.
Of the 40 I prepared, (I only needed 15 but it was so fun I kept going,) about 10 were perfectly shaped, about 10 had the front cover with the logo were a little wider than the back cover. But the rest had front covers approximately 2 mm than the back.
I took the whole lot to the print shop, and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, and after I offered, a staff and I folded all of 450 tags on the shop counter and sorted them into good, not good, and unacceptable piles. They're going to cut the edge off the unacceptable ones, (the logo is not centered so they figured they can gut the edge and keep the integrity of the tags; we'll see how the care instructions on the inside looks.) They'll see what they can do with the not good pile as some of the edges are too skinny to slice off.
The problem was caused, from what I understood, because they cut too many cards at once, and as they progress, the pile becomes ever so slightly skewed, ergo the discrepancy. The staff who did the work, who did not speak to me directly, said he compensated for it by changing the angle of the pile or some of the sheets. I didn't ask why they didn't cut fewer sheets at the time.
So I came home with the good ones and some of the not good ones. They have the unacceptable ones and some of the not good ones. And they'll see what they can do.
The good part is, the staff are always very nice, and Tina, who helped me with the folding, had, I believe, the same level of expectations for what is acceptable and what is not. The bad part is, I have this horrible foreboding that some are going to come out looking really bad and I'll have to negotiate reprint of them. And all the tags now feel much too much "handled" and soiled and I can't stop overthinking this.
It is still a very good business; they are popular, inexpensive, and most of all, very reliable. So I'm hoping they'll do the right thing. But it still makes me frustrated, and adds to my feeling of having been defeated once again.
Even though life is hardly all bad news for me. The strange thing is, I can't really think about the good things this morning. Maybe this afternoon, yes?
2010/11/15
Tagged
The color of the logo itself, I changed a little bit. Way back, sometime between 2003 and 2005, when I decided I would like to sell my work, I needed something to write care instructions on and I made up this design and printed on printable business cards. Initially I had pale blue-yellow warps and dark gray letters, and I love it. Over the years we went through three ink jet printers, I think, and with every printer, and every ink manufacturer, the colors printed differently requiring modification to the files. One time, when we had a faulty printer, (which the manufacturer eventually replaced,) the yellow came out soft orange, and I liked it so much I changed the file to orange. And the letters became just black.
I changed it back to the original yellow this time, partly because I wanted to go back to where it all started, partly because in the test print the yellow sample looked so much better than the orange, and partly because I think of my yellow/gold warp cotton pieces as my "signature" pieces if I was ever to have such a thing. I was astounded by the details that show up in the professionally printed version; if I look close enough, I can even read the numbers and the threading and such. And the logo was kept the exact same size as before.
I considered Moo cards, and other less expensive Internet options, but in the end I went local, in a small part because I want to support local businesses where I can, but mostly because I am a control freak and I wanted to see exactly how it was going to turn out before I went ahead and ordered some number of these cards. In the end, a young chap named Ryan was in charge of my order, and at first I even wondered if he was out of high school, but this young man had an uncanny ability to pick out what I wanted when I mumbled and changed my mind and generally droned on thinking out loud. Amazing.
They came out less than 36 cents a piece, and though I don't know what I was expecting, it doesn't sound too bad, either.
One of these days I need to weave this draft. It was one of many I made up while I was trying to get used to weaving software in preparation for Bonnie Inouye's workshop in 2002, and based on tulips, which is one of my sister's favorite flowers. If I were to weave it, however, I'd change warps separating the tulips back to pale green of some description.
2010/11/10
Hardly Exemplary, Or, More Booboos
I had to stand at an angle to be able to show you the "pebbles". I finished the second sample, and it's not looking good.
I discovered loads of reading mistakes from my lift plan in the first, blue, sample, and I wasn't confident with the second, yellow, one. I kept amending the plan; the double lines indicate a change in the lifting pattern, and I amended up to six lines this afternoon.
Plus, because warp ends kept breaking at the left side in the blue example, I beat the wefts not as firmly with the yellow sample, making the color areas not as saturated as the blue sample.
