cling film adventures

decompressing  and just for fun experimenting before tackling the sewing project.

playing with  Kim Thittichai's Hot Textiles book.what  else can you do with ready available materials, namely cling film, besides beads? Ok i'm cheating a bit, also using moulding mesh from crafty notions , but i already had it.:)

one experiment led to another and it was lots of fun. no earth shattering discoveries, but some interesting surfaces came out.

here's a short tute on creating surfaces with cling film:

materials:

• cling film
• cello foil 
• moulding mesh( can be substituted for light  plastic screening-experiment)
• parchment paper 
• assorted heat resistant threads and yarns
• iron

process:

• lay parchment on ironing board
• lay a piece of cling film
• add threads, yarns 
• cut up pieces of cello foil and add
• cut up moulding mesh and add
• cover with another piece of cling film
• cover with parchment to protect iron sole
• iron on wool setting
•  wait until cool and peel off

SAFETY

wear a respirator mask with vapor cartridges

work in a well ventilated room if working outside is not possible.

i mean all windows opened

 things to consider:

• not all cling film is created equal-experiment

• neither are irons - experiment with your settings 

• different settings give different effects; however the hotter the less film will remain

• if unavailable, moulding mesh can be substituted for plastic screening-experiment 

• try laying the film on a textured surface (covered with parchment)  and then iron

•  texturize your parchment ( crumple, fold, etc- experiment) lay the cling film sandwich on and then iron

• consider using a mix of metallic and heat resistant yarns and threads of different grists, the metallics will melt  and add interest

• play with negative and positive space-experiment

note that the operative word here is experiment, this is just a rough guide, so keep notes.

let me know how it goes . if there's quorum will post another tute covering other ideas.

 have fun!!

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obasan yardage

bear with me i'm so happy relieved to have finished the yardage.and it turned out well after all. i'm pleased with the hand and although when weaving i wasn't too hot on the way the colors came out in the threading, after wet finishing the bands look good.

the fabric is light and supple, not a bit sleazy because of the light fulling. i was extra cautious as i tend to od on fulling and also because i could not afford heavy shrinkage or else i wouldn't have had enough width for the sleeves.all in all i just gave 2 cms. to the cause of fulling ending with 90 beautiful cms.of blood sweat and tears woven double width. never say never again, but.....

the merino yarn behaved quit well without excessive breakage or pilling. i do not foresee problems in the sewing stage either.

i'm sewing a top with front buttons 3/4 sleeves and perhaps a stand up mao collar. have to give the collar a thought. very subdued fabric and garment, very おばさん

there's something very satisfactory in using your stash to clothe yourself. it is like going back to basics.sensei would be happy to hear me saying these things.

GRRRRRR been trying to compose my usual posting style for hours  and blogger doesn't want to cooperate again.
and the preview is miles away from the wysiwyg advertised.
hopefully tomorrow will be another day, right scarlet?excuse the crummy layout.


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so is life

He was a teacher in all the meanings the word coveys. He was in his early thirties or  perhaps not yet there. And we  young girls from an all girls school worshiped him.
He introduced us to St. Exupery and The Little Prince and also Baudelaire and Les Fleurs du Mal. and Virginia Woolf who paved the way for Simone de Beauvoir, Germaine Greer, Betty Friedan and Erica Jong.
He showed us that a man could be intellectually interesting,  fun and funny and sensitive while imbuing that to the boys he taught at the all boys school. Those boys he taught were at  times our boyfriends, yet  they could not  fathom they did not  not compare.
He guided us to European art films and also rock music and opera.
He shone like a bright possibility in a sexist time in a sexist society. Yet i'm sure he was not aware of his effect.

Then life had its ways.The embodiment of a possible future left teaching to explore other options making a   move, too close for our liking, towards a girl from town. One of the prettiest girls. But totally brainless, a tweet.

I then learned, this to be confirmed  more times later on in life, that intellectually challenging men when choosing they are inclined to choose the pretty tweet.  This piece of knowledge  made me determined to forgo marriage or a partnership if it entailed jeopardizing my capacity of thinking and reasoning.

