Why Always Pink?

This is am old piece or work I did in my final year of uni, Back Paddock 2003, silk and copper with natural and commercial dyes. Woven pleats

Ok what is it with pink? I always go back to pink. Is it a subconscious think? I was never a pink person then at UNI I became a pink person all my work was pink and I started wearing pink clothing. Now my work has gone back to pink. This is the pink and cream warp I wound 2 weeks ago going on the loom today. I have threaded it with a pointed draft 1234321234321. Now the quondery what to weave now? I think the weft isto be all cream and maybe some over spun and some plain weave cream.

Franz Ippoldt for Christian Lacroix

While studying at Lisio Foundation in Florence Italy some years ago I met a fantastic weaver, Franz Ippoldt. Between 2005 and 2008 Franz was technical director of Fondazione Lisio near Florence and now has his own studio near Lyon France. As you know Mel and I have an obsession with Christian Lacroix. Mr Lacroix is the master of colour, texture and pattern. Many of his designs derive their inspiration from the theater and the Spanish Matador. Franz worked on a collaboration with Lacroix in this garment and produced the corsage for the robe in Franz's own words. Now that is a colour combination! Maybe franz should weave something for the exhibition.
Belly:)

1/2 a productive day

No 1.

No 2.

No 3.

No 4.

No 5

Well off to the studio I went at 9.00am. I almost finished the mohair waffle weave blankets, but ran out of mohair I thought I could do it but need another skien. This took me about an hour to complete the weaving. So I will call Carol at Rainbow Wools tomorrow and order some and maybe a bit of loop mohair and brush it after weaving for more blankets ( Mel's suggestion to stop having some many snarly bits).

But the day was not all wasted. I wound 3 warps and what to do with them? I used a mixture of cream wool , over twisted wool and pink polyester. ( My comment to Mel was to use up some of what I have, hence the polyester) you can see my ruff notes in image no 3.

warp no 1 = cream wool, O/T wool and polyester.
warp no 2 = all polyester
warp no 3 = all O/T wool

Warp 1 and 2 are about 4.5 mts long and 12 inches wide. weird how I always do my lengths in metric and all other measurements in imperial measurements.
Warp no3 is about 3.5 mts long and 10 inch wide.
All warps have 20 threads per inch.

So what weave structure will I use???? What to do with the warps? Conundrum. This is the trouble with using thread for the sake of it and not really planning. I have to admit I never have any success when I do this so of thing so it will be interesting to see what happens.

So all in all it was 1/2 a productive day and now I get to go and look at wedding photo's.
Belly:)

Weaving at Studio 6

Weaving waffle weave mohair bed runners

Waffle weave runners

Scarf and bed runner at Craft ACT shop Canberra

Reading: Christian Lacroix on Fashion

I am reading the above book as a starting point for research for our Lacroix Sweetie exhibition. The book was produced to accompany an exhibition at the Les Arts Decoratifs Musee de la mode De Textiles Paris, 2007-2008. The book is a visual feast and I am dissapointed that I was unable to see the exhibition in person. Lacroix use the historic collection and juctopositioed his work with the historical to produce a narative on fashion.

I also own this book and have not looked at it for a long time. I am revisiting each on to re connect with Lacroixs' assetic.

This is a great little book and was the first of the set of fashion books I bought in the late 1990's.

This book is missing from my collection and I know I own it but have lent it in the past and it has not come back"home". So looks like it's hello amazon!

I am enjoying the reading and research, I am using this as my visual diary. It is such a visual feast.

A list words Mr Lacroix uses to discribe textiles, fashion, art in general.

draperies
grandiose
mixtures

flowers

colours

pattern

texture
cobwebs

strong

delicate

full

My Words to discribe Lacroix

colour

texture

liquid

mad

exuburant

Bright

lussious

delicate.

structured

contrasting

heart

floral

multipule

sophistication

unusual

art

contemporary

historical

The list is never ending.
How am I going to use these words? I wonder how Mel will interperate these books.

Bella:)

A Little Trip to NSW Gallery

Earlier in the week I had a quick trip to Sydney to see the gallery and Kynokuniya book store.
We saw a stunning exhibition of 17th Century Japanese woodblock prints. I was more impressed with the Wynne and Sulman Prizes than the actual Archibald Prize - a stunning show of really interesting contemporary art.
I've been feeling a little lost lately so I thought a couple of basic books might pep me up. How to be an Explorer of the World is a wonderful book - lots of fun - and reminders.

And these were a little treat - I love them!

--mel

New Warp On..

Who'd have thought I'd finally get another warp on? Ok, so it's double weave tube scarves, with rayon, overtwisted wool and 8ply worsted wool. I hope it turns out how I'm hoping it will - there are 5 scarves on there. I'll keep you posted when they are off.

.. and this is how much threading I have done - a whole 3 centimetres. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

--mel