design principle#23

Reality may be engaged subjectively, by which one presumes a oneness with the objects of his concern, or objectively, by which a detachment is presumed.

Matthew Frederic

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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on a one person mission

to save the world economy. Between last Friday and today i've done more than most secretaries of treasury to help the economy.Last Friday i ordered the yarns above. Gorgeous 2/48 merino from Colourmart. This is the second time i order from them and they always amaze me with their fast delivery. A dark blue, a tad darker than the photo, a black , a brown /charcoal melange and a dark charcoal cone will be woven into a very restrained Oelsner crepe cloth for a top.difficult to create a new crepe bcause Oelsner mapped them all out.

On Saturday i ordered 4 books from Amazon.Don't think they qualify for the mission as i used a gift cert i had.But still they fall within the shop till you drop scheme.
On Monday i ordered a new Elna sewing machine. i wanted the 5100 which is relatively simple in bells and whistles, but it has what i need-want.And price wise i do not have to rent out husband-san by the hour in order to buy it.
i also bought some embroidery threads while at the shop.When i go back to pick the machine up i'm contemplating getting some accessories such as embroidery feet and twin needles.
And this coming Friday i'm checking out a tailor dummy with Ruth.

All this shopping activity is very unusual to me because i'm not into shopping and shopping is not my idea of a fun pastime. So this definitely is a mission.
Can't wait to chill out and start weaving

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tadaaaaa!done

Remember this? Already finished fringe twisted, wet finished and pressed.Twisting fringes is even more boring than doing hems. And i have a battery operated twister and i also go to the park or my terrace to give myself some amusement time.
The photo shows both front and back but the off white is going to be killed. Color has not been decided yet. Perhaps a dark aubergine? Ideas?

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results

Skein after two days soaking in walnut hulls liquor.No mordant.No heat. Just a daily stir. It's not what you call instant, but it could be filed under the automatic category :).The silk skein will be cured for at least three weeks and then rinsed.
Came out looking like your most gorgeous Clairol(TM) or L'Oreal(TM) or whatever present hair color fashion.
Found out that hulls can be kept for as long as a year yielding color provided they are covered with water. Sustainability anyone?


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not a beauty photoshoot

More like the horror. Yesterday the walnut hulls were tackled.They had been sitting, floating to be more precise, in water for two weeks but i have a feeling they could have stayed in water longer given the color of the water. But now or never. i'm ready to call the natural dyeing year over.
i had to improvise a filter because i had not foreseen the sludge that forms at the bottom.DUH!
My drying rack turned upside down came to rescue. Love it when one can get multiple uses from objects .

And now a beauty before closing. This silk skein was dunked in the dyeing liquor and will stay there until it gets a nice color.It was not scoured. Ana Lisa Hedstrom dyes unscoured silk fabric obtaining interesting results, so i've taken the lead. It has worked on this particular silk with both natural and synthetic dyes.
Slow dyeing again, before ending the season. Although i'm thinking about overdyeing one of the akane dyed skeins.And then wrapping up.

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Taking care of other projects have kept me away from the loom. Not a complain because it has been lots of fun. And as a fringe benefit i was able to use my Chinese calligraphy brush for the first time in over 15 years! Estrenar: such a wonderful word in Spanish! Somehow use for the first time does not convey all the excitement and anticipation of the act itself. Too many labial sounds.

Going back to the loom and getting to the much anticipated 846th pick where the treadling mirrors. Sixty six centimeters woven with a soft silk bourette on a wool warp. My friend Ruth winced when i told her about using hairspray to control the stickiness of the wool. She told me to pump up the tension and and was absolutely right. Of course she's a real weaver who holds a weaving degree, not an impostor like me.
That extra bit of tension adds a minute space to the shed and helps the wool pop down when the shuttle is introduced.
i think my only complain about my magic dobby loom is the small shed. And after years hesitating i recently had husband-san design an extension for it. With a couple of centimeters gained for the shed life will be good and the loom will finally deserve its first name.

Turning a page i still have the walnut hulls in water. Not overly concerned because the weather is chilly, but chilly or not two weeks is a lot of time. Will have to look into that over the weekend.
These gloriously crisp and clear fall mornings with that beautiful mellow light are more conductive to long walks and reflecting rather than working.

Have a great weekend!

