Weaving Archives - Page 4 of 11 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Category Archives: Weaving

Gearing up

Gearing up. Getting ready for December, even though it’s already here. The studio MUST get cleaned up, as well as the adjunct studio (AKA dining room). So, it’s a bit of this and a bit of that around here.

Newspaper

This is what I found when I went out for the newspaper this morning. I frequently find the paper in this position, but not usually floating in water. The water is because I have had 8.77 inches of rain beginning on Thanksgiving and ending on Sunday. Actually it’s surprising that it is still floating since it was so waterlogged. The depth of this ditch is really deceptive. If the newspaper is not visible from my porch, I get the grabber ’cause I know it’s in the ditch and I don’t want to crawl down into it. Too early in the day for that.

Grabber

Below is my latest effort at wedge weave. I will learn how to do this, I will learn how to do this,I will learn how to do this….. This was woven on the tiny Lani from Mirrix. I don’t have the shedding device on this loom, but might consider it later. Right now I’m just using tapestry needles as shuttles. As you can see, there are issues with this bitty weaving, but overall I am pleased. The selvedges are wavy as they are supposed to be. You can see too much warp the the “line” where the weft changes directions, which is not aided by the amount of draw-in–both solvable, I’m sure. Embroidery floss allows for almost infinite colors. For this I used the six strands as they came out of the package. I did blend colors on a couple of the Christmas trees I wove, which gave the color more depth. Once I feel better about weaving wedge weave, I want to try some silk. Gotta think about that draw-in. How do you fix that?

Wedge Weave, embroidery floss, 4 x 3 inches

I have had these inexpensive boxed bookshelves sitting on the floor for a while, but finally tackled the project. Yes, the instructions say it’s a two-person job, but I am just one person. The boxes are too big for me to move, so I cut one open and moved the parts individually. I am looking forward to organizing my art and weaving books. Maybe I’ll be able to find something more easily now. Have you heard of Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day? Bibliotaph came in the other day. Scary. I’m not going to think about that.

Bookshelves

This is the time of year that I get a new calendar, I guess like everyone else. Even though I use the calendar on my phone (and love it!), I still like to have a paper calendar. I have decided to try a new one this time. It’s called the Week Dominator from Neu Year. You can see the one I usually get here and here. What I like about the usual calendar is the yellow column on the right, where I can write down goals or whatever for the week. With the calendar I’m trying this year, you can write those goals down below the day but above where the hours begin. I also like the dot format as opposed to lines. We’ll see. I may go back to the tried and true.

New style calendar

My treat for myself this week. A workshop totally unrelated to weaving, except for what’s floating around in my head. We’ll see…. More about that later.

Prepare now

Mirrix Looms Christmas tree

I rarely prepare for Christmas early, but just in case you haven’t seen it, Mirrix Looms has a free e-book about weaving a Christmas tree ornament. They even have a kit for it that looks just beautiful! Including are the silk yarns, Ultrasuede for the back, cotton warp, and beads. Since I get a new ornament for each of the boys every year, I’m thinking this is the one for this year. Which means planning ahead. Take a look at the tree and get the book here. They have even got the tree kit/loom package ready to go. This will be a project for me to try out on the new Lani loom. And I am a distributor now, so contact me if interested.

Email: sherri@sherriwoodardcoffey.com

Phone: 817-781-1717

Address: PO Box 123305, Fort Worth, TX 76121

Mirrix Loom

Mirrix Lani

Weaving with embroidery floss

For years I have been looking for a small, portable loom. I’ve tried many, none successfully, that is until the Mirrix Lani. I love this loom! It’s only 8 inches wide and I’m not sure how wide it weaves yet, but this is fun. I’m using embroidery floss, which works great with the 14 epi warp spring that comes with the loom. And embroidery floss comes in soooooo many colors, which can then be changed by combining other colors in the same weft. I’m using a tapestry needle to weave the small warp on the loom, since I don’t have the shedding device on this loom.

