weaving – Weave Story

Cartography Chic

March 30, 2015/0 Comments/in garments, Interesting stuff, Projects, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Guilds and associations are great places to connect with other artists, bounce ideas around, get support, feedback, and be challenged to push one’s creativity and art. My fiber guild is the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild and back in May 2014, a challenge was issued for the April 2015 meeting:

Recycled and Repurposed Runway

Tablecloths, cassette tape, telephone wire, discarded garments, curtains and draperies, old sweaters, cast off jewelry – any and all of these materials might go into a garment or accessory you create for this creative runway show.
Your object of fashion may be wearable and useable…. or not,
sedate or flamboyant…. or something in between,
fashionable…. or not.
The only criteria is it must be made from used materials.
How creative can Guild members be?
We will learn the answer to that on the runway!

I had already woven a garment using audio cassette tape [see July 2013 post “Recycle… Upcycle…. Fairs… and more…..”] which had been part of our annual spring fashion show in 2014 so I wanted to come up with something new. What to use and what to do? For the next 9 months ideas simmer in the back of my mind…. and then I cleaned out a cabinet. There were the National Geographic maps that had been collecting for over 30 years!

Cartography ~ study and practice of making maps
The premise being that by combining science, aesthetics, and technique,
reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.

I’ve always liked maps. The lines, shapes, colors can be beautiful works of art. We even used them to decorate the nursery when the kids were little. I would weave something out this pile of maps!

But what?

In 1999, I attended my first Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers summer school taking a course on weaving with bulrushes taught by Linda Lemieux. In the USA, bulrushes are a protected plant but in the UK, they can be cultivated and harvested making this was a unique opportunity for me. We wove braided bands, containers and finished the week with making a hat.

I would use those same techniques to weave a hat & purse out of maps! I made samples weaving on the bias and plain weave to see how pliable the map paper was. It was quickly apparent that the paper on its own was very flimsy and I would have to reinforce it to keep it from tearing and to be firm enough to hold the shape.

Using my notes from a workshop I took in 2000 from Jackie Abrams weaving with painted cotton paper as reference, I used a spray adhesive to attach the map paper to sheets of artist canvas. I made several more tests cutting the map/canvas strips into 1/2″ and 1/4″ widths and used waxed linen thread when twinning was needed. This worked much better and I was ready to start!

I laid out 1/2″ wide map/canvas strips in a plain weave….

and laid that on the bias over a hard foam hat block to weave the crown using pins and clips to keep it in place. I stitched the base of the crown to secure the proper diameter.

I was not able to weave the brim as I had done on the bulrush hat but made it separate and attached it to the crown using hot glue.

Next I trimmed the spokes, used the spay adhesive to attach a map to the underside of the brim, and machine stitched around the edge.

Making the purse was MUCH easier!!! Using 1/2″ map/canvas strips and a styrofoam block for the mold, I wove a 12″ x 5 1/2″ x 1″ clutch bag.

All the pieces were given a coat of matt varnish to provide added strength and protection.

The Cartography Chic Hat & Purse Set is just the ticket
for any explorer with a flair for fashion!

Building a Tapestry Loom

February 28, 2015/1 Comment/in Interesting stuff, Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

The summer of 2011 I took my first tapestry weaving course at The Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers summer school held in Edinburgh, Scotland that year. Our instructor, Dot Seddon, had us working on simple frame looms which are very portable, fast and easy to warp, plus I brought along one that I had made.

Midweek we took a field trip to the Dovecot Tapestry Studio in Edinburgh. When I walked into the space I was immediately hit with a déjà vu experience = I’ve been here before!

The building that now houses the Dovecot Studio is the old ‘Infirmary Street Baths’, the first public baths in Edinburgh – built in 1885, designed by Robert Morham – and I used to swim there in the mid 1970’s when I was a student at Edinburgh University! The baths closed in the 1990’s and fell into disrepair. The Dovecot Studio moved into the space in 2009 after a 2 year – £12million renovation. This is a perfect studio space with tons of natural light from the glass ceiling, the pool has been filled in to make the weaving floor, the changing rooms have been turned into office and meeting rooms, and the observation walkway is used as gallery space. Click here for a wonderful visual tour of the studio.