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design principle #18

Any design decision should be justified in at least two ways.


Matthew Frederic

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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in the books

Spent a great deal of the weekend working on this accordion book.The fabric was an UFO to which i added beads and 2 new to me stitches that i learned from here.
The stitches are right up my alley, simple, but with lots of possible variations.

Contrary to common belief i resist spelling things out for people as i see it as being a mixture of arrogance and dis respectfulness. Detailed explanations of the meanings of what i make bother and irritate me at the same time. We all have imagination and as a work leaves the hand of the maker it is the viewer who finishes it.There is no right or wrong interpretation.
That said the accordion book needed a design element that would hint the viewer how to unfold it.

After some thinking i came up with an acceptable solution. A wire knitted tab.

Here are all the pages of the accordion. More details here.












i also went crazy cooking Mexican food over the weekend, enchiladas, chicken tacos and chili con carne which i suspect it to be Tex-Mex. Perhaps my way of saluting October 12th ,Hispanic day here, among other celebrations. Ahh the scent of chopped cilantro!!

Not only of surface design a family lives :)


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working from the back

Loom break. Don't want to push myself too hard as i'm wearing an elastic wrist band . Yet here i am at the computer during my loom break. Like someone who doesn't drink coffee because of the caffeine, but drinks 3 cokes a day.

The photo on the left is the original weaving. i found it very" hefty" for my current mood and in one of those- which one do you think the front or the back?- dilemmas i chose the back as it makes a subtler more interesting background for embellishing.

There's a glistening stream going from the bottom right to the top center left. -Does that make sense?- It's a shimmery chiffon scarf that i found and have been merrily cutting up and using wherever i can. The lovely merino is from RosyPink and whatever i say will not do justice to their wonderful fibers.
i wanted a misty feeling over the water lily pond and the embellisher took care of that . Actually it's like a floating fog ,more mauve and less pink, but natural light is not cooperating today and i didn't want to overspend myself with ps because i'm working on another accordion book.

Perhaps the work needs a bit more of cohesion.Will have to sleep on that. As i commented the other day at a blog , we need a workshop that teaches when to stop and when to keep working on a piece. Seriously!
Have a great weekend.

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design principle #17

The more specific a design idea is, the greater its appeal is likely to be.

Matthew Frederic

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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boring myself silly

First 300 picks.The repeat is 846 and then it mirrors.The weft is a soft silk bourette , the operative word is soft meaning loosely spun.It twists on itself and i didn't want to skein and dye it, already having my share with the wool warp and the hairspray smell, so that's the reason for the natural color. However when finished it will be dyed the colors of the rainbow. And that will be the fun part. One has to endure the worms if one wants to enjoy butterflies paraphrasing St. Exupery.
The line in the middle is not a mistake, although it looks like one, because it weaves correctly in the plain weave part. Mystery.

Here's the tie up for the weaving,

originally cooked by me.:)

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an announcement for embroiderers

The Hand Embroidery Network has announced their second on line exhibit. Details here
See their first on line exhibit here
C'mon let's get working!

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hectic weekend

Weekends have developed into a non stop race.Comes Monday and i'm exhausted.
Between the mundane(won't bore you with domestic bs, grocery shopping and related minutia),meeting friends and spending quality time with husband -san i need to scrape some time for me. And if lucky convert some of it in studio time.
The above is a test of different fabrics and wool yarn embellished on velvet.Interesting material, velvet. Slowly getting to know the embellisher better.

Then some tying on to a remaining warp. Look at all those pretty little knots! Only a weaver can appreciate this photo:)

The dark blue wool warp will be converted into this with a mirrored treadling. i'm still sampling colors and remembered why i weave almost exclusively with silk. The tie up was designed like a graphic image and includes 3/1, 1/3 twills and a little plain weave.
It hasn't presented take up problems.

On Friday i was given a kilo and a half of walnut hulls and have also been processing that for an impending dye session.Now that the weatherman has announced hot weather from mid week well into next weekend i can do some dyeing on the terrace, to husband-san's relief.

And last but not least, i've also been doodling a bit getting focused for the new surface design series i've been pondering.

Time for a nap.


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design principle#4

When elements or spaces are not explicit but are nonetheless apparent- we can see them though we can't see them- they are said to be implied.

Matthew Frederick.

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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