an obs*es/si*on

with the perfect selvedge. even if it's going to be cut off. it's one of those inexplicable things, perhaps because of the view it gives when weaving. i think the best compliment, especially if coming from another weaver, is that your selvedges are good.

my japanese silk shuttle a simple elegant tool as all things japanese and  works very well on narrow looms such as mine.

then there is the wool shuttle. it is amazing what the small tug of the spring does.

but what i'm really obsessed with is the lack of bon ton bon goût of most males in this country.
these gentlemen(?)seem to aim at setting the clock back to pre constitutional times.
shame on you perez reverte. and you're not a politician you're an intellectual.

 have a good weekend.

neki desu

accute japanophilia attack and an invite

this morning in front of the computer and with my coffee i checked into sharon b's  and being naturally curious,i  followed a link she provided.there it was the name of this tool i had bought years ago in sado-ga-shima! i once heard its name in a documentary i was watching, but not having a pen near not mentioning the darkness made it impossible to note down  and retain. this beautiful tool is called a baren  馬連、馬楝  and it is used as a brayer in block printing. once you know the name it's the proverbial piece of cake.with icing.

the find incited more knowledge acquisition :D  and as everyone knows one thing leads to another, another and yet another one. so i spent practically the whole day  in a very non academic research  rich with finds.

you are invited to follow my steps if you'd like to.

firstly baren and japanese brushes here. they are irresistible, and work like no other, trust me. you can give them  other uses than those prescribed.

there is a wealth of information in this one. some techniques are applicable to surface design.

over here you get the why and how of nikawa　膠 or binder glue and /or paper size that can be bought here.

for my book arts friends perhaps you already know this paper place that also carries japanese brushes.but the top shelf find are these papers.don't tell me they are not the essence of awesomeness. 

as they say here i'm  roaring like a motorcycle, como una moto. this is not to mention the amusing maiko and geisha groupies that i found and sakuran via joan lintault at facebook.

 but those will be subjects of another post.
i think i need a rest.

neki desu 

those were the days oh yes!

when you could walk on a plane with long pointy objects without being pinned down and accused of terrorism. i bought  various sets of shinshi when i was in japan and being relatively fragile i carried them with me on the plane.

at that time i wasn't doing as much dyeing as i'm presently doing. but being of the you never know mentality i went ahead and bought some sets. have not regretted it, on the contrary. ahh, the joy of having the adequate tools!

shinshi are made of bamboo with a metal point at each end. they are used to stretch the fabric taut so that you can paint it without creating puddles of paint. that's the official use. however, i've used them successfully to stretch and block handwoven fabric as per tenter hooks and now for knits. what can i say? they are beautiful in their simplicity, portability and efficiency.

for care info go here

neki desu 

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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?

neki desu


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color comes to rescue

Some oddities here. Have you ever come across silk that pills? Like that above? Strange! This is a remaining skein from a kilo that i bought ages and ages ago in a place outside New Jersey.
It was at the beginning of my weaving life and i was sure i would never have any use for that silk as it was frog hair thin. But it was beautiful and the love of beauty blinded me. Again.

This is a sample of the double weave on the loom. Simple, predictable. And B-O-R-I-N-G!

Color comes to rescue. A simple trick weaving with 2 colors as per taffeta weave. Hope you can appreciate the color iridescence as the light hits the fabric. Two shuttles are a lot better than three. My can't live without double shuttle from here.

Think i'll have the scarf finished before the year ends.

Oh! and for those of you who thought my fairy godmother was a literary invention check this and scroll down. LOL!


neki desu




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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.......


neki desu

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Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons.

are these rigid heddles, paddles or what?

Back from Madrid and i have to be grateful, as we flew back the day before the accident. Family issues are more complex than what we expected and as a result i'll be blogging less frequently and studio time will also get cut down.

This interesting and beautiful wooden contraption was located at the National Museum in Helsinki. i am under the impression that it is a 6 end rigid heddlefor weaving bands, but i could be wrong. There is also a different spacing on each side something that leads me to believe those wove the border of the band. It was shown in a case with other rigid heddles and in one of the fascinating textile related rooms.

This other one is a 4 end rigid heddle, methinks. i had never seen anything like these before and had to sneak some photos. Hope broadcasting it here doesn't get me into trouble. Think i've paid my dues as the photos came out blurry and crummy :)

What do you think about these? Are they actually rigid heddle systems? If you have any ideas please leave a comment.

neki desu

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how to avoid carpal tunnel

i dislike twisting fringes as much as i dislike taking up hems. Especially when there are gazillion and a half very thin silk threads to twist together.
i have a manual twister and that was a lot better than nothing, but still time time consuming and stressful on my wrists.
Some time ago i located the hair braider pictured here and my life changed. Seriously.
It is one of the best gadgets i have, rival to my bread making machine.

