Wednesday 12 August 2009

What's on the looms?

I'm not really a production weaver. Once I have prepared the loom for weaving and woven a few inches it can stand still for a long time. The reason why most of my looms are occupied is that I don't like the sight of an empty loom. I only finish a piece and cut the fabric when I want to put on another. As long as I haven't decided what 's next, a piece stays on the loom, finished or not. These are finished warps:

This weave is on the 'tjoekenbak' it is a ornamented plainweave in thin cotton yarn taken double in warp and weft.


This is a woven picture of my son skating, made on the TC1 with th Arahweave software. It is a silk warp and weft.
This work in progress:






A plain double weave treated in blocks.
This work is 'the female' or spring. I made another in more brownish colors 'the male' or autumn .It is made on the replica with 8 shafts using cotoline.
Another work not finished is on the dobby loom. It is a network drafting twill with linnen / cotolinen warp and fine wool weft. I planning to dye it after it gets off the loom so that only the wool is dyed. Now it looks like this:






I'm not sure what color I will use...

The last loom is occupied with a 8 end straight treading in three blocks. But I'm getting bored after 1 meter weaving with fine cotton. I think I'm going to cut and retread it.








Note: The colors of the weavings seem duller then they are but they are muted.

Tuesday 11 August 2009

Portrets

These are pictures of the other looms in case you're wondering...

Presenting my crew...

Well it's me and these babies...
my first loom, a second hand 8 shafts called: 'replica'

then we have 6 shaft 'sjoekenbak'
24 shaft 'Jan Van den Bossche' (called after his maker)

a 16 shaft mechanical dobby, formerly used at Betat Skara.
(two more identical looms stored in a garage)
a vertical Turkish rug loom and last but not least my TC1.


Monday 10 August 2009

Workshop

After the conference several workshops could be joint. These workshops were organized by Textile Kultur Haslach. I took part of a class determining jacquard woven cloths given by Eva Basile.
The result of five days looking through a picking glass is a notebook full of drawings and a head full of ideas.

Wednesday 5 August 2009

ETN conference on Jacquard weaving

The conference took place from 22nd of till the 24th of July in Haslach an der Mühl, Austria. The first day was spent on visiting the Vonmiller mull, the (no longer in use) textile school and the weavers museum.
The second day was filled with interesting lectures from artists and textile people talking about Jacquard weaving and related topics. Very interesting was the presentation Bethanne Knudson gave about the training and attached production place for artist and designers she runs; the Oriole Mill. Also interesting was the talk of Eva Basile about the history of the Fondatione Arte della Seta Lisio and reading of Louise Lemieux-Bérubé about the center for Contemporary Textiles in Montreal, Canada.
The last day was preserved for networking, short lectures by participants about what they are doing and what drives them.
Other than the conference itself were their two exhibitions of Jacquard works one of reconstructed ancient textiles and contemporary work of Franz J. Ippoldt and one group exhibition of contemporary Jacquards woven either on TC1 or industrial loom. Simply amazing art works!