Blog Archives

I Dreamed I Warped a Giant Loom

4/26/2016

and was so disappointed to wake up and find it wasn't true
that before I even had a cup of tea (Earl Grey of course),
I started pulling enormous and dusty pieces of pipe from under the bed.

Then I pushed them back.

There are mobiles to balance
and existing tapestries to mount.

"Fill In The Blank"; mobile; wool, wire, fishing swivels (and various other works in progress on the wall)

I have neither the time nor the space nor the mental energy just now,
for unknown projects of massive dimension.

But perhaps a bit of pre-emptive knee reinforcement,
would take the edge off my desire.

As I stitched, however, I thought about things I might weave.

No perfect ideas showed up.
But still,
I am left with jeans that are stronger than they were

and the smouldering feeling
that if I did happen to mess around with the odd piece of pipe
and wind a bit of white warp
--nice and tight--
fabulous things might happen.

Box Blues

4/19/2016

This Bag On A Box Business has got me again.

I only meant to do some quick testing
(warp material, box shape and and warping direction)
to make sure I had my ducks in a row for the June workshop,

but after looking through drawings I made in 2003
(illustrations to show the illustrator of Kids Weaving what I needed her to draw for the book)
knotted pile suddenly seemed like a good idea.

Remember when you photocopied drawings to make them smaller then taped them together?

Indeed, yesterday I decided that weaving cut pile
on a cardboard box might be what sunny afternoons are for.

Yarn composition and construction make SUCH a difference in pile texture and surface.

Not only is the loom portable,
but what a decadent treat to work from the bottom up
and the top down at the same time!

Working in the round (as it were)
provides other sides of the box for soumak experiments.

And then, since I was outside and dressed in blue,
an indigo pot suddenly seemed like a good idea.

Because if a gal is messing around with texture,
she might as well go all the way and weave with roving.

How's that for being influenced by contemporary weaving culture?

That was mostly yesterday.
But so excited I was I to get back to these boxes this morning
that I forgot it was blog day today, and blithely wove in my nightie until an unconscionable hour.

But now, tra la, I'm about to hit 'post"
so it's another cup of tea and back outside for me.

Plant peas? Or Weave?

ps.
If you want to learn more about weaving cut pile and soumak
check out Sara Lamb,
and her book Woven Treasures

Rainy Tuesday

4/12/2016

The day before yesterday I planted lettuce.
Today I hope the drippy weather
will encourage the seeds to sprout.

Planting seeds and believing they'll become food
is amazing.

"The Raft That Rolled Into The Pond" practiced outside yesterday.

So too, is learning a tune in the hope of playing it with others,

Work in Progress; Wheatstone English Concertina (circa 1907); knitting; flash cards; Alas, I can't knit or draw while playing.

or buying a fleece and imagining a garment.

Dirt and Sky -- my new shirt! Spindle spun wool (cormo and polworth); indigo and walnut dye.

It's even amazing when I am doing the work.

Perhaps I am easily amazed.

Juggling; mobile; hand woven tapestry; embroidery; wool; pebbles; wire; fishing swivels. (Hard to photograph something that keeps moving)

I'm certainly easily amused.

Off The Wall

4/5/2016

It is my belief that every tapestry has the right
to move and sway and spin.

My first tapestry Mobile. Dimensions on the slide. Remember slides? Remember the little dot in the corner? Feels like a long time ago. I miss them.

Indeed, freeing my tapestries from strictures
is what you might call a long term goal.

Tapestry Mobile (detail); Hand Woven Tapestry; Hand Spun Wool; ©Sarah C. Swett 1997

Not that it is often realized.

Tapestries end up on walls more often than not
(and look darned good while they are about it).

Concertina Face; 4 1/2" x 3 1/2"; Hand Woven Tapestry; Hand Embroidery; hand spun Wool; natural dye; ©Sarah C. Swett 2016

But even when on the wall, they usually have the structural integrity to hang with minimal support and do not need to be stretched or stapled or otherwise confined.

Not that I haven't done all three things to various works over time,
but it always feels like I'm being mean.

Twirling is such fun.
And cloth is so good at it.

Getting my work out into the air is made easier for me
because I work in all my weft tails as I go
so the front and back look essentially the same.
(They are not but that is not a topic for today).

Of course as per last week's post, the embroidery remains one sided.

I've also been helped by an endless attraction to the thrill of experimentation--
a tug toward the open air of weaving techniques I haven't seen before.

"Front on the Line" from the two part tapestry mobile, "Back to Front". circa 2000

Indeed, to touch on something my friend Summer wrote about in her blog post yesterday,
I end up spending a lot of time in the guise of a beginner.

Actually, now that I write this, getting the work off the wall has rarely been the primary motivator in pursuing a work, but rather an ever-welcome addition.
I started weaving Margin Notes, for instance, as a response to my jealousy
of a character in a novel I was writing:

My protagonist, Love Miranda, wove pages and pages of long narrow tapestries before I had to stop writing to copy her. Only later, as they hung in the middle of a room so you could move through them as though through a forest, the tapestries responding to whoever came by as that person responded to them-- like a dance-- did I see how much I wanted that too.

Sadly, I never wove enough to get the full effect, but you should have seen how fabulous they looked in the story.

Casting Off: A Comic in Seven Tapestries -Pages 2-3; 10" x 10" x 2"; wool, natural dye, cotton/ hemp, thread ©Sarah C. Swett 2009

Tapestry books are another way to escape the dreaded frame,
the reader getting to touch each page in its turn
and experience the heft and fluidity of this amazing cloth.
One of these days, I'll return to these.
When the time is right.

Untitled as Yet; Tapestry Mobile in progress; Wool, Stone, Fishing Swivels; Contorted Filbert

Isn't it great how ideas circle around?
Nearly 20 years after that first mobile,
I'm exploring the form again.

Making Mobiles by Guy R. Williams; Emerson Books, Inc. New York 1969

When I started writing this morning I thought I'd end up getting into some of the reasons I find frames claustrophobic. but I think I'll save that for another day

It's all just so interseting.

I Dreamed I Warped a Giant Loom

Box Blues

Rainy Tuesday

Off The Wall

Sarah C Swett
tells stories
with
and about
hand spun yarn.

Categories

Archives

I Dreamed I Warped a Giant Loom

Box Blues

Rainy Tuesday

Off The Wall

​Sarah C Swett tells storieswith​ and about hand spun yarn.

Categories

Archives

Sarah C Swett
tells stories
with
and about
hand spun yarn.