colorful postman

The postman came today with a colorful surprise delivery. Gunnel sent me this beautiful ATC so now i know what the acronym stands for. i'm part of the in crowd! The photo doesn't make justice, it has a wonderfully rich surface texture and nteresting colors. Thank you Gunnel!

And while on the color topic, this has been around in the dyers community for a while now.I't a great color mixing java applet that works with the standard ProcionMX dyes as well as the Munsell scale and a lot of other goodies. It was a very gracious gift from Olli Niemitalo to the dyers community some years back. Scroll down and read the lit. because it's very comprehensive.

You can tweak with the kind of lighting to get an accurate on screen color rendering.
But that's not all.The real beauty is that by following the percentages you can duplicate the color recipe on and on and on.
O.k. now you just have to control the water quality supply now...


neki desu

out of control

More images pouring out. Mind you i have a life, but while i wait for the bread dough to rise i run and do other things. You know how it is, a bit of domestic bs and something creative to balance out the day.

These started out as possible weavings using THE BOOK'S method and i definitely got carried away.The initial image was a tesselated (is that a word?) image and then a weaving structure was added to it. These are more likely to end up as surface design works. The fun was free.

Hanabi means fireworks in Japanese so there you go all rolled in one.

neki desu

exploring images and text

This is one of the latest images using text.i still have not decided whether to silkscreen it(lots of work) or just print it digitally(instant gratification) and add some stitching.
Which brings me to the subject of this post and has very little to do with the title.
i've come to realize that

• i have just one life
• i have uncountable weaving designs
• i would like to put them up for grabs in a new blog
  

Yet i'm having problems trying to think up a name for this future blog and i would like to ask my cyberfriends for assistance as the proverbial many heads think better than one.What will you get in return? How about Brownie points and the pleasure of seeing your title in flashing neon lights and getting tagged by some mysterious power that be in Delicious or Technorati ? Not good enough? O.K.need some time to come up with something more tempting.

neki desu

TAST 21

This one was instant whip and without even trying to work fast.i used my infamous linen bcakground fabric which im trying to use up asap. The love of beauty blinded me (again)and i bought that linen fabric not thinking about its properties and lack of cooperation.
For this sample i tried filling up the negative spaces and see if i could come up with something pleasant. The stitching came out as if the stitching gods had pushed some button and an automatic needle took over whipping away stitch after stitch, variation after variation.Breezy! Even added some knots for spunk.

Some stitches were done in a twisted rayon cord and twisted here is a misnomer because it takes very little to have it untwist and unravel, but it was again the love of beauty.
i also used DMC verigated cotton, some narrow rayon ribbon remnant, Madeira stranded silk thread and hand dyed silk bourette.

neki desu

It's just Tuesday, yet it feels like the end of next week. So much has happened. Lots of invites to join forums, communities, groups. Albeit the fact that i'm still struggling to find a venue to exhibit, things are moving. There's also this energy
that i think comes from spring; the change in light quality and the longer days.

Looking around the net i found an interesting link related to color and color perception.There are nifty java applets to play around with. Nice tools that aid in understanding color interactions.

And since the post is about tools the Japanese clippers are a gift from a friend. Lovely object that functions very efficiently. Less is more the Japanese way, the masters of the concept.

neki desu

TAST20- back to academics

Went back to the original fabric and the original objective which was learn the stitches and try to push them further.i was getting too wrapped up in the surface design part and neglecting my original TAST purpose-learning. And what did i learn this week-about stitching i mean? That linen although beautiful is terribly unforgiving and bends out of shape with the hoop. i can mark the fabric till bats fly around my head .Then the hoop comes into action and distorts it and the stitches come out uneven, not perfectly aligned as marked. It's a good thing i like to see the maker's hand in everything!
On the maker's hand do check out Elisabeth's breathtaking experimental stitches.

neki desu

drats!! i should check my webmail more often

Yes, as eveybody else i have a website that i hardly check. The blog by definition subsists on an almost daily maintenance, but a website? Naahh.
All this preamble to say that fellow bloggers Marion
Sandy and Dijanne visited Barcelona last week and i missed them. Girls, heartfelt apologies. However since you seem to have enjoyed yourselves let's plan for another visit. Pomise i won't miss that one.

neki desu

my take on pixel weaving

This in a nutshell is how i did it.

i started with a color image and converted it to greyscale. Then the image was simplified, scaled down and indexed. By scaling down following THE BOOK's procedure and working with the pixel aspect ratio you end up with an image in true scale for your project.
Then i created 3 different layers and assigned a structure to each layer. Each design element had its own layer and structure, in this case three 8 end satins. i will spare you all the calculations only mentioning that it was straight draw on 24 shafts at 24 ends x cm. roughly 72 x inch. The final image was turned into a hard copy.

