Welcome! Please feel free to subscribe to the newsletter to get studio updates and projects from the archives straight to your inbox.
Fire in the Sky
Oh my. It has been nearly a year since I wove this warp, and now over a year since I designed it and I've yet to hit publish on its blog post! This was my first go-round playing with the idea of the aurora borealis as inspiration. I have another aurora warp coming up on the loom, so it seemed an auspicious time to finally get this one published.
This warp is a dark navy blue with splashed streaks of color across it. So many times when I see the aurora used as inspiration, the warp is a riot of (beautiful) colors. But in the snow quiet wintertime when I step outside in the middle of the night and look up, I see the vast expanse of the dark sky held up by points of starlight and a swath of swirling curtains of ethereal color. I wanted to mirror that relationship of vast dark sky to ribbon of color in this warp.
The first wrap piece was woven with a black tencel weft. The weave is a faux crackle algorithmically designed by Ralph Griswold. The pattern of the weave reminds me of the stands of black spruce growing stunted and beautiful in the muskeg, and of the spiky patches of fireweed cropping up in meadows and roadsides. It is visually camoflauged in this piece because the navy warp against black weft doesn't give the sort of high contrast that allows for a weave pattern to shine. I do love the way that the interval of the pattern repeat and the random intervals of the pinstriped colors interact creating a visual effect of the ribbons of colors seeming to dance and move.
The second wrap piece had the added inspiration of a particular visionary dreamscape auroral display. It was a really special piece to weave and it went home to the person to whom that visionary dreamscape was speaking when I witnessed it. Such a magical experience to be able to pull that vision into cloth!
I used cotton for the weft on this piece, in (mostly) the same colors as are in the warp and in a variety of techniques. This piece was a total playground for me. It was so much fun to do. While it looks as though the weft may be hand painted, it isn't. It is all commercial colors with the visual effect due to hand manipulated weaving techniques. Clasped weft and alternating wefts, and alternating clasped wefts. For most of this piece I had between two and eight shuttles going carrying different colors. It was a totally improvisatory process, going through themes of color and technique, checking back in with the memory of that visionary dreamscape and moving into a new theme of color or technique.
One of the things I most adore about weaving is the way that once you know what you're doing, once you know the container you're working in, you can change things up and play to your heart's content. This was the same weave structure I had used for the prior warp, Field of Dreams, so I'd woven probably over 20 meters of this weave and had learned the structure inside and out to the point where I understood how it worked when I played with it. In the photo below, you can see how I played with treadling to change up the visuals of the weave pattern. This was another improvisation, like a harmony to the melody of the colorwork.
I love including cowls and fabric for making other things on my baby wrap warps. Not everyone who follows my work is a babywearer, and the children of even the most avid babywearer do eventually grow up and grow out of 'uppies', so I love being able to have items that can serve a purpose in the lives of those who don't wear their young children on the daily. I wove a set of cowls on this warp featuring weft by a local dye artist Bad Sheep Yarn.
Draft Credit : Handweaving.net CW108265, Crackle Design Project, Ralph Griswold, United States, 2004, #13482
Ombre as weft element: a cowl on Surfacing
This was a super fun cowl to weave. I'd been saving up a very special yarn remnant to use as weft on it for months....
You may remember, way back last summer, I dyed the warp for Unconditional. It was my entry for the Great Competition of Weavers at IBC Atlanta: the themed competition required an ombre and/or monochrome element in the submission. Well, the structure I used required what is known as parallel threading - every other warp thread being color A and every other warp thread being color B. One color was a deep maroon of mother's love, and the other warp color was an ombre grad from mostly blues to mostly greens. The cakes of yarn are pictured above. As I wound the warp, I wound the leftover bits onto a pirn to save for this project. So the ombre that goes warp wise on Unconditional became an ombre that goes weft-wise on this cowl on Surfacing.
I love that the shift from blues to greens speaks to the heart of Surfacing, to that liminal space between the depths of the sea and the verdant hills above.
This cowl is 100% long staple Egyptian cotton that is super soft and soapy. It is one of the only pieces that will be publicly available in the shop off of the full Surfacing warp, although I may sneak in a scarf-only warp in the Surfacing colorways because there is just so much I want to play with!
ACLU Donation Auction : Sugar Plum Fairy cowl with handspun luxury weft
I have been wanting to structure my business in such a way that I am able to contribute to the increasing vitality of the global community we live in as well as supporting my nearest and dearest. I've decided that I will be holding regularly periodic charity/donation auctions of pieces with hand spun wefts.
Hand spinning is for me a process of imbuing love and intention and healing and magic into the yarn that I am spinning. Combining my own hand spun weft into handwoven cloth - which is itself a process-oriented craft with lots of intention and and healing and magic making; is a synergistic undertaking that I am both proud and humbled to be able to offer to the world. Each charity/donation auction item will be made of hand spun crafted specifically with intention sent towards the chosen organization. It is my dearest hope that the combination of my energetic work and your monetary donation will be able to bring some spark of light to the darker corners of our world's experience.
This first charity/donation auction will be to benefit the ACLU in support of their legal work in support of human rights in the US. The auction itself will be held within the 14 Mile Farm Facebook Chatter group - click the link and request to join if you are not already a member. (If for any reason you're not comfortable bidding there, or if you don't do Facebook, feel free to message me to arrange for proxy bidding.)
This cowl is from the Sugar Plum Fairy warp. The warp is 100% hand painted cotton, woven in a Bethlehem Star motif advancing point twill of my own design. The weft is a hand spun luxury blend from HipStrings in the "Unicorn Fluff" color way. Unicorn Fluff is blend of 25% Superfine Merino wool, 25% Tussah Silk, 12.5% Mulberry Silk, 12.5% Bamboo, 12.5% Baby Camel, 12.5% Faux cashmere designed by HipStrings and custom processed in the UK. The cowl measures 16" deep including the mini-fringe and is wrap-width in circumference.
Shout out to the amazing Nikki at Silver Seedling for the gorgeous earrings in the photoshoot!
