Recent Posts Tagged With 'silk'

• Still Waters (run deep)

  Posted on Friday November 28th, 2008 at 00:23 in art cloth, painted warp, silk, woven shibori

  I completed this piece of art cloth earlier this week. It is handwoven bombyx silk, woven shibori on a painted warp. I wove it a couple of months ago and just got to finishing it. Finished size is...

• Loom-Controlled Mokume

  Posted on Tuesday November 25th, 2008 at 21:55 in cotton, shibori, silk, woven shibori

  You may remember that I recently wove a cellulose fiber fabric, with random pickup for my supplementary shibori threads. And here it is, after initial finishing. The fabric is cotton/tencel warp and l...

• Extreme Makeover, Textile Edition...

  Posted on Tuesday November 18th, 2008 at 18:25 in handdyed, silk, texture, woven shibori

  ...or Don't Stop 'Til You Get It Right!Here's what I started with -- a silk woven shibori scarf I made late last year. I never liked the colors of this piece -- the purple was too intense, the green ...

• Modern Day Miracle Fiber

  Posted on Tuesday November 11th, 2008 at 11:51 in silk, silk hankies, spinning

  A few weeks ago, Bonnie Samuel, who's blog features articles about fiber, asked me to do a story about silk...Back when I was growing up, the then-new manmade fibers were heavily touted as "miracle fi...

• Dyeing For A Friend

  Posted on Saturday November 8th, 2008 at 13:29 in dyeing, handdyed, silk, yarn

  Wow, this is my 200th post here! This morning I busied myself dyeing these skeins of re-purposed cashmere yarn for weaver Bonnie Tarses in Seattle. I like the idea of reclaiming old items knit with na...

• Remodel Job One

  Posted on Thursday October 16th, 2008 at 10:33 in arashi, handdyed, iridescence, silk

  I just "remodeled" a scarf that I painted back in the early 1990s -- here's the original, at left. It's a habotai silk scarf, 14 x 72 inches.Yesterday I arashied the scarf, then added thinned metallic...

• Third Time's The Charm

  Posted on Tuesday September 30th, 2008 at 19:39 in art process, discharging, dyeing, silk, surface design

  This is the piece of black raw silk I started fooling around with yesterday...this morning I retied it and stuck it in a pot of thiox for about an hour. After unwrapping it and neutralizing it in vin...

• Small Silk Skein

  Posted on Wednesday September 24th, 2008 at 19:48 in handdyed, handspun, silk, yarn

  I just spun up this small skein of silk, 190 yards, that I dyed last weekend during my class. One ply is tussah and the other is bombyx. I spun it quite a bit heavier than usual; the weight of this ...

• Weird Science

  Posted on Friday August 22nd, 2008 at 12:09 in art process, Color, discharging, dyeing, silk

  This is a silk woven shibori piece that I wove early this year but just got around to dyeing. I've been thinking about it for weeks, now, and finally "under" painted it yesterday -- that's when I pa...

• Mommy's Little Helper

  Posted on Monday August 4th, 2008 at 22:49 in beegee, shibori, silk

  I had assistance today finishing up hand stitching on a piece of raw silk that will be shibori'd. I've been working on it for several days now, but with BeeGee's help I was able to get it done today....

• I've Been Weaving

  Posted on Friday July 25th, 2008 at 14:37 in art making, silk, studio, weaving

  As this week has progressed, I've been feeling better. I've had two chiropractic adjustments, a terrific massage, and have been religious about icing/heating and stretching. Sitting is still the worst...

• On The Block

  Posted on Wednesday July 16th, 2008 at 13:12 in crochet, silk, wool

  Whew! This was an enormous project, but here's my new afghan, doubled and blocking, completely obliterating the 3' x 6' blocking board underneath it. One hundred percent handspun yarns here, probab...

• Weave On

  Posted on Monday July 7th, 2008 at 21:52 in Color, handdyed, handspun, silk, weaving, yarn

  The weaving on this new piece is coming along fine, despite my anticipatory concerns. Here's a photo of the first 20 or so inches. The photo is at kind of a weird angle because I took it of the finish...

