Finished Scarf

I need a model to wear it for a photo - looks a bit silly on me !!

How Hot is Hot?!!

So hot, I had to turn off the Octado control box - its 40 degrees here and the solenoids were overheating and not delivering enough power to activate the piano keys !!!!! Phew!!!!!

Heatwave for 10 days. Too hot to work, so weave!

3 metre warp of 'Sonata' yarn in browns - a soft, brushed wool/mohair/acrylic yarn with a lurex thread throughout. Plus 8 fancy warp threads.

 Warped and ready to go. I have started to run these 3 metre warps over the back , down to the bottom second beam before returning, upwards to the main beam ( with the sectional warp bars still in place. This way I can get 3 metres of warp onto the loom with only one turn on the beam...makes getting an even tension a breeze, especially with these fancy yarns with different  elasticity.

 The first half metre woven. Using a very open weave to maintain the warp stripes visibility (using the Sonata in the weft as well).  The fancy felt flags have to raised by hand as they get woven in. I am also weaving in a mesh ribbon yarn (I discovered it in the local bric-a brac shop in Riberac) which snakes its way over the surface on the entire length. It can be twisted (or not) to make it scallop when it opens out.

Detail of the mesh ribbon and the open weave

Craft Fair at La Tour Blanche, 21st July

Yesterdays Craft Fair was great fun. Gail made a great job of the stand and we had a lovely summers evening under the shade of the plane trees demonstrating weaving and chatting about it.  With the bonus of being right opposite the bar and an invitation to dinner with our friends Anj and (Top Chef) Mark, all in all a great day!

 It is such a beautiful village and there are several events throughout the summer, including a very popular annual Music Festival Day which we enjoyed last month.
Gail took her Ashford 8 shaft loom and we demonstrated and let lots of the kids have a go...

This was the first of what is intended to be an annual event for craft and artisans to exhibit, demonstrate and sell.

 Some of the range of handbags and bags I had woven for the fair. One was ear-marked before we went.  Gail exhibited some of her stuff as well, including the throw in the foreground.

The table lamps looked nice on their display and it got dark enough towards the end of the evening for them to light up the stand...it looked really nice and gail did a brill job of making the stand look inviting.

I brought my wall hangings along too...everything had a price tag, but  a sleepy local craft fair was never going to get big spenders in attandance.... the lady who made her own honey and the artisan ice-cream were about the only sellers...except of course for the bar...LOVELY pinaut :-)

Gails "Memories" project

RAG WEAVING

Gail is developing an idea using rag weaving to provide a momento of childrens' early years. The idea is to produce a woven momento from favourite outfits they have grown out of. As young childrens' clothing is often colourful and colour coordinated, it is ideal in rag strips for weaving into a picture or an item they may continue to use in, say, their bedroom. By using a complementary colour of fabric to accompany the strips cut from the garment, Gail's designs maintain the original impression of the original.
This is destined to be a wall hanging. Table or overhead lamps as well as runners for the bedside table are two other ideas to produce a 2 or 3 piece momento from an old and favourite outfit.

This one is really lovely; I love the design she has used and it really evokes the original girl's dress it was taken from.

Two pictures showing
the details

Modern Take on the Tea Light Lamp

A self-supporting lamp shade that accepts
an electronic tea-light unit (a 3V 4x LED unit).
Woven double weave on same linen warp as the other lamps. The fringe top and bottom are vitrified; te bottom to allow the fring to support the weight of the woven tube. The 2nd layer is a chenille which is opaque allowing the base layer linen to glow with the light.

 Detail showing the top fringe - I didn't want a 'twee' and neat fringe - so I clumped it together rather than combing it whilst still wet to give a 'bedragled, wet-look to the fringes.

The LEd light at the bottom of the shade

Lamps in Doubleweave

The first of 6 lamps to be woven in double weave.  I wanted to produce an open but stiff base layer for the lampshade structural material with a very open transparent top layer which I could shape and mould around the shade.  This first one has the second layer attached only at one end. This allowed me to roll it up out of the way whilst I vitrified the linen cloth into a tube. The rigid tube was then shaped and finally, I was able to unroll the top layer and curve and shape it before attaching its open end. 

Shite photo, but you get the idea!!
The layer effect is fantastic and the support given by the linen allows the top layer to be attached in places to make folds and also to drape naturally where it remains unattached.




The remaining ones will use this technique and also weaving in the two layers in places to form pockets which will be used to make it 3 dimensional - in this case I can't vitrify the base layer so these cloths will be attached to a celophane layer before being formed.

 A 10/3  Linen warp 12" wide, variable set at 8-12epi with the second layer at just 5epi. The base layer weft is 8 lea's linen, plain weave to produce a firm but fairly open cloth to form around the vitrified tube. The second layer used a fancy yarn in the weft woven open (4-6 picks layer 1, 2 picks layer 2)