I have recently become a dealer for these looms, so let me know if you would like to buy yourself a Christmas present. Or a just-because-it’s-Thursday present. Or just because.

sherri@sherriwoodardcoffey.com

Ikat experiments and more

Grocery shopping

No, this picture has nothing to do with ikat, I just like it. This is the painting on the refrigerated box for a drink that I don’t remember the name of. Judging from the picture, it must’ve been a fruit drink, right?

Left: cartoon, Right: weaving

So, ikat experiments–You can see it all in the above picture. I’ve recorded the info on the cartoon; the cartoon is 6 inches, the woven is 2.5 inches. The yarn was measured in 1/4 inch increments for this experiment, so it makes since that this ratio is more than double the ratio for 1/2 inch measuring. The other cartoon with all its angles is not turning out very well. Maybe those need to be measured in 1/8 inch increments, something that I will have to think long and hard about.

spinning and roving

…and then there’s the spinning. About a pound of Romney roving rests on the floor beside the spinning wheel.

Circular-warped Mirrix

… and the newly warped Mirrix, warped in a circular way without the use of the warp bars. Another experiment.

small pieces

… and the small pieces I wove, oh, maybe a year ago. I trimmed them and dumped them in water. Next I’ll hem and stitch them to a canvas. Another experiment….

Practice, practice everywhere

Student doing some weaving on the Mirrix loom #weaving #tapestry #mirrixlooms

A photo posted by Sherri Woodard Coffey (@sherriwcoffey) on Sep 22, 2015 at 3:20pm PDT

So, trying something different here–embedding code from Instagram. Didn’t even know one could do that! Lately, I’ve been digging out all my itty bitty looms to experiment with. I have several and can no longer find directions. Thank goodness for the internet! Plus, I have been practicing on my Mirrix. And I need to practice, practice, practice! I’m just not as good on it as I am on the big loom. That is going to change, but it’s really hard to keep on practicing when I don’t like the way it looks.

Prairie Rain

Speaking of Mirrix, they are in the finalists for the Martha Stewart Made in America awards. There are lots of finalists to view and vote for. Evidently, you get six votes, so scroll through them and vote. Among the finalists are several weavers and other fiber folks. One of them is

One of the things on my list for this week is some ikat experimentation. I need a mathematician! It seems that I should be able to work out a ratio between the cartoon and the ikat that I tie with the actual woven piece. So far that is escaping me. And, since I’ve got some big projects in mind, I would like to get this down. On the piece that I just got through weaving (similar to the above Prairie Rain), I doubled the size of the cartoon, thinking that since I was tying in 1/2 inch segments, that would be appropriate. Wrong! I ended up with lots of tied and dyed yarn left over. The cartoon ended up about 108 inches. Since I was measuring my weaving, I stopped at 60 inches, after using approximately 66-70 inches of the cartoon amount. The experimentation will involve measuring the yarn in 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch segments and seeing how much is woven with each group. I am really hoping to get good information from this. Not all motifs have a place to just stop like the most recent piece. Some have to continue to finish the image. Plus, I also don’t want the motif to be squished. More practice. Sigh…

Well, look what came in the mail

Sarah Swett’s book is handsewn

Sarah Swett has written and produced this small book about weaving a bag on a box. You can buy it here. I love her drawings and you can see more of them on her blog, A Field Guide to Needlework. Clever name, right? I’ve actually tried weaving on a box before, not very successfully, but after reading this small book, I’m thinking maybe another try is in order. It seems there are remedies for the problems I had with this type of weaving.

Inside the envelope Was a postcard with a picture of the very first weaving I saw of Sarah’s. I remember being astounded at the range of color she achieved with natural dyes, the detail, vitality, and energy in the piece. I still think that.

Energetic postcard

In my effort to become more observant, I have been taking a lot of pictures. I’ve driven by this sculpture a million times and decided to take a picture this time. I especially wanted to get at least part of the pink window with the red sculpture, which is in front of the studio of Rebecca Low, the sculptor.

Rebecca Low’s studio

Taken using the remote shutter

While shopping in Target the other day, I picked up a Bluetooth Remote Shutter. All you have to do is put the battery in, turn it on and pair your phone with it, turn on the camera, and push a button. Voila! A picture is taken. There’s not one on the Target website, but the one I got is very similar to this one at Amazon, except no wrist strap. Lower price too.

