Teneriffe weaving on the gourd lid

I've been busy modeling for life drawing classes this week, so I haven't made as much progress on the gourd as I wanted to. But here's what I've been up to. (Check out the previous steps in this project here:
Cleaning a gourd: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/09/cleaning-dried-gourd.html
Dyeing a gourd: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/09/dyeing-gourd.html )

My first step was to find a handy circular guide, and with a pencil lightly mark out where I wanted to drill holes.

Then I drilled two rows of holes with my little hand drill.

I pulled out some waxed linen that was similar in color to the gourd lid, and measured out about 5 yards. I tied a knot in one end that was too big to slip through the holes...

...and then threaded it through one of the holes from the backside of the lid. (I glued that hairline crack, so it wouldn't be a structural issue. The crack doesn't go through to the front anyway--looks much worse than it is. But I'm careful.)

I took a moment, and strung a few beads onto the waxed linen. My needle was too big to fit through the holes, but luckily I could take the needle off and just pop them over the end of the thread.

I rethreaded my needle, and took the thread down into the hole directly across the way.

I came up in the next door hole, and went directly across the center again to the other side.

I repeated this step, building a web across the gourd lid. I had put an odd number of holes in the circle, so the last thread went just halfway across, and came up just beyond the center junction.

The warp is now in place, and I'm ready to weave. I started weaving over under, going around the center junction.

I snugged the thread down tight, making a circle.

If you'll notice, that circle is a little off center. To work around that, I went back and forth now and again in addition to round and round, until I had a nicely centered circle.

It doesn't look exactly perfect, but I wasn't worried since my next step was to sew down the knob that allows me to pick up the lid.

Now I buried the end of the gourd colored thread, and added in a contrasting circle of grey to make the handle pop visually.

Now, the fun part begins. I weave under/over, back and forth with the waxed linen, just kind of doodling on the web. I have no real plan charted out. You can chart out lovely patterns, but I'm just playing here with a free-form design.

I decided that my design might change depending on what the rim treatment was going to look like, so I added grey linen for a visual pop. It is whip stitched going around one direction all around. Then I reversed direction and whip stitched going the other direction all around, letting the stitches cross at the rim to make a neat V pattern.

And that is as far as I've gotten tonight. Next up is more doodling with the waxed linen in a free-form design. And maybe another row of gray V's on the rim of the bowl in addition to the ones of the lid. Still deciding on that. I'll probably wait to decide until I get the lid done, and see what it needs from there.

More gourds

Here in Phoenix, AZ, we have cliff swallows that build their nests under bridges and overpasses, and on buildings. They also build in cliffs in the wild, but are adaptable birds. I love to see them swooping around when I drive by. The gourd vase that I finished up yesterday was inspired by them. I traced images of the birds in flight, and transferred them onto the gourd with wood burning. Then I added layers of leather dye, and a rim treatment of waxed linen. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

















And now, I'm working on another lidded bowl, with teneriffe weaving. This is the first time I used some of the blue leather dyes, and I'm happy with the colors. I've got the gourd cleaned and dyed, and the basic web strung for the weaving. Tomorrow will be the freeform fun part! I've got purple, tan, blue, and black waxed linen. I don't really have a plan--just a general outline that I'll play with as the mood strikes me. It will be interesting to see what develops.