Weaverly: May 2014 posts

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May 2014 posts

May 28, 2014

Books on Vacation

After sewing the signatures into the prepared book covers, it was time to glue in the wrapping cords. That was yesterday. The glue dries clear.

This morning the books were totally dry and ready for an airing in the back yard. They like to go outside when the weather is nice; they arranged themselves on the railing. You can certainly see the family resemblance, but all are woven with different handspun yarns in lampas structure. First the fronts:

And the backs:

And now a spine view:

And this gal insisted on a closeup:

Posted at 09:30 AM in Books, Weaving | Permalink | Comments (5)

May 27, 2014

Bookish

The backs of these lampas pieces were coated with acrylic medium a few weeks ago, and yesterday afternoon I finally got around to cutting them apart and sealing the cut edges on the right side (I'm now using PVA glue for this task, as it dries colorless).

Than after dinner, when they were dry, I glued leather strips inside the spines.

More to come tomorrow. You know the drill by now: punch holes, sew signatures. The paper is all torn & ready, so I won't have to stop to do that.

Posted at 06:00 AM in Books, Weaving | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 26, 2014

Is Anybody Home?

A few goodies from the past few days—

Hydrangea blooming just outside the laundry room window:

Gardenia next to the side door:

Redbud tree next to the driveway:

Those were easy. For the next one I had to get down on hands and knees, and I suppose if I had waited long enough, the resident of this hideout would have appeared. This is at the base of an oak tree in the front yard. Is anybody home? Who are you? Are you the one who's been digging all the holes?

Posted at 01:16 PM in Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 25, 2014

A Diversion

I promised you the bagpipes, so here they are. City of Greenville Pipes and Drums, at the Scottish Games in Greenville yesterday. If you look sharp, you will see Bruce in a cameo appearance at the far left of the screen, about halfway through.

This morning I took some granite samples off the loom and I'm washing them. Looking forward to some surprises.

Posted at 10:21 AM in Movies, Music | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 24, 2014

A Few Dishtowels

On this beautiful May day we went to the Scottish Games at Furman (videos to follow tomorrow). After a few hours of bagpipes and watching very big men throwing telephone poles, we headed home to a quiet dinner of chicken cacciatore. Waiting for the chicken, I hemmed a few more dishtowels. These are 8-shaft variations on a networked threading.

Posted at 06:46 PM in Network Drafting, Weaving | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 23, 2014

A Little Draft

Mary asked about the draft for the tablet woven band I published a few days ago. It's a diamond found in many sources. Here is the basic draft, which can be expanded as needed for wider bands.

Posted at 12:02 PM in Weaving | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 22, 2014

A Little History

I've proposed a class in tablet weaving for our local OLLI. I don't know how the proposal will fare, but I'm having fun doing the research. Tablet weaving has been resident in my box of tricks for a long time. Exactly how long can be seen by the imprint on these tablets (click to enlarge): Mary M. Atwater, Lily Mills, Shelby NC. Does any of this ring a bell? The late Mary Atwater is sometimes referred to as the dean of American handweaving, and Shelby Mills, now defunct, was one of my' favorite supply sources when I began weaving in the 1960's. Oldies but goodies.

And at the other end of the technology spectrum, here is some jacquard upholstery spotted in a waiting room this morning.

Posted at 12:27 PM in Classes, Weaving | Permalink | Comments (9)

May 21, 2014

Just Before Dessert

At a luncheon yesterday, just after the main course and before the featured speaker, I snapped this jacquard upholstery when no one was looking (click to enlarge):

At least I think no one was looking. If you saw me, please don't tell.

Posted at 06:00 AM in Food and Drink, Photography, Weaving | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 20, 2014

It's All About the Curves

Lately I've been fine-tuning my seminars for CW, so paradoxically there hasn't been much time for weaving. That will change eventually, but the result for the time being is very sparse blog posts. It wouldn't be fair to post about the content of my lectures, but I can give you a few hints. In assembling stacks of samples from the past 20 years of Network Drafting, here is a group waiting for its turn at the scanner:

It's all about the curves, really. And when you're thinking curves, they seem to turn up everywhere. Here are some phone wires lit by the early morning sun, as I went for today's walk:

Posted at 10:22 AM in Classes, Network Drafting, Photography, Pixels, Weaving | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 17, 2014

Old Friends

Home again after a quick trip to Charlotte to give a talk to Friends of the Mint. What a wonderful audience, including a few weavers, and they had some very interesting questions after I touched on the high spots of The Woven Pixel. I love a lively audience! And I especially appreciate a smooth hookup of computer & projector; this one happened in about two seconds flat. Bliss.

It was also fun to see some old friends and meet several new ones. Here's Bruce chatting at the coffee hour with Maurice Blackburn. Maurice is webmaster of Southeast Fiber Forum Association. SFFA is planning another excellent conference for April 2015 at Arrowmont. Check out the preliminary info here.