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).

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.

BAREFOOT weaving

With my looms currently empty and awaiting a new warp, I had planned to get onto a new weaving before the end of 2012. However, currently laid low with a severe throat infection since Boxing Day, means it will be 2013 before I trust both my brain and body to go through the complexity that is the warping process again!

Portion of woven tapestry by Marie Gnarajah

However, weaving and woven textiles are still close at hand, with my son's gift of a wonderful new woven tapestry from weaver Marie Gnarajah of the BAREFOOT weaving studion in Sri Lanka. This weaving is 1700cm x 900cm and will be hung in my family room (opposite my floor loom), the colours perfectly complimenting the decor. 

A few months ago he also brought back from his visit to their studio in Colombo, two lengths of fabulous warp faced heavy cloth. One has already been in use as a perfectly sized tablecloth for my rather large family table and the other (pictured below) currently draped across the back of a sofa as I cannot bear to cut it. Simply constructed in plain weave, but the use of colour is superb, with each piece of cloth imbued with an energy that only handweaving brings to cloth making.

 

BAREFOOT began over 40 years ago when Barbara Sansoni was invited to design cloth for women learning to weave in a convent workshop North of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Today the company she founded has a small team of dedicated designers who work with our own dyers, weavers and skilled needle women. Take a look at http://barefootceylon.com/ to see something of the beauty that is BAREFOOT.

Weaving a Life

Weaving a life

with threads of glass;

fragile and sharp

they can cut you.

Reflecting a world

of beauty and pain;

the warp of years

the weft of experience.

Weaving a life

with threads of song;

joyous release

it can free you.

Harmonies of love and sorrow;

the warp of years

the weft of experience.

H.Walters 2011

I wrote this poem last New Year's Eve - clearly in a deeply contemplative mood at the time! With my mother's 80th birthday approaching I have reflected on her life. Her lack of options for education, her entire adult life marred by illness, repeated surgery and long periods of hospitalisation. 

Her indirect influence on my life has been conversely to value education, value independent thinking, question everything and value creativity. My gift to her is to weave a summer silk wrap, combining a strict weave structure with free form Saori type weaving. Somewhat of a metaphor for our contrasting approaches to life!

This wrap comprises my first attempts at a leno weave, my first use of a silk warp and weft and using the maximum width on this loom at 45cm. The finished length of the wrap is 185cm plus 18cm fringes at both ends.

 

As I wove, I made conscious moment by moment choices about changing the weave structure, adding silk fibre, changing the beat and skipping some warp threads. Struggling with uneven warp threads due to my uneven beaming, meant I had to constantly add weights to parts of the warp. It sure wasn't smooth sailing! Rather like our lives.

It is now off the loom, hemstitched, washed to see settle the silk yarns into their new life, twisted fringes done and ready to give to my mother. With my love woven in, even if I cannot say the words.