Some Weavers at Sturt

I thought I would do a little roundup of some of the weaving that´s been going on around the Sturt Weaving Workshop. There has been some fantastic pieces produced lately!

 Lilly and Carol both making floor rugs. Carol´s has a loom controlled square throughout it.

 April wearing her fantastic double weave tencel and wool scarf.

 Helen´s blind, tho this photo doesn´t do it justice so I´ĺl try to take some more later. It has a very cool blue jelly yarn in it that is incredible in the sun.

 This is Maureen´s stunning hanging. Double  weave pockets with silk and monofilament and very finely cut pieces of wood which as translucent with the sun behind it.

 This is Judy weaving her crammed and spaced scarf. Judy has been a Sturt weaver since 1979.

 Ann is nearly finished her beautifully graphic Bauhaus inspired tapestry.

 These are just a few of Libby´s tapestries of her grandchildren´s drawings - so fun!

And this is one of my after school student´s pencil cases. It´s amazing what a trip to Vinnie´s can inspire!

So that´s just a little part of what´s been happening up here lately. There´s lots more so come up some time and have a play!
--mel

More Rugs

Ok Belly - I´ve started the physical work for the Sturt rugs. Mum did the dying while I hovered over, and this is just the start!

This last image is from the Palettes app for my iphone - I am absolutely loving it - so handy!

So what do you think?
--melly

I Finished the Rug and Prep for Summer School

I finally finished my rug! Well kind of - finished the weaving anyway - I still have to do the edges. I think this is not the best photo of it, as the green is a bit more prominent. I'll try to take some more photos of it later.

This is part of my preparation for a kids' workshop for the Sturt Summer School. It's called 'Bazaar Textiles' and we will be doing some sewing, knitting, felting and weaving if we can fit it all in! I'm busy warping up 11 ridged heddles for them... should be fun I hope!

-- melly

Rugs and Spring and Things

This post is a little overdue, but I'm trying to catch up on a few things over the holidays.

Most importantly, I have started my rug! I'm enjoying it so much - I'm using colours from our Lacroix exhibition ideas, so I aiming it for that - it may or may not suit the exhibition but either way I'm having fun!

 Sprintime at Sturt is always beautiful! This is an exercise I set for a student in my class - a garden colour wheel.

 This is a simply enormous peony that somebody picked - so beautiful - about 30cm in diametre.

 A wonderfully inspirational Vogue issue - perfect!

 These are just some adds from the same issue - inspired me to do some scarf designs from the textures. I'm thinking next year's scarves might include some bunny fur!

--mel

A Mark on the Floor 2010

Another Sturt Summer School has come and gone. I think we all had lots of fun - I did :) I taught rug weaving again this year, with a focus on design. The course was called A Mark on the Floor. About half of the people in the class had not woven before so it was really great to see everyone take home a completed floor rug.

A good working group - L to R - Nansi, Kylie, Jo and Suzie.

Babette's rug in process.

Helen being handy with some Soumak.

Helen's rug in process, showing her design source from a Rothko painting.

Jenny's rug in process - showing some good Soumak lines.

Jo's loom in the morning sunshine.

Jo with her finished rug.

Kate tying off her ends.

Kate's rug in process showing some eccentric weft.

Kylie's finished rug and some impromptu basketry.

A detail of Kylie's rug and her Gnome's Backpack.

Nansi's rug in process. Her inspiration was from a Van Gough painting and she added some tops to give lots of texture to her clouds.

Suzie's rug in process, showing some very good twilling.

Suzie and Babette tying off Suzie's rug. Suzie wanted some extra design so she threw some black acrylic paint over the rug.

All in all, I think it was a great workshop and everyone did amazing work - congratulations to everyone!
--mel

new scarves

Ok, I know it has been a while - but I have been doing things in the background. These are a few new scarves that I made for an exhibition.




--mel

Research

So the weaving has been a little slow this month due to a few issues with my loom, hopefully fixed now. In the mean time, I did a little bit of work on a research project I'm working on - looking at plant cellular structures with an eye to translating them into woven cloth.

Here's my little play with my microscope and camera :

Bok choy stem

Thai basil petal surface

Thai basil leaf surface (the stomata, or pore of the leaf - the pale spots, are something I was really hoping to see!)

Microscopic leaf I found in a drop of fish tank water

A detail (with some colour manipulation) of the same leaf

Moss

This is possibly one of the most stunning things I've ever seen. I have no idea what it is - some kind of single celled orb with spiky hairs? I have a video of it snaring a worm which I will try to post later.

The same orb, with a blue filter

A tiny piece of algae (I think!)

If anyone can help identify any of these, it would be much appreciated :)

So now I just have to get to work making some cloth!
--mel