Here I saw vertical/high warp looms built of steel scaffolding pipe.

When I came home I was inspired to try weaving a larger tapestry. But looms are expensive so I adapted a triangle loom I already had into a larger version of what I had used at summer school.

I liked working upright but it was difficult to get and keep an even tension on a warp that large, plus I wanted to have an option of being able to lift the warp threads for faster/easier weaving and the frame I was using had nails on all 4 sides. I got another large frame, added nails to the top and bottom only, and figured out a shedding device to lift my warp threads. This was an improvement but there were still problems with the warp tension and the easel stand took up quite a bit of space.

I took another tapestry course at the next AWSD summer school in 2013. [see ‘Weaving in Wales’ posts from September 2013.] Our instructor, Alastair Duncan, brought his scaffold loom. I was able to get a good look at how it’s made and to weave on it for the week.

I decided that this is the type of loom I wanted. Looking at my pictures and notes, my engineer husband was able to come up with plan to use galvanized pipe so all the parts would be available at the local hardware store. I received a professional development grant from my guild, The Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild, to help with the cost of materials.

We used 1 1/2″ pipe for the top/bottom and 1 1/4″ pipe for the sides with bushings to connect and it can be taken apart to transport; scaffold level jacks are used to adjust the vertical sides for control of the warp tension; attached it to a wood base; and added measuring tapes to the top and bottom.

The finished size is 4′ x 6′ with 3 1/2′ x 5′ weaving space.

I still need to create a shedding device like the Dovecot looms have to lift the warp threads but I am excited to get started on a new tapestry!

When disaster strikes……

October 26, 2014/6 Comments/in Projects, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Every artist knows there are times when a project just does not want to go as planned and this was one of those projects.

In September I started on a commissioned shawl. The warp was 10/2 cotton in 20 colors.

642 yarns threaded in a point twill over 8 shafts/harnesses.

3″ into the weaving and I realized I had a misthread in the pattern = inappropriate expletive uttered!!! What to do?
Do I (A) keep going with the philosophy that we humans are not perfect and embrace my imperfection or (B) correct the mistake = unweave, untie, unthread, rethread, and retie?

If this was something I was making for myself, I would probably go with option (A) as there was only 1 thread in the wrong place. BUT this shawl is something I am selling and the buyer deserves the highest quality work I can give…. so option (B) is it.

I took out the black 5/2 cotton weft and the red header then dealt with 200+ threads and heddles to get the 1 thread moved to the correct shaft, retie and finally back to where I was…. 24 hours earlier.

Weaving now went fairly smoothly…

…until 5″ from the end when I noticed a lot of black fuzz = uh-oh. I took out several rows to see what was going on and I realized the 5/2 cotton yarn was disintegrating = WHAT is going on here???? This particular cone of yarn had been in my stash for quite a while and though the outer section was OK so the first 2/3 of the shawl was fine, the middle of the cone had rotted and the last third of the shawl was falling apart = REALLY inappropriate expletives uttered!!

At this point I had no idea if the fabric was stable and would hold up during washing so I stopped weaving, hemmed it, cut it off the loom and held my breath as I put it in the washing machine.

Here’s how it came out. A misthread is a pain but this is a disaster that cannot be saved.

I emailed my client and explained the situation. Luckily she was OK with getting the shawl by the end of October so back to square one I go. I decided this time I would use 5/2 bamboo for the weft, ordered the NEW yarn, and as I waited for the delivery, I began to wind out another warp. I kept the ends of the old warp threaded through the reed and heddles so all I had to do is tie the new warp onto the old then pull it through.

The second warp wound on and the new weft in hand, time to start weaving…. AGAIN.

This time there was no added drama as 87″ of this new shawl was woven, hemmed, cut off the loom…

…and the finishing work began = tying knots and twisting fringe.

Holding my breath I put it into the washing machine….. and it came out just fine = whew!!

