creative interpretation

a summer guild "assignment" we had was to read a book which mentions a particular textile skill, and create something using that skill which was inspired by the book. a read/create challenge you could say.

i've read the brothers grimm since my childhood (having a copy of the complete fairy tales of the brothers grimm), and several mention textiles; usually something to do with breaking an enchantment. one which i remembered well, and which had lots of possibilities, was the six swans.

here's the basic storyline: brothers become enchanted by evil stepmother, sister takes vow of silence for six years and begins sewing 5.5 shirts from asters (a flower), king falls in love with mute maiden living in woods, marries her, begets heirs which disappear soon after birth, maiden is accused of cannibalism by crazy mother in law, after third "disappearance" maiden sent to stake, at last moment saves brothers, vow is ended, proclaims innocence, mother in law dies, everyone lives happily ever after.

well, almost everyone. back to that .5 shirt; like any project which spans a few years, it's not quite finished when the deadline approaches. something about a sleeve. so, the sixth brother gets to keep a swan wing instead of an arm. a bit awkward, but hey, would you rather remain a swan?

i crocheted rather than sewed, but i wanted the finished piece to have more of a feeling of being crafted from nature. actually, i cut and spun the yarn from paper, then crocheted it. the wing was crocheted with a really cool paper yarn from habu i've been hoarding for years.

i figured the method used for creating the actual shirts was open for interpretation as i can't imagine sewing flowers together in the woods would be doable. they kind of skimmed over the details anyway. what did she use for thread? did she use the stems, or the leaves, or the flowers? how were they kept flexible after so many years? how were the shirts constructed? see, the way i see it is that the word sew could have been translated from a different word, like weave, maybe. it makes more sense for her to have woven the flowers into cloth, or knotted the stems into a cloth. that's the thing with translations and getting a story however many generations passed down verbally, there's a lot of interpretation and maybe the grimm brothers didn't know too much about the variety of methods found in the womanly art of the needle. it was written down during the 1800's after all. so there.

i'm thinking this would be an interesting series to pursue. i've got some ideas for the story all fur. well, we'll see where this thought takes me.

pages softly turning

for the last guild meeting we looked into book making, choosing one of four types to create during the meeting. i have some experience of making books by hand, and readily enjoy the process. in the last few weeks i've come to be inspired by the work of wake robin, and feel the growing urges to retry my hand at making more organic freestyle books.

the book style i chose to make has an interesting spine setup whereby the individual codex are slipped into a separate threaded piece which has been glued to the spine after the inside cover paper is laid down. this style is quite useful, as you would be able to carefully remove the pages without ruining the book (in the off chance that you made an error while using the book and a page needed to by torn out; believe me, this happens to me a lot).

i've had these two papers for many years, and bought them at separate times, so i'm quite happy at how well they fit together. the rice paper for the pages is actually one of the earlier additions to my collection (having purchased them at a university store in new york about 10 years ago). at times it is quite useful having a hoard of art supplies!

many colored things

closing up our guild year (we break for summer), we dyed warp yarns on a dock out at tybee island. for the last dye project i used greens and yellows, so this time i decided to play with a cooler group of colors, mostly blues and purples.

i painted areas with fuchsia, lavender, teal, midnight blue, and mixtures thereof. the lovely thing about this is that as it soaked in the washing soda the colors merged and blended together a bit, making a less intense and harmonious whole.

this is my first warp, and i have plans to create a rag rug as a learning project. there were many long strips of white cotton fabric from a project i am assisting in that would weave up beautifully. i think, perhaps, i will also combine these two elements with some pale blue yarn i purchased awhile back.

i am excited to see what we will create in the next fiber guild year, as the short time i have been involved has been a good thing for me, both through new experiences learned and creativity expressed.

stretching one's area

last saturday the guild meeting was focused around the textile artist, barbara james, whose speciality is in surface design through dyeing and printing. it was interesting to play around with the different ways of creating texture on cloth. i'm kicking myself for getting rid of my screenprinting frame from when i took a printmaking class in college. i really want to play around more.

my first dyeing attempt went well. this photo is of my second piece of fabric. i decided it would make a lovely tea towel; so i hemmed the edges. i'm not quite sure of the first one i worked on, as the design is agreeable but the colors are very loud and not quite to my taste. i may take a photo of it anyway, though.

we used the procion mx dyes which got me thinking again about getting into dyeing. it would be a good focus as i eventually would like to create my own cloth; weaving, dyeing, and printing. i think that where i will go from here is to experiment with natural dyes and the screen printing process. the procion dyes were easy enough to use and clean up, but i'd rather be truer to my own feelings about my impact on the environment. plus, i like how natural dyes age, it's really very wabi-sabi.

seeking knowledge

once i had my loom arranged nicely into it's new home, i realized that there was a gully of information pertaining to sophy that i did not have. i would need a source, and turning to the internet i thought i had one between the covers of a book, learning to weave. but upon reading the book and having many questions i began to think that perhaps knowledge from flesh and blood would be no bad thing.

so, perceiving that a fibre guild would contain people who were experienced, knowledgeable, and willing to share, i went in search of one close to home. luckily for me there is one in savannah, the fiber guild of the savannahs. and also that they were to have a gallery opening that friday, and a monthly meeting on the following day.

the exhibit was very well attended and contained exceedingly beautiful, skillfully rendered pieces. i met one weaver, bonnie, who is willing to have me as a student. i am glad for this.

at the meeting we discussed guild business, the upcoming may workshop, and were shown how to create a beaded button, or pin. i created a moon rising into the starlit sky amongst hills of green. i am excited to be a part of this community of women, who i hope to learn much from, and who have welcomed me amongst them.