this year's greens and blooms

did you know that chive flowers are  bee friendly? i didn't until the other day when i poked my head out and saw all the blooms covered in bees while others were hovering around.these chives qualify as historical, i planted them about 20 years ago and brought  a small plant pot with them when we moved up north.they are enjoying life up north and putting up a show i had never seen.

i've been reading and studying for this year's crops.

one of the decisions was to properly train the cucumber plants so they dont take over and i have space to plant lettuce.i keep grinding eggshells bcse slugs love lettuce.and hostas too, but you don't eat those.  ( ¨¨ ω¨¨ )    

the toms were also submitted to research and following what i read they are doing very well with lots of flower clusters and less leaves. can't wait for those salads. that is if temps don't drop again.

still waiting for eggplant plantules to arrive in the market.

on another note due to heavy solar activity of the past days we've been graced with aurora borealis phenomena.haven't seen them myself but people have gone insane posting photos. let's the negationists take on this.curious about it.

neki desu

 

self discoveries

it's not a sin to doctor a bit.via warp painting, a weaving warp.the first 20 cms were too yellowy, i was expecting more of a lime green.after the weft  color change, the base color will be the greenish yellow,things were still not satisfactory.out came the very last remnants of my beloved sennelier peintex inks and a sponge brush. they both performed as expected. a side note on peintex;wonder why sennelier discontinued them .the color range was excellent and so was their performance.every two years during my pilgrimage to lausanne for the tapestry biennial i would stopover in lyon ate like a princess and bought my peintex bottles. both the biennial and peintex are long gone and my friends in geneva have moved  away.it was jolly great while it lasted.

the warp shows more contrast after the 

intervention.as i'm weaving with two  colors one of them changing maybe i could add a color change in the warp paint as well.

this is a weaving while singing project, meaning no stress just enjoyment. my regular thin yarns are testing, to say the least.

neki desu 

 

shibui and beyond

no motainai,nothing is wasted.

have a good weekend.

neki desu

 

unintentionals

sometimes those random papers used for picking up remaining paint on the brayer or the plate are the ones who really cut it.had these two which developed into

this

 and this

by means of

this. with gold for distress on the second.

love when you let go because it's a fun exercise away from the controlled loom work.no expectations, just let's see how it turns out.

neki desu 

 

fruits of last week

beamed, threaded and reeded.only 2 crossed threads.i was trying peggy osterkamp's method, but as my table loom differs i needed to hack it a bit. ended up with a hybid,but it works for my situation.also i was able to thread from the front and with these thick yarns it was a breeze.

the weaving will be another story.

look at all those lifts.by hand!

(o･ω･o)

this is a turned taquete hybrid. i don't care about the nomenclature as long as it's visually interesting and the cloth is a sound construction. note the operative word in the post is hybrid.

<(￣︶￣)> haha the weaving police is coming to get me.

the required weft is almost 4x finer than the warp meaning more picks meaning slower weaving.i envision weaving all through the summer.but some years ago i wove yardage which was never ending. mind you i am talking about a table loom  and hand lifts. 

in the meantime rain permitting i need to run an ai vat and dye the silk weft for the warp that has been sitting demurely on the other loom.

neki desu 

 

the bug that gave titian red

and strawberry yogurt its color

have a good weekend. gosh this month's already gone.

neki desu 

 

color sequencing

after two days moving changing and back again.this is the color sequence for the next warp. all these gorgeous silks were dyed using natural dyes,mostly madder,cochineal and alkanet.the yarn on the extremes were alkanet dyed, have not had the luck to get lilac/ violet.the beige yarns escape mebut think they were dyed in pomegranate skins.planning to finish the warp chains over the weekend.

look at that electronic brother beauty shot in the background.（  ☆__☆ ）

neki desu 

 

not cake

you watch all those vids about monoprinting with gel plates and you get the wrong idea that it's a piece of cake.not in my experience.you need to work fast or the paint dries and the brayer lifts it.the humidity conditions in your place affects the surface of the homemade plates along with the quick drying paint creating a granulated effect.the paper also affects the print and the pull. depending on the paper and the dryness of the paint parts of  it can remain stuck on the plate. not nice. i could go on but suffice to say real life does not look /act as an insta vid. ¯\ ( ツ ) /¯ 

since so many variants can affect the print i am taking liberties and finishing prints by hand  adding whatever looks fit.

