Pirate's Map for Textiles class

So, my last post left us here in the process of making my 3d Pirate's Map for my final project for my Textiles class this semester. I had picked up a gourd, scrubbed the waxy coating off, and iced dyed it for a subtle coloration. So far so good. Next up, I needed to felt around the gourd. Last time I tried this, I carved the gourd open first and then felted around it. But, the gourd got really waterlogged that way, and that makes for a fragile gourd. This time, I decided to do the felting first, to take advantage of the natural water resistant rind. The risk, of course, was that I would crack the gourd in the cleaning process, and waste all my work. But, that is why I bought a spare gourd!

So, I went through my stash of wool roving, and pulled out my blues and greens. I want the felt to represent water, with the top of the gourd sticking up like an island. Ready? Go!

I found a little pail, and turned the gourd upside down. Then I spread out a length of roving and laid it over the gourd. It kind of looks like hair here. I resisted the urge to draw googly eyes on it.

Instead, I kept on adding thin layers of wool roving at right angles to each other, until I had 4 layers built up. Then it was time to add wisps of the colored roving to make it look watery.

I needed to hold the wool down to the gourd so I could get the felting started. So, I cut the legs off of a pair of panty hose, and tied the remaining stubs in a knot. That left me the body part of the hose, which was just the right size to come down and around the woolly gourd. Time to soak it with hot soapy water, and get to rubbing! The fibers will velcro themselves together.

Once the fibers were holding together, I could take off the pantyhose and just work it with my hands. At this point, I cut slits in the wool. With luck, these will pull apart as the wool shrinks down into felt, creating the look of little islands around the main island.

So far so good! The gourd stood up to the hot soapy water. The slits pulled apart into openings. And the wool shrunk and velcroed itself into a nice firm felt, that is holding to the gourd without the need for glue or stitching. Time to let this dry thoroughly before I cut the top off, and clean out the insides. Crossing my fingers that I don't crack the gourd in the process.

Yay! No cracks. I cut the top off, cleaned out the insides, and sanded down the rim. Then, I drilled holes and strung the opening with a web of artificial sinew, so I could needle weave my 'X marks the spot' and compass rose.

I also took a bit of time, and hand spun some wool yarn for the coiling at the rim. I used some of the same turquoise and green roving that I used in the felt, to tie the colors together. But I also added some browns, so the coiling could represent foliage.

My needle weaving is done, and I've started coiling. Round and round I go.

I like it! The red X marks the treasure spot in the cavern, and the blue arm with the white arrow points north. I had a pendant hanging around that makes a great sample treasure coin.

Now, to add some sea foam to mark the shore of my main island. I'm making a branched fringe with glass beads, crystal tear drops, and freshwater pearls. And a cloissone fish, just because.

Done!! I added some seashells to the sea foam shoreline. And then, it was time to make my pathway that makes this actually a pirate's map. You start at the coin with the key, and follow the freshwater pearl pathway from little island to little island, collecting keys. Avoid the little islands with the skull and crossbones. Trust me on that one. When you get to shore, follow the woodburnt dotted line up the beach to the foliage, and then the garnet path will lead you up and around into the cavern. The treasure is almost yours!!

This was a fun project. The assignment was pretty open ended. Just, make a map using some of the techniques that we learned over the course of the semester. I'll turn this in tomorrow, and see what the teacher thinks!

Modeling, Spinning, and Weaving

This is just a post filled with bits of this and that. First up, I thought I'd show you what I was doing last Thursday. I'm an art model, and that morning I was posing for a portrait drawing class. I had pulled out one of my Medieval costumes, and brought the spinning wheel along with me. Mind you, that style spinning wheel is actually several centuries too late for the style of dress, but the students didn't seem to mind the mismatch. They probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't said anything, actually. But I'm a bit of a fiber geek, so I know the dress is appropriate for the 1300's, and the wheel probably for the 1600's and later.

But the art work turned out neat! Both the photograph and this drawing were done by George Palovich, the teacher at TriPal studios. He mentioned that he might use the pictures and the initial studies as a basis for a later painting. I look forward to seeing what he comes up with.

