Class Suggestions

Remember the piece I did not like and played about with in Photoshop? This is how it is now. It is only pinned into place and is hanging up at the end of the corridor.  The class reaction was interesting. Quite a few people liked the 'slice and displace vertically' one. Nobody liked the 'cut into quarters and add window frames'. So I cut out three sections from the original and spent a lot of time this morning placing these pieces on different colours of  background. The one I liked best was blue grey but the piece was not big enough so I hunted in the stash when back home and found this piece which sometime last year was crumpled up, tied tightly with string and put in an indigo dye bath.

Quite changed in character.


I need to write up my sketch book and will do that now.

Tomorrow is Weaving Class Day 2. I have rewritten the Lace Weave Handout, adding more detail on Spot Bronson and printed out nine copies.  

Dorothy's Suggestions (2)

Another suggestion from Dorothy was, that if I felt I was looking through something , why not add some window panes. I tried four - looks very odd but six is okay and maybe 8 would be better. I can lay out ribbon or bias binding on it - if I ever cut it up!!!

I have done lots of weaving today, and am now about halfway through the yellow lace scarf. I have got the calculations wrong though. It is using a lot more yarn than I thought. I don't often get it so badly wrong but I will have to dye some more yarn yellow for trh log cabin scarf.

This started out as trees in flower woven in Summer and Winter. I pinned it up at the end of the corridor, then added the flowers and put it back for a few days. Today I added the fence and then a few bits of grass. It is pinned up again waiting for a decision as to whether or not it is finished. Title is 'April Rain in the Orchard'. At one point, I fancied two hens and a cock beneath the trees but decided I was not expert enough to make them small and recognisable!!

Added later - I fancy the idea of a rook in one of the trees. I think I could manage that in black felt.

Book Design

I have been reading the book on Art Deco etc Bookbinding and thinking about it. I always thought I liked Art Nouveau but - -. Perhaps it is not a technique which fits a four-square object like a book.  Many of the Art Nouveau designs in this book look quite Victorian and I think this is because they are still using raised cords on the spine and the front and back of the book are separately designed. Whereas by the time it gets to Art Deco, raised cords on the spine have gone and it is usual to design the front, back and spine as one so that the design flows over the spine and any titling is included in the decorative design.

At any rate, I am all for Art Deco and off Art Nouveau.

Yesterday we went to see the BBC Wildlife Photography Exhibition. Passing over in silence the problems we had with the van, the exhibition, though interesting, was not as good as last year or 2009 which was even better. I remember Michael grumbling many years ago about 'art-films', and describing the Japanese version of Macbeth as 'subtitled in Serbo-Croat and shot against the light in a dense fog'. Well much the same here. It is as if this year's fashion is for fog plus being out of focus. However the winning photo, 'Leaf-cutting Ants' is spectacular. See it here

Dorothy's Suggestions

What would we do without Photoshop? My sister, Dorothy thought the problem with the Doilies piece was that it was too heavy in the centre. Why not cut it up and re-arrange the pieces? Quilters do that all the time. 

With the aid of Photoshop I tried it out. Definitely an improvement.

Slice it up and shuffle the slices up and down. No way. Still heavy in the middle.

I tried this out with different colours of background and with shuffling the slices around. Maybe.

But I quite like the first one. I am well and truly out of my comfort zone here. I will consult with the tutor on Friday.

I have finished my lace samples and washed one piece - the lower one in photo on the left. Because the yarn was dyed by me, most of the shrinkage has happened already. The appearance of the  lace has not changed much. There are three patterns in the bottom one and two in the top.  I have already woven more than 12 inches on the scarf itself.

This afternoon I am taking Michael to see the BBC Wildlife Photography Exhibition at Twigworth which is just north of Gloucester.

Fishes - and Defiance

I do not like the final result of my sewing which was shown here yesterday. It is pinned up at the end of the corridor and I just get gloomier every time I see it. I can think of nothing to improve it.

