Weaverly

Grand Opening!

I finally got around to it. My Etsy shop has been in existence for almost two years, but until today I've never stocked the shelves. Time to get a move on. Grand Opening! Holiday gift-giving season is upon us! Take a look:

WeaverlyWork

First to appear are some really handsome plain weave shawls in handspun yarn. Soft, drapey, cozy, irresistable. Soon I'll be listing pillows, books, and even some duplicate copies of old Weaver's magazines. But it's a start. Please stop by. Tell your friends.

Repeat Patterns

I just can't stop playing with Repper. Yesterday I wove a couple of quick samples in double weave based on Repper designs. The first one is definitely jacquard only; the second one is a dobby simulation. The dobby pattern could have been woven on a 40-shaft dobby loom. Three repeats of the dobby pattern are shown. The structure for both samples is double plain weave.

Meanderings: The Movie

Shooting a video with one hand is not for sissies. Putting the camera on a tripod meant that I couldn't get in position to turn the pages with standing on my head. Then there were the bad takes. During one the phone rang. During another, someone knocked on the front door. And so on. The really best one was outdoors with birdsong, but just at the end my neighbor turned on his leaf blower. Here's the best of a morning's shooting. 

The pages were all handwoven in cotton on my TC-1 (jacquard) loom, and were based on iPad drawings and scans of cut paper designs. With the help of Photoshop, I prepared the files and assigned weave structures to the artwork before sending the instructions to the loom. The weave structure of the pages and covers is double plain weave. The little spots in satin order are to anchor the two layers of double weave together. The chameleon on the cover is based on an original photograph and was outlined in handstitches after the cloth was cut from the loom. The edges of the pages were finished with machine stitching to prevent unraveling after they were cut apart. The binding is a traditional longstitch in waxed linen thread. The closure features a hidden magnet.

Saree Weaver, and More Books

From N. Miami, another great weaving link. It's reblogged from set-design. Keep clicking on the picture until you get to a really large version. You'll then be able to see the details of this interesting jacquard loom. The patterning mechanism is something I've never seen before. Is it a combination of jacquard and drawloom? 

I've got a couple more books going. These are blank journals, acid-free paper, with cover boards wrapped in handmade paper. 

Meanderings Finished

Time to sew the folios into the cover of Meanderings. The spine was reinforced with black interfacing and then the holes punched with a Japanese screw punch. The holes are visible from the inside of the cover, but barely show on the outside. The needle is threaded with a long piece of waxed linen thread.

The longstitch sewing works well on this wraparound style of cover.

That stack of scraps in the background is the trimmings from around the woven pages.

Bone Folders

One of my favorite book making tools, my bone folder, has gone missing. It's out in deep space. I may never find it, or I may find it tomorrow. You never can tell. But meanwhile, I really need a good folding tool. So I ordered a new one from Talas. The handcarved ones are so beautiful, and I couldn't make up my mind: black horn or white bone. So I ordered both. Aren't they beautiful?

Repper, a New Pattern Generator

By now you've probably caught the buzz about the new pattern generator, Repper, from studio:ludens. Simply stated, this application is fabulous. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and there is a free demo version besides!

When I tried it, I immediately thought about its potential for designing dobby liftplans.

After playing with the designs for a while I got so excited that I decided to offer a short 2-hour online class in using Repper with Photoshop and any weaving program. So here's the class, entitled Triple Play. It will be offered on Tuesday, November 8 from 7 to 9 pm EST, and you can sign up for it on Weavolution.com. 

Meanderings Again

The pages have all been cut and the edges stitched. Here they are waiting on the bed of the presser.

An unexpected pleasure is the furry appearance of the head, tail and foredges of the pages.

It's time to address that pesky lizard. He doesn't stand out very well from his background.

After a row of backstitching with gray embroidery thread, he's a little better.

But something more is needed. A row of darker stitches, perhaps? 

Much better!

Now the cover is cut out (2 layers of cloth fused together). Magnet closures are fused between the layers. The edges are stitched for reinforcement.

Here's the inside of the cover, showing the spine area reinforced with a layer of black fusible interfacing:

A peek at how the folds will work:

Everything stacked up ready for binding:

Tomorrow I will attack this pile of stuff with needle and waxed linen thread. 

 

Network Drafting Online Class Offered at a New Time

Newsbreak! The online class in Network Drafting will be offered in January at a new time: 2 pm EST. This will make it possible for weavers in western Europe to take the class in the evening hours. I encourage any English speaking weavers to take this class if you'd like to learn about Network Drafting or brush up on your skills. The class is offered courtesy of Weavolution.

The three consecutive one hour sessions will be offered on January 10, 17, and 24, 2012. Fee for the course is $75 USD. All you need is a computer with a microphone for this class - no video camera required. Optional textbook: Network Drafting: an Introduction by Alice Schlein, now available from Lulu.com.

Assembling Meanderings

The working title of the latest book has changed over the past few months. I had been calling it The Red & White Book, but the pages are mostly black & grey, not red. Now I'm calling it Meanderings. 

In repairing the broken warp ends, I found that the thread tails could conveniently be hidden between the two layers of the double weave with a sharp needle. Very convenient!

The pages are trimmed to size with a rotary cutter.

The edges are being reinforced with my arcane combination of straight and zigzag stitches.

It's starting to look like a book.