Speaking of spinning, while I was at Estrella I found what was billed as a 100ish year old Russian supported spindle for sale. I remembered recently seeing this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxY8rPwMjbY&list=FLv-qbOJU3XYu6wnRipxqDDw of a woman from the Himalayas using a similar spindle. Since I tend to collect old fiber tools, I snapped it up. And then I walked across the street from the event and gleaned some cotton out of a straggler plant in the ditch that the farmer had missed in his harvest. I spent an afternoon pulling the seeds out of the cotton by hand, and learning how to use the spindle. I'm starting to get the hang of it. I think I want to pick up some cotton carders though, to make the fibers a little more regular for spinning. But it is fascinating how you can spin right from the cotton boll, right off of the plant!

And finally, I'm starting a project on the loom again. I'm working on enough cotton fabric in a broken diamond twill to make a Medieval style tunic. I'm using the same 10/2 cotton from Webs that I used for my warp painted napkins that I made for Christmas presents. I thought then that the yarn would make lovely dress fabric, so I'm going to give it a try. Currently I'm working on measuring out the warp. At 1020 threads, 14 yards long, 32" wide in the reed, this is going to take awhile. More on this project as I go along.

Blending colors on the hand cards for variegated yarn

I've been experimenting at the spinning wheel the past few days. Last week I picked up three colors of wool roving from my local fiber supply store. Then, inspired by a post by Cecelia Yarnell that I had seen a few months ago on the FaceBook spinning group, I decided to break out the hand carders and try blending the colors together.

So, first I broke off lengths of roving about the same length as the hand carders. That gave me a more or less consistent amount of wool to work with.

Then to blend, I'd break off a bit of each, and swap them.

By trading bits in different proportions and blending them together, it should give me a gradual transition from one color to the next in the finished yarn, right?

So, I spread one color onto the cards...

...then evenly layered the other color over the top.

After several passes back and forth on the cards, the colors were blended nicely together. The more passes back and forth, the more blended the fibers got. Then I rolled the fiber off of the cards into a rolag, ready to pre-draft and spin into yarn.

I laid out the rolags of wool in the order I wanted to spin them, pulled out my spinning wheel, and had at it. I started with the green, worked my way through the turquoise, and ended up at the dark blue.

After spinning that much up, I found my bobbin was only about half full. So I carded up another batch, and went back the other way. Once my yarn was spun, I Navajo plied it to make a balanced and strong 3-ply yarn. Navajo plying kept the color variegation pure, so the final skein would be solid colors blending gradually from one color to the next.

I wet the finished yarn in hot water, and hung it to dry over night. That set the twist and fluffed up the fibers a little bit. You can see here how nice the Navajo plying turned out. I'm really pleased with that, since this was my first time really to try that technique. (I learned from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgNkkt5xLZI )

And here is the finished yarn, wound into a center pull ball. I'm really tickled with the way this turned out. This skein is about 160 yards of worsted weight 3-ply wool yarn. It has been promised in a trade to a lady who does crochet work. I'm looking forward to seeing what she makes of it! And, I'm also planning out my next spinning project using this blending technique. I can foresee a few skeins of a nice soft, bulky yarn using a similar variegation. Don't you think that would be beautiful woven up on the triloom? I've got several projects ahead of that one on my to-do list, but I'm looking forward to when I have the time to try it out!

Silk prep and drop spindles

There. My least favorite part of silk painting is done: the initial prep work. After several hours standing at the ironing board, I now have 24 extra large silk scarves all washed and ironed and ready for the dye. Next up is playing in the colors! These scarves will end up being a dozen of my silk ruanas. Now that my photography class is almost done for the summer (tomorrow is the last day), I can devote a chunk of time to making things to re-stock the Etsy shop. And since I love my own prototype ruana so much, I plan on adding the silk ruanas to the product line. Stay tuned for some color shots!

Oh, and just for fun, here is a picture of my drop spindle collection. Over on the 365 project (http://365project.org/lissamc/365) I'm posting a picture a day for a year. Last night I realized I hadn't taken a picture all day. I haven't missed a day yet since January 1, and I wasn't about to start now. So I looked around the studio, and saw the canister full of spindles. I put them out on some black poster board, and took the shot. I kind of like it.

And now I think I need to find a better way to display my spindle collection than just tucked into a canister. Maybe a shadow box, so they look like this picture? Or a mobile, hung from the ceiling? Or a display rack? What do you think?