So I decided to take the taste out of my mouth  by doing something different and had a hunt through pieces of fabric which I have created at the Bourneville. I ended up with this one of printed fishes and seaweed plus a larger fish in Mola work.

This is how it is now. I am defiant about this.- trivial? yes, fun? yes, artistic merit?  none. Tough.


I have finished weaving a lace sample for the Guild records and am weaving a sample for my records. Then I shall set about weaving the scarf for the October Exhibition.

I have also revised the handout for the lace weave class ready for next Saturday. A reasonably productive day.

Teaching Lace Weave

I got caught on the hop earlier this week by being asked questions about the drafting of  lace weave. Kennet Valley Guild runs a weavers course for 6 weeks in the spring and the 'improvers' are all doing lace weave. Everyone had selected their pattern and yarn and the first day was on Saturday - yesterday. I was looking forward to a day answering questions and generally helping out. Instead of which I realised when asked these questions that I needed to give a talk about drafts for lace weaves because they are not standard and Atwater-Bronson can be difficult to understand. I prepared a handout and more than an hour first thing on Saturday was taken up with discoursing on this topic. I am not entirely sure that I was very clear. Anyway they all spent the rest of the time, getting to grips with their looms. Half of them are now weaving, some will be weaving by next Saturday and two had just finished designing their weaving. So on the whole progress. Meanwhile Rosie and the beginners got on like a house on fire. They all made enormous progress.

My only gripe about the day had to do with lunch. My daughter Anne came over for the day to look after Michael and I knew of their plans to cook a Japanese meal. They were cooking something I rather like - ekonomiyaki. So I told them to keep me some. But they ate it all!!! So no lunch and a very miffed Pat who had gone without lunch at the class for the sake of this treat!

The combination of a class at Bourneville on Friday, taking Michael to Worcester Royal on Friday afternoon and going to Newbury for the weaving course on Saturday meant that the downstairs part of the house was littered with bags and boxes so I spent part of this morning tidying up. I rather think that what has happened is that the litter has gone upstairs!!

These are the washed cottolin towels in Summer and Winter. It is a cold grey day today and I decided to try taking a photo outside. The colours have come out well. The shrinkage in width was 10% and in length was 16% which amounts to 5 inches in 30. A lot.

I have not been happy about photos for some time  and have been told that an overcast day and outside is the best. Certainly the colours have come out realistic.

Our tutor, Annette lucas, at Bourneville has insisted that we stop doing samples of varied techniques and deal with one piece only, developing it into a finished piece.

So this is my piece which contains a great variety of techniques. The starting point was a screen print of paper doilies onto the back of a piece of scrap furnishing fabric. This was cut out and Bondawebbed onto a piece of red  tweedy fabric. I also did some individual prints of the same motif onto another scrap of fabric. I added wire round the edge and machine stitching in the middle to make 3D motifs when cut out. There is also a place where I have used Mola work to cut through the printed layer of fabric to the red fabric backing. In the lower right hand corner, the same shape has been stitched on Aquafilm and then the film washed away.  The violet piece in the upper left is a piece of cotton dyed by me and appliqued on. So that's it. The loose motifs are just tacked on in case I change my mind. At the moment, it is pinned up at the end of the corridor for me to ruminate about.

I am not at sure about this piece. One of Michael's carers said (very shrewdly, I thought). 'You don't like it because you can't see what to use it for'. Well yes , it can only be hung on the wall and we have better things around than that. I have had a great idea for decorating one of the calico shoppers and have started by dyeing one brown.  I can see Annette disapproving of this so I had better incorporate some of the fabric I have created at Bourneville!!

 

A Long-Awaited Book

Three years ago, I became aware of a book entitled 'Art Deco and Art Nouveau Book bBnding' By Duncan and de Bartha (ISBN0-8109-1881-1, 1988). What I read about it made me anxious to see it but there were no copies on Amazon.co.uk and one on the US Amazon at a price which translated into £145.00. So I kept an eye on the price. After about a year, there were five or six copies on offer by different booksellers, none less than £80.00. But slowly, slowly, the cost decreased to £40.00 at which point I gave in and bought it. It is fantastic. It is a book to read  and read again.  I can quite see why it was so expensive and it is worth every penny of £145.00.