Below you can see my project for,the week–putting the table loom together. I really wish the directions were better, or that there was at least a list of parts with pictures. This really will probably take the week. Why did I decide to do this?!!

Ashford table loom in pieces

Tackling the dreaded first

For me, my studio time is the time that’s actually spent weaving. Several months ago, I wove four small pieces. Those pieces have long been finished, and my brain has been working on what to do with them. They’ve been on my to-do list all of those months, but today during a conversation with my accountability partner Carol, it came to me that I need to tackle these BEFORE weaving. Duh! So, after a walk, weeding the garden, being stung by fire ants, mowing the shoulder-high thistle plants, and shower, I dug those pieces out of hiding. Then I couldn’t decide about a background. Off to Photoshop. Of course, the final decision my be decided by the color of linen I can find in the stores. This whole process is an experiment. I may do some other small pieces and need to have a go to technique for finishing.

So what do you think? What color should the background be? From looking at the samples above, I think I can safely rule out black. Please vote or suggest a color. Really. Seriously.

From soggy North Texas

Yes, soggy. As is my steps sound like I’m walking in a bog when I go outside. The sun has been a rare event here, and as you can see (thanks to Accuweather), won’t be around much until June. Yet, I’m still reluctant to complain since we’ve been in a drought, and the rains will end. In August I will be wishing for rain.

So, what’s been going on during this perfect weaving weather? Not much. A bit of weaving here, a bit of unweaving there. I’m very unfocused right now. The Fort Worth Weavers Guild has a rug study weaving group, for which I am the mentor–how weird is that? We have a Facebook page where we post pictures, questions, resources, and messages for help. Trying to explain dovetail joins and what the weft does on the return trip, has made me admire anyone who can write articles or a book on how to do something. Words are hard!

I have gone down a couple of rabbit holes also. You know, those computer research projects that lead into something else that leads into something else, and so on.

One was seeing Kay Sekimachi’s work again. I’ve written about her before, and I am still fascinated by her work.

This picture was on Colossal, which in turn came from My Modern Met. How did she do that? I really would like to know. There is an exhibit of her work at the Bellevue Arts Museum. *** By the way, Colossal has so many interesting art articles it’s worth a weekly visit.

If any of these pictures look familiar, it’s because they came from my Instagram account (user name sherriwcoffey).

More rabbit holes later. I really am going to weave today, I really am going to weave today, I really am going to weave today …

***(In the Realm of Nature: Bob Stocksdale & Kay Sekimachi is organized by Mingei International Museum, San Diego, California. The local presentation of this exhibition is curated by Stefano Catalani.-See more at: http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/in_the_realm_of_nature.html#sthash.SWxFNFpA.dpuf)

ArtWalk 2015

One version of my booth

Back home and the car still sits with its load. The first thing I did was get to the loom. Right before I left, I realized that I had not followed my design for the piece I’m weaving. After playing around with the design as woven, and thinking about it over the weekend, I took out 8 inches this morning. It didn’t take as long to unweave as it did to weave, but it still took a long time. If you’re wondering why I unwove instead of cutting the yarn, it’s because of how much yarn is dyed. So again I have a fresh start, but this time there is a printout of the desired finished product sitting alongside me on the loom bench.

It was a beautiful day for browsing art, although the crowds were down this year. This ArtWalk-er comes every year, but I think this is a new costume.

On the way home, I stopped by Wildseed Farm in Fredericksburg for some flower love. This part of Texas, known as the Hill Country, has a huge German influence.

Wall Gallery

It has been busy around here. As usual at this time of year, the weeds are trying to take over, like some kind of horror film. I did cut off the small, multicolored piece, but no finishing yet. Instead, I tied on the warp and started weaving again. That’s what we always really want to do, right. To heck with all those have-tos, need-tos.

I also made a trip to Dallas to visit Wall Gallery. They kept four pieces, and have a plan to frame them in a completely different way. I can’t wait to see how they turn out!