Small Weavings

I thought I would have a walk down the lane that runs past my house and see what interesting things I could find to inspire some small weavings.

The first weaving was inspired by wool caught on the barbed wire fence.

The second weaving was based on a lichen on a dry-stone wall.

The colours of the vetch in the long grass inspired the third weaving.

A gazania from my garden inspired the fourth weaving.

Another small weaving was inspired by a small white feather I found on the front lawn.

3D Weaving based on Pink Rock

I have woven another 3D piece inspired by pink coloured rocks.

I love the patterns and the curved striped shapes and I think it lends itself to a 3D weaving. At the bottom [which will be the top] I wove patterns and then 3/4 warps that would be the stripes.

The warp was then pulled so it made curved shapes.

The ends were bound and then the rest was finished off.

Indigo Dyeing

The last hot day we had I decided to do some indigo dyeing as it is supposed to work best between 25 and 28 degrees C. I made up the dye vat according to the instructions and then put the cotton fabric to soak.

The fabric was then squeezed and folded in a variety of ways and held in place with rubber bands and pegs.

The fabric was then put into the indigo vat for a few minutes and then squeezed

When it was taken out of the dye the fabric was a yellowy-green but on contact with air it changed to blue.

After the oxygenation process had taken place the fabric was rinsed and placed on the line to dry'

The fabric was then ironed to reveal the beautiful patterns.

I also over dyed some fabrics that were too garish.

I now have a pile of fabric waiting to be used!

Poppies - Sketchbook work

I had some beautiful big poppies in my garden this year and I decided to use them for some sketchbook work.

The poppies have a wiggly circular shape with an inner black and green circle so I made a simplified collage shape of the poppies to produce a pattern.

.

I drew and cut out a stylised drawing of a poppy seed head on card

to use as a rubbing board. The first few rubbings were made on deli paper and then cut out and stuck to a background.          

Three more rubbings were made on copy paper. The rubbings were then worked into with eraser and pencils, to add shape and contours.

The rubbings were then stuck to a background.

Some more rubbing boards were made and then used as templates to make collage seed heads. These were then stuck onto a two tone background.

Once dry the seed heads were worked into with marks and straight lines were drawn to mirror the stems.

I made a rubbing board based on the pattern on the top of the seed head. Rubbings were made on deli paper.

The rubbings were cut out and stuck to a background to produce a pattern.

The sketchbook work has enabled me to learn more about poppies and possible ways of representing them.

3D weaving inspired by a Geode

After I spent a weekend in Edinburgh on a 3D weaving course I decided to have another attempt at home.
I found some photographs of geodes on line and then collected blue and gold wool ready for weaving.
I warped up my frame with a blue warp and started on the weft.

Using a variety of shades of blue I started weaving a zig-zag pattern inspired by the pattern in the rock.

When I had woven a few inches I then started to weave in sections of about 3-5 warp threads joining the sections in a few places.

When I had nearly reached the top of the loom I stopped weaving, turned the frame around and cut the top warp threads leaving the bottom attached so I could push against the frame as I pulled the warp.

By pulling more on the outer warp of each section the weaving curved reminding me of the layers in the geode.

When I was satisfied with the curving I then tied off the ends and bound them, leaving the warp hanging as decoration. I then cut the other warp threads to remove it from the loom and neatened them off.

I am quite pleased with the result and going to have another go with a pinky/purple one.