Weaving

22 February 2024

Kia ora, it’s been a while. In my last post I mentioned that I was working on the Creative Fibre correspondence course ‘Certificate in Design 2’. After taking a break over the Christmas and New Year period I finally finished it last month and I’ve made a short video to show some of my process.

The course builds on the skills from an earlier course that I completed a few years ago. In that course you learn about the design process and different tools to use. In the Certificate in Design 2 course you use the design process as you choose a concept/theme for an exhibition, design and complete one work, virtually plan the exhibition and develop the concepts for several other works that would be part of it.

My exhibition and completed work were inspired by the pāua shell, in particular the contrast between its exterior and interior. Below is a photo of the finished work, the colour is not quite right, the joys of taking photos inside with bad lighting. The colour is more like the second photo below.

Weaving

27 September 2023

A few photos from the last fortnight.

I’ve been following the lesson on Monk’s Belt with Colour and Weave in Season 7 of Jane Stafford’s School of Weaving. Juggling 4 shuttles is not fun and there have been a few dropped shuttles but I do like the outcome.

I’m also working on a project for the Certificate in Design correspondence course offered through Creative Fibre NZ. I’m at the sampling stage but it’s taking longer than I expected as I experiment with various yarns and structures.

Meanwhile the typical Spring weather of rain and wind interspersed with the odd day of sunshine continues. Rufus doesn’t mind but it’s not much fun for the lucky person who has to play ball with him.

Dyeing · Uncategorized

Woolly Sunshine

A vase of flowers and a skein of bright yellow yarn

Some yellow yarn and flowers to brighten up another rainy day. The flowers were a gift from a friend to celebrate that I have been awarded the Creative Fibre Mason Charitable Trust scholarship for 2023. The objective of the scholarship is to give a member of Creative Fibre NZ the ability to extend their knowledge and push the boundaries of their capabilities and their design skills by studying overseas with a recognised international practitioner. So in June 2024 I am off to France for a workshop with Stacey Harvey-Brown at The Loom Room France. It’s very exciting and I’m honoured to receive the scholarship.

The yellow corridale wool yarn was solar-dyed with Dyer’s Chamomile flowers. I was not expecting such a bright yellow but it is very cheery. I picked and dried the flowers months ago, and then kept moving the container with them in it around the place until I decided that I really should use them. I used alum as a mordant and left the yarn in the dye for about a week. There weren’t many sunny days in that time but obviously there was enough sunshine to do the trick.

A jar containing dyers chamomile flowers, yarn and water.
Bright yellow yarn on green leaves