Weaverly

A Booklover's Trio

Thank you, Jim, for sending me the link to this video. Be sure to stay for the summing-up at the end. It will make you smile (or maybe cry). 

In the studio, we're at work on another collaboration. Bruce assembled a collection of photographs called Rain, Fog & Ice, printed it on an Epson printer, and I'll be binding it after the covers dry (they were pasted up this morning). So far it's an edition of two; the covers are different. I can't stand to do the same thing twice. I guess that's why I'm not a production weaver.

 

And how do you get comfortable when reading a good book? Perhaps like this.

Trillium Exhibition Opening December 5

Everyone within driving distance of Travelers Rest, SC, is invited! Lecture and demonstrations at the reception. For my virtual friends, I'll post pictures after the event. Click to enlarge.

 
 

Inspection, and Another Book

When you come to inspect a building site, you've got to check out the machinery…

…and try out the new sidewalks.

 

Meanwhile, back in the studio, the results of the new screw punch are revealed. I like this book so much that I photographed it from all angles. This is the first book I made where the outside of the cloth spine is uncovered. The lining is handmade Thai paper fused to the cloth with Mistyfuse. I worried a little about fraying of the handwoven samitum (the cloth is recycled from a failed wallhanging) after the holes were punched, so I dabbed on a bit of FrayCheck before spine sewing. There was no discoloration after the FrayCheck dried, another good thing. The wrapping band is a simple 8-strand kumihimo braid, and the button is of unknown pedigree, from my stash.

 

 

 

Japanese Screw Punch

This fabulous tool arrived on my doorstep a couple of days ago, and it is a great addition to bookmaking. It punches tiny, perfectly round and clean holes in multiple layers of cloth, fusibles, board, paper, etc., and does it easily. Many of the book arts suppliers carry it; I got mine from Hollander's. 

I immediately tried it out on three books in progress. They were all soft covers of handwoven cloth, with linings of other handwoven cloth or handmade paper. In addition they had heavy black interfacing fused to the outside of the spines. I was very happy with the results. The holes are easy to see, and the stitching of the spines went quickly. The stitching is all longstitch with waxed linen. The bands are simple 8-strand kumihimo braids.

 

Here are some more photos of the book fronts, closures, and linings.

 

 

 

 

Double Twill Blanket

The weave blanket for the double twill structures is complete. Click to enlarge.

The reasoning behind this blanket is to select just a few of the hundreds (thousands?) of possibilities of double twill variations, and get a maximum color range. I focus on just the front of the cloth for use in wall hangings, although the back is also attractive. The back is always 2/2 twill. The top layer can be 1/3, 2/2, or 3/1 twill. There are two warps (black and white) and four wefts (magenta, blue, green, and yellow, although these could be any color). The top warp can be woven with one, two, or three of the four wefts, the remaining weft(s) weaving with the back warp. Narrowing the choices this way results in a total of 84 weaves, which are shown in the blanket above (the first two rows are the weaves with white warp on top, and the bottom two rows with the black warp on top).

I know that some of you are thinking that there are many more possibilities with this structure: top layer consisting of one black/one white/repeat, addition of other twill weaves (left leaning, broken, etc.), and addition of other weaves such as plain weave, basket, etc., and you are right. But I find it easier to narrow my choices in the interest of weaving sanity. So these are my choices. But you are encouraged to experiment and come up with your own set of double twill weaves. Please let me know how you fare!

Another interesting note: this structure requires 8 warp ends and 16 weft ends for one complete repeat. I have chosen to double it to 16 x 32, and include a tie in each 16 x 32 array, because I don't like my jacquard-woven double weave layers separate. But the ties could be omitted and the weave reduced back to 8 x 16, and then it would be very usable for dobby work on 16, 24, 32, and 40 shaft looms. The 16 x 32 version is described in detail in The Woven Pixel.

Trains: A Collaboration

Bruce has amassed quite a collection of train photos and I suggested that we collaborate on a one-off handbound book on this subject.