• Warped & Beamed

  Posted on Thursday July 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 in dyeing, handdyed, handspun, silk, spinning, weaving

  I beamed up this morning at warp speed -- compared to the last 20/2 silk warp I worked with, which was the warp from hell -- and I'm almost ready to start weaving. I'm just waiting for my dyed-last-ni...

• Oh What An Angled Web We Weave

  Posted on Monday June 30th, 2008 at 19:41 in Color, dyeing, silk, texture

  I couldn't resist that name for my post, since Scotty and I both used the phrase, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave..." over the weekend, in reference to different people we know with complex lives. Bu...

• Silk Hanky Dyeing Day

  Posted on Wednesday June 18th, 2008 at 18:32 in dyeing, handdyed, silk, silk hankies, spinning, yarn

  I dyed three ounces of silk hankies today, to ply with the merino/alpaca I've been working on. All the instructions herein work equally well for silk caps, which are essentially the same thing, only b...

• Yarns I've Spun & Loved

  Posted on Sunday June 15th, 2008 at 14:10 in handdyed, handspun, silk, spinning, yarn

  When I was tapering off spinning wool from raw fleeces and beginning to dye and spin silk yarn, I made a number of 2-ply yarns where one ply was medium to dark gray natural wool and the other ply was ...

• You're Invited to a Virtual Weaving Exhibition

  Posted on Saturday June 14th, 2008 at 08:18 in art projects, handdyed, handspun, silk, weaving

  You're all invited to view the Small Scarf Virtual Exhibition (SSVE) of weavers from around the world, happening online now through June 27. Each weaver has created small scarves (approx. 6" x 60") th...

• Flame of Inspiration

  Posted on Friday May 30th, 2008 at 12:29 in art making, artful living, crochet, handdyed, knitting, life and art, relevant blogs, silk, surface design, yarn

  This bearded iris bud, just on the verge of opening, provided ample inspiration for me yesterday. Aren't the colors just magnificent?So I have 1000 yards, now, of this dyed 10/2 bombyx silk noil yarn...

• Snow On Heat

  Posted on Friday May 16th, 2008 at 17:47 in art projects, handspun, silk, texture, yarn

  We're having a heat wave in my neck of the woods, breaking records for high temps here on the North Coast. I'm melting...But here's some snowy silk yarn I just finished -- 430 yards of carded silk noi...

• Kelp!

  Posted on Tuesday May 13th, 2008 at 15:17 in handdyed, knitting, silk

  This is a very small skein of commercially spun 10/2 bombyx silk noil yarn that I dyed at my class over the weekend. It reminds me of kelp, so I'm calling the colorway Kelp. Believe it or not, I hav...

• Colorful Weekend

  Posted on Monday May 12th, 2008 at 19:49 in Color, handdyed, silk, teaching

  I taught my last class (of a series of three) this weekend, called Colors to Dye For. This class was essentially about the technology of using and mixing acid dyes on protein fibers. I'm planning to u...

• My Love Affair...With Silk

  Posted on Friday May 9th, 2008 at 11:08 in handdyed, handspun, silk, silk hankies, spinning, weaving, yarn

  I think silk is THE wonder fiber. It's lightweight, warm, hypoallergenic, it dyes magnificently, spins easily, you get a lot of spun yardage per pound of silk, there are nearly countless varieties of ...

• Wind Driven Rain

  Posted on Monday May 5th, 2008 at 10:20 in arashi, dyeing, pattern, silk, woven shibori

  I've read that arashi is the Japanese word for "wind driven rain," or "storm." Both of those descriptions are apt for the effects on fabric created by the process. These photos are from my very first ...

• A Keeper

  Posted on Saturday May 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 in handdyed, silk, woven shibori

  Here's the piece I finished yesterday -- 100% silk woven shibori, 20/2 bombyx warp and carded silk weft. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. In fact, I'm increasingly satisfied with the work...