Weaverly

Diving Into the Stash for a Journal

I've been wanting a blank journal for my own use—one with pages suitable for watercolor or other wet media. A few months ago I bought a pad of watercolor paper on sale at Hobby Lobby. I tore this down into folios for two 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 books, and started on book #1. For the covers I dove into my paper stash and found a Japanese metallic I'd purchased by mail order 25 years ago (this was pre-internet!). 

For the endpapers, there was a perfect suminagashi marbled paper from a trip to Portland. 

I assembled the signatures, wrapped them in gray paper to enhance the spine, and punched the holes. Choices, choices. What color for the waxed linen thread? At first I thought I'd pick a green or violet from the endpapers, but eventually I chose butterscotch. I didn't want the cover to be the star here, but the contents. Also had to choose a button. 

Here's the winner:

The signatures were punched, and the book now ready for its coptic stitching. If you click to enlarge, you can see the holes. The red string is just to hold things together temporarily.

This is the part I love. Starting is a bit tricky, but after that things go well if one pays attention.

Halfway through:

Stitching done! Now into the press for an hour or so.

The button and tie are affixed. Journal finished. Or actually it's just beginning. Have to add the contents.

 

Blowin' in the Wind

My dollmaking week has come back to bite me. That, and the nonstop weaving after I got home, and a few marathon sessions with the three-button mouse… My poor right hand has said, "Enough!"

For the next day or two I will be hanging out with books. I still have to finish that biography of Edward R. Murrow (a physical book with real pages), and then I will continue reading both Zuleika Dobson and The Patrick Melrose Trilogy  in virtual mode. That's the plan.

Off the Edge

I'm ba-a-ack! I had a computer snafu. Barb asked me if I know what that means. Yes, I do.

Thanks to Yahoo, ATT, and a generous helping of inattention on my part, I had a meltdown on the very day I launched my new monograph (see sidebar). Add to that a few concomitant snarls, and I felt like I was falling off the edge.

But all is now fixed, more or less. If you're interested, the above picture is the 16-shaft crepe I've started weaving. It's monochromatic, and should be a winner once it's washed. And it actually looks more interesting as you view it on the edge, where the lighting is more directional!

And just to get my blogging mojo back, I'll show you a cat picture I took at the Folk School last week.

Simple Blocks

The latest towel consists of simple blocks of crepe and basket weave. The crepe is a 16-shaft construction that looks like this:

…and the checkerboard on 32 shafts, with the basket weave for the second block (and 8 shafts for a selvedge, total shafts 40), looks like this:

And by now you know the drill—it'll look much better after washing.

In case you're getting tired of blue and white, here's a picture of a spring evening in South Carolina, taken a couple of days ago. This is especially for my friends who are experiencing snow (!) right now.

Just finished reading The Stranger's Child, by Alan Hollinghurst. It's hard to characterize this book—it's part literary mystery, part social satire, and a stylish commentary on the unreliability of memory. I loved it. Which reminds me—two other literary mysteries I have enjoyed are A.S. Byatt's Possession and Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time.

Sardines

A friend recommended a particular brand of Sardines he purchased in bulk at Costco. So last time I was there I tried some. They were pretty good in sardine & cream cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread. But what I particularly like is the boxes they come in—a really nice graphic design, and the size is perfect for book covers. Not just any books, but the kind I make out of discarded security envelopes. The envelopes are usually exactly the right size to use as pages for these books, without too much trimming, and the books go together quickly. These are not "precious" books, but the kind you don't mind scribbling in. I like to keep one next to each loom to take notes & keep records as I weave.

Leap Year Sale

Lulu.com has just sent me a message about a one-day sale. They are offering a 29% discount on any order (up to $250) through 11:59 pm February 29, 2012. If you have been thinking about purchasing Network Drafting or Liftplan Connection (or both!) this would be a really good time to do it. Just enter the code LEAPYEAR305 at checkout.

In Between

This is an odd in-between time for me. I'm working on several projects that I can't write about. Then there are these projects that are not very secret or glamorous, but keep up the creative momentum.

Some hand stitching, which I find very relaxing in the evenings while watching British mysteries:

Here's a new warp for the dobby loom (I am eternally hopeful):

And then I am proofreading this:

 

Dreaming and Weaving

There are people who start off the breakfast table conversation with, "I had this dream last night...". X tells Y his dream while Y listens patiently with an attentive look on her face, and then Y tells X her dream, same look on X's face. Many of us do this. The dream is quickly evaporating and we can hold onto the shreds only by telling or writing down. This dream-telling is also a form of friendly communication: "I'm here, you're here, we are enjoying this moment."

Dream-telling is also a way of beginning a story or song. Remember the opening line of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca?

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

Or perhaps this English folk song, a sea shanty, there are many versions, but here is the version currently floating around in my head:

I dreamed a dream the other night
Lowlands, lowlands away my John
I dreamed a dream the other night
Lowlands, my lowlands away

I dreamed my love came standing by
Came standing close by my bedside

She’s drowning in the lowland sea
And never more coming home to me

The sea-green weed was in her hair
‘Twas then I knew there was no life left there

She lies there in the windy lowlands
She lies there in the windy lowlands

I dreamed a dream the other night

A dream can also be seen as a metaphor for a wish or a passionately held vision, as in the famous lines from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

But sometimes a dream is just a dream, a rearranging and stitching together of all that stuff roiling around in the subconscious. Most of the time it's silly soup in the light of day, but occasionally insights bubble to the top and beg to be noted. So, my friends, I had a dream last night...

In my dream I was sitting at the loom and weaving, but at the same time I was sitting at the computer and designing a cloth. I was simultaneously typing and throwing a shuttle, the movements were somehow amalgamated. I was looking at the growing web, feeling its solidity and "clothness" but this cloth was the same as the pixels on the computer monitor. Not too hard to figure out! 

Here's a little graph to summarize what I mean. This is my dream-telling to you. Then you can go on and finish your breakfast.

 

Books and More Books

I seem to be caught in a balancing act between physical books and ebooks. I enjoy reading ebooks, and have read over half a dozen in the past year (The most recent is Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding. Loved it.). I also enjoy reading physical books, but I find them harder to hold comfortably, particularly the ones whose print runs into the gutter areas of the spine. What finally tips the contest in favor of ebooks, for me, is that I can make the print bigger in an ebook. That's a great thing, especially for "a person who has a certain number of birthdays," as my optometrist coyly states.

Yes, I see the wave of the future. More ebooks, fewer physical books. So here I am, very much behind the curve, launched wholeheartedly into an obsessive pastime of bookmaking. Go figure.

Here's the batch completed today:

While we're talking about books, you might like to see this video. It's an amazing stop-motion animation shot in a real live bookstore, with "real" books. Thanks, Jim, for sending me this one.

A Miscellany

The sky as I finished up my walk yesterday was threatening, to say the least.

During the night the wind blew and blew. Branches littered the ground this morning, but the sun shone brightly once again. Here are the first gleams on the backyard trees. No trees down, miraculously. 

In the studio, I've settled into a nice book routine. I do four at a time, which fits conveniently on my work table. First I paint all the covers on the reverse with matte medium and trim them to size. Then I glue on all the leather spines. Then I punch all the holes in all the spines. Then I punch all the sheets.

Then I do all the sewing (or at least I started. Had to stop for dinner.). 

Sounds a little bit like As I was going to St Ives, doesn't it?

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As your reward for staying with the tale this long, I have a wonderful video to share with you. You will love it, I promise. Click and enjoy.