Weaving

22 February 2024

February 22, 2024February 22, 2024 Frances2 Comments

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.

March Catch-Up

April 2, 2023April 2, 2023 FrancesLeave a comment

It’s been a busy month or two as I’ve been involved with the organisation of a local art show and I haven’t done much weaving. My main project in February was weaving a couple of pieces using some of the corriedale yarn I had dyed with harakeke seedpods. I drafted a echo weave design, inspired by the curves of the harakeke (NZ flax) flower stalks and seedpods, which I think turned out quite well for my first attempt.

I wove a scarf (above) and a wallhanging (below)

On my table loom at the moment is the Deflected Double Cloth sample blanket from Exploring Woven Fabrics by Janet Phillips, which I hope to complete in the next couple of weeks.

Last but not least, here are a few pictures of Rufus, who is helping us to improve our throwing skills as he demands to play fetch several times a day.

Mā te wā | Until next time,

Frances

Weaving

December 2022

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 FrancesLeave a comment

I had good intentions to post during November but now it’s December and that obviously didn’t happen. Better late than never I suppose, so here’s a quick roundup of what I’ve been up to.

Weaving

I finally hemmed the hand towels that were my first warp on my Mecchia dobby. They are already in daily use, replacing our rather worn out old towels.

I put a warp on my Ashford jack loom to work on the Summer & Winter lesson from Jane Stafford’s School Of Weaving. I enjoyed weaving the tea towels even though I managed to make a few mistakes, mostly due to inattention when weaving the tabby picks.

In the middle of November, I attended a workshop on Echo Weave, led by Agnes Hauptli. The workshop was organised by Creative Fibre Auckland, as part of their Spring Education Event at the Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa. I really enjoyed it even though lots of concentration was required.

Different treadlings on my workshop warp.

Reading

After the workshop I purchased a copy of Weaving with Echo and Iris by Marian Stubenitsky. It’s a pretty expensive book but it has a wealth of information in it and I’m slowly working my way through it.