New Warp

My new warp has now been dyed and is back on the warping frame.  I hope to get it onto my loom tomorrow.  It is looking pretty, the colours travel from a pale yellow, to mix with pink creating coral and through to a bright pink.

 

I enjoyed a trip into Leeds last week, I wanted to go to the library to see what weaving books they had, not many I found out, but still worth a look in the Art Library, I always find something interesting.  It's a lovely building too.

 

There was a display of antique butterfly and moth encyclopedias with their illustrated plates.

The building is linked to Leeds Museum, although I didn't have a look around, I did manage to get into the gift shop.  I really like this illustration from Ohhdeer.com, which was on the cover of a notebook, it's fun and I am always drawn to anything to do with animals.  The face and eyes are so lifelike, but the feathered headdress shows that it has clearly been painted, I like this mix of realistic and playful, creative art.

First warp finished!

I've had a busy time over the last week or so, I intended to finish this warp as quickly as I could.  I wanted to see how the threads would work, and what types of items the cloth would be suitable for.

It has created a really delicate cloth, with a lovely drape, and I am really pleased with the way the dyes have worked on the warp.  I intend to carry on experimenting with this dyeing technique to see what other results I can achieve.  It was interesting overdyeing the yarn as this means the yarn is all colour, so even areas I did not apply dye to are still a pale yellow, as was the original colour of the yarn.

I'm preparing my second warp, and including lots of ties so that it doesn't get tangled after it has been dyed.  The first warp I made I tied after every 50 ends, which probably wasn't enough really.  This time I'm doing it after every 20 ends. 

We'll see how it goes.

Preparing my warp

I am so excited, I have just got a warp onto my loom.

I decided to have a go at warp painting, I wanted to create a soft look to the weave and I like the way the painted warp gives the variations in colours across the cloth, rather than the striping created by using single colour threads. 

The inspiration has been my floral pinhole photos, which create blurred images of colour.  The images convey memories, when we reflect on images in our mind, they are not always clear and things may be missed.  The images have a romantic feel to them.

 

 

I took inspiration from this photograph to match colours and to inspire the dyes I used.  The warp is an organic cotton warp, and I dyed it using procion dyes.

 

I didn't leave the dye on too long as I didn't want the colours to be too bold.  The colours have a fresh summery feel to them.

 

I'm really pleased with the way it is weaving up, this is a distorted twill pattern, using a pale green.  I wanted to try a few different structures and colours, but as I am pleased with this I am going to keep going for a while before moving onto another colour and structure.  I'm hoping to create purses and other small pieces from this warp.

Spinning

On Sunday 2nd March I was invited to take part in a Spinning workshop at Texere Yarns.

I have previously had a go at spinning, and it was great fun to give it another go, the main aim of the day was to get used to using a drop spindle, it was all going so well with the fleece that was brought in, however, as I attempted to try other fibres such as possum! and merino it all started to go a bit wrong.  More practice needed I think!!

It was great to have a go on a spinning wheel as well, I think I preferred this to the drop spindle as I felt my hands could just concentrate on teasing fibres, rather than having to keep spinning the spindle.

It is such an art and I really admire those that do it, they make it look so effortless. 

I came away with an interesting - highly textured, length of yarn, which I intend to have a go at knitting up, although what size needles to use is anyone's guess!

My name is Paula Cutter and I graduated in 2013 with a First Class Honours Degree in Contemporary Surface and Textile Design.  I intend to continue with my exploration of woven design and set myself up as a Designer Maker creating products such as scarves, bags, cushions etc.

I like to explore themes with drawing in different types of media, along with photography.  Whilst studying I began to experiment with alternative image capture techniques, such as pinhole photography.  I intend to continue with this as it is such an interesting and exciting process.

I have an 8 shaft loom on which to create fabrics.  Experimenting with the setting up of the loom, the preparation of the warp and the weave structures will be a continuous journey with many possibilities. 

Whilst studying I wrote a dissertation on the slow movement and as part of this researched sustainable and environmentally friendly fibres, I intend to source yarns with these credentials for my collections.

Alongside my work as a Designer Maker, I am also going to be working part time at Texere Yarns, which I am really excited about.  They are a large mill shop in Bradford, selling yarn, books and accessories along with running workshops throughout the year.

I look forward to the journey and will post images, explorations and thoughts as I go.