Hardly an exemplary sample to attach on my Sketchbook page; I kept the warp ends in the heddles in case I want to weave a third, more respectable sample for the page.
* * * * *
I could really use some success right about now, and by success I don't mean anything big, but just something to turn out right. I've been working diligently and consistently, I have beautiful yarns and equipment, and some of my plans aren't that bad, but the execution has been sucky at best. I'm not sick, I'm not down; just exasperated and in need for some validation or vindication to stay being a weaver, I guess.
Today I also withdrew from India Flint's eco dye workshop.
Two weeks ago I have a lovely long lunch with Jo Kinross the organizer, and she was do encouraging and inspiring I was all ready to jump right in. Among other things, we talked about what we want to get out of making things, and in my case it's to make something that I can be happy and satisfied with. And it hasn't happened for a while.
In the first instance, this was a financial decision; both our cars are old, ('89 and '94) and at the twice-yearly maintenance last week, both needed some bits and bobs replaced. I'd been sitting on an email to Jo for three days but I finally sent it today, and in retrospect it feels like the right decision; I need to concentrate on weaving because I can't stand this dry spell with nothing nice to show for.
But Jo, Colleen, a few others and I are planning on an Indigo Dye evening in the near future, so it's not like the dye workshop morphed into greasy car parts I will never see. Not entirely.
Hardly an exemplary sample to attach on my Sketchbook page; I kept the warp ends in the heddles in case I want to weave a third, more respectable sample for the page.
* * * * *
I could really use some success right about now, and by success I don't mean anything big, but just something to turn out right. I've been working diligently and consistently, I have beautiful yarns and equipment, and some of my plans aren't that bad, but the execution has been sucky at best. I'm not sick, I'm not down; just exasperated and in need for some validation or vindication to stay being a weaver, I guess.
Today I also withdrew from India Flint's eco dye workshop.
Two weeks ago I have a lovely long lunch with Jo Kinross the organizer, and she was do encouraging and inspiring I was all ready to jump right in. Among other things, we talked about what we want to get out of making things, and in my case it's to make something that I can be happy and satisfied with. And it hasn't happened for a while.
In the first instance, this was a financial decision; both our cars are old, ('89 and '94) and at the twice-yearly maintenance last week, both needed some bits and bobs replaced. I'd been sitting on an email to Jo for three days but I finally sent it today, and in retrospect it feels like the right decision; I need to concentrate on weaving because I can't stand this dry spell with nothing nice to show for.
But Jo, Colleen, a few others and I are planning on an Indigo Dye evening in the near future, so it's not like the dye workshop morphed into greasy car parts I will never see. Not entirely.
Wednesday Snapshot
Unfortunately there was yet another dye lot change on the merino/mohair weft cone, so not a very nice look; the overall colors change from blue-ish purple to very-violet about one-third the way. But really, I'm finished with this yarn source, even if they sell the best merino I've come across in New Zealand. Enough said.
Two warps are waiting to be wound: one is Ben's Happi Blues; I've been wondering if I should go ahead and weave this in a 2/1 and 1/2 twill, or in Summer & Winter, so it will be wound, but not threaded until I make up my mind. If I'm particularly patient, I might even sample both.
The other is my pleasure weaving, the mainly-purple Summer & Winter in random threading, lifting and weft colors.
Speaking of Summer & Winter, at the end of the session on Monday, Ali said to read about Summer & Winter some more. She asked if I had a book on the structure, and I said no, but I have books on structures, like Black and Alderman.
Before I went to bed, though, I wanted to check; knowing now what Summer & Winter looks like, I wondered if a book I had forever fits the description. And it was. Sullivan's book, I fell in love with the heart on the cover when I saw the advert in Handwoven, and I had it for almost as long as I can remember. I was a tad disappointed at the other pictures inside, but just looking at the cover used to make me happy.
I haven't started reading this yet, but flipping through it, I came across something I had been wondering about this last week. I wondered if instead of using four warps to make one unit of pattern, (1-P-2-P), I could use just two, (1-P1-2-P2), and yes, she says I can, and there is even a name for it. And there are few other ways to tie in non-conventional ways, too. She even mentions Barrett and Smith book, which, yes, I also happen to have; this was from Halcyon Yarns website. Don't ask.