Because one side of the fabric has the colored warp dominant and the other has the black weft dominant I sewed the shawl into a mobius loop so that you can see both sides = SUCCESS!! And the Rainbow Mobius Wrap has been shipped to her new owner.

Lesson learned from this project:
check ALL yarn prior to using it in a project!!!

Weaving a Tablet Border

August 12, 2014/0 Comments/in Projects, tablet/card weaving, weaving /by bschutzgruber

On August 8-9-10, 2014 the Michigan League of Handweavers Summer Workshops were held at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. I received a learning grant from MLH to take the Tablet Borders Woven Simultaneously With Loom Weaving workshop taught by master weaver Inge Dam.

Originally done on a warp-weighted loom, this type of weaving goes back to Iron Age Scandinavia (500 BCE – CE 800) and combines the use of tablets/cards to weave a band at the same time you are weaving fabric. Inge’s book Tablet-Woven Accents for Designer Fabrics: Contemporary Uses for Ancient Techniques is a wonderful combination of history and how to.

There were 15 of us in the workshop.

We arrived with a 6″ wide warp already on our looms.

Day 1 (3 steps forward….. 4 steps back)

We began with winding out the warp for the tablets. Buckets and reeds were used help keep the 4 balls of yarn from tangling. 34 tablets were threaded 1 yarn in each hole.

Next we wound our warp between 2 clamps – dropping 1 tablet with each pass until all 34 were in a pack on the table.

At this point the words “Rubber bands are my friend!” became an important mantra to keep the pack together and in order as we now moved the tablets & warp onto our looms….

The warp yarns were then threaded into the reed in groups without shifting the order of the tablets or dropping any of them onto the floor!

The warp ends were tied securely to the front breast beam rod and water bottles were attached at the back to tension the warp.

At this point we were all ready for a lunch break!

After lunch, life got much more exciting for me. I forgot to rubber band the tablets when I loosened the front ties in an attempted to correct some tension issues and 1/4 of my warp yarns were pulled back through the reed and those tablets fell to the floor = NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Luckily the warp yarns stayed in the tablet holes and with Inge’s help, I got the tablets gathered together and the warp reattached to the front rod = whew!!! The rest of the afternoon was spent untangling the mess of warp yarns I had made. By the end of the day I finally had everything sorted out. Time to quit and have a fresh start in the morning!

Days 2 & 3 (much smoother sailing!!)

To weave the fabric (cream color) & tablet border (blue) at the same time, one shuttle is used to carry the weft across both sections. I work the loom as I normally do and the cards are rotated by hand 1/4 turn with each pass, either forward or backward, depending on the pattern. I soon got into a rhythm and was ready to start on the samples/exercises to embellish the tablet border.

1) Making loops to attach fringes.

(bottom) 2) Tassles 3) Twining 4) Beaded Edge (top)

(bottom) 5) Bead Brocade 6) Selvage Loops 7) Wraped Warps 8) Brocade (top)

There were breaks throughout each day as Inge talked about the history of tablet weaving….

explained the samples we would be doing…..

and gave us a chance to see her fabulous woven garments up close.

It was a fantastic set of days with a fabulous group of weavers!

Waulking and Art Fair and more…. oh my!

July 21, 2014/2 Comments/in Interesting stuff, weaving /by bschutzgruber

July has been a month filled with one event after another!

Starting with demonstrating in the Textiles Tent at the Saline Celtic Festival which combines my 2 artistic loves…. stories and weaving.

The weather was sunny and relatively cool for a Michigan summer so attendance was good for the festival. Mary Underwood and CJ Kohoyda-Inglis organized the Textile Tent filling it with fabulous fiber folk so besides my weaving demonstration, there were members of The Spinners Flock demonstrating different forms of spinning and knitting.