On the left is one example of a bound book. There are 252 photos of different bookbindings - all French!!!!! The trouble is they are 95% leather inlay which is difficult  and I have no hope of remotely emulating but I can still sigh over the photos.

This is a photo (rather poor) of an acrylic painting by Michael of Abigail who is our great-niece. 

He is now working on a set of paintings and drawings of morning glories for a book which I intend to submit to a local exhibition in March. I have collected together a lot of haiku about morning glories and will create a book with a Japanese binding from all this material.

On the weaving front, I have warped up and started a scarf in Atwater-Bronson lace or to be precise, I am weaving a sample for the Guild records first. I have also wound a warp for the concertina double weave book.

I did go to my Bourneville class this morning and am manufacturing little individual motifs to attach to a bigger item. But I had to rush back as Michael went to hospital this afternoon to have a transfusion of some fancy chemical.

Washing is Good

I put the Flower and Leaf towel through the washer and drier. Washed at 40 degrees. The shrinkage was large but it is cottolin. It went from 15 by 31 inches to 13.5 to 26 inches. In the process, it became much softer - and the colours came up better. It is almost accceptable now. I must wash the other two towels.

Alicante Close

There is a housing estate in Malvern called Tomatolands. It used to contain a large number of large greenhouses which grew tomatoes. The entrance road has a notice saying 'Harbinger Avenue leading to Alicante Close'. This has niggled me. What are the other roads called? So I checked up today. They are 'Sunrise', 'Shirley Close' and 'Challenger Close'.  Where, I ask, is 'Moneymaker Way' or 'Gardeners Delight Crescent'?

I have wound a warp of yellow wool (dyed by me last week) for a lace weave scarf. I have also turned two large skeins of Tencel 2/20 into fat bobbins ready for winding another warp. And I have played with photos of my S&W trees on Photoshop for the Leek Exhibition and did not like any of it. So I went for a walk and came up with a better design. 

I ordered a new Thermofax for Christmas Carol yesterday. The first one had a mediaeval-style font for the title and was illegible when screen printed. So this time it is in TRAJAN  which is great. The screen came today - how's that for service? and I must go and carry out a few more trials on calico. Last time I used cotton - not stout enough. High time this book was bound. Especially as I need to do three others by the end of March, two concertina and one Japanese. I can definitely see a period of design in front of me. I know what I want but can I do it? Watch this space.

This afternoon I walked round the nearby houses as the Common is seriously muddy and very slippery. I made a New Year's Resolution to go for a short walk every day. Ten minutes later I amended this to 3 times a week. There is no point in pretending that I can get time every day when Michael and hospitals and nurses have to be accomodated. And anyway there is a thing called weather. I have only managed three walks in 18 days which is not at all good.

Summer and Winter At Last

I have cut off the Summer and Winter warp today and tidied up all the ends. Apart from the first section which is a series of samples in Summer and Winter, there are three separate towel lengths and two sections each about 12 inches long. Recall that the warp is plain blue over 60% of the width and striped for the rest.

The first one is the least successful towel (Flowers and Leaves). Don't like. It might have worked on 32 shafts but 8 is too few to give nice curved edges.

This one is much nicer (Mughal Windows).

And this is the nicest (Random A) - well, the most to my taste. The draft for Random B was the one that reminded me of 1980s Space Invaders. I erased that one.

I think the reason the last two work is that there is no call for curved edges.

The two 12 inch lengths were of trees, one with a white/pink/green tree and one with a dark green tree. The first is okay but the striped bit of the warp is a bit useless. In the second, the weft green is too near the warp blue in tone.  Both are no good, as they stand, for the Leek exhibition. I need to cut them apart and re-assemble them to make use of them.  I might do that in Photoshop before setting out with scissors.

