Jacquard week in Melbourne.

This is the joining of the old and new warp. Rachel said a little crab like machine does the work. I just love all the little knots.

My fabric sample (Friday) this took about Halp an hour to weave, with the help of Cybil winding bobbins for me.

Liz Williamson left and Pat Jones right

From left myself, Helen and Monique Van Nieuwland (from ANU textile deptment)

Well its been a while since Mel or I have posted anything on this blog, we are slack I know but with exhibtions, study,work etc we are both busy people.

I spent a wonderful week in Melbourne at RMIT University 2 weeks ago. Helen Houston from Scotweave (Scotland) taught a class on Scotweave software as an introduction to the program for industry and interested artists.

What a great week. There were 9 participantes including 3 RMIT staff ( opps having problems with cat who likes to walk and sleep on key board) the week gave me a chance to try a new program (always a challange). The program is easy if I may say that any computer program is easy to use. After a week I felt that I could scan or draw an image and work it in Scotweave and weave it. Although there is so much for me to learn I think I can cope with the basics'. Although I am sure I will need to do pleanty of refreshing with the software before I could start again. in the future.

During the week we learnt to design yarns on the program, this makes it easier to view your design as a simulated image thats would look more like your finished work. Next was dobby weave and then artwork and finally jacquard just what we had all been waiting for.

I must say I became a bit of a circle/spot girl. They were easy to draw and quick to get a result.

I need to do more work with double cloth to understand the full benefits of the program I think.

It was interesting to see all the equipment that RMIT has, so many wonderful hand looms and industrial looms I have never seen. I find the complete loom of interest. All the threads and working parts of a loom so of course I took photos of these as well.

Over the next few days I will write some more about the trip and add more photos'.

I am now hoping to get back to Melbourne to play again. I have a few ideas for exhibition work but will need to plan, work in photoshop, plan, plan save some money, plan, hope Pat lets me come to Melbourne and I will be away!

Belinda

Hi On a Cold July Day

Well its winter and a perfect time to weave. And I'm not.

Last Tuesday I visted Mel in her studio at Sturt Mittagong. What a great day. I have been unwell for some months and not woven all in 2007, so off I went on my little trip and spent the day weaving for Mel. Mel is working frantically toward her exhibition opening. Its nice to watch another artist work, working proccesses are always interesting. mel is an excellent weaver and has so much knowlege to gleam, I always learn something new when I spend time in her studio.
After her show I hope we can spend some time in my studio and get my big loom up and going.

Mels opening is at Sturt Gallery range Rd Mittagong on the 29th of July 2007 http://www.sturt.nsw.edu.au/index.htm

I didn't take any photos but I spent the day weaving a scarf for Melly. It was nice to get back at it and get the creative jucies going, mind you the loom was threaded and ready to weave no hard work to do just the good part. I hope to pop up again this week so will take my camera.

Here is a link to one of my favourite blogs http://abigailpercy.blogspot.com/

Belinda

A Visit to Mittagong

Well on Sunday 20th May I visited Mel in Mittagong at her weaving studio at Sturt workshops.

It was a wonderful day. Julie Ryder came with me as There was an opening of an exhibition in the galllery New Directions, both Mel and Julie have work in the show, It is a wonderful exhibition and you should visit if possible.

http://www.sturt.nsw.edu.au/exh_current.htm
I have not had much time to weave latley I hope to visit with Mel on friday to weave for her.

I am thinking of what work I would like to do. Mel always uses wonderful colour mostly rayon , silks and wool. We are thinking of exhibiting together,working with colour and texture Think Lacroix.
In Mel's book case is a paper rose and I am passionate about roses. The texture is like velvet and the colour can brighten your day, "luscious". Just think of a woven object with scrunch and texture ummmm!
Now just one more image, I took quite a few on Sunday.

Cheers Belinda

Concept, Line and Weave

Lines are one of the simplest marks you can make, and one of the most important design elements for a weaver. Since I have always enjoyed the math involved in weaving, I revel in the relationships and spacial tension between lines and in turn threads. Weavers often learn to explore this through crammed and spaced warps where the warp threads are spaced at different widths apart.

