Japanese inspiration for a new adventure

A long overdue post, but really, just the beginning of a new story.

My weaving adventures in Japan have lead to even more weaving adventures in Australia and I have plans underway to open Art Weaver Studio in Melbourne in 2014.

With a view to becoming an accredited SAORI studio, www.artweaverstudio.com.au will soon be the web address to visit to keep up to date with what is happening.

Discovering the freedom to create at a young age

My wonderful full week of weaving training in Japan at Saorinomori in Osaka affirmed my desire to create a place where people of all ages and abilities can come together to discover and develop their own creativity. Saori weaving encourages, inspires and delights; enabling absolute beginners and experienced artists alike, to create individually unique cloth from the outset. 

Under the instruction of Kenzo Jo, co-founder of SAORI worldwide

Art Weaver Studio is the culmination of my lifetime love of colour and design, of the immense satisfaction in creating with one's own hands, and now of teaching and sharing this joy with others.

Here's a glimpse of what I enjoyed whilst at Saorinomori, a taste of what I hope to bring to others with Art Weaver Studio in the years ahead!

Absence of weaving

With my day job having to take precedence (out of necessity) over the past three months, there has not been any weaving since my brief Saori sojourn with Kax Maddigan of Curiousweaver, back in June.

SwingKnitting exploration

Hand-spun & hand-dyed Mohair

The only way I have been able to get through this weaving deficit has been to use the snippets of time available and knit. This has allowed me to (a) handle beautiful yarns (b) create (c) produce some functional items for self (d) contemplate ideas for future weaving.

• I became intrigued with something called "Swing Knitting" and explored the techniques and potential for infinite variation through this fascinating approach to using short rows.
• Learnt a little about Elizabeth Zimmerman and her approach to garment design through knitting a vest from a 1950s pattern.
• Discovered both the pleasure and frustration in knitting fine silk yarn into a lace shawl. 
• Knitted up some hand-dyed German sock yarn into a stunning collar.
• Delighted in knitting mohair, hand-spun and hand-dyed yarn by a friend, into a lacey, floppy beret.

Kyoto in Autumn

Weaving is definitely back on the agenda soon though, as I am off to Japan shortly for intensive weaving workshops in Osaka at Saorinomoro. Spending time also in Takayama during their famous Autumn festival and also visiting Kyoto. Won't be at all surprised if these strong autumnal tones appear in my weaving on my return!

Saorinomoro in Osaka, Japan

The anticipation of this adventure and learning opportunity has kept me going these past months and I am sure to return to weaving with enhanced skills, expanded ideas and new friends.

Autumn in Takayama

Of Mills and Twills

I recently unearthed a full 1 kg cone of yarn, made by one of the USA oldest mills, Holt Williamson. A 1939 copy of the Fayetteville Observer tells me that this mill was opened in 1898 and was originally a cotton mill. The owners were known for their care of employees, building homes, schools and providing free electricity for them. If you want to find out more about the history of this mill,  and the man behind it, here's a couple of interesting links: About William Holt Williamson also Fayetteville Observer 1939. 

The label on the cone tells me the colour is Amarillo, composition 53% rayon, 25% flax and 19% cotton, with an S twist and count of 2300 yards with a stamp stating it is "Made with Pride in the USA". I have absolutely no idea when this yarn was made.

Amarillo, with its gentle sheen and variegated cotton slubs throughout, is the inspiration for weaving  a set of 3 cushion covers for a friend. This is the first time I have worked with a fibre mix like this for the warp and quickly discovered that an even tension across the width of the warp was critical. Within the first 50cm of the weave, I managed to break a fair number of warp threads on one side of the weave before getting the tension just right. Once that was remedied, I was able to progress at a much more satisfactory rate! 

Each cushion uses a different mix of twill structures, using the same yarn as the warp together with wools, in natural, red, blue, yellow and greens (echoing the colours of the cotton slubs). I planned the weaving so each side of each cushion cover is different, to maximise visual changes when arranging them. Three cushions that can do the job of six different cushions. How's that for versatility!

Off the loom, broken warps mended, washed, steamed and ready to sew into cushion covers. Decided on two 45cm square cushions and one small rectangular cushion just to mix it up a bit. Some strong zips and set to work on the sewing machine.

Twill cushions view 1

Twill cushions view 2

Complete, with their inserts, ready to wrap for my friend for a belated birthday gift. These cushions have their story woven in!

Saori Sojourn

I have recently returned from a weekend workshop of weaving and warp dyeing held in Yarrawonga (Victoria) by Kaz Maddigan of Curiousweaver. This was a first for me - in that I had never previously woven alongside others!

Having followed Kaz's Saori exploits for the past couple of years and explored this approach to weaving on my own, it was a real delight to learn some specific techniques from her and to share in this experience with a group of like-minded weavers. 

Looms warped and ready to go, I enjoyed focussing on the intuitive approach to selecting my yarns for both colour and texture in real-time. No measuring, calculating, preliminary sketching or charting here. Simply moment by moment decisions, totally absorbing me as the hours of the weaving day flew by. All these images are of the one piece of Saori weaving I achieved in one day's weaving at the workshop!

With my planned trip to Japan to study at Saorinomoro in Osaka later this year all booked up, this weekend workshop reinforced my growing desire to focus more on expressive forms of art weaving. Seeing the work produced by the other weavers was truly inspirational and the variety of individual expressions infinite.

Harmonies in Yellow and Green

Time to try out a striped warp for the first time! I decided on a wool warp in a fine 3 colour stripe, which included selecting the correct yarns for the warp. This was tricky as I found several of the colours I wanted to use broke much too easily. I eventually settled on a bottle green (ex Wangaratta Woollen Mills - doubling it up for strength), a pale avocado (Bendigo Woollen Mills 2 ply current colour) and two single ply soft yellow/pale gold (origin unknown, also doubled up for strength,).