One thing though, I now have three nice sized kitchen towels. in cottolin. They are 15 by 30 inches. Previous towels have been too small!!!

Dyed Shopper

I acquired five shopping bags in calico from my Friday class and decided driving home that I could use up the Procion MX dye I had left to dye a bag. This is it. The grey/white lightning lines are couched silver lurex - which looks dull in the photo and nice in real life. I am quite pleased with it. It gave me a chance to practice using metallic threads which I want to do in my project - but I unpicked  all the metallic silver thread from the bag as the thread was too thin and does not make the impact I wanted. Hence the couched down lurex.

Some of Thursday's dyeing is still damp. The wool is all dried and is a very pleasing colour. When the Voyager comes home next Thursday, I will warp it up with this wool for the lace weave class. The student is going to take away a rigid heddle loom instead of the Voyager. She has some very fancy knitting yarn which she is going to use for a weft and make some cushions. And she only needs tabby so the rigid heddle is okay.

I am making great progress with Summer and Winter and it might be taken off tomorrow. On talking to the tutor at the Bourneville class on Friday, I realised that I had not factored in the Midlands Textile Forum's Exhibition in Leek in September this year. I was horrified. I can't warp up anything specially as other projects must come first. A bit of lateral thinking and I have decided to use the tail of the Summer and Winter warp to do trees (yes again). I have done Spring and am ready to do autumn. I will only weave two and they will be mounted separately but in the same frame. That means a mount board with two rectangles cut in it.  They will not be plain weaving but embellished in some way as yet undecided. I will play with them when they are off the loom.

The Friday class was excellent as usual. I spent the entire time doing one small piece of embroidery on Aquafoil. I have not had the courage to wash the aquafoil off yet!!

Thursday is Dyeing Day (2nd Installment)

These are the three pieces of calico dyed with black  Procion MX (and red and yellow) The one on the right had the strongest dye solution. All were left in a nice warm place for 4 hours. After rinsing, I put them through the washing machine at 60 degrees along with some bath towels. Then ironed them dry.

Any of these would be suitable for what I have in mind - which is a cover for A Christmas Carol.

A few sewing trials are now required!

I have finished weaving the Summer and Winter flower towel and have started on the next one which is odd but nice. I will post a photo when I have done a bit more.

Thursday is Dyeing Day

Yesterday I went to London and met up with a group of Kennet Valley weavers at a Paddintgon Station coffee shop. After which we took a tube to Finsbury Park and invaded Handweavers Studio who behaved with impeccable courtesy as we all clustered around giving each other advice. I was very good. I only bought some high twist S and Z yarn because I bought some before and found I did not have enough to make anything with it. Now to re-read Anne Field's book on Collapse Weave. I also bought Marg Coe's book and read a lot of it on the train coming home. Since I am studying Tied Weaves, it is timely. We invaded a cafe up the street and had a very good selection of sandwiches. Some of the group went off to be intellectual at Tate Modern. Marie and I took a tube to Russell Square and walked down Southampton Row to Falkiner's, the paper people. Oh my, what a lovely shop. They sell bookbinding things. But tools are in the basement while the ground floor is full of paper, handmade, decorated, you name it. I found some interesting Italian decorated paper. The patterns were a little large for anything I might make so I left them but have stored away the data for future use. Lovely Japanese chiyogami and katazome paper. Also very fancy patterned Japanese tissue paper. Can't quite see a use for it or I would have bought some. They also had some patterned sheets with pre WWII designs which I did buy. Shades of Ravilious. And some glue and manila.  Marie bought some glue and some Japanese paper. After which we returned to Paddington very happy and caught trains home.

Today Michael was off before 8 o'clock for treatment and may not be back today. So I set about the dyeing. Some items on my list have been done.

