tapestry – Page 2 – Weave Story

Weaving in Wales -The adventure begins…

September 3, 2013/2 Comments/in dye, Interesting stuff, Projects, summer school, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Arrival at Summer School wearing my ‘Surround Sound’ vest

On August 1st, I boarded a plane and flew east across the Atlantic for the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers biennial summer school being held at University of Wales Trinity St. Davids College in Carmarthen, Wales. Over 200 fiber loving folks gathered for a week to participate in the 16 course being offered this year in:

Spinning
Spinning Beyond the Basics
Creative Spinning
Short Fibre Spinning

Braiding/Knotting
Australian Aboriginal String Bags
Kumihimo/Marudai Braiding

Dying
Eco Dyeing
Turkey Red/Madder

Sewing
Bags from Bits
Sewing Handwoven Fabric

Weaving
3-End Block Weave
Warp Ikat
Pick-up Damask in Linen
Tapestry
Rule Breaking Weaving
Inkle Weaving
Textiles that Shape Themselves

I arrived Friday evening and wandered about Carmarthen, the oldest town in Wales and legendary birthplace of Merlin, on Saturday and Sunday.

deciphering signage

enjoying market day

exploring the castle

Complete with a rainbow, summer school began Sunday evening as we all gathered to reconnect with friends and meet our instructors.

There were 12 of us in the tapestry class taught by Alastair Duncan. Alastair was born in Scotland, raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland and now lives in Wales.

Classes ran Mon-Sat from 9am-5pm with evening lectures, activities, or continuing to work in our classrooms or taking work back to our dorm rooms.

On Monday we……

talked about design

warped frame looms

and completed several exercises.

By 10pm I had completed my first project and was ready to call it a day.

Project 1 (3 1/2″ x 6″)

First embroidery projects

April 11, 2013/1 Comment/in embroidery, Interesting stuff, tapestry /by bschutzgruber

My grandmother taught me to embroider years ago when I was 5 or 6 yrs old. We traced coloring book images onto pillow cases and I worked from that. After all these years – I still have one of the first one’s I ever did. As you can see it was well-loved and used often!

But history buff Andy Wilkinson in London , England has taken ‘my first embroidery project’ to a whole new level!! How I conquered sewing by making a Bayeux Tapestry

Making stuff in March

March 18, 2013/1 Comment/in dye, felt, garments, Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Been a busy set of weeks since my last posting!!

‘Heron’ was accepted for the AAFG show in the gallery at the Village Theater at Cherry Hill, Canton, MI. The show run March 1-26, 2013.

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March 8-10, I spent a fabulous 3 days in a dye workshop with Jane Dunnewold. Jane is a wonderful artist and teacher! Using fiber reactive MX dyes, we printed on silk, cotton, linen, and rayon fabric using stencils, thermofax screen printing, paint brushes, stamps and more!!

I spent the last day working on a parasol. Using stencil, thermofax screen printing and paint brushes on a commercial cotton umbrella blank I created ‘Butterfly Sunshade’ Parasol. Using the brushes to ‘paint’ the dyes created the textured ‘watercolor’ effect. UV block sun protection fabric treatment provides 30+ UPF.

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Over the past 2 weeks, I made 2 new garments from yardage I wove last summer. The jacket and vest (along with the dyed parasol) have been accepted for the runway at the AAFG’s annual Fiber Feast Fashion Show on April 13th.

Woven in plain weave @24epi. The warp is 5/2 spaced dyed mercerized perle cotton (‘Prairie’ from Valley Cottons) with a 1″ stripe of 5/2 black perle cotton. The weft is 10/2 perle cotton. The woven fabric reminds me of the dark chestnut coat and stripes on the hindquarters and upper legs, the Okapi of central Africa.

Woven in plain weave – @24epi. The warp is alternating stripes of thick and thin Rayon Boucle. The weft is a Mohair/wool/nylon blend.

The woven fabric reminds me of the changing colors of the fall foliage here in Michigan. The finished vest is fully lined in silk habotai.

GreenMan still on pause…..

February 7, 2013/1 Comment/in felt, Projects, tapestry /by bschutzgruber

With 2/3 completed I’ve had to put GreenMan is on ‘pause’ so I could get a piece submitted for the AAFG show at the Power Center on the University of Michigan campus. It was not selected – darn. Any time you submit something for a show that features multiple artists (over 24 with this one!) the committee has to look at balancing the variety of techniques used, over all impact in a large space and balance of the exhibit. I’ll submit it for our next show in March which is a smaller gallery setting.

‘Heron’ is wet felted. The image is carded wool fibers on silk chiffon fabric which is backed with 2 layers of carded merion wool fibers. Finished demensions 28″ x 34″

Below you can see the difference 40%-45% shrinkage makes. Staring dimensions approx 43″ x 54″

heron layout

Finished the eyes!!

January 17, 2013/2 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

I’ve got the eyes done!!!

Only so many hours in the day…… so I need to put the GreenMan on hold for the next couple of weeks:
–I have a shawl to weave that will be auctioned at St. Francis of Assisi School’s annual Educational Trust Fund benefit dinner on February 2nd.
–Because I will not have the GreenMan finished by the end of the month, I still want to have a wall hanging to submit for the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild annual show at the Power Center Theater (runs the month of February). Felting is a faster process than weaving so it will be a wool fibers & silk fabric wet felted together.

Working on the face…. the eyes

January 11, 2013/0 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

The eyes have been a real ‘learning experience’!!

I dyed a very pale shade of green to use for the ‘whites’ of the eyes. BUT…. when next to the other greens…. SURPRISE!! it looks yellow!!! Hmmmmm….. do I want my GreenMan to have ‘yellow’ eyes???

Decided to try the other eye using white yarn. Hmmmm….. this might be too harsh.

Then tried it using the same green as the highlight on the tip of the nose. Hmmmm…. this might be too subtle.

So….. decisions… decisions….. yellow – white – or green? Stepping away…. for a better sense of the over all ‘look’…… I am leaning toward the ‘yellow’.

7.5 inches

January 2, 2013/0 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

7 1/2 inches down…. 17 to go!
Now that the holidays are over need to be weaving everyday!

Weaving the Green Man

December 18, 2012/1 Comment/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Now that the loom is warped and ready to go, the next step is dealing with the cartoon. (Click on the pictures to enlarge)

A. B.
Starting image (A) is lightened or outlined (B) to show general color changes.

That paper is slid behind the warp threads so I can see when to change colors for the weft yarns.

Keeping the starting picture near by for reference is helpful!!

3 1/2 inches completed. It takes a couple of hours to weave 1″.

Preparing the loom….

December 8, 2012/0 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

I spent this week getting my loom warped and ready for weaving.

I’m using a simple frame loom with nails to hold the warp.

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1. The nails are set so I will have 8 warp ends per inch (8 epi)

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2. A support devise holds the heddle bars. Since the weaving starts at the bottom and moves upward the heddle bar support is only clamped to the frame this way I can move it higher when needed.

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3. Next I looped string around every other warp thread.
Using as second bar I looped the remain warps.

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4. When the heddle bars are in the neutral position the warp is at rest.

9_heddle rod at rest

When I raise a bar, the heddles lift every other warp thread creating the ‘shed’.
This way I don’t have to lift each warp individually = weaving is much faster!!!

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