September 2010 – silver minnow

Interlude: Weaving with cloth

I’m taking an online workshop from Jude Hill of Spiritcloth, learning something about her innovative approach to weaving cloth from other cloth. It’s a freeing experience for me and such a contrast from my rather structured katazome routine. I really enjoy how quickly these pieces of cloth come together. As I tear strips and weave I am loosening up my thinking. Here are my first few attempts.

anchored weaving 1

These little woven pieces also stimulate my own daydreaming. In the piece above I can see ….

a favorite sateen shirt from 30 years ago
limpets gathered on Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland
magenta gladiolas from our August garden (which dyed the silk a light green)
a cloth “palette” I use to test color and off-load my brush when dyeing katazome
an edge of a work called “my sister’s house” …

which of course immediately transports me to my sister’s woodsy place with the salty breezes near the coast of Maine.

rustcloth — anchored weaving with cotton and silk

I used the little stones as weights for one part of the process but I really like how they look on this piece!

one more…

anchored weaving 2 — anchored weaving on indigo dyed wool base, silk, cotton, linen

Some greens (from pinks)

I completed my experiment with ice-flower dyeing (learned from book by India Flint).

glads

Using the gladiola flowers above, I over-dyed silk and linen I had previously dyed in birch bark, which resulted in an earthy yellow/neutral, so that keep that in mind when you see all the green tones. I intend to incorporate in my woven pieces for the Cloth2Cloth workshop I’m enrolled in over at Jude Hill’s place.

In the process I was surprised by the beautiful (and ephemeral) blues and purples and pinks from the initial squeezing of the flowers as well as how much the color changed with the mordants. A really peachy pink came from a vinegar mordant. Other bowls had alum mordant (one for cellulose and a different one for protein). These really went green, with the silk yielding the most lovely green in my opinion. The warm neutral (not green) silk above came with the vinegar as mordant.

A diversion of animals and seeds …

I have been somewhat accident prone these last few weeks. I bruised my left foot in Covelo, nursed it back to normal, then jammed my right foot on the leg of a piece of furniture (yes, ouch!), so am hobbling around and taking it slowly again. We visited the Minnesota State Fair (before I injured my right foot). The Fair ended on Labor Day, and I thought I’d share a few of my favorite pictures. The BEST state fair in the nation, or so I hear!