1.  dyeing Madi's skeins to various shades of indigo blue by varying the number of times each skein is dipped - no indigo bath today - do at weekend
2. dyeing some skeins of wool/silk in violet dye and finishing off space dyeing a section of that warp in a darker shade of violet - done
3. trying out some black Procion dyes on cotton fabric. The last time I got a dark grey which was quite attractive but I really wanted black so on Thursday I shall start by dyeing small pieces of cotton in each of the three different blacks I have and then try a larger piece using the best of them - done. After Sandra Rude's comments on strength, temperature and timing for Procion MX black, I have done three samples with increasing strength of dye and they are sitting in the scullery in the warm.
4. trying out colours and dyeing times for some samples of fleece and handspun. This is preparation for the re-enactment of 'The Weaving of the Newbury Coat' which happened in 1811 and was the result of a wager between two Newbury men. Could a coat be made in 24 hours starting from the sheep? It could. So the Guild is going to do it again. - unable to find out what I am supposed to be doing with this. Hence no indigo bath till I find out
5. I would like to weave a pattern of fishes in Summer and Winter using space dyed yarn. So I will be doing that as well. Not done. I have gone off the fishes anyway! I prefer trees.
6. dyeing some skeins of wool two colours of yellow. I am preparing for weaving my yellow scarf for the October Exhibition at Greenham. I am also going to do a yellow scarf in lace weave as the improvers in the Guild weaving course are all doing lace weave this year. And I don't see why the tutors can't join in. Done - very satisfactory. 3 skeins 70 gms each of lemon yellow and one of gold ochre.

Here  are some of them hanging up in the garage with the two colours of yellow in the foreground.

And I have warped up a loom for a beginner who starts the Guild weaving course next week.

Next Thursday Dyeing

My last blog was on Friday. On Saturday I went to Kennet Valley Guild and on Sunday Anne and her family came round. Madi helped me turn out the scullery and then wound 7 x 100 gram skeins of wool for me. I need these for next Thursday when I have a dyeing day. That is going to include

1.  dyeing Madi's skeins to various shades of indigo blue by varying the number of times each skein is dipped
2. dyeing some skeins of wool/silk in violet dye and finishing off space dyeing a section of that warp in a darker shade of violet 
3. trying out some black Procion dyes on cotton fabric. The last time I got a dark grey which was quite attractive but I really wanted black so on Thursday I shall start by dyeing small pieces of cotton in each of the three different blacks I have and then try a larger piece using the best of them
4. trying out colours and dyeing times for some samples of fleece and handspun. This is preparation for the re-enactment of 'The Weaving of the Newbury Coat' which happened in 1811 and was the result of a wager between two Newbury men. Could a coat be made in 24 hours starting from the sheep? It could. So the Guild is going to do it again.
5. I would like to weave a pattern of fishes in Summer and Winter using space dyed yarn. So I will be doing that as well.
6. dyeing some skeins of wool two colours of yellow. I am preparing for weaving my yellow scarf for the October Exhibition at Greenham. I am also going to do a yellow scarf in lace weave as the improvers in the Guild weaving course are all doing lace weave this year. And I don't see why the tutors can't join in.

I have decided what to do about a new Day Book. I definitely want one which is A4 and I haven't got one spare. So I am going to use the blank pages in the Design Book and, in the meantime, make an A4 book out of the A3 cartridge paper I have just ordered. When it is done, it will become a Design/Day book.

This all adds to my list of projects. Derek (son-in-law) produced a cookery book on Sunday  which is falling apart. Could I do anything about it? Well I can try.

Record/Sketch/Note Books

Sometimes I think I use the blog to talk to myself. (How do I know what I think until I tell myself?). Anyway this is about books for writing in. No, not bookbinding again but what the books are used for.

This has arisen because my day book which has been running since 18th January 2008 has come to an end. It is a spiral bound book and I have glued so many sheets of paper and photos into it that it is bulging and the back cover has come off altogether.On looking through it, I am surprised by how many of the ideas actually did get woven up.

Before finding a new journal to continue with, I decided to have an inventory of the various notebooks I have - and was more than a bit shocked.

