Silken Sands

I began this weaving with loose ideas and concepts. After an overload of planning and documentation in past months, I wanted to weave a summer fabric in silk and cotton allowing intuition to be my main guide.

Commencing with the natural silk/cotton blend warp and the same yarn in the weft, I gradually introduced a natural raw silk, a hand dyed blue softly spun silk, and yet another raw silk (also dyed blue). To add some energy and contrast to this softness, I had to include a wonderful multicoloured yarn sourced from the Linton Mills in the UK in 2011.  Varying the beat, using two shuttles and two sticks at times, this weaving continues to grow and speaks to me of the soft colours of silken beach sands and seaweed.

Having now just returned from a few restful days at Port Albert (Gippsland's oldest port), and after a long trek around the shores of the nearby Nooramunga Coastal & Marine Park, I was surprised to see how the colours of the tidal beaches there echoed the colours in my weaving begun two weeks before this visit. I was also delighted to see a recent post by Curiousweaver http://curiousweaver.id.au/ about her recent seaweed weaving experiment! 

As a non-swimmer with a fair Irish-Anglo complexion, beaches are not usually a place where I spend much time. So my colours are not of typical Australian sunny, hot beaches, but rather of softer shades, where different blues and greens meet and move across the sandbars.

Beach at Nooramunga Coastal & Marine Park, Port Albert, Victoria

Another strong image on this walk, that may well appear in future weaving, was the large number of huge banksia trees. I had never seen so many banksia in one place and was intrigued by their twisted forms, their large soft yellow flowers in full bloom and the myriad of fallen dark eyed banksia cones.

Weaver to Weaver

Back in early December, Meg  http://www.megweaves.co.nz/ proposed a way of connecting with other weavers around the globe and sharing some "weaverly love". I signed up for this and sent off two little packets of inspiration to weavers in New Zealand and USA, neither of whom I have ever met. The next step was waiting for a couple of packets to arrive from others, all of us assigned names randomly.

I had been wondering who would be sending me some weaverly love and excited about the possibility of some new weaving friendships. With the new year off to a start, I was delighted to receive the two envelopes over the past couple of weeks.

 The first one, from Helen, filled with inspiring images and pieces of her own weaving. She is a long way ahead of me in weaving experience and her letter was filled with the wonderful details of her 2012 weaving year. Truly inspiring and as she just so happens to live nearby, we may actually meet up in person to share even more. One can never have enough weaving friends!

Close up of Helen's yarn & handwoven fabric samples

 My second package arrived today from Jane in the UK. Inside was a copy of an exquisite painting done by a friend of hers (http://www.amandapellatt.co.uk), based on Jane's Chinese moon moths. Apparently Jane raises these moths from silk worms. She also included some lovely hand dyed silk yarn in soft greens and rose. Jane is an experienced textile artist and tutor, and you can read more about her at http://www.janedeane.co.uk/  Thank you Jane!

With comparitavely so little hand weaving in Australia, it is exciting for me to meet up with other weavers, even if by long distance. There is ALWAYS something new to admire, learn and be inspired by. Thank you Meg for initiating Weaver to Weaver!