Wednesday, 10 September 2014

The Usual Sort of Odd Day

Up to a year or so ago, I always made my own garam-masala (curry powder) but gave it up and used commercial stuff. But it is not so good so yesterday I visited the Bran Tub (local health food store) and stocked up and today it was weighed out and ground up.
After grinding, it looks like dried mud but it smells delicious. It is not hot (I add Kashmiri dried chilies for that) but spicy. I have about 50 gms of the mixture but it took quite some time to prepare and grind it.
I went to Ledbury and points west this afternoon to have a look at the studios taking part in Herefordshite Artweek And British Camp looked  as good as I have ever seen it coming home. The fortifications at the top are clear. It was inhabited around 0 AD for 200 or so years. The most interesting studio was not a studio but a working print shop (Tilleys of Ledbury) where they print using letter press. They have an amazing room full of fonts. The print room has five or six presses. I am now wondering about using them for printing books!  
Then home to admire the garden in the sunshine and especially the autumn crocuses with cyclamen in the foreground.
And a bit of weaving. Green is the front and red the back. You can see where the two cloths are interchanged. The right hand selvedge is open and the left hand one closed. When completed, I will print on every section , back and front, then insert pieces of card to fit, hand-sew the opening and viola! I have a concertina book. The warp is two different colourways of spaced dyed Tencel from Just Our Yarns which the weft is a single colour, turquoise/green, fine Tencel. It is not taking as long as I thought to weave. I thought I might get one section done per day but I think two now and three if I tried hard.

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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.