All of  this comes to my mind as i found him in Facebook.You know, friends of friends.

At first i thought about sending a friend's request.

He's a grandfather now.And i'm older, well read and traveled. But as a friend of mine says it's better to let go of some things and move on.

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design principle#51

 Beauty is due more to harmonious relationships among the elements

of a composition than to the elements themselves.

Mathew Frederick

 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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we interrupt navel gazing

to take a look around and see what's going on in the world beyond. Translated= finds.

 From their press kit :

"Alabama Chanin is a lifestyle company that focuses on creating an array of products through focusing on slow design and sustainability.

We craft limited-edition products for the individual and the home. Our products are made-by-hand using a combination of new, organic and recycled materials. Each piece is constructed with care by talented artisans who live and work in communities in and around Florence, Alabama."

Alabama Chanin

Poetic stitching- Ruth Rae 's blog.

For those needing a graphics program, this one is free :

Inkscape 

"An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X,"

 i'm learning to use it and i really like it.

And speaking of graphics this  blog has some very interesting pattens with a different sensibility.Usually updated every month.

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dyeing in the rain

More custom dyeing. This is silk and nothing compares to silk. The color variation on the skein is because it is not completely dry.There's no way it will dry, at least in the near future because it has been raining again non stop since Sunday. And this is frugal Europe where dryers are not common place, at least in the South.

i'm doing onion skins  now and dyeing and mordanting a la Japanese.They mordant two or three times with rests periods in between. Then they dye the same way. Perhaps it is my japanophilia that affects my appreciation, but their colors have depth and a shine that comes from within.

The skein will go through two more mordant-dye stages.

Remember this ?Well, tried to give some spunk to the plain brunette

 and overdyed it in onion which gave some lovely highlights.
Too bad  the photo does not show as the light is hopeless with the rainy weather.

i'm also working on silk scarves and thinking about closing etsy and opening somewhere els with scarves and fabrics.
Still need  to mull over it .





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my one and only incursion

      

Overshot is considered true handweaver's realm. i heard this from one of the gurus who maintained that  it was  too complicated  to be cost effective for the industry. Hence it was ignored . Please correct if you have any knowledge on this subject  and the affirmation sounds way out in the left field.

As i get bored by repetitive tasks i've always had great admiration  and respect for production weavers who weave kilometers of the same fabric.

i had never woven overshot before, but had little interest in weaving kilometers and sampling is not a favorite  with me. The compromise was a what if flexible warp with variation possibilities including a field day in warp paining.
i had just come back from Lisbon where i was fascinated by its colors. It struck me as strange that two countries sharing the same land space would have such a different attitude towards color. Coming from the tropics i couldn't help but feel right at home with their attitude. On second thoughts this attitude may have historical-as ever- reasons. After all they kept their colonies in the tropics until very recently.

i was imbued by  their color  feeling  and on my return home  i went wild .Color again!

The warp was a double warp that allowed for 2 layers in different structures.The background was an overshot from Davison's green book and the figures were woven in a 2/2 twill not actually pick up, but not selvedge to selvedge either.Or perhaps it was pick up done in an unorthodox way.

The project  ended as a short series and it was peacefully nestled at the bottom of the drawer, neither finished nor incomplete. Perhaps now that i'm stitching a bit i could embellish the  weavings  with some stitching and complete the project. Or they could just  quietly slip back to the bottom of the drawer. In any case there are some more  small weavings  that will get posted along the coming weeks.

BTW is anyone else having fits with the new blogger  posting and editing features ?

Is this a new trend of fixing what it is not broken to aggravate people?

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low fiber content week

 No fiber related posts this week as life has been happening almost daily. To round out the week here's the last OT post. My greengrocer gave me a taste of this carrot a couple of days ago and i fell for it. The look is exotic, the taste is nutty and the texture is crispier than a regular carrot.i'd say it's for adults only :)
Here's what i did with it besides go wild taking photos:
Slice thinly in rounds
Add chopped walnuts
Season with a vinaigrette with Balsamic vinegar
Add a drop of Tabasco
Mix
Sprinkle grated coconut on top.