Spinning Wheel Deals and Silk Painting

 

"Pssst.....Hey lady! Wanna buy a wheel??"

I had to laugh yesterday. See, my daughter has her own place up at college these days, and wants to set up her own studio. (Go Michelle!) She's been borrowing my Ashford Traditional spinning wheel and loves it, but I won't let her steal it entirely. (I need that here for when I model for art classes in period costume. My Kromski Sonata is a marvelous wheel, but it doesn't look like what most people think of as a spinning wheel.)

However, she is convinced that I have a Secret Super Power. I can find things. She confidently gave me her budget for a working used wheel (no more than $200), and I hunted around for awhile. I eventually made a contact on Ravelry with a lady who lived not too far away, and who had an Ashford Scholar for sale that was in my daughter's price range. So we set up a parking lot exchange, since the lovely lady with the wheel had a knitting group meeting nearby later that afternoon.

Michelle and I were giggling at the cliche of a shady parking lot deal. (Michelle says that of course it was shady! Have you ever been to Phoenix in the summer? 105F in the sunshine is waaaay too hot.) And then we met up, and Michelle was test driving the wheel before buying, and lo and behold security came driving up to see what these three suspicious looking ladies were doing with a strange contraption in his territory. I tried to explain, but he really was rather bemused. Finally I just said, "It is one of those weird parking lot deals." He shook his head, and asked if I remembered the show "Hogan's Heros". I nodded. He said, "Sgt. Schultz". I laughed and quoted, "I know nothing!" He nodded, shook his head once more, and drove off. I don't know if he ever did figure us out.

But cash exchanged hands, and Michelle is absolutely thrilled with her new spinning equipment.

In other news, I'm experimenting with the silk painting again, in two different ways. First, I have a class coming up this weekend that I'm taking on how to make Medieval style silk heraldic banners. I'm quite looking forward to that one!

Second, I decided to branch out from just making scarves, to making other types of wearable art clothing. I had an idea... If I took two large panels of silk and painted them in the same color scheme, wouldn't it be possible to sew them half way up one side and make a light weight silk ruana? I ordered a couple of larger scarves from Dharma Trading Company, and I'm giving it a try.

I painted the two panels today. The second one is currently drying on the stretcher frame. I'll let them sit for a day or so and then steam them to set the dye. Then they sit another day or so before I can wash them, iron them dry, and sew them up.

I look forward to the sewing part! I really want to try this out, and see if the pattern idea works. In my head, this will be a spectacular piece of wearable art--all colorful and fluttery and soft on the skin. But I'll need to wear it out a time or three to see how well it actually wears. I want it to stay firmly on the shoulders.

So, look for another post on this next week. I can't wait to see if this works or not!

A tale of two skiens

I model for the life drawing class at the local community college. The students are starting to get bored drawing nude bodies about this time of the semester, so the teachers try to change things up a bit to hold their interest. This last Wednesday the teacher had me bring a costume and my spinning wheel, and we took the class outside under the trees. It was a beautiful day for it! I did some warm up 2 minute gesture poses, and then the teacher had me sit and actually spin yarn for the rest of the class time. Spinning involves small, repetitive motions, so it wasn't too hard for the students to draw the action. And I got to fill a bobbin full of white wool singles over the course of the afternoon.

I actually have several spinning wheels. The one I use for the drawing classes is my Ashford Traditional, because it looks the most like what people think a spinning wheel ought to look like. However, it is also the wheel that I lend to my daughter most of the time. We only have a few bobbins for it, so I figured I had better open this one back up before too long. So today I took the wheel back out with me to my local SCA (Medieval historical recreation) practice. I had a second lovely sunny afternoon to sit and spin, and filled up a second bobbin full of singles.

This evening I took both bobbins full of singles and put them on this Lazy Kate. Now, I don't know who Kate was, and why she was considered lazy, but this device to hold bobbins of yarn while you ply them together is a really useful little gadget!

To ply yarn, I feed the two singles from the bobbins back into the spinning wheel, this time turning the wheel in the opposite direction from my original spinning direction. When the two singles twist back on themselves it strengthens the resulting yarn, and if you do it right it makes a balanced yarn that won't kink up or untwist itself, or bias your stitches. That makes the yarn much nicer for knitting or crochet.

