Loom set up

Well I have started to move in. Mel came to Canberra for a few days to help me set up the looms. We first has to put the loom down at Queanbeyan and the transport it to the studio.

It all when together very well really no major hick ups but then the problem of the shafts lifting is my main problem. They don't!

I have not st up my 8 shaft Tokia as well and it has a linen warp wound on but not threaded there is the slight problem of where are the threading hooks etc.

Jill is coming out soon to help with the shafts and hopefully it will be full steam ahead.

New beginnings in Studio 6

Walking down the path to the studio you can see Erik Kreks-Schades; studio on the right with my all time favorite chairs on his veranda, and painted bright blue!


Michael Sainsbury has rebuilt the inside of the studio and I have only had to paint the floor. Bad decision made, I bought oil based floor paint so 2 coats down and now just wait for the smell to go and is there a smell! Thank you Michael for all your hard work.

This week sees a new beginning, my studio at Strathnairn. Strathnairn is a wonderful setting for a studio it is an old farm donated to the people of the ACT. The homestead is used as a gallery space.

The main focus of Strathnairn is the ceramics community, although there are other practicing artist with studios.


Strathnairn Arts Association

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

My dilemmia

What do we do with all our warp ends? I have bags of them. I don't want to through them out that would be such a waste and most of it is silk. What are your suggestions? great colours, I am using some of the eco dyed silk to weave a part of fybermotion as weft. It takes forever to wind it onto a stick shuttle.

Finished scarves

The white warp is finished. I love weaving with over spun wool as the gauze weaving shrinks and becomes a tight woven scarf. You can put the scarf open and see what the original size was.

Sorry photos not that good!

Genius Mon Lacroix

Delicate ruffles and no colour just white, but then there are hundreds of whites.

Many soft ruffles! So would that be rayon or silk. Perhaps both.

Lacroix ruffles

Beautiful ruffles, all I see are ruffles and frills. How to develop these into a body of work? Sample, sample, sample. Where will I start maybe its collage time, paper, pattern and texture. Drippy ruffles. This weekend may give me a time to play with the end of the last warp using rayon and over spun wool. Maybe some over dying could be interesting.