Being battery operated the fringe twisting process, which is not a very creative one, is brushed out of the way pronto. The wear and tear on the wrist tendons is also minimised, and you notice no discomfort after a marathon session.

Operation is simple.
Take 2 bouts and secure them with the end clips, then push the button down and twist the bouts until they start curling on themselves. Then push the button up and the bouts ply on to each other. Finish by unclipping them and tyeing a knot at the end.
However, i find that for fine yarns i first twist and then secure both bouts to the same clip and ply the 2 bouts together, thus getting an untwist proof braid.
Do yourself a favor and get a braider.

Life is good :)

neki desu

autodenter

Warp already reeded, now some minor adjustments and it will be a weaving Easter.
This gizmo is an autodenter, a very high tech sounding name for a mechanical tool :) and it came from here.
It does make denting easier once you've tamed the beast, which tends to fall apart in the beginning as it comes with a built- in learning curve. It should also come with tranquilizers, but no such luck.
In spite of all the above once you master it it's easy to use and efficient.
Some recommendations:

• i've noticed it works better( imo) with denser reeds, 10-15 ends x cm. and thin yarns. Actually, for thicker yarns and wider spaced reeds there is no need for one.
• You have to control the side push or else you'll skip dents. Yes, that happens!
• i'd start with 20-30 threads tied to the back of the loom and practice till you get the swing of it as it can generate some stress in the beginning. Then when you feel confident move on to using it fully.

This is just a visual presentation of the tool. go here for a vid on how to use it.




neki desu

dots and circles

i'm going through a dot and circle phase. Like the Midas touch, but in dots. Some days ago while doing some surfing during my morning coffee i came across this Photoshop tutorial for transforming solid images into dotted images. Being very clear and straightforward it had me functioning within 5 minutes. After that the difficult part was tearing myself away from the computer.


Here's another try out. The background can be altered at will so i went for gradients just for fun and just using the dotted images.
All in all this is a useful application for creating images for thermofax or silkscreens.

Have fun!

neki desu

ok this blog needs some animation

i will be sort of awol because my Nihongo final is coming up next Wednesday. But before going undercover,understated, understandable, underwater there is this small animation i made using Tess,a neat design program.
As those who read my blog know i am an animation buff, and i like to animate textiles as well as fractals. This is an example of an animated textile, For more animation check here
and here

neki desu

colorful postman

The postman came today with a colorful surprise delivery. Gunnel sent me this beautiful ATC so now i know what the acronym stands for. i'm part of the in crowd! The photo doesn't make justice, it has a wonderfully rich surface texture and nteresting colors. Thank you Gunnel!

And while on the color topic, this has been around in the dyers community for a while now.I't a great color mixing java applet that works with the standard ProcionMX dyes as well as the Munsell scale and a lot of other goodies. It was a very gracious gift from Olli Niemitalo to the dyers community some years back. Scroll down and read the lit. because it's very comprehensive.

You can tweak with the kind of lighting to get an accurate on screen color rendering.
But that's not all.The real beauty is that by following the percentages you can duplicate the color recipe on and on and on.
O.k. now you just have to control the water quality supply now...


neki desu

It's just Tuesday, yet it feels like the end of next week. So much has happened. Lots of invites to join forums, communities, groups. Albeit the fact that i'm still struggling to find a venue to exhibit, things are moving. There's also this energy
that i think comes from spring; the change in light quality and the longer days.

Looking around the net i found an interesting link related to color and color perception.There are nifty java applets to play around with. Nice tools that aid in understanding color interactions.

And since the post is about tools the Japanese clippers are a gift from a friend. Lovely object that functions very efficiently. Less is more the Japanese way, the masters of the concept.

neki desu

great design tools

I found this page yesterday. It is full of image generators that can be a great help when designing. The person works with fractals and using the generators he creates visually exciting images. Check out the galleries and enjoy.


neki desu

THE BOOK

Got the book It arrived yesterday. Oversimplifiying it is about weaving graphically, something that i've been intuitively playing with. Now i can make educated guessess. Now i only need time to study it and a jacq.loom.

neki desu

Oh ! Those pretty colors!

Perhaps this has been circulating for a while, but my sister sent me the link this week,The Interactive Color Harmonizer You can work on line to design a color scheme using 2 principles:progression or the golden mean. Also check out Genesis One.2 a really cool application that can be either used on line or downloaded.It is a design tool for generating pleasing wave patterns. Yes, i know we don't need more gadgets, remember? So here am i contradicting myself but,in other words both tools can make life much easier.

neki desu