weave & stitch

mark making with stitch

beautiful handspun silk from Cyrpus…..very fine with a lovely slub

traditional cushion cover, handwoven, again from Cyprus

off loom weaving, this time from Manchester

bit of a break

Well, having had a bit of a break after Altrincham for some contemplation, its time to get back to making. I have been thinking about what interests me and what I actually want to be producing and how far removed from this I have become. So, back, refreshed and ready to allow my influences to take me along my own road to interpreting the information around me…….

………beginning with the Naum Gabo sketches I mentioned ages ago.  I love mark making and although these two images are more representational they still encapsulate the essence of it for me.  The washed out colours and I think something to do with it being the beginnings of an idea attracts me….I don’t even know if the finished piece would, although there was a lithograph by Gabo in the Whitworth Art Gallery a few years ago that I could stare at for hours.

Somehow, this doesn’t relate to handwoven bracelet cuffs!

Above and below are a couple of weaving doodles.  I have been neglecting my drawing and am now inspired to get back to  it.  Interpreting drawings into weave was something I enjoyed whilst on my degree course and taking mark making into weave is what I intend to concentrate on.  These two were done without the inspiration of a drawing (which I think is apparent) but just allowing myself to play with the thickness and density of yarn has given me a yen to draw again.

I am continuing to make runners and scarves for the upcoming Christmas markets I have booked but will be making sure that they incorporate the ladders and qualities of mark making that provides the interest for me. I will view it as a trademark!

Altrincham market

This was a very useful and positive day for me.  Setting out your stall makes those things you have been fiddling about with at home become real and you see what you would and wouldn’t do next time.

The market was very quiet, though I did overhear customers commenting that it was good to see more stalls there than usual.  As a farmer’s market it was more about food and I do wish that I could continue to go there every month but Friday is not a good day. Hopefully there will be the opportunity of a Christmas market or perhaps a Saturday. I would like to be able to support the people trying to rejuvenate Altrincham market and will do whenever I can.

Taking the loom with me was worth the effort (you can see the corner of it in the picture above). I usually have the problem of people not realising that I have actually made the fabrics on show so having the loom there gave a reference point to get this across.

Happily I was set up next to Annalise and her cup cake stall and so was sustained with cup cakes throughout the day. I am still dreaming about the lemon and raspberry.

Miss M was quite shocked to become a working girl at such a late stage in life. She coped admirably and behaved impeccably, well, she did bark and scare people off occassionally but she was provoked……

The heather weave has now been transformed into bracelet cuffs and hair slides in preparation for Altrincham market on Friday 2nd October.

At last the sun is out while I have the opportunity to take some photos.  My latest piece of weave is heather inspired…..thinking about autumnal knits and big jumpers now. The yarns are wild silks and cotton slubs, all are dyed with the same lavender colour yet some of the silks came out green and some blue, a happy accident.

fabric heaven

One of the most useful exercises we were encouraged to do on the degree course was to gather together whatever materials we used in doing our practical work and photograph them.  Just putting everything together made you notice what it is you are drawn to.  At the time I brought in all the fabrics I had amassed over the years thinking it would tell me nothing because they were so random. I ended up realising that I tend to go for a particular grey tone, so although all the fabrics were different colours and some quite bright, they matched because of the tone.  It was interesting to see.  (Can we ever really escape from ourselves…?)

Anyway I thought I’d try it for my current inspiration in the fabrics above.  Just an excuse for a fab photo and a burst of colour!  Thanks again Craig, also for putting me on to the ace camera that has enabled me to take half decent photos.

With such an array of pattern it is quite difficult to arrange them in any kind of order so I went with intuition rather than formal colour palette reasoning.

The fabric third from the top may be recognisable as the dress in the previous post, this gives a better idea of the colours, more bright greens and mustards than plums!

catch up

After a busy weekend there is quite a bit to catch up on.  I was pleased to have been highly commended in the Crafty Computer Papers competition http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk and happy to have been put into the advanced section! It was a last minute decision to send some photos in so I’m glad I did. Their printable fabrics are really useful.

Today I made a dress with some fabulous fabric very kindly given to me by my friend Craig, I plan on making a whole new wardrobe….and maybe a few dresses to sell on the craft fairs I intend to do in the run up to Christmas.

Also this weekend I have been working on a cover for the new Black River EP (see link to listen). Its great having lots of design orientated friends as they do fab things like send design possiblities for CDs as did Sarah Morpeth, unfortunately I hadn’t given her all the text that was needed so yesterday I fashioned a makeshift cover as we need to hand some out asap.

Also I wanted to include an update on the work with Sarah Still for her MA.  Its getting close to the end and she is stitching like mad.  I love the image below ‘leather detail’ and want that deckchair!  The two further images are some samples of weave I helped Sarah with on a crash course in weaving….

Am looking forward to seeing the deckchair Sarah is currently working on treating the frame as the basis for a giant thread wrap, echoing back to the pebble wraps pictured in an earlier post.