I'm all set to delve deeper, and maybe pick up the correct jargon. Or mix them up even more.
On the sample loom, I'm weaving the same Robot Pebble 1 draft with yellow wefts from the bottom of the draft, so the finished piece looks exactly like the drawdown and the grid picture. I thought it might be nice to add a few pieces of fabric in my neglected Sketchbook Project.
2010/11/08
Not Getting Easier...
I had a session with Ali today.
I was able to show her a badly woven sample of this draft, which took me all day today to weave... badly.
.JPG)
We went over how I worked on my problem and how I arrived at this draft, by backtracking, using the Fiberworks PCW software's sketchpad and draft conversion capabilities. The most difficult part was to try to explain what it is I know I don't know but would like to know, though she seemed to have understood what I meant. The best that I can describe "it" is, I'd like to know how shafts behave in Summer & Winter so I can construct a draft, rather than draft shapes on a grid, put it through the software conversion, and confirm my shaft count. In other words, I'm back to where I was in July (not August) in my un-knowing-ness.
We brainstormed options; here are what I can remember, or what I understood; there were more good ideas but I was so flustered I couldn't find the words to write them down.
* On cloudy days like these, weave with contrasting wefts so I can see.
* Don't worry about the final product but just work with the designs.
* Examine the software's use of shafts and especially the treadling; there may be ways I could economize and make my lifting life easier. I had blind faith that the software takes into consideration maximum economy, but she wants me to check, which I think is a good thing.
* Difference scale: how changing scale will affect the appearance of the shapes, how different fibers will yield different results from same drafts; most importantly, how to enlarge a design without sacrificing shafts for details. We arrived at no conclusions on this one.
* Do I really need to sacrifice a shaft for the negative space? Try designing not the pebbles, but the negative space.
* Try different sizes and different degrees of detail. Also, try small variations, e.g. changing the width of the main part of the shape. This kind of trick will increase the variety without using up shafts.
* Go back to the original sheet and remember why I liked this bit on a whole sheet of random mark-making. Then design something that emphasizes what I liked about it.
* It's OK to request a session when I'm stuck and don't have anything to show her; in fact, this is exactly when I need to see her, I guess.
There were many moments when my eyes glazed over; I could feel the muscles rearranging and my attention fading. I hate not having a clear idea of what I want to do and how I'll do it; it feels as if I took a big detour this last week but came back to where I was in July; I found a way to navigate around some of my problems, but I don't really see "progress".
Yeah yeah, process, journey, blah, blah. But I did enjoy the sampling!
* * * * *
.JPG)
For 10 years and seven months, I used my Klik loom with the shafts color-coded but unnumbered, because the color coding is pretty, but the numbering, not so. In my frustration of weaving the sample today, I hastily wrote the numbers on the shafts, which made the weaving a lot quicker and smoother, but I still think it's defacing a beautiful equipment. No matter. It's done.
EDIT: Ali's moved to Wellington, ending our mentor/ee relationship. But thanks for the time you've given me.
I was able to show her a badly woven sample of this draft, which took me all day today to weave... badly.
We went over how I worked on my problem and how I arrived at this draft, by backtracking, using the Fiberworks PCW software's sketchpad and draft conversion capabilities. The most difficult part was to try to explain what it is I know I don't know but would like to know, though she seemed to have understood what I meant. The best that I can describe "it" is, I'd like to know how shafts behave in Summer & Winter so I can construct a draft, rather than draft shapes on a grid, put it through the software conversion, and confirm my shaft count. In other words, I'm back to where I was in July (not August) in my un-knowing-ness.
We brainstormed options; here are what I can remember, or what I understood; there were more good ideas but I was so flustered I couldn't find the words to write them down.
* On cloudy days like these, weave with contrasting wefts so I can see.
* Don't worry about the final product but just work with the designs.
* Examine the software's use of shafts and especially the treadling; there may be ways I could economize and make my lifting life easier. I had blind faith that the software takes into consideration maximum economy, but she wants me to check, which I think is a good thing.
