Tuesday 24 December 2019

Christmas Eve 2019

I have finished editing the new website and sent off the files. No doubt when the web designer, she will scream with rage and want lots of changes. So today I carefully checked the proof of my three pages in the Complex Weaver celebration of being 40 book.  I cannot say that anyone would be able to extract the draft from the photo shown. It is double sided  Biederwand on 16 shafts. I wonder if they will have the wifs available?

My sister Dorothy has complained a lot about my last blog entry. Her objection is my complaining about how little I have woven in the last four years. She reminded me quite correctly, that six months was out being ill and the rest of the four years was spent organising/writing the Jeremiah Fielding book. Both comments are correct but I have to admit that I have such good intentions for 2020. I have one major project to complete on the Megado and two more lined up after that. Let`s see if I can do these three in 2020!!

Sunday 22 December 2019

Christmas 2019

Lots of people have pointed out that I have entered anything in this blog for a few weeks. Ah well, that is life. Rather boring  and not allowing for me to do anything interesting in the way of artistic efforts.

What I have done is sell (means coping with foreign exchange and hefty postage charges) lots of books. I only had 160 books printed and in a few weeks have sold over a third of them. And I have not yet advertised! So it is mostly word of mouth.

The other job which really caught me by surprise was my new website. Note yet up and running. After an abortive effort on Wordpress, I decided this update had to be done professionally and found a suitable person in Newbury. I have had a Google website since 2009 but over the years, Google has changed it and a lot of my stuff has just vanished. It has a very old fashioned layout and appearance anyway. Well the designer immediately asked terrible questions like `Who is this website for?` Oh dear never thought about that. The reason for the effort I have spent on it is that the designer said that had to provide all the text for the sections. So I have been rewriting, re-laying-out every section, culminating in adding text to every photo in the slideshow and adding a few more for the last few years.

And that has caused me to think hard because There is very little completed weaving in the last five years. If I look in the years up to 2014, between 6 and 12 projects were completed each year. The last two years have been particularly thin. I think I need to give up some of my other activities but I like them all (lino cutting, book binding, photography). What has changed is that the number of hours I work. After I retired, I did 8 or more hours a day. Now after illness and getting older, five hours a day is quite enough. But selling the book and the website revamp have swallowed up all the five hours. What do I do with the rest of my life? I walk Jerry twice a day - which is, of course, good for me.

Well the website work is nearly finished. Should be completed tomorrow. And when the website is finalised, selling the book will be done on that.

Oh well. And there has been Christmas to think about and the calendar as well. and since I love it to bits, I will post the front cover of the calendar below. I first saw these a few years ago. I still love them.



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About Me

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.