Weaving Space Dyed Tencel

The Tencel is set at 30 epi and weaving on a table loom is slooow. But I am getting there

The photo does not show the texture. The vertical lines (Tencel warp) are raised slightly giving a ribbed effect in texture. The weft is a 30/2 'indigo' cotton.

On Saturday, Ruth and I set out on a great expedition. We went to the Sewing Bee exhibition at EXCEL in the Docklands. The journey took 3 hours each way!!! When I arrived at EXCEL, I was grumbling about the journey time. When I left, it was a different story. It was a really good exhibition. Loads of high class exhibitors and we spent a lot of money. But then we found exactly what we wanted. It is a much smaller show than is held in the NEC but then a lot of exhibitors there are just dross. So happy.

And on Sunday Dorothy and I went to the Wokingham Art Trail. And this knocks Berkshire Open Studios out of the ring. We only got round three venues but they were all great. And I ended up borrowing money from Dorothy to buy Christmas presents. Really high class. Gloria Pitt, a local weaver, was there with her ethereal scarves.  A great treat all round.

Today Dorothy has gone to visit a friend and I am tidying up and finishing odd jobs. You know the kind of thing. I cannot take any photos of samples until I have cut some card windows and I cannot do that because I have a repaired book drying on the cutting mat. I need to cut out card to make a cover for the repaired book but I cannot get in to do that until the book has dried either. Oh well. Time for lunch.

Warping Up

It occurred to me that I have not posted photos of weaving for a long time. There is a reason -  because 90% of what I have been doing recently (last 6 months) is for various books to be published and you are not allowed to publish such data. So I have done a lot - but it is all finished and I can show pictures again. The one below is my warping up on the Kombo using the valet set in the ceiling. I have now got to the stage of threading and it is very slow. it is very fine thread.

And yes the warp is weighted with a plastic milk carton two thirds full of water.

Today I drove to Leamington Spa by way of Chesterton Mill.

And yes it was very grey.

Back to Normality

Well, more or less. I have wound a warp of 20/2 space dyed Tencel, bought at Tampa Bay Convergence. At long last I have found a draft worthy of it. Nothing to show yet except one warp being wound.

The garden is in fine shape. The sweet peas are over but not the French beans or the tomatoes. I grew three different lots of rudbeckia and they are all in flower now. The third lot are not to my taste. The flowers are half the size of those in the photos and are white with a red flash at the centre - and lots of flowers on a plant. I like them flamboyant.

And last but first in my list are the zinnias.

I tidied up my studio this morning. You can actually see the floor! And I started on tying the Megado warp on. It was cut off so I could take photos. But I need the Megado to do something else, not the Tencel piece which will be woven on the Louet Kombo. So it is back to weaving with a vengeance. Nothing like a lot of bus journeys staring out of the window and thinking!!!

Leipzig

We had a concert in the morning then I went round the city centre being a nuisance with a camera.

The ceiling of Thomaskirche where Bach worked.

Not a church, not the main University building and yes it is finished!

I spotted this very modern church from the bus entering Leipzig yesterday I asked the tour staff exactly where it was on the ring road so I could go back and photograph it. But no one knew what I was talking about. So after I had 'done' the city centre, I returned to the hotel and looked at Google Satellite view and it was 20 minutes walk away. So I went. Very new and rather special. The square tower is very high and has no windows to break the line. There are Large Victorian buildings all around it.

Leipzig

We stopped off at Sangerhausen to hear an organ recital but the rest of the day was spent being bussed around, ending up in Leipzig. Not helped by the bus driver backing into a stout metal post at the edge of the pavement. We made a detour to a bus depot and there were banging and drilling noises from the rear of the bus. And then we were off again.

As a result no photos but there will be today, I promise you. This is because we have a concert at ten and one at 2000 so in between is free. We walked about the centre last night and it is a big exuberant city with lots of very modern architecture and modern sculptures in the streets. I have seen several things I want to photograph. I will post these late afternoon. Tomorrow we go home, bus to Berlin, then flight to Heathrow. I might look for a lens I want in the airport. I looked in Heathrow on the way out but I was not sure it was the one I wanted. I found my notes on the lens later and it was and it was exactly the same cost as Wex photographic so I was right not to buy it. I was hoping to save at least a hundred pounds.

I have been thinking (always a bad thing, I hear you say). This time about weaving. It was triggered by two abstract paintings in the Bauhaus museum in Weimar

Two paintings at the Bauhaus museum. And they got me thinking about Nevinson and then as an extension, the thought 'could that be a weave'. So I have been playing with IWeaveIt on the iPad. I am very slow on this package because I use Fibreworks extensively. But slowly slowly and produce two or three drafts. What I was interested in was changing the treading so that the weft colour became more and more prominent and thus I could create sections with shaded colours. I cannot see a way of inserting graphics from the weaving software into this blog. So that will have to wait. 

Weimar(2)

Weimar is much bigger than I expected and I managed to get quite seriously lost on my way to this evening's concert. Fortunately a kind German lady saw me peering at a map and then at the street names. She did not speak much English but I rather think she was saying 'I would not start from her if I were you' then she escorted me until we could see the church. I must say I have been on my feet for 4.5 hours today! A good concert this morning, then I looked for a baroque library. Very spectacular in pale blue and gold and no cameras. However they did allow cameras into an exhibition about the great fire of a few years ago. They showed a horrific video. Out of 150,000 books, 30,000 were totally destroyed and a lot of the rest were badly damaged.

Two examples of what is left. They have put a lot of effort in repair and there were a lot of examples where they shown a photo of the damaged book and then the actual repaired book by its side

And just so as you see a happy present day Weimar.

The market in full swing.