An 8-shaft pointed twill threading, making sure to calculate the colours of the stripe to sit exactly into the threading repeat. I've now learnt to make sure there are enough heddles on each shaft before I start. Still managed to make the warp wider than I intended though - simple basic arithmetic gone awry once again!


Threaded, beamed and ready to start

This project was an adaptation from Margo Selby's book "Colour and Texture in Weaving" but with completely different colourways and yarns.  After getting the hang of the patterns Goji and Grape, in between bands of tabby, I decided to be brave (or misguided) and design a pattern repeat of my own! Looking carefully at the effects of lifting different shafts in different combinations - and writing it down - I came up with my own pattern which I incorporated into the project.

Bands of Goji & Grape on tabby

Section of plain weave with the beginning of my design

Currently called Pattern "H" (until I think of a better name), it gives an interesting texture and intersects with the warp stripe in quite a different way to the bands of pattern previously woven in the same piece. Staying with this pattern now for the main body of the piece, I then finished off with variations of the highly textured bands of Goji and Grape once again.

Here it is, fringes finished, washed and steam pressed. A lovely drape and soft feel with balanced scale of the stripe within the width of the piece (27cm wide x 180cm length).

Purple Peacocks Plus

I have always been drawn to peacocks - well, specifically their colours. In my studio (on which I hand-painted a peacock on the outside wall), hangs a single peacock feather that has been in my life since I was a teenager. The iridescence of its colours never fails to enchant me and has been the inspiration for quite a few creative pieces over the years. 

With plenty of the deep olive warp still on my loom (see previous post), I set out to select an array of colours which would drift across the surface of a plain weave, constantly change their relationships to each other and be a woven reminder of my favourite peacock feather.

Selecting yarns from my stash is always for me like mixing paints, so I pulled out an array of silvery-sea greens, golden oranges and coppery bronze yarns to add to the purple I was already using in the weft.

Twisted fringes finished it off, and after a gentle wash and steam, it's already had its first autumn outing in early April. I know there's not really any purple peacocks, but .......... wouldn't they be fabulous!

The Next Challenge

I have a long history of never taking the easy road in anything I do. To make sure my brain and my skills are stretched yet once again, I decided to find a way to weave a wavy design (continual S curves) along the length of a fabric. This search brought me to network drafted advancing twills. Now, I can understand each of those words in isolation, but as a phrase, that was another thing altogether!!

Reading and re-reading (more than a couple of times) an indepth article on WeaveZine by Bonnie Inouye titled: Flowing Curves: Network Drafted Twill. I discovered how to do what I wanted on my table loom with six shafts. I took me quite a while to work out the process and I sure don't fully understand how to design my own weaving drafts, but I got to work deciphering the information. Bonnie is a highly experience weaver, so I was worried I may have been way out of my depth.

This meant a 42-thread repeat on the warp threading and a 100 pick (row) repeat in the weft weaving. And in between each of these pattern picks, were alternate odd & even tabby (plain) rows. Attention to detail at every level and step of the way was paramount to the success of this weave structure and design, but I was determined.

It's now complete.  A 2 metre scarf using a deep olive warp with purple and seafoam green weft. The set was possibly a little coarse and using finer yarns would have defined the pattern more, but it has a lovely soft drape. Once I got the hang of it, it was however quote boring to actually weave. I wasn't making moment by moment decisions about colours and different yarns and textures and all the things I really enjoy about weaving!  By following this weave pattern to the absolute letter (essential for the outcome), I became an extension of the loom. This process has produced a fine looking scarf, but without the personal input to design. To me, it doesn't have the life and energy that I bring to my art weaving.

Tiring of the repetitious weaving and abandoning the advancing twill pattern, I went on to have a bit more fun with a short scarf, introducing a multi-coloured yarn along with some silvery highlights. Just because I could!

Because I put on a 6 metre warp, I plan to move on to another 2 metre length which uses simple tabby weave BUT represents something much more, with use of different colours, yarns and their ever changing interactions.............

my next post will explore the outcome of that adventure!

Metamorphis: cloth to couture

My very first hand-woven cloth transformed into a hand-made couture garment!

 

Inspired by Japanese design, informed by patterns in a wonderful Saori design book, here is my first garment. The weaving referencing the tidal sea and sands, the garment constructed using the entire finished woven cloth, with minimal cutting and not one scrap of wastage!

I purchased the book Fuku no Katachi ni Suru (or How to make clothes with SAORI cloth) in Japanese from Kaz Madigan at http://curiousweaver.id.au a few months ago. Pouring over the images and pattern diagrams (not even attemting to read the Japanese text), gave me lots of ideas for construction of a range of garments using the whole cloth. With their sizing based on a "typical" woman of 163cm (I am 170cm) I figured that using a wider weave would take care of fit and proceeded to weave my piece at 50cm wide x 300cm in length. After washing and pressing, the finished dimensions were 45cm x 280cm - which proved how essential this step was BEFORE finalising the pattern measurements!

 
Having sewn since I was 14 years old has given me a good grounding in garment construction, yet I first set to work to make a toile from some old fabric. Never having pieced together simple rectangles of fabric previously, I wanted to make sure the reality matched the theory. It worked! I then adjusted the proportions of my pattern pieces to utilise the entire piece of my hand-woven fabric.

Constructing the jacket, which I discovered with delight, can be worn in several distinct styling variations, was simplicity itself. I would love to know what you think of my Silken Sands garment?

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!