Bon appetit!

Have a great weekend!


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design principle#48

 If you can't explain your ideas to your grandmother in terms 

that she understands,

you don't know your subject well enough.

Mathew Frederick

 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

 p.s.text graphics generated with Wordle.

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holy patience

back cover                                                                           front cover

The title of this book has been premonitory. Thanks to all who have suggested web hosts.Keep those suggestions coming !. i need to change hosts before my domain expires as i foresee upcoming nightmares if i don't change hosts before then.

These book covers were my moment of solace, so to speak.  i also added a bit of silver foil to the back pages  for punch and on the inside the white buttons were taken off.

Here's the back with  silver foiled pages.i am really enjoying the white on black painting. It's terrible to take good photos, but  i like the depth it creates.
Signing off because blogger is acting up. i REALLY don't need that.



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SOS- web page nightmare

See that tiny dot in the middle of the spiral? That's me.

Having severe issues with my web page hosting.The "company" was sold and in theory we were all getting an upgrade. And  the upgrade has resulted in a huge mess and almost non existent support.  Scroll to the bottom to see the latest complains.

My web page is a wreck the slide show doesn't work, neither do the  full image photos .The Paypal  button and script are also screwed up.
i've tried  fixing  everything and re uploading  again, but nothing of the sort works.

Checking on the net there are many things to consider when selecting a host. My priority is that they do not host adult- pornography pages. It's hard enough living in a planet that allows that.

Then there are also scams with your domain name, credit card and billing and to add insult to injury spam and  proxy hijacking.

 i would be more than grateful if  you  come to rescue and  suggest  trusted web hosts. Please!!!

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custom dyed

i've been doing some custom dyeing for a friend  using my walnut hull soup. Interesting stuff for me because i don't have much experience dyeing wool, and wool takes very different from silk.i can dye silk with my eyes closed, with either natural or synthetic dyes and i'm able to predict and get the color i want.

Come to think of it as i write, perhaps that's my major trade in my jack-of- all- trades life.

Have fun at the weekend!

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design principle#45

 Three levels of knowing

Simplicity is the world view of a child or uninformed adult, fully engaged

in his own experience and happily unaware of what lies beneath the surface of immediate reality.

Complexity characterizes the ordinary adult view.It is characterized by an awareness of complex systems  in nature and society, but an inability to discern clarifying patterns and connections.

                    
Informed Simplicity is an enlightened view of reality. It is founded upon an ability to  to discern or create clarifying patterns within complex mixtures.

Mathew Frederick

 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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the chesire cat

                

getting there but not quite. in my ongoing quest of using my woven samples and integrating practices i have been working on the book of holy patience and endurance.
the fabric is a linen huck weave sample( why does windows doesn't like the word huck?), emphasis on the weave as there is huck embroidery too. i made some table runners as gifts and then found out the receivers were afraid to use them as such and were using them as scarves!

i tried to echo the small holes stamping blue paint . 

the holes are also used as "support" 

for parts of the cross stitch.

pages two and three  with a detail. not too sure about the white buttons.                           

"chesire puss would you  tell me please which way i ought  to go from here?

 that happens a good deal where you want to get to. then it doesn't matter which way you go.

-so long as i get somewhere.

oh you're sure to do that if you only walk long enough"

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caution everyone!!

It seems that something's going on in blogger land. This morning as i was reading one of my blog subscriptions i came across this.

Paranoid me went to her dashboard and could not sign in beceause Blogger had detected suspicious activity ie. spam coming from my blog. Apparently there is a new wave of hijacked blogs that are being used as  splogs .
Pretty freaky when you see the yellow warning and  are denied access to your blog.

i could neither  sign in to my Google account. Luckily i was given the option there to change passwords and it seemed to solve the issue  as you are reading this.

Furthering prophylactic measures i have enabled comment moderation.

Life happens in the most unexpected ways.
Please protect yourselves by changing your settings and  password and scan your computer for trojans.
For further information you can go to the Blogger help forum .

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