monochromatic white

i just adore the concept and i'm trying to work with it and see where it takes me. The concept comes from Alvar AAlto a worshiper of white.
Practice shows that buildings have a way and textiles have another and i think that once again i've been blinded by ambition :) :)

Things i've noticed so far:

• It's a real pain to photograph or scan white and get a good quality image. No matter how much you P it doesn't cut it. Unless you are a pro, that is.
• i have a tendency towards diagonals, perhaps a carryover from weaving. A weaver's challenge is to break away from the grid imposed by warp and weft.
• i like working with puff paint but i need to be cautious with it as it can look scarily kitsch.
  

One of my future aims is to walk away from diagonal compositions and try new ones. And to make materials and techniques work together as a whole. Here i've used distressed tyvek, pearl paint, beads, stitching in a variety of thread grists, buttons, puff paint all on poly organza and topped with white tulle to unify and soften the work.
Brunette ambition taking over!

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at the bottom of the bottom drawer

Found this te suji and midori shibori. It was one of my first shiboris, i was young and thought there was a lot of life ahead, but i was not patient.

In the middle of the pleating and binding session i got bored and changed the pleating thus getting another pattern. The patterns are called 手筋絞り te suji kin toshi shibori( 手 te means hand and suji pleated) and みどり midori which means in this case willow leaf. I was getting started on the indigo craze, but i wasn't getting anything there, so this is good ol' Procion MX blue on white silk 90 x 90 cms.

On another note i finally got down to using my new bike. There's such a nice verb in Spanish for when you use something for the first time estrenar. Funny how English being so precise a language does not have a verb for that.

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list of lists

How amazingly accurate Sept. TIF! Lists.
i moved there recently to become a full time member of the never ending lists brigade.
Layers upon layers of lists graded according to their importance. Some are almost hidden, others pop out others do not hold together because there are holes in them.
Perhaps because they are mere sketches of ideas and need more entity.
Those lists are waiting until they crystallize into something worth listing.

Here's my interpretation

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goodie goodie on the mirror

With all the upheaval i had not had time to show the goodies i brought back from Helsinki.
Heat bond Angelina in sparkling colors and merino for needlefelting. DUH! What's the big deal you may ask. Well, remember i live in an almost materials deprived zone and were it not for my fairy godmother i would have never touched stuff such as tyvek or misty fuse among others!
Note the colors though, lots of purples and just two blues. Hmmm..

Now these were an astonishing find for me by way of Fiskars. The mandrel coils wire and the wire winder makes rosettes as you can see from the sample. One more turn of the spirograph screw! Can you guess where i'm going?

i also went for broke and bought tubes and tubes of 16/1 linen from Bockens to whet my weaving appetite. Although one needs to be judicious so as not to incur in what Laura Fry calls SABLE.

On another note today i got up at the crack of dawn to take advantage from the fact that husband-san is not coming for lunch.i'll run a small (and short) indigo vat, the last of the season. hoping to round out the darkies today.
Now if i could only tear myself away from the computer.......


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turn turn turn

Thanks to all my blog friend for the support messages .We are emotionally exhausted, but my mother in law is doing relatively well for her condition. i guess this is a time of changes.
Trying to get back to normality( does anybody know what that is?) and cleaning as occupational therapy i found this small work,14x11cms,i wove some time ago at the time i discovered lampas.

For me structure is an excuse to weave what i want to say, i guess it's like a painter using blue or yellow paints,color is not really the important aspect. And lampas gave me the flexibility to do that.
The main warp is 20/1 linen stamped and painted with textile paints and the supplemental warp is very fine silk. The figuring weft is tow linen and the ground weft is the same linen used in the warp.
i was quite pleased with the resulting piece as it works both ways, but you judge :)

One more thing to be thankful about is this, awarded to me by Shirley Treasure.

Thank you Shirley, it sure eased my re entry home!
Here’s what goes along with receiving this award:
1. Post this award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least 4 other bloggers, and add their links as well.
4. Leave a comment at the new recipients’ blogs, so they can pass it on.

And the award goes on to:
http://www.weavecast.com/ wonderful service to the weaving community
http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com/ more than weaving a place as you can get computer literate here
http://jacquelinedejongarts.blogspot.com/ such a variety of techniques
http://jowynn.wordpress.com/ a great inspiration

OK ladies, the ball is in your court now :)

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blog pause

Pausing for a week as we will be in Madrid for my mother in law's operation.
However here's something to inspire you and keep you entertained.
And here's another one along the lines of the spirograph.

Back in a week.

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salmon and savu

One of the many pleasant gastronomic discoveries in Helsinki was the Savu smoker bags in which you can cook food with a delicious smokey taste. Best of all no mess.
We bought some of them and last night i tried the fish one with salmon.
There are two important pointers to follow: the fish or meat has to be seared first so that the juices do not escape and the food needs a good marinade to make it tastier.

My favorite cook, Jamie Oliver came to the rescue with a very interesting and simple marinade for half a salmon .
marinade:
soy sauce
mirin
lime zest
lemon zest
grated ginger
quantities depending on how much fish you've got.
Put all in a plastic bag, shake and massage the fish with it, leave 1 hour.
Take the fish out and dry. Discard the marinade.
Sear the skin for 1 minute until crispy.Then cook in the oven 20 minutes.

i put it in the smoke bag along with whole white onions and lemon slices. Twenty minutes later we were having this great smoked salmon dinner accompanied with a grilled red pepper avocado salad.
And a glass(or two) of a good white from Galicia.
Life is good. :)

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there are good times and bad times

And this time's not good for starting new projects.
Just sampling on a bit of leftover loom controlled shibori warp.
Here's the outcome, pretty much self explanatory.
Except that i think the printing was a bit of an overkill.No printing next time.

Check the slideshow at my blog.

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what i'd do for love

Found this shawl in an antique shop and decided to break the bank just a few days before going to Japan, years ago. It's a real MCcoy jacquard weave and althoughl i don't wear it every day it's a pleasure to look at .It also serves as stroking therapy :D

Here's a photo of the central motif which leads me
to believe the shawl was woven in Norwich in
in the mid 1800's.

And for those of you who love textiles here's a wonderful blog full

of historical and sociological references. Enjoy.

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