When I had a bobbin full of finished yarn I wound it off into a skein, using my weasel. I think it is technically called a clock reel, but when I was growing up my folks volunteered at a restored colonial farm house on the weekends. They had one of these, and the other volunteers called it a weasel. They said it was the basis for the nursery rhyme, "Pop goes the weasel', because after 40 turns around (or 100 yards) the device would make a clicking or popping sound. (The monkey in the rhyme would have been the child pestering the mother as she was working.) I've since been told this isn't true, but I love the story anyway.

All told, I got two beautiful skeins of two ply wool yarn, for a total of 262 yards. I'm going to have these with me on my table this weekend when I set up at Henny & Ev for their craft show on Friday and Saturday night. (http://www.hennyandevboutique.com/) If they don't find a home though, I'll hold on to them for the next time we've got a dye pot going. I like having a stash of hand spun white wool for playing in the colors.

Almost done with the Estrella project, and teaching spinning

The Estrella project came off the loom tonight! 13 hours of throwing the shuttle back and forth, 47.5 total hours into the project so far, and I got to take scissors to the warp! Coming off the loom the fabric is 25" wide and 10 yards long. Tomorrow I wash it, to full the fibers together and shrink it width wise by about another 4 inches. Almost done!!

Also, I taught someone to spin yesterday. I was out at SCA practice with my wheel and a box of roving, and this lady was very very interested and envious. I happened to have a spare drop spindle in the roving box, so I got her starting learning to draft with the park & draft method. By the end of the practice she had it down, and was about ready to start with the drop part of drop spindling. I gave her a large handful of the roving and sent her off for the week with instructions to feel free to ruin it all. If she wanted, next week she could throw me a $5 and keep the spindle, otherwise she could give it back and try something else. You should have seen her grin, having the time of her life!



Come to think of it, I should make up a batch of inexpensive spindles, and make up kits to have with me. The more people I can hook on spinning, the more people I have to play with!

Wooly Wednesday

Yesterday was "Wooly Wednesday". What is that, you ask? The beginning of a hopefully regular gathering of fiber folk here on the west side of Phoenix. We met in my friend Leticia's back yard for a time of creativity, show & tell, and general chatting. It was a marvelous time!

When I got there at lunch time, Leticia and Sorcha had been hard at work since 9ish that morning. Sorcha had some wool that had been dyed several years ago, that had gotten matted and felted in the dying process. The two of them were running the matted stuff through the drum carder, blending colors as they went. They came out with some absolutely lovely bats of very spinnable fiber.


I went out into the 70-some degree sunshine, and set up my spinning wheel. It was gorgeous out. I took off my sweatshirt and sat out in my short sleeves. My wheel was set up near Ceara and Isabelle, who were working on their knitting projects. In the picture here, Ceara had taken a break to talk on the phone, when one of the back yard chickens decided to hop up and see what she was working on. Yes, Leticia has a handful of very tame chickens that roam freely around the back yard, providing eggs and endless entertainment.


Here the girls are inspecting a freshly laid egg, while Clio (the pup) keeps a close eye on all happenings. The whole bunch of them are pretty shameless if there is food anywhere involved in the activities. Yes, I'm an urban girl. I didn't realize that chickens could beg with the best of them.
















This? This is not food. Chickens, do not eat this. These are bars of soap that Leticia made recently, that are still curing. They did however smell good enough to eat. Lavender, lemon, honey...yum!




Leticia also has a lovely garden tucked into her yard. The plants in the picture on the left here include woad (left) and weld (in the pathway, right). The roots in the picture on the right are from a madder plant.















Woad, weld and madder? Those are dye plants. Woad gives blue, weld gives yellow, and madder gives red/orange. The black in the hood below came from commercially dyed yarn, but all of the other colors came from combinations of these three plants. I look forward to later Wooly Wednesdays, when we will hopefully get to help her harvest and dye with her crop of plants.


In and among the oohing and ahhing, I did manage to get most of a bobbin full of yarn spun up. I want to spin several skeins of plain white, with an eye to playing in the dye pots at a later date.




And to top the day off, after I got home I had time to finish sleying the reed for my Estrella weaving project. One step closer to throwing the shuttle back and forth! By the time I get around to the part that folks actually recognize as weaving, this project will be almost complete.