This last year has passed in a bit of a blur and quite a bit of it has missed being captured on my blog. I will endeavour to do a bit better next year as it's a shame to have gaps in my record of things we've seen and places we've been. Way back in July my two stitchy friends and I went on an adventure in Yorkshire for the second time in as many years. The excuse for the getaway was to house and dog-sit for my friend's daughter. As part of that adventure we found ourselves at Wingham Wool Work at Wentworth near Rotherham. I have been interested in weaving for some time and have played around with peglooms and a simple cardboard loom but I was feeling that the time had come to invest in a 'proper' loom to see if I liked it. Woolfest had a lot to answer for!
Our visit to Wingham Wool Work found me coming home with an Ashford SampleIt loom. which I couldn't wait to put together.
The SampleIt rigid heddle loom gives a weaving width of 8" (20cm) and is very easy to work with. Knowing nothing about weaving I bluffed my way through warping the loom and began experimenting with the help of an Ashford video.
There are lots of videos out there on Youtube and I took inspiration from the Saori weaving that I had seen at Woolfest. This video will give you a little idea of the style of Saori weaving.
There are one or two centres for Saori weaving in the UK and the nearest to me is The Saori Shed in Diss in Norfolk. Saori is as much a philosophy as a craft form. There are no rules in Saori, which suits me down to the ground, and there are no mistakes. Even better! You can please yourself how you weave and use colour and texture in an intuitive and natural way. What also attracted me to Saori is the ability to make clothing in a very simple way based on a rectangular form with limited cutting and stitching. Saori clothing is usually loose fitting and very comfortable.
So, how did my first experiments go?
This was on a linen warp and was a bit wibbly wobbly and not very flexible.
I was soon playing with the colours and textures of the sea and shore and produced several lengths of cloth with a cotton and acrylic warp, at least I think they were, it was yarns I had inherited.
I think I went a bit mad with the texture! As you can see there are plenty of loose yarns and fabrics hanging out of the sides of the weaving and this is quite acceptable in Saori. The weavings were set to one side for a couple of weeks while I wove some scarves for Christmas presents. There's nothing like using your friends as guinea pigs for your novice weavings!
This scarf has gone to my friend in Macclesfield and has happily been well received and eyed covetously by her daughter. I think I may have to make another one! Three others in different designs went to other friends but I forgot to photograph them! Doh!
Having got Christmas out of the way I have set to this week and made up a waistcoat with my sea themed weavings. Ta da!
As it's Saori weaving it doesn't matter that one side is longer than the other. I designed it that way. Cough! The brooch that is holding it closed was a Christmas gift from one of my lovely stitching friends. I am delighted with the vest but it's probably a bit more exotic than I would normally wear as it is strictly a sampler, so I am going to learn more about weights of yarn and warps when I go to the Saori Shed soon. My little SampleIt loom is lots of fun but I am hankering after a Saori floor loom. I am still quilting alongside the weaving and have thoughts of combining the two in some way but the weaving is very calming and relaxing and is good to do in the evening. If you've ever fancied trying your hand at weaving have a go. You can even weave with a piece of cardboard and yarn wound round it. Be warned though, it's addictive!
I thought I had already written this post but, while it had coursed around my head, it didn't reach the page. You may remember that last year my two friends and I were let loose on the unsuspecting folk of Cornwall. This year a new opportunity arose for us to have a little adventure, but this time a bit closer to home.
My last post was about Saltaire and the work of David Hockney and the excuse for this adventure was the chance to visit Yorkshire and Saltaire together and share our inspirations. But first, we took the chance to visit one or two other venues. First port of call was Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Do you know these women? If you see them let loose in your vicinity be afraid, be very afraid! (Only kidding).
This walkway above is just a very small part of the list of people who contributed to thefunds needed to establish and develop the Park.
The main exhibition we saw was work by Ursula Von Rydingsvard, much of it made as site-specific to the Park. Much of it was monumental forms made from 4" x 4" cedar beams. If you click on the image above you may get a better idea of the scale of the piece.
This photo of the 'twins' wandering down the corridor does give you some idea of the scale.
I found some of the work a little disconcerting and maybe that was the aim. The piece above, like several others, was made from the fourth stomach of cows.
The work above is 'Mama Build me a Fence' and incorporates cedar, graphite and chalk. It is a huge piece, 14' tall x 30'7" long. I particularly liked the gridwork of the chalk marks across the surface. Close up it was interesting to see that all the parts were numbered.
If your interest has been piqued by this small snippet of the exhibition you can watch a video about the artist and the exhibition here and visit Ursula's website.
Of course, we didn't really go to YSP for the exhibiton, we went to see the sculptures out in the open.
The park sits in beautiful rolling countryside and there is plenty of space for families to roam around.
I was really happy to see work by Barbara Hepworth whose work I know well from St Ives. It did seem a bit strange to be seeing it here instead of in her own garden in Cornwall.
Just a few hundred yards from the Hepworth pieces is a sculpture by Henry Moore who inspired Barbara Hepworth to develop her work in new directions.
I really liked the beautiful Buddha by Niki Saint Phalle which was part of her Nana series.
I don't know if this cutout at the back was designed as a seat but I would love to have settled there for a while.
I don't have the maker of this piece but I really liked it and would have liked to have spent some time considering the glimpses of images through the perforations. The image is in fact of three figures.
I will definitely go back to YSP. We barely touched the surface and there was much more to see.
Next up after YSP was a trip to Saltaire but I don't have anything to add to my previous post. The Great Northern Quilt Show was also on our agenda and I'll save that for another post, although it's probably a mere glimmer in people's memories now.
We were just able to squeeze in a visit to Fabworks, a fabric shop extraordinaire in Dewsbury.
Oh, my, word! Died and gone to heaven or what? The photo only shows a fraction of the fabrics on sale. None of it is quilt cotton but there was beautiful shirting by Paul Smith and wonderful woollens by Avoca, my favourite Irish designer. £10 a metre for wool fabric is a really good price. There were beautiful silks, upholstery and curtain fabrics and buttons and trims galore. I did succumb and bought some lovely wool for a tunic top and some beautiful cotton poplin shirting for who knows what. I'll come back and edit in a photo tomorrow - if I remember. Hang on a minute, I'll fire up the iPad..........
Here you go:
The grey spotty is going to be the lining for the tunic and the feathery cotton poplin is 'just because'!
Happy Days!