Monday, 22 October 2012

Residential Weekend

On Friday I went to a Bourneville class and helped to finish off everyone's book. I decided I would have to demonstrate the sewing up again and made an A4 book up for use as the next Bookbinding notebook. The first one has beach huts and boats on it so I selected a farm scene for this one. It looks nice although the fabric is not as flat as I would wish. I did do the same fabric earlier in the week and threw it out because of the wrinkles. This is  still wrinkled. This has not happened to me before so I guess the fabric is a mixture of cotton and ---. If this book were not intended for me, I would start again with a different fabric. The weekend was spent at Wokefield Park Conference Centre weaving under Stacey Harvey-Brown watchful eye. We did Texture - methods of producing. Three methods were used shibori, overshot and stitched double weave. I have lots of photos but none of the finished fabric because the samples are currently in the tumble drier.

My Burmese friend, Soe Min, came over to the centre on Sunday and brought me another fabric elephant!! Because I had remarked in my blog that I could not turn the previous embroidered elephant into a cushion because it was too thick, he brought me a thin one back from a recent trip to Rangoon!! Here it is and it will be a cushion just as soon as I have the house tidied up.











He also brought back a length of achiek which is a complex silk fabric made only in a few places these days. This wavey design is very traditional. The length is for a wrap around skirt. Even men wear these to weddings.  It is quite like songket (without the gold thread) in that it has long floats on the back of the fabric. It is about 1meter wide by a bit more than 2 m long.















And here is a close-up of teh pattern. There is a silver thread in there.















And on the way home I diverted to Didcot, met someone I did not know and transferred to her car a four foot stack of sheet music for viol consorts. I reckon that is about 20% of Michael's holdings of printed music. Now I must try and get rid of some more.

And now to sort out what I should be doing! It will not be gardening as it is raining again.

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I am weaver and - -. I dye my yarns with acid dyes, I paint my warps, put fabric collages and stencils on my weaving. I have three looms, a 12 inch wide, 12 shaft Meyer for demos and courses, a 30 inch Louet Kombo which is nominally portable but has a stand, two extra beams and a home-made device containing a fan reed. And last a 32 shaft Louet Megado which is computer controlled, has a sectional warp and a second warp beam and I am the proud owner of an AVL warping wheel which I love to bits and started by drilling holes in. I inserted a device for putting a cross in. I have just acquired an inkle loom and had a lesson from an expert so I can watch TV and weave at the same time. I am interested in weaving with silk mostly 60/2 although I do quite a bit with 90/2 silk. I also count myself as a bookbinder with a special interest in Coptic binding.