Weaving of a different kind

I have recently taken up running and for the past 12 weeks I have been training to run the 12Km Perth City to Surf. It is my big attempt to be fit and fabulous for my 40th birthday which is in Feburary. To my surprise I have enjoyed my running time more than I thought I would and look forward to my time away from the loom to run down to the beach boardwalk every other day.

28/08/11 The race started quite fast and I got sweep up in the flow with the other 42,000 competitors but there was a lot of weaving in and around walkers through out the race. This weaving put a smile on my face and extra use on my knee joints which gave me something else to think about.  I completed the 12Km run with my girlfriend in 1 hour 20mis and I’m so proud of us.

My husband (who just started too) did the 12Km run in 54mins!! Amazing!

Linda, Ben & I tucking into our well earned lunch at the finish line

and now it’s back to the loom…….

Western Australia’s Newest Weavers

 

 

For the past three weeks I have been teaching an ‘Introdruction to Weaving’ workshop in the Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre. Most of the workshop participants had never seen a loom before, let alone weave a scarf! I was more than amazed with the results they produced in 9 hours. Their selvedges blew me away, I would have loved to have such perfect selvedges when I started weaving first, so these girls are very talented indeed!

The workshop consisted of

Class 1: How to wind a warp

Class 2: How to dress the loom

Class 3: How to weave a scarf

As the photo’s show, great fun was had by all and everyone went home with a finished scarf. Well done to all the participants, I enjoyed your company immensely.

The Class Room

The Class Room

The Class

The Class

Weaving Away

Weaving Away

Belinda's Scarf

Belinda's Scarf


Believe it or not! Belinda had never woven (or even seen a loom) before, and to produce this evenly woven scarf with perfect selvedges was truly inspiring. Awesome work!

Heads down Weaving ....... Got to get our scarves finished

Heads down Weaving ....... Got to get our scarves finished

Dani modelling her finished scarf

Dani modelling her finished scarf


Shelia completed a scarf, not a pot holder, like she thought she would!!

Shelia completed a scarf, not a pot holder, like she thought she would!!

Finished Scarves

Finished Scarves

Nine finished scarves
The Class With Their Amazing Weaving

Yarn matching

I got so excited with the perfect silk’s for the Protea I started working with another photo……another two home runs with the Silken Straw for the rows of crops and raw silk for the golden hay field. I am so happy with these colours, I’m in love with the golden raw silk, it’s just perfect for a hay field. Mmmmm……

Matching the yarn

P2P2 playing with my colours.

I like to pull things apart, to get in nice & close, the analytical details could send in in a completely different design direction. I started out with this photo of a beautiful Protea,

I played around with this image by getting into the depths of the flower,I Love these colours and as I rotated this image I could see a cable design, can you see it? It’s wonderful! so I had to look for colours from my stash and I found these perfect, more than perfect, silk yarns. I photographed them in front of my computer screen with the image of the Protea.

Design Thoughts

P2P2 designing update:

At the moment I am weaving for the WAFTA exhibition and  I should be focused on that as the dead line for entries is fast approaching but all I can think about is the pics I’ve been sent. It’s like P2P2 has taken over  my mind! (in a good way)

I’ve changed the colour, contrast and rotated these images and the results are amazing.  I can see an interesting twill & block weave design appearing and I’m liking them 😀

In March this year I did Jason Collingwood’s 3 end block weave workshop here in Perth. I had never woven block weave before and Jason’s class was a eye opener. I would love to try a block weave on my weavebird using cottons for a softer fabric instead of the rug technique we were taught. I changed the colours to a bright Red, Yellow & Black as I am constantly inspired by the Aboriginal Dreamtime stories and art but is that going too far from the original image?

My friend ‘Twill’, weave it, reverse it, weave it, reverse it. Viola! Well it’s a start but I think I’m not pushing the boat with this image. I mostly weave twills for commercial reasons (they work & sell well) but it’s something to fall back on if I start to run out of time.

It’s a start……

Bring on the challenge

P2P2 is off and running for the second year.

Pics to Picks 2 is a weaving challenge created by Meg in New Zealand, Meg is a wonderful weaver, an inspiration and a WWWm (a world wide weaving motivator) and I’m proud to call her a good friend.

19 weavers form around the globe signed up for this weaving challenge, each weaver sends 6 photos or images to their assigned colleague and from these images we create a woven design. How far we take the design is up to us. Last year, due to poor health & life being life, I only got to the design stage, so I signed up again this year and plan to take the challenge to the next level. Mark my words ‘I will design & weave a finished piece this year’

The weaver I have sent my images to is Cindy in the USA and these are some of my images of the Pinnacles  and Wooleen Station in Western Australia that I mailed to her.

Julie from the UK was chosen to inspire me and these are the pics I received from her.

I am very excited about these images and my head has been buzzing with projects since their arrival.

This is going to be FUN!