1) There are series of A4-sized  Lever Arch files which contain loose papers with details of weavings I have done.  Drafts, calculations, notes on dimensions and finishing together with samples of yarns used and, if possible a sample piece of weaving. For some reason, I started with labeling them A, B, C and the projects are numbered 1 to 10 inside. We are now on Project P4, that is Project No 4 in Lever Arch file P. I have no intention of changing this system.

2) There are  two A4-sized books with lined paper using for taking notes at courses I have attended, held at Kennet Valley Guild or West Dean College or wherever. But weaving courses are included in the Lever Arch files of No 1 above as they usually contain drafts and photos

3) The Day Book into which everything goes, ideas for weavings, textiles, books. ruminations on what the Conservators are doing on the Common. This was A5 and cartridge paper.
4) An A6 book with lined paper for recording what I do in the way of bookbinding. It is too small for photos and drawings or samples
5) An A5 book with lined paper for recording what dyeing has been done
 6) A spiral-bound sketch pad size A2!!! No I was not being dreadfully extravagant. I found it in the cupboard and am using it for textile samples for books I am making. It is so big that I can put down 3 or 4 samples per page.

7) An A3 spiral bound book which I use for the Bourneville classes In Creative Textiles. It is half full already.

So far these have been commercial books

8) A Coptic book bound by me, in which I am designing some special books. The paper is cream cartridge paper and is good enough to do coloured drawings on.  I shall continue with this.
9) an A4 book bound by me  and containing a real selection of different papers, handmade etc. This was used as a project book for weavings. It still has some blank pages in it.


So do I need all of these? And what am I going to do about a day book? As I use it, the Day Book is for first thoughts. Nothing takes up more than 3 or 4 pages and mostly a project is just one page.

I am glad I decided to write this blog. When I started, I thought that I should amalgamate some of the books but no, I don't think I will. What I will do is put them all on the same shelf. And really I would like an A4 book for the Day Book. I am not sure I have one in the stash so maybe I will make one. I would like lots of different sorts of paper as in 9 above.

Summer and Winter Drafts

I finished the first kitchen towel and I am weaving this Summer and Winter pattern right now. 

I have been weaving steadily since the last post and also dreaming up further drafts I can do on the same warp. Amazing how rotten most of them were. I have got one, possibly two which are okay and which will be woven into kitchen towels. What is surprising how alike they look despite starting from something very different. They ended up looking like Space Invaders from the 1980s.

This is a reasonable draft. The next may not happen. I am not sure I like it at all and would rather repeat one done already.

I have got reasonably expert at creating and editing drafts using this weaving technique. I don't care much for any of them. This is due to

1) using up odd ends of cottolin in the stash and so the colours are not what I would use if I had a project planned from the start
2) 6 blocks is limiting. What I need for a decent pattern is the 32 shafts of the Megado.

I should get at least one more kitchen towel out of this warp after the flowers and leaves. And possibly one more. After that I am starting on a multicloth project to be turned into a book.

Tomorrow, if the snow holds off, I will go to Bourneville for a class.

Finished Another Project

I finished off the Summer and Winter samples on 8 shafts last night and was left with 2 metres of warp! Being lazy, I went off to find/create a draft which would work on the same threading and this is what I came up with.

It has been woven in blue and red, not blue and white and I have managed two repeats so far.

Each repeat is about four inches square. I will do a length of this and then find another draft. It is nice to find that I can create a draft that works and even edit it correctly

The other thing I have done today is to file things away. Piles of postcards, print-outs of photos, Mostly gone. But I have a problem with records. When I worked, I kept each job separate and now my mind wants to do the same with textiles. But that means far too much filing. At work, we had ISO9001 which automatically means too much filing. The result for my textiles is a real mishmash. I have a large spiral bound A3 book for Creative Textiles, I have a smaller than A5 book to write what I have done in bookbinding. This is a mistake because it is not big enough to paste in pictures. And I have an A5 day book where I paste in postcards, do drawings etc. This is within two pages of the end. All this came to a head today when I realised that I wanted to file away a batch of fabric samples which had to do with book covers. You've guessed it!! I started another book. This one is something from the back of the cupboard and is A2!! which means I can get three fabric samples on one page.

