Weaverly

Night Gardening and a Change of Plans

A book I really enjoyed at BookOpolis is the work of Cynthia Colbert, entitled Night Gardening. Here's the carved poplar cover:

…and the spine in longstitch over tapes:

…and finally, a little video of a cooperative bystander turning the pages of Cynthia's book: 

 

According to the label, the materials used are paste paper, waxed linen, carved poplar, milk paint, laser printed on linen/cotton stock, illustration board & book cloth.

And now for the Department of Best Laid Plans. I did actually go down to the studio yesterday morning and turned on the dobby loom, and when I opened the first shed, there was a loud clunk and a cable connector broke. A replacement is on the way. Meanwhile, I had two choices: start another warp for loom #2, which is at the end of its current warp, or paste up a cover for another book. Guess which one I chose. 

Paper-Based Image Editor

You know how partial I am to Photoshop. Well, the unimaginable has happened. I've come across a program that is in every way superior to Photoshop. Take a look here.

A Serious Guilt Trip

This gal was working busily on her weaving out on the deck this morning…

…and she made me feel so guilty, as I haven't been near a loom in 2 weeks. Every time I go down to the studio, the paper calls me. I made two more books today:

The cover papers are brown Japanese handmade paper collaged with torn strips of gold tissue and slathered with PVA. The stitching is Coptic, and in the foremost book the stitching extends into a leaf shape that I punched into the boards.

The endpapers of this book are a very shiny gold paper that had been hiding on a shelf here forever. You can see the leaf stitching on the underside of the cover. Here's another view of the stitching on the outside. Click to enlarge.

The endpapers of the second book are holographic paper I bought the last time I was in Florida. This paper really says "Miami" to me. Depending on how the light hits it, it knocks your eyes out.

Meanwhile, the mailperson brought some new supplies. Here's some interesting handmade Thai paper. Won't this make a gorgeous book?

And at last a new supply of waxed linen for the Coptic stitching, as I've almost used up my current spool.

Now tomorrow I will really get back to the loom. Really.

BookOpolis

Yesterday Mimi and I drove to Asheville to see BookOpolis at the Asheville BookWorks. What a great event! In spite of the terrible weather, BookWorks was packed from wall to wall with artists and art book lovers of all ages. There were demonstrations of printing, paper making, binding, and woodblock carving; participants were encouraged to print and bind their own small book; and there were books, books, books to admire and even pick up and examine. Here is just a small sampling of what we saw: 

If you're in the Asheville area, you can still see the exhibition until October 2. 

Third Soft Book

Thank you to Janet & Connie for their suggestions to use iron-on interfacings in the clothbound books. I will be on the lookout for the black version. 

Here's another book (still with Tyvek). I added some random running stitches in red (from my thrums collection!) to tie the layers together and buttonholed the edges. The outer fabric is a lampas jacquard scrap with handspun pattern weft. The handspun is from my earliest spinning days, and it is amusing to see the little corkscrew overspun bit in the upper left of the picture. Click to enlarge.

The button is another oddity from my stash.

Here's a view of the inside. The lining fabric is a twill variant. The pages are recycled from a huge box of computer paper I bought about ten years ago; the paper is white and one side and shades from pale to deep yellow on the other (what was i thinking?). 

Today I'm off to BookOpolis in Asheville. Can't wait!

Longstitch and Tyvek

When I first dove into bookmaking, my intention was to use handwoven fabric for the covers. I kind of got sidetracked and have enjoyed doing Coptic sewings with paper-covered boards. I'll probably continue to do these Coptic books, as they are really fun and totally addictive. But today I returned to the original plan of soft handwoven covers and longstitch bindings. 

I sandwiched two handwoven fabrics with Tyvek in the middle of the stack, and quilted them together with straight and zigzag stitches. The outer fabric is a jacquard scrap, and the inner fabric is from a dobby piece. The Tyvek came from a recycled mailing envelope. This stuff is tough! It's impossible to tear it. Then I glued an additional strip of Tyvek inside the spine area to prevent stitch blowouts.

Here's a view of the spine; the longstitches are hard to see because the linen cord is light brown, but they are good and straight. Click to enlarge. For you who care about these things: notice the kettle stitches at the head and tail.

Here's a view inside the book, showing the Tyvek reinforcement strip in the spine area.

All the fabric edges are left unfinished except for a line of zigzag around the perimeter; it's a slightly shaggy aesthetic. No doubt that this is a textile! The button is imitation ivory from my stash. All the cords are waxed linen.

Future books: I'd like to investigate black Tyvek; since the Tyvek shows a bit at the edges, I think I'd like the black better.

Tapestry Weavers South

If you're anywhere within driving distance of Anderson, SC (or even if you're not!) a visit to the Anderson Arts Center will be well worth your while. From now until October 16, Tapestry Weavers South is featured in a juried exhibition. Twenty-two weavers are represented, some by several tapestries each, in this breathtaking exhibition. The work is beautiful, and the galleries are spacious and well lighted. I loved this show! Check it out.

Closing the Gaps

I'm slowly using up every scrap of paper in the house in my book experiments. This includes the cardboard backings on sketch pads, old half-used notebooks, junk mail, etc. I can practice various stitchings without fear of wasting precious materials. Today's book has orange accordian-pleated inserts to close up the inside gaps between signatures. This also adds a jolt of color to the spine and I like the effect, but it makes the stitching very tedious. I don't think this will be a permanent part of my repertoire!

Another thing I tried today was to jazz up the stitches connecting the covers to the signatures. This part was fun, and I can see opportunities here for more exploration. 

Random Weaves

A recent thread on WeaveTech about accidental weaves got me thinking in a Photoshop direction. Converting an RGB or grayscale image to a bitmap image produces a random-appearing array of black and white pixels that appears weavable under certain circumstances.

I created a new 40x96 pixel RGB file, with an eye to making a liftplan for my 40-shaft loom;  I filled it with 50% gray. I then converted it to Grayscale, then to Bitmap with Diffusion Dither method. Here are the before and after results:

Oddly enough, if you start with a grayscale image instead of RGB, the results are not satisfactory; but if you start with RGB, then convert down, it works! Try it.

You will notice that this image, if applied as a liftplan for a straight threading, has some very long floats. The file needs a bit of touching up if it is to be usable. Adding an overlay consisting of risers and sinkers appropriately spaced is the ticket. Here is the file after converting back to RGB and an 8-end satin overlay applied as a layer style. Notice that now there are no floats longer than 7 in either direction. It is a weavable crepe weave on a straight draw.

Here's a drawdown, with four threading repeats and two liftplan repeats. No float longer than 7. Click to enlarge.

I'll be talking about overlays at Complex Weavers Seminars this summer. Come join the fun!

Diamond

Catalina's been asking me to help her make a toy horse, and a couple of months ago I found a book with instructions for making animals out of socks. No horses in this book; however, there was a chapter about a zebra made from striped socks. I found a pair of big hiking socks to sacrifice; no stripes, but they would do. We put the socks and the book aside for a rainy day, and today was the day.

After breakfast the kids came over, and while Karl staged a mock battle with toy soldiers, Catalina and I cut up the socks, I sewed, and Catalina did the stuffing. Three hours later it was still raining, and we had a finished zebra/horse/donkey. Her name is Diamond and she is well loved (Her eyes and mane got put on after this picture was taken). Very good day.