Exhibition

I've been a bit rubbish about posting recently as I've had a massive piece of work to do by the end of September (I'm only just getting to the end of it now 3 days to go!)
As well as that I've taken part in my 1st exhibition with TaP(textiles and paper) at the art gallery in Rugby (Floor one runs till this Sunday 28th ). So all in all a little bit tired and looking forward to a rest, and hopefully finally having enough money to buy a weaving bench, no more standing all day hurray!

1st samples

Here is one of the first samples off the loom after being washed.
If you look closely you can just about make out a little bit of the squiggly pattern inspired by the peas.
I'm just about to try putting a bolder colour through to highlight the pattern a little more, then I'm going to modify the pattern slightly and get going on a slightly longer piece.

The inspiration for the springy lambswool!

lambswool

this is the warp being wound on, its a really springy lambswool so its a bit of a pain to wind on.
That is why I'm taking a break and writing this! I've already wound the monofilament which was surprisingly easy, good news as I plan to use it in many more warps.
best get back to it!

At Last

I have some time off to do some of my own work! We've just been to Wales on a camping holiday so I've had a nice rest from weaving and managed to get my back back in to its normal position! So now I'm ready to warp up the first experimental piece which will hopefully lead to others for the exhibition. Its using similar principals of the warps I did for my degree show (monofiliment and wool) but hopefully this time I'm going to introduce a small amount of pattern as well. It might start to get a little complicated so we shall see how it goes! Pictures soon I hope!

Warp Winding

taking a quick break from winding on a warp it takes ages especailly when its 17 m long!

pea plants

Pea plants, thats the inspiration for my new project which I have started for an exhibition in September.
I've loads of ideas, now its just about finding the time to get them woven very exciting!

pegs

pegging out the pattern for the weave heres a pretty picture!

June

I can't beileve its June already! I'm still weaving away no thanks to my rubbish legs which continue to ache. but the loom is running really well and all I need now is a bench to sit on which will hopefully help my legs.

try again hopefully this picture will work!

open studios

on Wednesday I'm putting some of my work up at the Coventry Artspace for there open studio event. As alot of people always ask me how the loom is set up, I thought I'd put together some pictures of each stage. I also like to try and make them look arty as well!

Good Quote

I read this in Crafts magazine and thought it was a good description of weaving!
'weaving is a complicated business of preparation and technique -like playing a very skilled game of noughts and crosses, only your back hurts and you might eventually need glasses'

Overshot in a different way!

This is a close up of a quick warp I did between my paid work.
Its an overshot design which I've been interested in since working in Tanzania as you only need four shafts to creatate the pattern.
In this piece, which is a close up of a wall hanging, I've used different pink silks to pick out the overshot pattern in different places in the fabric.
I like it as overshot is quite an old fashioned way of working and just picking out parts of it makes it seem like an old fabric thats worn out, something you would find in a museum.

Weaving again

I'm back on the loom doing some paid work, which is great to see how the loom functions in its new home. All seems to be going well and I have some interesting weights that I bought from Oxfam. You need weights to keep the tension in the warp and I didn't have any so I scoured Oxfam where I volunteer on a Thursday afternoon and they had some pink tie round your leg weights so they are now dangling off the back of the loom! With the added advantage that when I'm not using them I can do some weight lifting, all for £2.99 not bad!

steel wire

This is an interesting one and something I definatly want to experiment with further, the use of metal wire. Here I've use a very fine steel wire to weave pleats which can be manipulated in to different shapes. As these have to be washed to shrink the wool the wire takes on a wave shape from the washing machine which is how I've left this one.

More from the jelly fish collection

wool

I've been taking a lot of photos recently of my work for various application forms so I thought I'd post a few so you can see a bit more of my portfolio. This is one of my jelly fish inspired pieces which I did for my degree show. Its wool, monofiliment and silk. At the moment as I think I've already said I'm using these pieces for inspiration for my next project and I think I may have just tracked down a similar wool so I can finally do all the things I wanted to do based on the jelly fish project.

Thank you

As my father has just pointed out, all my work is being looked after very well so a big thank you to Mum and Dad for putting up with about 10 portfolios (and a few other things!) in their house.

Samples

This is one of my University samples from 2nd year its a double cloth with silk linen and monofiliment. Its fun when you find old work you forgot you had (most of my stuff is still hidden in portfolios at my parents house one day I'll go rescue them!).

The loom rebuilt

Here it is in its new home!
I haven't had chance to actually use it yet but it is all ready to go.
I also found some of my older work so thats out on the loom to inspire me.
Well I'm taking it easy today as I have a cold not a very bad one just enough to take away all your energy! So catching up on the paper work the boring part of self employment!!

Home

Well we've moved and now I just have to unpack and build the loom again! We've also just been to Sweden to visit friends a very inspiring place with lots of very cool design shops (not just Ikea!).

getting ready to move

well its only a few days till we move now which means I should be cracking on with my warp! Instead I find myself packing boxes and bags! Its going ok just an experiment really for bigger things! And it comes with the difficultly that I'm not really going to see what it looks like till the warps off and I can wash and shrink it!!

new works

As I may only have one week with my loom where it is I'm trying to get one last warp through. I'm still a bit all over the place so I haven't got into a set routine with my design process, which usally starts with a sketch book and grows from there. So I'm just going to try some monofiliment as a warp in a distorted weft draft. This should give me an idea how the loom copes with monofiliment (and how i do!) so hopefully I'll post some pictures soon with how that turns out. Work starts tomorrow!

1st attempt

just getting started doing this thing so its a bit shakey to start - I'll get the hang of it soon I'm sure!
I've put a few pictures up (randomly in the middle as not got the hang of placing them!) of some of the work I did in Tanzania weaving and drawing.
The weaving was done on my little four shaft loom that I've now donated to the workshop in TZ.