Eva's Mats

At the beginning of 2019 I had a request for a set of 30 woven placemats which I wove in December 2019.  These were to be the same as a set of 50 I had made for Eva at Chocolaterie in Dilsberg, Germany about 22 years ago.  These older ones are still in great condition even though they're used every day.  As the business has expanded Eva needed more to use in her concert room where a grande piano resides and she holds recitals.

Unfortunately the moths had munched the yarn I used originally so I used some NZ romney being a hard wearing fibre.  I had not kept records from the first run but remembered the brief had been "to look like Opoutere beach as you stepped out of the trees onto the sand".  Originally I had used a draft from an old Handwoven magazine for rep weave glass mats and luckily I found that. Decided to weave them in 2 lots of 15 mats each so set about dyeing one warp chain with navy, a murky mountain blue and teal, the second chain was left natural.

Threading the loom front to back.

Tying on the second warp length.

I did make a booboo in the first warp in that I wove 3.5cm for hem at each end of each mat instead of the 2.5cm allowed for.  15 mats times 2cm equals the length of one placemat.  I was short one mat so had to dye and weave a third short chain giving Eva a bonus as I couldn't do just one extra.

Hemmed pile is growing.

When I wrote to Eva asking what address to send the mats to she responded with "I'll come pick them up".  We had a lovely lunch with mutual friends.

Chocolaterie, Dilsberg

Touch of Tui

I was asked by a lovely lady from Tauranga if I could weave her several shawls.

Actually the conversation started something like "Are you still weaving?  I want to catch you before you retire!"  One request was for a black and white shawl, maybe with a touch of the iridescence of the tui.  The tui is a native NZ bird which generally appears black with a white wattle under its beak but in the sun it sparkles blue and green iridescence.

 My loom was threaded in an extended advancing twill which gave the ideal platform for big, bold pattern. I tied on a warp of New Zealand merino.   I chose a plait tie up from my archives and wove with an extended advancing twill weft.

The iridescence is portrayed with several shiny lurex threads in the warp borders and at the beginning and end.

 

And, of course, I never dress the loom with a short warp so chose this wonderful tie up for echoing triangles from Weaver's magazine, Issue 21, an article by Ingrid Boesel for a second shawl, again using an advancing extended twill weft.

Both are versatile garments with the fabric drapey enough to wear many ways.

This triangle wrap is available from the Waihi Beach Gallery.

Pounamu Wrap

It must have been in July a fellow fibre artist kept putting posts on faceboook for folks to enter the Franklin Arts Exhibition and as I had woven this rather special wrap I thought I'd support the exhibition by entering.  The parcel was left with my son to get in the post on the designated dates and Peter and I went off the Australia for a much needed break.  (We flew in to Brisbane and out of Sydney and explored the coast in between.)  We had only been home a day and I got a call to say I'd been award a prize and could I come to the opening so we repacked our suitcases and headed back to Auckland.  I received second prize in the Functional Textile section.  A thrill to be called up on stage and shake the presenters hand.

 The warp is 28/2Nm silk and the two wefts  are a devine merino I brought home from Rome last year.  I'll just say the draft is original, probably part of the twill family.  All yarns hand dyed.

Baubles and Beads

Every three or four years the Professional Weavers Network of New Zealand hold an exhibition.  These take a lot of planning and discussion and sometimes the best laid plans change as with the current exhibition.  The title and theme changed and I just could not get with the plan so decided not to participate.

Scroll back to our annual Seminar earlier this year and our long suffering Convenor put the hard word on us.  Not enough entries to make an exhibition.

 

Suddenly a light bulb lit up so I asked if I could enter even though the date for submissions had closed and she not only agreed, she liked my idea.

And so a couple of months of creation began.

I have to admit that if I wrote down records I have lost them but I'm pretty sure it was 48 thread per inch of Schappe-Seide silk which is beautiful to work with.  Two inches in the reed and floating selvedges for twill.  I wove one 6 inch length and stitched it to the cardboard hexatron and realised it was slightly loose.  Dropped two threads and that was enough.

Each piece of silk was dyed a primary or secondary colour to fit with the group instructions.

 

A friend had some black textured velour yarn I could "borrow" for the neck piece.

 

 

This piece I call a wall necklace and I loved working with the primary colours.  The small 1 inch hexatrons were a bit fiddly but fun when finished.   I found a necklace to repurpose with the perfect blue beads.

Ear rings and brooch complete the ensemble.

As they were displayed at the Percy Thomas Gallery in Stratford.

My regret is that I was working so hard to meet the deadline and didn't have time to remake the necklace in primary colours.  That would have held it all together much better.

A very fun project once I got my head around what to make for Angles.

Quick catch up

I'm so far behind here I thought I'd just do a quick catch up.

A machine knit and felted merino scarf with wonderful organic loops.

Another cotton warp for tea towels.

Didn't empty so many cones this time but every bit helps.

A batch of blankets reflecting the kauri tree.

This is Tuahu Kauri tree, reached by a short drive from home.

It is 12.8m to the first limb and has a diameter of 2.7m measured at a height of 1.5m.

Magnificent trees with a light golden wood.

Available from Pauanesia shop.

Desert Road t'towels

An exercise in using up cotton thread and exploring weave patterns.

Look at all the empty cones!

A mishap caused by not checking all threads.  See how the green is puckering; its not actually cotton.  When I did the burn test on a thread it went phewt and a ball of plastic was left on the bench.  Lovely if using a tea towel near a gas stove!

I wound some new warp in a darker green cotton, tied it to the old threads and pulled them through the reed and heddles and weighted them at the back of the loom.

The warp is a 5 end extended advancing twill and most wefts were woven with two shuttles.

I played in my software, turning half the tie up or turning half the treadling or cycling half the treadling or a combination thereof.

Some blended the stripes, some lines not so easy to follow.  The camera had trouble focusing.

This one below looks a bit like argyle and I like the border.

Hapara - Dawn Blankets

Three beautiful blankets which went to Pauanesia shop.