some beauties

'NUFF!! i've been spending too much time on line lately with the shop fronts and that has kept me from doing things that are much more satisfying.i've kept this on the back burner too long and today's the day.A table runner with an unbleached 20/2 cotton and linen warp. The linen will be chained in a fibonacci sequence with a 6 cotton end separation.i envision a lovely progression from unbleached linen to gold to brown mirrored in the middle. The linen is Bockens 16/2 and was bought in Helsinki last summer. The unbleached cotton is from Lunatic Fringe picked up during a visit to my sister in Florida.

The wefts... we're talking beauty here.

Take a look at the gorgeous Haitian cotton. At the risk of sounding like a travel guide i t was bought in situ during a trip to the island.i hoarded back 5 or 6 huge kilo skeins through customs under puzzled looks from the officials. Those were the days!

This yarn was very popular in the late 70s for upholstery. It presents some inconveniences as veg matter has not been totally removed and it can color the resulting fabric. But i don't care. Wabi-sabi here, the beauty of imperfect things :)
The yarn is very loosely spun with very tightly twisted parts resulting in curls and flocks and kinks. An autumn color tow linen will blend the warps together.
The sett will be pretty open something like 8 ends x cms.to take advantage of the yarn texture.
But we shall see if it works as soon as i start weaving. As the late Ed Franquemont used to say "weaving is more like jazz than brain surgery"

neki desu
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stretching it with a little help from my friends

i'd like to thank all of you who left messages on my birthday. You all certainly contributed to making it a special day. i tried answering everyone personally, but i couldn't get hold of some of the addresses :( Sorry .Thanks again for your good wishes.

The birthday turned into a birthweekend. Not that my mother would have enjoyed that :) Friday night after a great meal (which i won't detail because i don't want to stir jealousies LOL!) we headed home for la piece de resistance.
As part of birthday traditions in my household i opened a good port for the celebration. And being a port drinker what best than a Niepoort 1983 vintage. i still remember my trip to Porto the patterns,the shops, the atmosphere and my disappointment at not being able to visit the Niepoort loja. But the visit to Gaia in itself was a pet fantasy come true.

Saturday was also spent wining and dining. And on Sunday i dedicated the whole afternoon after brunch ( more eating, gosh these people just eat!) i treated myself to -what best?- studio time.


A whole afternoon of r+d testing these pigments that i had bought in Japan years ago, new fabrics and products and developing new design lines for my on line store fronts at Artfire and Etsy.

Great weekend indeed, even enjoyed the rain!

neki desu

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survivor

So here i am still alive :)
Me and mom 2 months from today years and years ago. Note her black flats!

Me now, a bit more grown. The word's out .Today's my birthday and i'm turning 60!

neki desu





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holy batman, i see smoke coming out

i was doing this.

And look what i got as a bonus :(

Husband -san is going to be one upset camper. Right it is my own laptop, but nonetheless he won't like it . Who said that in order to create you had to destroy? Bakunin perhaps?
If you don't hear from me you know what happened.

neki desu


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dominating the machine

E commerce is incredibly time consuming.It's not only the photos, the styling, it's also the time spent in the forums, e-lists and the whole nine yards. Although i am talkative,chat forums have never caught my interest,as i perceive them as being sort of depressing. Quoting my BIL they are for people who pretend they don't have a life. Opinion here.
Yesterday i managed to keep some time outside the commerce thing and run some tests.

i really wanted to go beyond the scorching and now you see it now you don't phase with tyvek and the heat gun.i can almost say that the heat gun is my friend.The tests included besides tyvek, angelina bondable fibers and plastic nets, all from Art Van Go.The angelina -tyvek samples got lost in the excitement.

i'll keep on looking and see if i can find them.

Turning a page i'm meeting sensei next week with a proposal for private nihongo clasess. Two of my former classmates will join, so fun times are ahead of us :)

neki desu


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the ides of march preview

Me too. Opened studio at Artfire. i had to do something more. It is ridiculous because i can have 3 different store fronts. Such is the number of brooches i have.
It's a smaller venue than Etsy.So far.
And that means bigger opportunities.There's some sort of exciting pioneer spirit as it is still on beta.
i'll give it a couple of months and then decide one way or another.

neki desu


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rejects, i've had a few

shape skewed on purpose, but the card's lacking something.

Funny how most of us only show our successes. The other day Jowynn posted about her trials trying to master a stitch and showed photos of all her tests. i thought about it and concluded that fair enough, i'd follow her footpath and post about these unsuccessful attempts for my Calendar Girls February postcard.

too many things going on here

no focus here,perhaps too many colors and clashing textures.

It was an interesting and sobering journey.
And then again, if i can't show my blunders and even enjoy them at this point of my life....

neki desu


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a tale

It was in the 80's and i wanted to weave circles.i had a 4 shaft loom. So i cheated.

And i cheated. Even cheated some more by doing devorè circles.

Then in the early 90's i bought a 12 shaft loom. At the same time i discovered network drafting through Alice's book.

i could actually weave circles!!

So i didn't have to cheat anymore.

i still do things on my warps like stamping and transferring. But we'll leave that for another post. :)

neki desu


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