The fabric samples have all been screen-printed with the title and author for A Christmas Carol and are interesting.

1. I will have to get anothe Thermofax screen made. The title in mock Mediaeval script is useless. 
2. I used the existing Thermofax screen to print on to various scraps of handwoven material. A piece of silk at 60epi, a piece of Tencel at 30 epi and a piece of cottolin at 20epi.   The cottolin was not acceptable but the other two were fine. This is for a book I intend to weave. (Well why not?)

Happy New Year

Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all.

A very senior RAF man once said to me on finishing a meeting and saying Goodbye,  'May all your antennas meet their specs'. I wonder what the translation into weaving/textile terms is.

'May all your weavings come out as you planned'?

Doesn't have the same ring somehow and yet people don't write specifications for weavings, at  or least not often.

'May all your textiles have the WOW factor'

Hmmh. Anyone got any ideas?

Now is the moment for New Year Resolutions. There was a nice article in the Guardian yesterday about NYR which said that not achieving the NYR was not important. What was important is that you still believe you are capable of change/improvement. I am resolved for go for a walk more often. It ought to be possible to get out of the house for 30 minutes every day. 

Ellen Carrlee, the Alaskan conservator, lists 10 projects to be accomplished in 2011 which I think is an attractive idea. Mind you, her list includes items like 'finish cataloging the basketry collection'.

My list goes as follows

1. Finish dyeing for the second multicolour warp and get it on the Megado. The ghost warp is waiting. This will be a jacket.
2. By end March, I need to weave samples of Donsu using the gold paper thread I have from Japan. This is for the CW Japanese Textile Study Group, Needs the Megado. Also needs designing
3. Finish off Summer and winter samples currently on Kombo.
4. Multiple cloth fabric for concertina book. Needed for Malvern Exhibition end of March. Can be done on the Kombo. Need to check that I can screen print on the cloth - and need to design it. This may be too ambitious.
5. Make concertina book 'In the Event' by end March. I have done a lot of design for this. Again Malvern Exhibition
6. Yellow scarf for October 2011 Exhibition in Greenham. This is designed and will be log cabin in two shades of yellow with a few additional violet threads in warp and weft. Have found the violet yarn. Need to dye 100 gms each of the two yellows. Weave on the Voyager
7. Three cushion covers for October 2011 Exhibition in Greenham woven with yarn dyed with natural dyes. Goose eye twill on the warp which will be indigo dyed. Each cushion a different colour of natural dye.
8. Weave up the high twist yarn I bought last year. If it works, do another scarf for October 2011 Exhibition in Greenham (Too many scarves)
9. Caladium leaves in Diversified Plain Weave. For the Leek Museum Exhibition (Midland Textile Forum) in September 2011
10. Make some books using Keith Smith's book on Coptic binding  

Of course Annette Lucas will want a few things making in her class! And the Kennet Valley weaving course starts up this month. The improvers are doing lace weave this year and I thought of doing a lacey wool scarf on the Voyager which will be back home shortly. Funny how much I have missed it. I can do a scarf on that in two or three days.

In the immediate future, I must investigate the unfinished projects lying around upstairs.

I have finished binding Pinocchio. The cover was printed on Photo Glossy II paper on the inkjet and is protected by a sheet of clear acetate. This is inset on grey board which is covered with black bookcloth.

The endcovers are black and white handmade marble paper. I had a lot of trouble trying to line this paper. Being handmade, it is smudged on the back. I eventually gave up on the lining paper and carefully selected sections of paper where there were no smudges on the back!! All this was accomplished using the nice bookbinding equipment I was given at Christmas by the family.

The only photos I took at the V and A yesterday were of a collection of Mughal windows. Here is an example. I have in the past done a weaving based on one of these. Might add that to the project list!!!