Saturday Daydreaming: Bookbinding and Beutiful Sketchbook Lusts

I have both, but don't cope with either well. The former is too exacting; the latter, my sketchbooks themselves are secondary to the information within the covers, be they for weaving or just for fun, I can't edit the contents.

Among other things I did after my bookbinding workshop was to take the pages out of a hardcover diary/date/schedule book Ben discarded and covered the cover, and inserted coffee- and tea-stained drawing paper inside. I loved making it, but haven't managed to think up a series of contents to match the brown pages.

I keep all my diaries as supplementary tax records. In the past I've ceremoniously burned the inside pages after the obligatory 7 year retention period, and used the covers for posting/mailing fragile stuff; I haven't even bothered with that for some years.

I recently came up with this brilliant new idea, however! I'll cut out just some of the pages, leave some in, and cover the cover with papers or thin fabrics I like, paint/draw/doodle over some pages, and cut/paste things on others. There's not as much pressure on binding a straight, exact book, nor creating beautiful sketchbook contents, and I might even end up with some eye-candies free from my usual work mode/process-process.

Sounds like a plan?

(Never noticed, but in the years I had the fancier diaries, I was more imaginative! Chicken or the egg!)

Hi from Yokohama

Gee, it's nice to have Internet connectinos again. How are you?

It's been a much warmer winter here in Yokohama than I had anticipated so things have gone swimmingly. The entire clan (sans my Ben) went to this beach place last weekend and spent one night together, where from one side we saw the Chiba Penninsula across Tokyo Bay and I got a few sunrise shots, and from the otherside of the building, Mt Fuji! Then we all went back to my folks' place and ate, ate, ate.

Mom and I cleaned her yarn stash over two warm days, (I in short sleeved T shirts from time to time!) and I was awarded wtih a small loot. Yes, small. I also ordered fine boucle in silk and wool from one of her regular sources. I will probably have to send the yarns ahead of me due to, you know, space constraints.

The Mediteranean craze of the 90's seems to have settled and now Scandinavian designs are back in. This time it's a little more colorful and bold than the Zen like Swedish designs I grew up with in the 60's amd 70's.

The recession has hit hard; stores stock much fewer merchandises, people are constantly looking for bargains, including food, but Internet shopping is much more convenient. The gap between the wealthy and the poor have widened, so there are unimaginable (to me) luxuriy items as well. I hear there are new niche stores, too; for e.g. sister-in-law Yukiko mentioned a place near Tokyo Station selling only textiles from les Pyrenees Orientales, apparently sometimes known as les Toiles du Soleil, the cloth of the sun. These are bold, striped cotton (??) cloth in warped faced plain weave, but the color placement of the warp threads are considered so there are saturated strips, vertical lines, polka-dot like area, etc. I shall try to get some photos of her cloths.

Bookstores, sewing and fabric stores, and kitchen/ceramics stores pose grave danger to my credit card; thus far I've resisted but this afternoon I'm venturing back to a not-so-big bookstore near this house. I've yet to set foot in a yarn store, nor look into my mother's sample cards from her rgular sources, of which there are a dozen or so!

A spool of silk sewing thread costs 1/3 that in Wellington, (forget silk in Nelson), and Ben's wee camera parts costs 1/4 as much as the best deals he has been able to find on the Internet in New Zealand, so my suitcase is going to be filled with tiny bits and pieces.

I hope you are weaving happily. I hope to get back online again soon-ish.

Saturday Daydreaming: Ben Sees Patterns

Ben's always calling my attention to patterns in our photographs. These from last week he gave me so I'm not distracted by colors. He' often looks at color and B/W versions of the same photos and grunts while tampering with focus and values and such.



More here if you're interested.

I'm Off!

Weave merrily! See you when I get back, if not before.

It's That Thing...

Recently my weaving was complimented by an accomplished weaver, and I kept waiting for the "but" and suggestion on how to improve. My website was complimented by two artists, who are thinking of making a website for one. I wanted to say, "Yes, but have you really looked around? Don't settle on the first one you see. You should know better about these things..."

It's that thing again, compliments. We need to talk about this when I get back!

Thanks, Refinery

The scarves were up by Friday morning at the Refinery, and this morning Ben shot this. The "gadget" worked I should perhaps mass-produce it and extract precious cents from weavers the world over! Not!

Ben said the top dowel bows about 45 degrees, and I can't think of a pretty way to weight the bottom dowel short of embedding metal pieces into it. I think this will do for now.

I realized this morning I'd completely forgotten about swing tags and care instructions. Must deliver before I go on Monday!

Saturday Daydreaming: My Etsy Store

Later in the year, I'm going to work towards opening my Etsy store. I want to make it lovely and inviting. Instead of weaving, I keep thinking of interiors of the stores I like to visit. Girly and cute, or sophisticated and understated??

Peg Moorhouse's Exhibition: "Color and Light"

Marlborough Weavers member Peg Moorhouse is currently exhibiting at CoCA, Centre of Contemporary Art, gallery in Christchurch, until February 6th. Peg, now 92, really wanted to call the exhibition "92, Not Out", which we thought was so apt, but that was not to be.

Please have a browse on Marlborough Weavers blog and the blog post about the opening night by New Zealand tapestry artist Marilyn Rea-Menzies.

What I Miss When I'm Away

Backstrap Weaving

I found a blog on Backstrap Weaving via Dot.

Did I ever tell you about why I have something like 24 sets of sticks that used to be backstrap loom? I can't find an old post mentioning it, but I do, and they came with over 20 pairs of old white pantyhose! Did Kiwi nurses take up weaving in the 80's as art therapy? Long story short, the local Polytech wanted to get rid of the defunct Weaving School assets and I wanted one set, and they said all or nothing, so I paid $20 for the lot, thinking I can always use more sticks. I also had this idea of making them look all pretty and attaching instructions and selling them cheaply as a cash earner. Still might.

Anyway, I had a wee discussion with Restless Knitter on Twitter yesterday about portable looms and for some hours we seriously coveted a LeClerc Voyageur. This morning, I'm thinking how hilarious it would be if I just set up a backstrap loom on the isle of a plane and got to work. I'm a crazy, invisible middle-aged woman, you know; I might get away with it.

EDIT: UK Online Guild's March class is Backstrap and Rigid Heddle - something to look forward to while doing my tax returns for the period April 2008-March 2009. Serious. Quite happily in a most self-loathing mode, as this is nobody else's fault by mine. Every year.