One of highlights of our tent is ‘Waulking the Tweed’ with Frances Acar leading us in song. ‘Waulking’ is the Scottish Gaelic word for fulling. Woven woolen fabric needs to be ‘fulled’ when it comes off the loom. Pressure, warmth and moisture creates tiny pockets of air that lift up the woolen fibers making the surface softer, thicker and more weather resistant. Before the days of machines this was done by hand with friends and family in a community event – each bringing fabric that needed to be fulled. If there was not a table long enough for the fabric, doors were often taken off hinges and set on the ground or saw horses for the work surface. Songs were sung to set the pace, rhythm and coordinate movement. By measuring the woolen fabric after every 2 or 3 songs controlled shrinkage can be achieved. The songs are call-and-response with the leader singing the verses and everyone else singing the refrain. Many of the songs were about how wonderful, intelligent or handsome a husband/lover is OR how that husband/lover is a no good rogue and lowlife. (Some things haven’t changed over the centuries!)

Right on the heels of Celtic Festival came the Ann Arbor Art Fairs.
For 4 days more than 1,000 artists sprawl over 27 blocks of Ann Arbor as 4 separate nationally recognised art fairs are going on simultaneously. The weather was fantastic and nearly 500,000 people came over the 4 days. My work, along with 15 other guild members, was part of the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild booth in the State Street Area Art Fair. It certainly ‘took a village’ or in this case a guild (16 sellers and 20 volunteers) – to build, man, and take down our booth.

And finally…. the month closes out with the National Storytelling Network Conference in Mesa, Arizona filled with master classes, keynotes, workshops, storytelling concerts and swaps. Here I’ll connect with storytellers from across the country and help with the 8th season of the Fringe Performances.

Surround Sound and Green Man make the cut!

May 4, 2014/0 Comments/in award, garments, Interesting stuff, Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

‘Surround Sound Vest’ wins FUNCTIONAL FIBER 3rd Place award!

83 pieces were entered into the Michigan League of Handweavers 18th Biennial Show.

The ‘Green Man’ tapestry was also accepted into the show.

The exhibit at the Holland Area Arts Council, 150 E. 8th Street, Holland MI 49423, runs from May 17-June 29, 2014. (Regular hours: Monday-Thursday 10am-8pm, Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday 10am-3pm)

The reception, awards ceremony and talk by juror Ann Keister (retired professor of Art & Design at Grand Valley State University) will be on Sunday, June 29, 2014 from 2-4pm.

Read stories behind the creation of these pieces
Surround Sound Vest

The Saga of the Green Man
part 1 – part 2 – part 3

Winter Blues Jacket revisited

March 20, 2014/2 Comments/in garments, Interesting stuff, Projects, weaving /by bschutzgruber

I had a little jacket, it was old as can be…
Tralala lalalala lalala
What I’d ever do with it, I just couldn’t see
Tralala lalalala lalala
So I thought a little while
And made myself a vest in the very latest style
Tralalala lalala – Tralalala lalala
Made a vest in the very latest style.
–from a Yiddish folk song

What does a fiber artist do when she realizes that she has not worn the hand-woven jacket she spent months weaving and constructing? She turns it into something else. Or even better… ends up with 2 items of clothing!!

In 2012, I created ‘Rapunzel’s Winter Blues’ jacket

when I took Michelle Moenssen’s workshop “Making a Jacket from Hand-woven Fabric”. This was fabulous learning experience, as I had never sewn a tailored jacket (i.e. suit coat) before… let alone one from hand-woven fabric. [click here for the slide show of the full process]

After 2 years… I realize I had not worn the jacket even once. My life at this point doesn’t need that style of jacket. But as any fiber artist who makes her/his own cloth for garments knows, one does not just toss away that much ‘time, sweat, and tears’; and though I do sell my woven and felted garments, this one has strong emotional ties for me so it would be like selling one of my children! So… I began to think what could the jacket transition into that I would be more likely to wear?

I decided that remove the sleeves – transforming it into a vest – would be the simplest as I had no desire at this point to completely deconstruct the jacket.

Now… what to do with the hand-woven fabric from the sleeves? Mary Sue Fenner’s ‘One-of-a-Kind Jacket Trunk Show’ at the March 2014 AAFG meeting inspired me to make a second garment using lightweight commercial wool and the hand-woven fabric as accent panels creating this ‘Two for the Price of One’ vest.

(pattern – Simplicity 2341)

I’m happy to say that both vests will be on the runway at AAFG’s Fiber Feast on April 5, 2014.