For many years, the work of minimalist and conceptual artist Sol Lewitt (who sadly died earlier this month) has been an irresistible attraction for me. He used his conceptual ideas with prescribed methods for series of combinations of lines and colours. For his line drawings and prints he believed that the idea and formula were to be distinguished from the personalization of the work. He used a prescribed formula (eg Squares with a Different Line Direction in Each Half Square Series 1971.) and often had others produce or install the work.

"When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair.
The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” —Sol LeWitt (Sol LeWitt, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art,” Artforum 5, no. 10 (June 1967), pp. 79–83, reprinted in Gary Garrels, ed., Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective (exh. cat.), 2000, p. 369.)

His mechanical and removed ideas are easily relatable to weaving. The prescibed actions of planning the cloth which should, if proper notation is kept, be repeatable by anyone who understands the notation (this, of course applies mainly to production weaving, not hand manipulated work); the simplicity of the action of threading a loom; the consideration of colour, line and placement.

Naturally, of course, as a hand weaver I manipulate, tweak and change the cloth as I weave; I am constantly evaluating as I work. In considering the ideal I take from the concepts of LeWitt, (apart from the beauty of his lines) it is that the consideration and structure of the art is just as important as the making of the work.

- Mel

More links to Sol LeWitt -
http://www.guggenheim.org/artscurriculum/lessons/sf_lewitt.php
http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_md_87A_1.html
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3528&page_number=14&template_id=1&sort_order=1
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Paris-Review-1984-Posters_i2297427_.htm


Please note - all images of woven samples in this entry are my own work and of my own design.

around sturt

Thought I would show you a little part of the world in which my studio lives...

Sturt Craft Centre is a collection of workshops (weaving, ceramics, jewellery, wood, photography) established in the 1940s. It was established with the ethos of adult education in practical crafts of high standard. Currently the weaving workshop is the only (I think) public access workshop of it's kind in Australia, with term classes and short courses throughout the year.

Anyways here are a few pics to give you a feel of the place...

pathways
gardens
weave room
my studio space and new loom (just after it was assembled) - AVL compudobby 24 shaft triple back beam

hope you enjoyed the tour - check out the link at the side for more on Sturt.

collage

Welcome to my latest obsession...

For some reason collage has always intimidated me... Then all of a sudden it just happened - it seemed perfectly natural for this concept.

Backtrack -

I mentioned in my last entry that I was working towards an exhibition in July. My work has always related to some sort of state of mind, even if that is just how I relate to objects. This work is about how your (or my) subconscious mind works in a dream state - so there are recurring themes, patterns, and everyday objects distorted and placed out of a normal reference point. I also love using stitching as a drawing tool, I think it harks back to a previous minimalism obsession. Can you spot the sprite bottle?

Anyway, it has been incredibly fun, and it's a great excuse to horde a bunch of rubbish. Which is a strange state of mind to be in when I'm also going through an organisational purge - I have lovely new storage shelves and am ratting through all the boxes I've carried with me from house to house. Out with old, in with the new... hordings. What do you do with all the random stuff you've made in workshops years ago? You can't use it because it's impractical, but it's too big to store easily... in a shiny new box I think.

Intro cont.

And this is some of Belinda's work. This collaborative installation is part of her Fybremotion work and partnership. Her work(on the left) is woven with transparent monofilament with hand embellishments in large panels that move when the viewer steps into an area of several motion detectors - a very surreal experience!

I think we both enjoy the spontaneity and characteristics of working with synthetics - they seem to have so much energy and buoyancy.

This is my favorite production scarf - 'Crinkle Scarf' in rayon and wool. It comes in whatever rayon colours I think of while I'm winding the warp, and I dye the wool after weaving so no two are ever the same. They make me happy and giggly - the rayon has so much light energy it just flutters around.

I am currently working on my first solo exhibition which is coming up in July -eep! My loom has been having a few issues of late so production of any sort has been slow, even non-existent, but the issues have just resolved themselves (thanks to lots of help from friends) so I should be powering on quite soon.

--mel