Weaverly

Yes, It Arrived, But Not Much

The snow did arrive. This is what we saw when we got up and looked out the window yesterday morning:

It's just a couple of inches, but it's very icy. And dangerous. Folks around here don't know how to drive in snow and ice. It's not part of the cultural memory in South Carolina. Fortunately we didn't lose power (Duke Energy still hasn't buried the power lines in our neighborhood). 

 

In this kind of weather, if you don't have any place you absolutely must get to, you stay home and play Monopoly or watch football on TV. Around noon it warmed up enough so that we could assemble a few hardy souls for a belated birthday party.

 

Some of us spent the rest of the day in front of our computers. Please take a look at my favorite coffee mug here. And if you're following the saga of the iPad, this is pretty good. Or maybe this.
 

Paper, Camellias, and Chocolate Martinis

My new paper order arrived from Talas. I'll be using Frankfurt, by the German manufacturer Zerkall, as the paper in the next batch of bound journals. The 25x38" sheets are white, acid-free, and have a deckle edge and this interesting watermark:

 

Tearing the sheets down into page sizes is a relaxing activity, similar to winding warps for weaving. It has fluid motions, is not difficult, but requires mindfulness.

 

 

From two large sheets, I get enough pages for six signatures for a small book. Here are the signatures after they've sat in the press for a few minutes.

 

Meanwhile, outdoors, the expected snow/ice storm has not yet arrived (I'm writing this on Friday afternoon). I decided to photograph the current profusion of camellia blooms just in case, because if they freeze tonight there won't be any more for a week or two. These wonderful bushes have been blooming their hearts out all winter long, in spite of the really dreadful cold spells. Here's a white one in the back yard:

 

And across the creek, a pink one (you can just see the blue wall of Ampersand House in the background):

And now to wrap up this miscellany, a few words about an organ recital at Furman on Thursday night, on the Fisk organ in Daniel Chapel. 

 

Organist Scott Bennett played Widor, Bach, Dupré, and Höller. It was a memorable performance. 

Afterwards four of us went out to celebrate a Special Person's birthday, and I had my first chocolate martini. Highly recommended.
 

Plain Weave, Big!

The other day I was folding laundry (one of the few household tasks I actually enjoy), and thinking about my collection of dinner napkins, some of which are almost 50 years old. They've been washed and dried many times, and my favorites are the linen ones. They are so soft and have a friendly, touchable surface after the multiple washings. I thought it would be fun to look at them in the scanner, magnified approximately 33x (click on these pictures to enlarge). For comparison, I also scanned a polyester napkin and a cotton napkin. All are plain weave. The linen and poly napkins are industrially woven, and the cotton napkin was handwoven in India.

First the linen:

 

Then the polyester:

 And finally the cotton:

 

Conclusions? Draw your own. But I will say this: don't give a weaver a scanner if you want her to get some work done.

An Edition of Two

I'd make a lousy production weaver. I can't stand to make the same thing more than once. This goes for books, too. After weeks of procrastination, I finally finished the second book in this edition of two. 

 

It's the second of two car books (car photos by Bruce). At least the covers are different. So are the protective bags. Here's the handwoven bag for book #2.

 

You saw Car Book #1 here.

And yes, as a sometime knitter, I also suffer from Second Sock Syndrome.

More Ampersands

It's funny how I'm noticing ampersands all over the place now. The Society of Typographic Aficionados is conducing a fund-raising project for Haiti Earthquake Relief, and the way it works is this: designers are invited to contribute a design for an ampersand in vector image format, and submissions will be combined in a font consisting entirely of ampersands. The font will be sold through several type distributors, and all the proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders.

In 2005, the Fleurons of Hope font was created in a similar manner to benefit survivors of the South Asian Tsumani. 

Here are a few examples of the Fleurons font.

I'll be eagerly awaiting the new font. Imagine—an entire font with nothing but ampersands! 

Visit to a Book Arts Class

Kathy Strother invited me to her Book Arts class at Furman University today. What a treat! I watched as she demonstrated gluing the ends of the tapes on books bound on tapes and showed methods of stitching tapes on the covers. Click on any of the images to enlarge.

Some of the students at work:

 

I love the look of a tray of waxed linen.

 

Kathy gave a wonderfu capsule history of Suminagashi Marbling, and then did a demo.
 

 

 

 

Here are some of the papers being pulled from the trays.

 

Afterwards the students got to work on their own Suminagashi papers for future book projects. 

Kathy showed me her office. So much to look at! Here's just a little corner.

  
 
 

 
 
  

A Dobby Simulation for Double Twill

I've decided to rework the double twill structures that I did for jacquard. I've removed the ties that linked the two layers together so that this will be true double weave with two distinct layers. What this change accomplishes is to make the total weave repeat smaller: 8 warps x 16 wefts. The 8-end repeat fits nicely into straight, advancing, and networked drafts for 8, 16, 24, 32, and 40-shaft dobby looms. 

It's possible to weave dobby simulations on a jacquard loom. That's what I've done here. The warp is black and white, end-and-end, and the weft rotation is four colors: shocking pink, purple, forest green, and light mocha. 

 

Here's the finished sample blanket, showing all 84 structures. Click to enlarge. 

 
I won't say anything more about these weaves at the moment, as I'll be giving a seminar on the topic this summer at Complex Weavers, and I don't want to spoil the fun for the folks who've signed up. But after the conference is over, I'll give more details.

And now for fellow fans of the ampersand, I've just found a website that posts a different ampersand every day. Take a look here.

A January Saturday

First there was a basketball game. My guy is #5. That blur to his left is the ball.

Then home to see what the painters had been doing. Love that blue wall!

 

Here's an interior view from yesterday, when the sun was out briefly and cast interesting shadows on the new benches. I sat out there and read for half an hour. The sound of running water and birdsong was heavenly.

 

An added bonus: if you click on the above image to view it full size, you will see the interesting moiré effect on the screening on the left wall. Those of you who remember Verda Elliott's research on moiré patterns in weaving will appreciate this.

A Report from Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)

If you're one of the folks who sent a contribution to MSF, you might be interested in seeing this very moving report.

Benches and Doors

In spite of the bad weather (whatever happened to that springlike teaser of a few days ago?) work is proceeding down at the creek. The first bench is installed; the holes will be covered by a trim strip.

We now have doors.

 

The bench for the righthand side is fabricated and ready for installation.

 

The benches are long enough for certain Little People to do overnights with their sleeping bags. Big people too, but I'm not sure I'm up for that without a mattress.