I also went to the Bauhaus museum which was great. But rather small. Another good concert in the evening and back to the hotel to pack. We are off to Leipzig tomorrow. 

Weimar

Yesterday's concerts were very good. And then we were bussed to our hotels in Weimar. In Altendorf 200people were recommended to visit the castle museum and the museum visibly buckled at the knees. The ticket seller was frantic and the rest of the staff were very bemused. The objective was a very curious set of dolls. An 18th century princess and her ladies had made small scenes of life as lived then. There is a butcher, a hat shop, a barrel maker complete with all tools and oddments. The dolls are about six inches high. The nobility are shown playing backgammon, card games, dancing, all with the court musicians in attendance. Very interesting. 

Part of the town walls which are mostly gone.

The Rathaus - town hall

Another nice house in the great square.

Most of today is at leisure and I have a list of things to see. No point in telling you what. I will report further tomorrow

Eisenach to Weimar

I am still in Eisenach but will shortly board a bus and end up staying tonight in Weimar. I am not a Goethe fan myself and am looking forward to moving on to Leipzig. In fact, to tell the truth, I am looking forward to going home. There are 200 people on the trip and on every occasion, you are sitting next to someone you have not met before. And I am getting life stories mixed up, I have been told so many. I skipped dinner last night. We had a large and rather nice lunch and I could not stand the noise of 120 people talking at the tops of their voices again. And in a low ceilinged room. 

But apart from my grumbles which I can work round, the music is of the highest quality, in fact it cannot be any better. After a concert by Vox Humilis, I rushed back to the hotel and put some of their CDs on my amazon wish list. I will sort them out at home. So I am glad I came for the music. I would never get two concerts a day of this quality anywhere else.

We had one concert in Muhlhausen.

An interesting graffiti in Muhlhausen.

The market in Muhlhausen

One of many decorated doorways in Muhlhausen.

I visited the Bachhaus in Eisenach. He was born here. The Museum is very good. There is a very modern bit with headphones everywhere to listen to music and this is built onto the original half timbered house. Most of the old houses here are half timbered but unlike English houses of the same materials, the timbers have a small cross section say about four inches on a side. Unlike English ones which have a basic framework of oak timber 8 to 10inches on a side. Which means they need a smaller number of timbers. When I lived in Newent, I discovered that, in mediaeval times, if you could get the roof on by nightfall, you could keep the house and the land. I always assumed that was the reason for cruck cottages where the cottage ends were formed of two great timbers put together in a triangle. This method needs fewer timbers. I have heard of a group doing that today. I would love to see  it done. Must be run like a military operation!

Eisenach

Yesterday I started the day by wandering round Dresden taking 100 photos for my first assignment in the OCA course. Not all of architecture. Half of Dresden seemed to be having breakfast at a sunny cafe and the other half were running for trams.

And the trams

And then it was the end of the organ tour and half the group was bussed off to a Berlin to catch planes. The other half, including me, were put on an express train to a Eisenach to go on another Bach trip, this time of concert music. There will be two Passions later this week. I think it was a mistake for me to do this. I want to go home and think about the organ music. By the time I have sat through ten concerts, all memories of organs will be gone. 

And I am not sure I like this tour anyway. The organ tour had 22 participants. I am in one of three hotels here and there were over 120 people at dinner last night. The noise was horrendous. Conversation was very difficult. Well I will concentrate on the music and do without dinner. I have a packet of digestive biscuits for just this occasion. 

Note the train to the extreme left up a level.

I have been thinking about the cover of Duke Bluebeard's Castle again. I am not happy about a realist cover because the style does not go with that of the prints in the actual text. So I have been messing about with the Brushes app. Not that I am very good at it.

 The triangles would be much sharper in the final version and there would be fine white lines between the triangles. On the back cover,the triangles would have flown apart. It needs trying out with pieces of cut paper.

Dresden

I see the iPad has been changing my spelling all by itself. The last blog should been et cetera but veteran. In fact it has just done the same again but when I change it again, it  keeps quiet.

Dresden is a very large city and looks prosperous and elegant. Yesterday we were escorted round the palace treasury. Stuffed with gold, silver and diamonds, all way over the top. Not my style at all. However on the top floor, with no viewers, was a lovely exhibition of some of their prints and drawings. Rosie you would have loved it. Then more organs, then a posh dinner because that was our last night. Today we split up. Half the group are going home and the other half are taking the train to Eisenach to start on a week's festival of concerts devoted to Bach, and at least two concerts a day. 

I think it was a mistake on my part. I want to think about organ music and play some of the CDs I have bought but by the time I have sat through16 concerts of orchestral music, I will have forgotten about Bach and organ music.

The cathedral roof in Dresden

The main square in Altenburg

And below more Altenburg. You know how in any group of tourists, there is always one who holds the group up by lagging behind to take another interesting photograph. Well in this group, that is me. Someone said to me that I was a keen photographer. And I replied, No, obsessive. Oh well

 

Rotha et veteran

Today we have seen four churches, if it is not five. Anyway we have had four organ recitals. One interesting fact is that some of them are far too big for the church. There must have been some sort of rivalry between these small towns. In one tiny church, there was a sumptuous organ which would not have disgraced a cathedral. The choir can never have been heard over that. In that particular case, the organ case was magnificent but the church was very plain.

Anyway I have a few photos, well a lot really, but I am only showing you a few.

Colchicum in a graveyard

Spectacular roof. I love the little painted decorations.

An organ the right size or the church and sounding very good indeed. All the organs we have seen were built in the period 1720 to 1750 and were seriously messed up in the 19 th century. But they have all been restored since 1990 and now sound just like they did when built. Some material has had to be replaced but one or two are at least 75% original.

And just to make it clear, these photos are for the record and do not obey the rules of composition for photography. So there.