Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Fiber and friends

Yesterday I tried that idea of blending roving with daylily foliage to make cordage.





Here's the silk roving at work, now being added to whatever this thing is. It might become a table mat for hot dishes.

Happy about how that worked, and the timing, because yesterday afternoon Gary and granddaughter suddenly appeared, ready to learn cordage. Perfect.

I had her pick a faded daylily leaf and split it several times end to end, to see how to start collecting her materials. I'd already prepared and damped a batch for her and Gary to use.

Which they did, very excited about it. 


Then, Kira proving very adept, we added in a bit of silk roving, her choice, showed her how to splice to get an endless string, then went on to use some wool roving, too . 

She was smiling happily throughout. I noticed how quickly she figured out how to move her fingers to keep the threads moving into place.  She's very good.

and here's the giant string she made!


So a seven year old can make a very good mixed yarn thread. Cool or what?

I explained to Gary about z twist and s twist, and  how plying works, and he knows now just how technically interesting this simple skill is.  Kira now plans to teach her mom, Janee, whom I've known since she, too, was a little girl. 

Happy students, happy teacher. Just half an hour, and years of benefit. Learning to make for yourself is an important step to a lifetime of feeling capable. Also fearless in making art . And anyway it was great fun for me.

Then Textiles and Tea was a bit of an anticlimax, the guest being Rebecca Winter, formerly an acclaimed doll maker using her handwoven fabric. But not a word was spoken about doll making, to my disappointment. 

She's now written a book about shadow weaving, highly technical, unintelligible to anyone without floor loom experience , and that was her focus. So I show you her beautiful weavings, and the weavers among us will understand




She was wearing a scarf she'd spun and woven from pima and natural green cotton


And she does paper weaving 

An artisan of many talents, including bookmaking, with handwoven covers. She binds using the Coptic stitch.


So there was still plenty of interest, but doll making will have to wait for another guest I guess.

Yesterday was a day of art all round. Intersectional, intergenerational, interracial, intercultural, you name it! Just a lovely time with friends.

Happy day everyone, weave on, make your own string, you'll be glad you did. This sounds like a late night TV pitch "Never buy string again!"



12 comments:

  1. With your two new acolytes, your DIY String Movement will take over the world! Well done!

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  2. The bookbinding piqued my interest. I used to carve wooden book covers but never learned how to do the binding. I do remember researching it online and recognize there is a style called Coptic. Another thing to pick up in retirement (if the pairs of book covers make it with me that far...) Brilliant outcome on the string-making lesson front.

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  3. I've done Coptic stitching and blogged about it. It's a lovely technique because it enables pages to open flat. Very clever stuff.

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  4. Passing on the skill is so important. Great students, great teacher!

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  5. What a rewarding day,
    Great cordage making, and beautiful weaving!

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  6. How wonderful is it to pass a skill onto the young! She was beaming.

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  7. Well, Rebecca's work IS amazing weaving, I must say. How great that you got to share your skills with your granddaughter! Kids love making things, and learning crafts, and she'll always remember that.

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  8. She's not my granddaughter -- neighbor Gary is the grandparent. But it's lovely to have her visit.

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  9. My goodness, she is a fast learner! I would never have thought of using daylily leavesime that, but I have certainly noticed how tough they are when they wind around my string trimmer. And I have entered of them. I wonder, can I just plait them like a braid?

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  10. Yes, I expect you can braid them. As you notice, they're tough. You need to dry them then, when you're ready to use them, get them damp so they won't shred and splinter. I've used iris leaves, same way.

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  11. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to teach a young child (and her grandfather too). Who knows, perhaps you've set her on a lifetime of creativity.
    Too bad about the lack of dolls, but the weaving certainly looks interesting.

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