A black and white photograph

A black and white sample

One of black and white samples I wove over the past two weeks. I ended up running out of time to do more than three warps. So my coloured silk warp will have to wait. For now, holidays are over and it's back to work. This is for Jessie.

Back in the weave room

My head was a mess yesterday. I've been mulling over how much work I need to do, instead of enjoying the process. So today, after a lovely morning tea, that is what I decided to do. Perhaps it was also that the sun came out this afternoon and I had company in the weave room. I wound this warp onto the loom on Monday. A black and white double weave warp - almost five meters long, and I've only got a few samples left to weave. I am guilty of romanticising things at times, and perhaps that is what I've done when I've been busy with work. I forget how taxing it is on your body, and how slow going weaving can be when you keep making mistakes. The plan for next week is to wind on two different warps. One in silk, and the other in linen. I've been desperate to try a warp and weft silk sample since seeing a Mina Perhonen colour and weave pleated number. It was amazing. Fingers crossed mine looks half as good.  

Dinner

I don't often eat out at expensive restaurants, but one of my siblings is a chef and I get a little spoilt when I visit, so I thought why not. He is a talented one. Each plate was an art work of carefully constructed flavours and textures. Smears of beetroot painted on plates with large brushes, earthy wintry tones offset by tiny splashes of bright colour. My favourite was the blue swimmer crab pastitsio with a fricassee of celery and leek and crab foam. Melbourne has been miserably cold these past few weeks, and crab always reminds me of summers spent camping by the beach. I'm a little obsessed by the sweet things in life, and I've wanted to paint some food for a while. Here was the perfect opportunity for some practice. Earl grey infused custard, butterscotch caramel, pear jelly, krema ice cream quenelle, chocolate soil and micro herbs. There wasn't a bit of soil out of place, that is just me, covering up my accidental spots. It was amazing, thanks Joe! I think it might be time to bake, the smell of lemon drifting through the house is too tempting to resist.   

Some design work

Just a few things I've been working on lately using double weave techniques with black and white yarns. Even though painting out designs can be time consuming, I love the process. After I've chosen my colours and yarns, I usually sit down and mix them up in gouache and ink, play around with ideas as I go. Illustrator comes in handy if I want to try out other colour combinations or work on scale and balance. I have eight days of my residency left and plans for four different warps. Not impossible, but certainly ambitious. I just bought a few new colours in silk that I want to try out in a triple weave design. That is, if I can get my head around how it all works.  

I've been wanting weave a warp and weft ikat fabric for a while and have resisted. Mostly because the process itself is very labour intensive and you need to be exact in your set up. Once on the loom, it's quite easy to weave, and it calls for using simple weave structures. I'm thinking of layering slight changes in dye colour over one another. The design itself will either be a luna or triangle motif, and was thinking I might use either linen or silk yarn. Linen can be troublesome to weave with, but certainly always worth it in the end.   

A present for Mila

It's been a while since I have made one of these machine embroidered canvases. Over the years, I've made them for neices, nephews and friends. This is for Mila's first birthday. School is out for the next few weeks, and I'll be weaving instead. It feels luxurious to have time set aside for making new work. I'm excited by all sorts of possibilities and quietly hoping that the work will good enough for an exhibition next year. I've picked up some of my yarn and there is more on the way. Tomorrow I'm off to see the Vienna Art and Design exhibition at the NGV with my sister. We are both lovers of Schiele's work - the way he paints hands, and his use of colour. He makes a great shade of pink! I can't remember the last time I was so excited about seeing an exhibition. I never usually take along a sketchbook, but I think tomorrow might be the exception.