Textiles, tea and tuk-tuks

Today's Textiles and Tea featured Walter Turpening, originally a researcher in the oil industry, who moved into textiles later in life and now creates ergonomically designed seats with woven covers.

Largely for weavers, with a sliding mechanism to avoid leaning, and for knitters, they're designed using beautiful woods,  to the individual measurements of the user. He teaches the seat weaving, using cotton threads and braiding which he dyes.

 

Here's his book

Here's a braiding machine processing thread into braid, kumihimo style. I've done a hand version of kumihimo braiding, with modest (!) results.

This was a niche installment of the series, very useful to weavers using floor looms, and knitters..

And here's what I stumbled on in my mailbox earlier today

Tuk-tuks, originally rickshaws pulled by a person, 

later adapted to a bicycle, easier for the puller, then motor bike, and finally motorbike enclosed in the chassis, out of the sun, probably best of all.

What's interesting about them, too, are the designs, all kinds of images, often carefully painted to avoid religious taboos about representing people and various animals. 

The colors are brilliant, good in the tropical light where they operate.

And despite seeing statements that the drivers do their own artwork, maybe some are also artists, but it's a professional industry, as you see.

Colorful rush hour!

Happy evening everyone, enjoy the rest of your day