February 2018

Tapestry/Weaving

I continued to work on the community tapestry, weaving the "water" and talking to visitors who came into The Bach Artisans Gallery. We have lots of people who remember the first community tapestry and return to check on progress only to find it's finished, displayed elsewhere and a new one is on the go. I explain we completed the "Whangarei - Our Place" Tapestry in June 2016 and the current tapestry is the first of four, 2 metre wide panels that will show the changes to the Town Basin (which includes the shopping complex) over the past 200 years. This first panels represents and depicts Maori life in the early 1800's prior to the European settlement - so they are getting local history along with an explanation of the textile art process. 

(Above: showing the weaving around the whales)

I often stay after closing the shop to work on the tapestry, some evenings weaving until it's dark outside! That is the only way I can really concentrate on what I'm doing with no interruptions.

 I ended up undoing the area to the right of the whales tale as I realised I'd accidentally used the wrong blue. I'm learning that my mistakes are not failures, rather they are opportunities to acquire knowledge and understanding. I feel proud of myself that I can now say/believe this. Prior to TLC I would not have even understood the concept!

 Close up photo showing detail of my weaving changes.

Pottery

My latest venture has been a slab work ceramic boot. This is my test piece which ended up very squat as the printable pattern (from the internet) was for an infants bootie, Still, the principles would be the same and I learned the importance of drying the clay a little when doing slab-work (so it doesn't collapse) but not over-drying otherwise the clay cracks (which I did!) 

[Image Source: the internet]

Of course then I found myself on google and pinterest looking up boot/shoe making and trying to downaod photos on my cell phone camera to my computer.

Pit-Firing Weekend Worksohp - 24/25th Feb

The Firebirds (who are a group of locals who enjoy working/playing with the process of pottery and meet weekly on Wednesdays and/or Thursdays) held a pit-firing workshop last weekend Unfortunately, I got lost trying to find where the hosts, Rod and Wendy live so I missed seeing the loading of the pottery and I couldn't make it on Sunday to see the unveiling of the fired wares but learnt about the process all the same and would like to experiment with my own pit firing some stage in the future. 

Pit firing is the original method for “baking” clay.  It dates backover 3,000 years ago.  This process is done typically in a hole in the ground, or a pit, pots are placed in the pit and burned.  Pit firing is an atmospheric process all of the colors and patterns are derived from the process and what is consume in the fire.  Items that are burned will turn to vapor and will swirl around the pieces in the pit.  If the pieces are hot enough to have their pores open the colored vapor will enter the pore and stay there, if not pot will not have color besides black, gray, or white. 

Art Inspiration

Sketches of my idea for a pottery number series (Hundertwasser-inspired). Following on from my previous exploration of artist inspiration of Hundertwasser and Klimt's style of work I did more research and reading.  I found some images on the internet of Klimts' paintings close-up.

I want to use his style as a springboard to pursue my own 

THANK YOU GIFT

I received a Thank you card from the PACIFICA Whangarei Branch. They said my soap was very well received and liked. Also in the bag was a piece of hand-stamped fabric and a cheque for payment.

Weaving websites of interest..

Richard McVetis’ artistic practice centres on his training as an embroiderer through the use of traditional hand stitch techniques and mark making. Using laboured and meticulously worked wools and multiples of embroidered dots and crosses, he explores the similarities between pen on paper and thread on fabric, using a limited vocabulary of mark making and deliberately subdued colour to create a binary simplicity. 

You can follow his process HERE. I found it very inspiring and thought-provoking. 

Hand-making linen from flax.

Here's another...

..which led me to watching this about using nettles for cordage

..which lead to this video about weaving with nettles

I have no idea what she was saying but understand she was demonstrating how she warped the fibres for back-strap weaving a process which has always fascinated me. The yarns are rolled on a wooden stick in a right order to have desired color combination. Then warping is done using bamboo sticks fixed on the ground or on wooden polls fixed on a wooden plank or on ground. The warp is rolled on warping beam. After warping, dressing is done. It is the process, where thread from the warp is inserted through the reed made with the wooden stick placed with nylon or cotton cords. They use Two piece of wooden sticks are used as heddles. The heddles help to pick up alternative warp threads to create a shed through which the weft can be passed.   To weave the weft is passed through the warp with the help of reed. They change weaving style, weft and reed to have different pattern and texture of the cloth.