Sunday, 23 March 2025
What’s Another Year….
Monday, 1 April 2024
Of Deep Darkness and Deep Joy
The last nine months have been a bit of a struggle, with health scares and bereavement. I have become way behind on both practice and writing, and a month ago it all seemed very dire and beyond hope of repair. Various things have contributed to the upturn that I am now experiencing, and being back in the studio, and back at the loom is the source of great relief and joy. The illness I have causes chronic fatigue, and that is just one of the things that I am having to learn to manage and work round. My energy levels have risen lately, and my brain is functioning better (although I might not have said that earlier today, the way I was struggling with basic geometry!). Today I began a new largish tapestry, after making a few more small ones as Talismans for the research project. This latest one will be part of that, as well as using up the excess warp above Shrine. It is based on the small one I made while in Folkestone, and one made earlier this year:-
It will be about 40cm square, and have woven-in copper wire where the small one has turquoise nettle yarn. It is a woven map of The Nine Stones at Winterbourne Abbas, where Pillar will be placed to mark the missing tenth stone, as shown in the second talisman here.
Thursday, 27 April 2023
Lawks! What a Time Has Passed
Shrine Maquette 2 in progress….
The original Shrine, which was lost, stolen, or strayed in 2018.
Monday, 29 March 2021
Saturday, 14 November 2020
Memorial Pillar: First* Panel
I’m not sure why it looks wonky - it’s not - must have been the angle I held the iPad at. The original tiny panel is blu-tacked to the reed bar for colour reference. The enlarged panel photo hangs over the cloth beam.
There will a lot of ressaut added after weaving to soften some of the edges, and add the detail shown up in the enlargement.
Monday, 9 November 2020
Untangling: A Parable
Once upon a time there was a weaver - let’s call her FrouFrou. People often commented that she must be very patient, being a weaver, but she wasn’t really. One day, FrouFrou bought some delicious, smooth, shiny silk yarn for her latest project. This yarn, as many do, came in a skein. FrouFrou knew, as do all weavers, and many knitters (and her Nannan before her, when all yarn came in skeins), that skeins must be wound into balls before you can use the yarn. Horrid tanglements ensue if this rule is forgotten. Nevertheless, because FrouFrou was excited about her latest project, and because the yarn was lovely, and because she was impatient (see above), FrouFrou hung the skein over the end of the loom, and started taking lengths from it as required...
It tangled.
A lot.
Project over, the mare’s nest was put aside in a box. Yesterday, FrouFrou needed the yarn for another project, and decided that the Great Untangling must commence...
It took two hours of slow, patient (despite note above) winding and unknotting, but in the end, FrouFrou had a properly wound cheese of silk, still shiny, smooth and delicious.
And the silk goes into a weft with other yarns, and the new project continues.
The meaning of this parable?
Doing something properly in the beginning will save time in the long run, but, even if mistakes are made, wrong decisions taken, and tanglements ensue, with patient, loving attention, individual beauty and order can be restored, and then become part of a group that work together to make something new.
As Kiki Dee so wisely put it:-
"I will untangle myself
So that I can be
Loving and Free"
Friday, 6 November 2020
‘Weaving Against the Wound’
The improvised warping board (as I can’t use the warping mill at WD at present) and chained warp - linen from Weavers Bazaar.
Tied on, waste weft and double half hitches.
Aphraminta Splodge inspecting the large scale print from which I traced the design lines for the first panel; it will hang near the loom for colour reference. I upped the contrast and saturation before printing to make the areas easier to delineate. I am fortunate to have a very good printing company nearby (Lollipop Chichester, formerly ProCopy) who have done a lot for me over the years. They have established a very good system for no contact for the time being; they also give a lollipop with each order collected! I’m saving mine for when I’ve woven an inch all across.