the gel printing police is not going to come and get me. i hope.

as ever, the cleaning paper is the best..

neki desu

 

it's a wrap

ive worked all i wanted to work with the temporal paradox series. here's the second and last batch. on to new things.

bear with me the klutzy layout, was totally incapable of putting them side by side even reducing the size and working on the html  ⋋__⋌ 

neki desu

 

sea of tranquility

not much to add

have a good weekend

neki desu 

 

sourcing weft yarns

from all the yellow-green silks dyed with carrot tops. think that the greener the better looking, don't you agree?

hopefully will start winding cones for the warp over the weekend.

i usually work the top down fist decide on the width length of the warp, then wind it. parallel to that operation i start either designing or using a design from my files and then do the threading and sleying

since the computer driven loom is occupied with a warp that needs debugging (still) i am going to be using the table loom so the design has to be relatively easy to hand lift.let's see how much i can simplify a turned taquetè. the good news about this loom is that since it's 80 cms  i can get  a good 76 cms wide weave.

neki desu 

 

refining the prints

egg carton stencil mask on copper background,the underneath layer was paynes grey golden fluid, which wasn't very fluid  giving a tad too much texture. it is visually interesting but not what i want to achieve.want to get a  smooth copper layer on top. will keep on trying with the new plate this time .

this month is almost gone. bracing myself for another hot summer in the north. (>人<)

neki desu 

 

homerun

2 bottles of glycerin =8€, 4 boxes of 2 packets  of gelatin =6€ and i made myself 2 7x7 small plates and a 14x14 one. all nice 3cms thick. saved about 40€, more if it were the genuine gelliplate.

one of the small ones is going to a friend  to get her introduced to the craze.

 

being fair what doesn't come out in the photo is the total wreck of a plastic square mold that i used for the first plate i made.perished in the microwave as it couldn't take 20 secs at high .

this batch was better than my fist plate because it came out firmer, splurged on the gelatin and was a miser with the boiling water.

fun times ahead mesdames.＼（*▽*）／

need to start practicing on cloth.

neki desu 

 

the dreaded last 20 cms

the hardest part of weaving IMO.i always get stalled there, with the next project always on the backburner and it takes me ages to complete.   ¯\ ( ツ ) /¯ 

the new izakaya in town  was a good lunch date with the peers. authentic japanese not wannabe japanese food.

we are such otakus spent most of the time

talking about  language stuff.

i guess since no one else appreciates the quirks of it  beautiful antique kimono on display at the entrance.

neki desu 

 

fuji-san ☀🗻

fuji kenta and aizome. a young craftsman's story.

have a good weekend

neki desu

 

white silks

all scoured waiting to be dyed. all 7 hanks. most of them are going to be dyed in an ai vat yet to be started. need to buy one of those plastic drums, the small one is sufficiently big. sad because i invested in an electrical stainless beer making vat .but keeping the temp warm is beyond thinking with the  energy prices.lucky bcse i can get them locally at the wonderful hardware stores in town.

different silks, some for warp some for weft and different weights also.

today there's no japanese class and we're going to have lunch in a newly opened izakaya. will report.

neki desu 

 

carried away

layers over layers and the last one blew it hiding all the previous ones.oh well  ¯\ ( ツ ) /¯ this faux pas led me to explore working with and on raw camera files in affinity photo editing program. another trick learned, this one ultra practical.the processing managed to bring out hints of the blue layer beneath the top one.

the coolest one. the flowery image is the bottom of an egg carton would you believe? saw it on ista and culturally appropriated it   <(￣︶￣)>

 ordered two bottles of glycerin at the pharmacy, making one more gelatin plate this time a bigger square.

neki desu

 

akane bounty

and a few others ; the red is cochineal,the mauveish  as well as the beigeish are alkanet the yellowish escapes me.

 

this one is  dark brick with a glow.

happy that silk dyes in the cold bcse electricity prices are nestled in the stratosphere. either we eat or i dye (mind the spelling)

planing the warp, would like to weave a turned taquete. yes, taquete.the term is french bcse the silk industry in france devised the name for the structure and thus it reached us. it was called jin in china and as we all know all comes from china. the cultural appropriation debate is so unpleasantly foolish and so guilt ridden first world. no one thinks that pasta is as much  a cultural appropriation as anything else. so boring and futile. accepting  disagreeing comments  as long as  they are kind and civilised.

neki desu