Then on to the printing table -i adore photoshop i could "clean" the table a bit with it- put the image in a plastic sleeve and trace it on the warp with a washable marking pen.


And then on to weaving. i kept the different areas big so it would not get confusing when weaving back. i should mention that each structure is a pick and since i was working with 3 different 8 end satins my module was 24 picks.This is not throwing the shuttle and catching it at the other end, the shuttle has to exit where structures change and change the shed. It's like pick up but a lot faster.


This is how it's weaving along, notice the difference in light reflection which show the different satins
Of course it would be a test for anyone's patience to weave a blanket, but for small experimental work it's a doable. Biding time until a real jacquard comes along...



neki desu

shinakereba narimasen

must do-have to do. The declension from hell.It twists and deforms verbs and makes them unrecognizable.It is difficult to say in one breath,difficult to memorize. It is not regular- need i mention that? It confronts you with your language skills and makes you wonder why on earth are you studiying this language. It separates kids from adults.

i just had to sidetrack and follow the imperative.Back to the loom. Following THE BOOK The Woven Pixel this is what's on the loom now.It's slooow weaving, yet very gratifiying. Will post my take on pixel weaving tomorrow.

neki desu

basque stitch

Tast 19 already! Fair enough one has to include the bummers as well. So be it. Last week's Tast was not sucessful due to a number of things all jumbled together.First i got carried away with the surface design and it became an overly important feature, second, in trying to tone it down and unify the piece it became more disjointed.Third the weaving itself,a recycled piece of silk crepe was not well woven , no wonder it was in the discards bin.And lastly i did not seem to get the hang of the stitch in order to expand it further. Although the fact that the stitch looks like the typical basque beret made me smile.
Anyway on to materials: Stef Francis silk noil, glittery DMC and rayon floss.

neki desu

new toys

Have been really busy for the past couple of days assembling images at the computer and i am really excited by the outcome.
As was mentioned yesterday i found some cool on line image generators and along with some images of my own and some photoshopping i have been having lots of fun.i used some of the stitch brushes for Photoshop that can be found here
or you can create your own.


Even jumped on the quilt craze and made this virtual one just for kicks!
i must chill out and finish sleying the loom,

neki desu

great design tools

I found this page yesterday. It is full of image generators that can be a great help when designing. The person works with fractals and using the generators he creates visually exciting images. Check out the galleries and enjoy.


neki desu

narukos-the end

After a two month absence from Yosakoi i was back today. My yosakoi colleagues Montse and Nuria (or is she Jessica?) were going to Japan and had kindly offered to buy me the narukos. After various pretty hilarious adventures the narukos were brought today to the yosakoi. The wrapping was so pretty that i did not use them so as to take pictures of it. So it's official now i have my own set of narukos.

Here is a link for last year's yosakoi champion. You can hear narukos clapping full swing.
neki desu

TAST 18

This reminded me.I should get back to the loom and ease on the "instant" gratification.This one was also fun. I wanted to be academic, this is an exercise to learn different stitches, but what the heck a bit of printing and color won't hurt.
i used DMC cottons and some hand dyed silk doupioni and silk floss.


neki desu

kanten

Been experimenting lately with kanten aka agar agar.It's one of those multipurpose magic ingredients that can be used for doing cultures in the lab, eating and even as a dye thickener or resist!
This time however i concentrated in the eats and made regular kanten with a twist-coconut ginger kanten. Here's how i made it:

• soak 5-10 strands in cold water for 30 min

• break the softened strands in small pieces

• put 1 cup water to boil

• when water boils put the kanten strands and stir until dissolved.

• let it cool a bit and add 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk, stir

• add 2 teaspoons sugar and mix.

• pour in an ice cube tray- fill ony 3/4- and put it in the fridge.It will set vey quickly.

• keep the remaining kanten warm or else it will set. If it does add a little water and re heat.

in a separate bowl mix well 1/4 cup grated coconut 2-3teaspoons ground ginger and 2 teaspoons powdered sugar.

• bring tray out from the fridge and top cubes with the mix. Pour the remainig kanten on top and back to the fridge.

• serve cold

Voila! you have a not too sweet dessert that can substitute tea cakes. It's interesting , it has a firm jelly texture and the coconut topping adds some crunch to it.
You can also make it with your favorite fruit juice and add a slice of fruit instead of the coconut topping for variation and decoration. Experiment with the amount of sugar and the degree of sweetness. I prefer it Japanese style not sweet.

neki desu