I prepared a Photoshop layout in which to "drop in" photos, so that we could print two folios at a time on a single sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 paper (front and back). Bruce supplied me with 72 of his gorgeous black and white train photos on disk. I winnowed these down to 69, composited the photos and title page onto the layout, and Bruce printed the composites on his Epson printer on Aurora Fine Art Natural, a heavyweight matte paper from Red River Paper. The result was six signatures of 3 folios each, or 72 pages.

For the cover, I wanted something elegant and understated, so as not to detract from the photos, and selected black Tyvek. I machine stitched undulating lines on the cover material in shades of white and gray thread, to suggest train tracks. I then glued the Tyvek to boards, and for the endpapers I selected aubergine drawing paper to pick up the aubergine cast of the toning Bruce uses on his prints.

 

 

 

 

Here's a spine picture, showing the coptic stitching:

 

…and of course there's a little jacquard slipcase to protect the book in Bruce's briefcase during journeys to and from Photoshop classes.

 

Finished size of book: 4-1/2 x 5-3/4".

 

Pixies

When we awoke this morning and looked out the window, we saw this erosion barrier along the creek. It wasn't there last night, so I conclude the pixies came and installed it while we were asleep. 

 

The pixies did not finish winding and beaming this black and white warp, however. This was done by yours truly this morning.

 

And the pixies had nothing to do with this kumihimo cord. I am experimenting with different treatments for the bands around my current crop of soft-cover long-stitched books (and yes, Barb, I think the ply-split bands will be way nicer). 

So the score today is Pixies 1, Alice 2.

Time Well Spent

I'm trying to improve my command of long-stitch binding technique. In their excellent book Books, Boxes & Wraps, Marilyn Webberley and Joan Forsyth suggest that time practicing the long-stitch with discarded manila file folders is time well spent, and they are right! I made a dummy book out of file folders and practiced stitching on this mock-up, and I'm much more confident of my binding skills now. 

 

There was more time well spent in the weaving studio today. I finally got over being depressed about the failure of my black warp of a month ago, and started a new warp with new yarn, this time black and white for a double twill project. It's going slowly but well. There are no sexy pictures to show you yet, but I did want to mention it.

And while I was warping, all h*** broke loose outside. The landscapers are back after a weeks-long rain delay. It was kinda hard to concentrate while these guys were moving rocks and such right outside my studio door, but I'm so glad they're back. I made a little movie as they moved the bridge upstream a couple of feet, if any of you are interested in such exciting stuff.

A Broom of One's Own

I enjoy reading about writing. Some of my favorite books about the writing life are Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Steven King; The Alberta trilogy by Cora Sandel; and A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.

Now I have another favorite, from a suggestion by Tommye in her blog post of Sept. 27: 

 

It's called A Broom of One's Own by Nancy Peacock. Nancy is a wonderful writer who supported herself as a house cleaner while writing her first two novels. She writes convincingly about finding time and space for one's art, and about listening to the authentic voice within. This book is by turns hilarious and deeply touching. And Ms. Peacock crafts a darn good sentence, too. I found myself reading parts of it out loud to anyone within hearing distance. Thanks, Tommye, for recommending this.

Going Through the Mail, and a Placemat

One of the less fun things about travel is dealing with the accumulated mail when you get back. This is the stack that awaited my attention today:

 

But these days I enjoy the process a little more, as I've been rescuing recyclable paper, mostly from the backs of envelopes. This is the paper I culled; it will be used in one or more handbound books at some point. The patterns on the backs of the security envelopes are especially interesting.

 

The placemats that are peeking out from behind the paper are from the early 1990's, have been laundered multiple times, and still look pretty good. They are a networked twill for 8 shafts and no dobby, and the draft can be found on page 92 of Network Drafting: an Introduction.

I find it amusing (and frustrating) that some people assume that Network Drafting is out of print. It is not out of print! After three printings I no longer publish it myself, but have handed the job over to www.lulu.com. Anyone going to the Lulu website and searching on Network Drafting will find it. Actually, anyone googling Network Drafting will find it. It's now only a few dollars more than it was when first published in 1994. Occasionally I see it offered on eBay and described as out of print (I saw it just this week). Once I even saw it offered as a "rare gem" with a reserve price of $300. I often wonder whether the seller got his price. I hope not, for the sake of the poor buyer.