Sunday, 6 February 2011

Lino Prints

Here are some lino prints, about six inches square. I am quite pleased with them. They are printed on Chinese paper I brought back for Michael from Kuala Lumpur some years ago. I prefer the one on the left as I could get quite fine lines for the veins in the leaf. It is quite odd. I feel quite at home with this technique. I can see me doing a lot of it. The tutor assumes that the students will be printing on fabric. So far I have only printed on paper but tomorrow I will try on fabric.

Michael is making great progress with his painting for the Morning Glory book and, driving home from Newbury yesterday, I worked out how to do a book. This particular book has been bothering me for nearly a year. As I was proposing to put it in this summer's exhibition, it is about time I found a solution!  I must go and write it up. Do I need to make a mockup?

I have owned a copy of Carol Strickler's book on 8-shaft weaving for a long time but it is not exactly bedtime reading and so I can't say I know it well. However the Guild weaving class has been quarrying in it for lace patterns and I realised what a wealth of drafts are in it. One very attractive feature is that you often get one threading which can be used with wildly different treadlings to get very different patterns.  I am thinking of using this feature when I weave the cushions for the October Exhibition. This idea has proved very popular and we are promised 30 cushions which will all be woven with natural dyed yarn. I need to get on and indigo dye the first lot of warp yarn. We need a definitive weight for each cushion so we know how much our natural dye expert has to treat. The original idea was to pile up the cushions in a heap. That was when we were expecting 8 or 10. If we pile up all 30 in a heap, every under-five in the district will be burrowing through it and treating it as a trampoline!

The rainbow of scarves is coming  along. Weavers are acquiring yarn and selecting patterns. This was definitely a good idea. Originally we thought the rainbow of scarves would have 7 or 8 colours. I think we are at around 18 or 20 now and are at the stage of having a light purple and a dark purple, black, white, shades of grey and brown.

I need a day in the garage dyeing. It is quite difficult to disappear in there for several hours  and look after Michael at the same time. So I am thinking of getting a carer in for Michael for an afternoon so I don't have to attend to him. I have these strange tokens for a carer so that I can get out of the house. The garage is definitely out of the house. I really don't see why not although it does sound a bit odd.

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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.