* Difference scale: how changing scale will affect the appearance of the shapes, how different fibers will yield different results from same drafts; most importantly, how to enlarge a design without sacrificing shafts for details. We arrived at no conclusions on this one.
* Do I really need to sacrifice a shaft for the negative space? Try designing not the pebbles, but the negative space.
* Try different sizes and different degrees of detail. Also, try small variations, e.g. changing the width of the main part of the shape. This kind of trick will increase the variety without using up shafts.
* Go back to the original sheet and remember why I liked this bit on a whole sheet of random mark-making. Then design something that emphasizes what I liked about it.
* It's OK to request a session when I'm stuck and don't have anything to show her; in fact, this is exactly when I need to see her, I guess.
There were many moments when my eyes glazed over; I could feel the muscles rearranging and my attention fading. I hate not having a clear idea of what I want to do and how I'll do it; it feels as if I took a big detour this last week but came back to where I was in July; I found a way to navigate around some of my problems, but I don't really see "progress".
Yeah yeah, process, journey, blah, blah. But I did enjoy the sampling!
* * * * *
For 10 years and seven months, I used my Klik loom with the shafts color-coded but unnumbered, because the color coding is pretty, but the numbering, not so. In my frustration of weaving the sample today, I hastily wrote the numbers on the shafts, which made the weaving a lot quicker and smoother, but I still think it's defacing a beautiful equipment. No matter. It's done.
EDIT: Ali's moved to Wellington, ending our mentor/ee relationship. But thanks for the time you've given me.
2010/11/04
Pebbles
Calmer bloggers might discuss one or two projects/subjects at a time, or at least use labels intelligently so readers can follow a subject/project easily; I am not one of them. So, this post picks up where I left off here in the main, but continues with Summer & Winter train of thought as well. (After working on this post for 4 days, I finally started a "Summer and Winter" label for my own convenience, but I found out I'm not allowed to use ampersand in labels!!)
The reason I'm interested in analogous (at least not blatantly colorful) Summer & Winter is to create the pebbles I've been euphemistically sitting on. I want to continue using Summer & Winter because Ali said the structure allows maximum use of however many shafts a loom has, and I've become somewhat familiar with this structure. And with appropriate yarn selection, it has proven to be not as fuddy-duddy, (or "mumsy" as Jill Alexander likes to say,) as I used to think.
I hit a wall in August, though, and I made half a dozen attempts in trying to understand the behavior of shafts, warp ends on same shafts, and treadling. I've been searching for a logic/rule, if it indeed exists, in making the most efficient use of the shafts in creating similar but unidentical shapes on a grid. If you don't understand how I describe things in words in this post, don't worry; I hope the pictures help.
Premise/Background:
* I plan to sample on a table loom, so I can ignore treadle numbers. I'll use my Klik which has 16 shafts.
* Summer & Winter takes up two shafts for tabby, leaving 14 for as pattern shafts. However, I don't want my pebbles stuck to each other, so an extra shaft is required for the negative space. In all I have 16-3=13 shafts for positive space/pattern/pebbles.
* For convenience, I used the alternating treadling in my examples; I can easily convert the draft to any of the other three should I so choose.
* I could have started with few, bigger, nicely rounded pebbles, but I opted for a group of crudely-shaped ones as my initial idea was to weave cute pebbles in a rough grid formation. In fact, I started my studies with squares, because they are the simples shapes on a grid, so uses the fewest shafts.
Regardless of the size of the squares or the space between them on the grid, if the positive and negative shapes are uniform, only four shafts are required: two shafts for the tabby, one for squares/pebbles and one for the negative space.
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Because I was interested to see how each shaft behaves, I paid a lot of attention to the tie-up and treadling. Here, I can see Shafts 1 and 2 are used for tabby, 3 for negative space, and 4 for the square/pebble.
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I then chipped away at the squares, creating patterns with some element of uniformity, converting each variation into weaving drafts. (A little more about my software appears at the bottom of the post.) I was surprised to see all four arrangement below can be woven on the same tie-up; only the threading and treading vary.