The song begins with an overcoat becoming a jacket – jacket to vest – vest to tie – tie to button – button to nothing – nothing to song and Simms Talback’s 1999 picture book Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is a Caldecott Metal winner so who knows… over the years to come this hand-woven fabric may continue to be re-imaged and transformed, giving it renewed life and rebirth. Tralala lalalala lalala…..

The Saga of the Green Man comes to an end

February 4, 2014/0 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

The weaving completed, I cut the Green Man off the loom on January 13, 2014
…only 1 year later than planned.

Now the finishing work began: all the warp threads knotted and secured, the long gap in the center forehead leaf sewn shut, clean up the back (weave in/sink the weft ends), plus there was a lot of rippling in the tapestry because my warp tension had become very uneven.

Crossing my fingers that blocking would eliminate the rippling, I put him onto the shower floor to wet down then I pinned him facedown onto a piece of foam board to block, squaring up the 4 sides. I stood him up in the bathtub to drain over night then moved the board near the floor register for the next 4 days to dry.

Once he was throughly dry, I unpinned him and turned him over. To my joy…. the blocking had eliminated the rippling = whew!!! Twill tape was sewn to the top and bottom, turned to the back and sewn down. Finished tapestry dimensions: 18″ x 18″. I used velcro to mount him onto black matboard and made a simple black frame. Final dimensions: 25″ x 25″. I packed him up and dropped him off to be juried.

The Green Man was accepted for the AAFG 2014 exhibit at the Power Center for the Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, MI. We hung the exhibit on Tuesday, February 4th and it runs through the month of February.

He is nicely positioned so he can check out everyone as they enter the theater from the lobby…. and is watching to make sure no food or drink is brought inside!

My daughter Andrea, who did the orignal painting, announced the other day, “Hey, Mom…. I’ve got an idea for our next painting/tapestry collaboration….. “

The Saga of the Green Man (pt2)

February 2, 2014/1 Comment/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

When we last left our hero…. he was awaiting my decision:
Do I chuck all that I’ve done so far… cutting my losses (literally!)
and start over?
Or do I continue on and see what happens?

I am a ‘process’ artist rather than a ‘project’ artist which means I am more interested in the journey than I am in reaching the original destination. So of course…. my decision was to move the cartoon lower, realigning the eyes, and continued on!!

The Green Man’s features were now more square than the original design. The good thing about choosing a Green Man for my first attempt to weave a face is that a Green Man is not “human”. As long as I kept his eyes focused, the rest of his face was open to interpretation. Not wanting to redo the cartoon, I continued to follow the original, trying to keep my beating pressure the same as I had used the year before.

Once his forehead was finished…

I packed down the new weaving to match the new proportions of his lower face.

I was VERY pleased with how he came out but there was still more to do…..

The Saga of the Green Man (pt1)

February 2, 2014/2 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Some projects just take time. They are never going to fulfill any need I might have for instant gratification. The Green Man tapestry has been one of those.

I started this project back in August 2012. My goal at the time was to have him completed for the February 2013 Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild annual wall hangings exhibit at the University of Michigan’s Power Center for the Performing Arts.
Click on the links to read about the process:
designing – preparing the loom – the cartoon – weaving – the face – the eyes – taking longer than anticipated.

By mid January it was clear that I would not be able to have him ready. And so it was…. the Green Man looked on as other projects, deadlines, commissions, and life events took center stage. [see the blog archives] For 9 months he patiently watched and waited.

FINALLY… 1 year after I started him, I was able to once again turn my attention to the Green Man. One of the skills I worked on during the AWSD summer school tapestry course in Carmarthen, Wales [see September 2013 blog postings] was beating/packing down the weaving. Looking at it now, I could see that yup…. my packing was pretty loose so I began to compress.

before

The result = the tapestry was now 3″ shorter!

after

Also at this point I could see that my warp tension was pretty wonky and I would not be able to easily correct this = OOPS!!! I now had major decision to make:
Do I chuck all that I’ve done so far… cutting my losses (literally!) and start over?
Or do I continue on and see what happens?