Thursday, 26 November 2009

Things I would like to do

The last few days have been full of 'doing things'. Even the textile side of my life is in tidying up mode.



Weavetech has mentioned   an On-line Exhibition of Tapestries by a Korean artist, Inyul Heo,  The works are based mostly on Tidelands and are very dramatic - not to mention technically gifted. I look wistfully at tapestries like these and think if only I could guarantee another 50 years of active life! Braiding has the same effect on me. I am very taken with takedai (the picture is of work about two inches wide by Rosie Price) but I have so far resisted the attraction. The equipment is quite large - about the footprint of a small loom on a stand and  there are already too many looms in this house. Besides there is a lot of weaving I have not explored yet. Although you could argue that takedai is just diagonal weaving.

And on the subject of  saying 'No, I have enough to do', we attended a lecture by Jackie Hall on Japanese Embroidery last night. There was an audience of about 50 and most of them seemed to be embroiderers with a few Japanese embroiderers among them. She gave a description of each of the 10 levels you were expected to pass before setting out to teach. It sounded as if it takes 5 years minimum to do that. She had lots of stunning photos. Here is a link to more pictures of  Japanese Embroidery in the UK. This link was kindly provided by Jane who has yet more pictures on her own blog.

Our bookbinding class has finished until January 2010. I spent a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday bookbinding at home, trying to get to the stage where I could finish off two more books on Wednesday afternoon. It did not work out that way because of my stupidity. One of the pieces of cloth for a cover was not quite big enough so I spent time trimming the boards 1mm at a time and still could not get them to fit. Our tutor suggested that I would do better to cover the book in a  nice colour of book cloth, cut out the front and back from my fabric a little smaller than the book and apply these panels to the book. I am following her advice with a pale blue book cloth. So currently need to finish off the book inside. Yet another partially complete project.




I have also got round to getting on with my jacket. I bought some wonderful dark dark blue fabric (Linton tweed) a year ago to make a jacket. The squares are two inches on a side so there is the small matter of matching up the fabric across seams. One of my favourite people, Gill Arnold, has taught me how to do this and yesterday, I cut out the body sections and fused black fusible lining to those parts. Today I will start on the sewing up.

That will be after our monthly visit to Worcester Royal infirmary for Michael to have a transfusion. Once parked (which is very exciting and bad for my heart), it is all very restful. Quite strange really. There are usually 4 to 6 people being done in a large room with huge amount of window so it is full of light. The transfusees(?) get very comfy reclining chairs (the escorts get kitchen chairs) and there is a young nurse whose sole function seems to be supplying everyone with hot drinks and chocolate biscuits at 30 minute intervals. There are magazines and books to read but I shall be reading The Woven Pixel. The medical work is all done by two or three sisters and all the staff are very cheerful. The oddest thing about the two rooms (one to wait in, one to be done in) are the pictures. The ones in the main room are all Vettrianos - six of them! The waiting room has a motley collection of pictures which look to be presents from patients done by the patients themselves so there is a small tapestry, a couple of cross-stitch pictures, two or three watercolours, some calligraphy. I gather Michael is on this transfusion stuff for the long haul so maybe he should give them a picture. He is very good at water colours.

Oh and I hung the Vale of Evesham and Pears and Apples on the stairway and have nearly finished a total re-organisation of the library. By throwing out unwanted work conference proceedings and shifting box files around, we managed to get 6 empty shelves in the office. So the personal book collection has infiltrated the office. All the art books have been moved. I was astonished to find they occupied four of the six shelves. I will move the gardening books through next and then we can rearrange the main set of shelves, all 80 of them, each 30 inches long.

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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.