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All four patterns can be woven using this tie-up: Shafts 1 and 2 are used to weave the tabby; 3 to create the chip in the squares; 4 to create the positive areas, and 5 to create the negative space. Treadles 1 and 2 are used to weave the tabby; 3 and 4 to create the rows that contains chips; 5 and 6 to create rows of squares without chips, and 7 and 8 to create the negative space.
After this, I created dozens of designs by chipping away at, and later also adding lumps to, some of the squares on a 5-squares-by-5-squares base, counting the shafts required, converting the drawing with the software to create drafts and verify the shaft count.
So far this is the only design which contains sufficient variety of shapes. I have a session with Ali on Monday, so while I hope to create more interesting, more rounded pebble patterns, I think I'll thread my loom and weave this over the weekend.
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This requires 16 shafts, and 50 treadles if I had a wide enough loom; one repeat is 312 picks. Although weaving tabby on table looms drive me nuts, I think I can handle it.
Ah, you say the shapes hardly look like the pebbles or dots I made in the first place? I couldn't agree with you more, but these are related to my attempts to break down the dots into small squares previously. As mentioned before, squares require the fewest shafts, and treadling is shorter than rectangles. Circles require a minimum of six shafts, and though I see cute, warped polka-dots in my future, I needed the simplest shapes to restart my investigation.
Thoughts:
* Because my software Fiberworks PCW allows me to make a pattern on grids, convert it into a profile draft, then further convert it into a draft of weave structures of my choice, all quite automagically, I am able to create drafts without really understanding how the shafts and warps behave, most importantly how certain shafts could be shared across the cloth. To avoid this, I worked on graph papers for a long time, getting nowhere. After using the software, creating many shapes and analyzing how the software converted them, I started to see vaguely how the conversion works, and I was able to count the shafts for some my cruder shapes, or convert my crudest shapes into a weaving draft.
* To count the shafts accurately is my next goal. In addition, I'd like to be be able to convert less crude shapes into a weaving draft; in other words, I would feel more comfortable if I knew exactly how the software analyzed my shapes and turned them into drafts. My final goal is to "recycle" shafts wisely so that I can make shapes that appear as if they require more shafts than I have. If you are hoping to weave something like this on a foot loom, I think this is where skeleton tie-up comes in.
* The software defaults uses a white warp, and the shapes are created with weft colors; it took me until late last night to realize this. When I think about it, I very often start out with a dark warp, and almost always create shapes with my warp (i.e. dark) yarns until I am comfortable with the draft. Then and only then actual colors, particularly of the weft, comes into play. It's just a habit I wasn't aware I picked up, but these little discrepancies and the resultant appearances of the drafts on the screen confused me until I noticed these little things.
* I'm only interested in weaving my pebbles in a normal, cloth-weaving fashion, as opposed to on a jacquard loom, (I would if I had the chance!) or using pick-up; this shows my penchant for cloth-weaving, as opposed to another types (art?) of weaving, and I'm happy about that.
* Uber Teacher Bonnie Inouye said if we don't like weaving with two shuttles, we could always turn drafts. This is definitely on my list to try.
The reason I'm interested in analogous (at least not blatantly colorful) Summer & Winter is to create the pebbles I've been euphemistically sitting on. I want to continue using Summer & Winter because Ali said the structure allows maximum use of however many shafts a loom has, and I've become somewhat familiar with this structure. And with appropriate yarn selection, it has proven to be not as fuddy-duddy, (or "mumsy" as Jill Alexander likes to say,) as I used to think.
I hit a wall in August, though, and I made half a dozen attempts in trying to understand the behavior of shafts, warp ends on same shafts, and treadling. I've been searching for a logic/rule, if it indeed exists, in making the most efficient use of the shafts in creating similar but unidentical shapes on a grid. If you don't understand how I describe things in words in this post, don't worry; I hope the pictures help.
Premise/Background:
* I plan to sample on a table loom, so I can ignore treadle numbers. I'll use my Klik which has 16 shafts.
* Summer & Winter takes up two shafts for tabby, leaving 14 for as pattern shafts. However, I don't want my pebbles stuck to each other, so an extra shaft is required for the negative space. In all I have 16-3=13 shafts for positive space/pattern/pebbles.
* For convenience, I used the alternating treadling in my examples; I can easily convert the draft to any of the other three should I so choose.
* I could have started with few, bigger, nicely rounded pebbles, but I opted for a group of crudely-shaped ones as my initial idea was to weave cute pebbles in a rough grid formation. In fact, I started my studies with squares, because they are the simples shapes on a grid, so uses the fewest shafts.
Regardless of the size of the squares or the space between them on the grid, if the positive and negative shapes are uniform, only four shafts are required: two shafts for the tabby, one for squares/pebbles and one for the negative space.
All four patterns can be woven using this tie-up: Shafts 1 and 2 are used to weave the tabby; 3 to create the chip in the squares; 4 to create the positive areas, and 5 to create the negative space. Treadles 1 and 2 are used to weave the tabby; 3 and 4 to create the rows that contains chips; 5 and 6 to create rows of squares without chips, and 7 and 8 to create the negative space.
After this, I created dozens of designs by chipping away at, and later also adding lumps to, some of the squares on a 5-squares-by-5-squares base, counting the shafts required, converting the drawing with the software to create drafts and verify the shaft count.
So far this is the only design which contains sufficient variety of shapes. I have a session with Ali on Monday, so while I hope to create more interesting, more rounded pebble patterns, I think I'll thread my loom and weave this over the weekend.
Ah, you say the shapes hardly look like the pebbles or dots I made in the first place? I couldn't agree with you more, but these are related to my attempts to break down the dots into small squares previously. As mentioned before, squares require the fewest shafts, and treadling is shorter than rectangles. Circles require a minimum of six shafts, and though I see cute, warped polka-dots in my future, I needed the simplest shapes to restart my investigation.
Thoughts:
* Because my software Fiberworks PCW allows me to make a pattern on grids, convert it into a profile draft, then further convert it into a draft of weave structures of my choice, all quite automagically, I am able to create drafts without really understanding how the shafts and warps behave, most importantly how certain shafts could be shared across the cloth. To avoid this, I worked on graph papers for a long time, getting nowhere. After using the software, creating many shapes and analyzing how the software converted them, I started to see vaguely how the conversion works, and I was able to count the shafts for some my cruder shapes, or convert my crudest shapes into a weaving draft.
* To count the shafts accurately is my next goal. In addition, I'd like to be be able to convert less crude shapes into a weaving draft; in other words, I would feel more comfortable if I knew exactly how the software analyzed my shapes and turned them into drafts. My final goal is to "recycle" shafts wisely so that I can make shapes that appear as if they require more shafts than I have. If you are hoping to weave something like this on a foot loom, I think this is where skeleton tie-up comes in.
* The software defaults uses a white warp, and the shapes are created with weft colors; it took me until late last night to realize this. When I think about it, I very often start out with a dark warp, and almost always create shapes with my warp (i.e. dark) yarns until I am comfortable with the draft. Then and only then actual colors, particularly of the weft, comes into play. It's just a habit I wasn't aware I picked up, but these little discrepancies and the resultant appearances of the drafts on the screen confused me until I noticed these little things.
* I'm only interested in weaving my pebbles in a normal, cloth-weaving fashion, as opposed to on a jacquard loom, (I would if I had the chance!) or using pick-up; this shows my penchant for cloth-weaving, as opposed to another types (art?) of weaving, and I'm happy about that.
* Uber Teacher Bonnie Inouye said if we don't like weaving with two shuttles, we could always turn drafts. This is definitely on my list to try.
2010/11/01
Goodness Me, It's November Today
I'm sick of waiting now and it's November and I feel bad I've done nothing of substance this year, so come rain or shine, (and it's a beautiful Sunny Nelson day outside!) I'm going to "get it" today.
That's my To Do for the day.
2010/10/30
Saturday Daydreaming: Trying New Ways of Photographing Textiles
I've been getting some advice from a friend on the Isle of Man, Jane, about interesting ways of photographing textiles. She has interesting ideas, some way too adventurous and out of my comfort zone, but others I just never thought of; I'm starting my experiments with the latter category.
These are not such examples; I was just looking at the world through my sample, and boy, doesn't the world look lovely, all in my fav colors!
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