Wednesday, September 15, 2010

WARPING

How I look forward to the day when it is simple and easy to dress the loom!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

varpapuu en route to studio










these pictures were taken last year in March when I drove out to Stone Road to visit my mom and dad and to pick up the loom, a Varpapuu, a beautiful old Finnish loom. Above, are photos of the loom parts on the car. Amazingly, they didn't fall off during the trip from Oakham. Below you can see the very first things that were moved into the studio: Varpapuu parts, shuttles, yarn and Blue.

varpapuu

Finally, the Varpapuu is being brought to life, after resting for quite a long time. Jan and Ellen came to the rescue last week, and I am so grateful for their help. It's not quite ready to go, but getting there.
Texsolv heddles and cords are being used here for the tie-up


(If you click on the photos you can see more detail). I put on a 15 yard ivory and pale green striped warp back in November, made several scarves and now I'm looking at it all - trying to gather what I like and scatter what I don't like. I learned a lot about color, stripes, my way of composing, and other intangibles. I'd like to continue working with these colors and this "Forrest Crook's blanket weave" threading. It seems a shame to move on to a new threading when the ideas here are still fresh. On the other hand, it would be fun to do something completely different. One thing I will change is the sett- it's a little close for a scarf or shawl at 12 epi. This warp was also a little too wide for comfort (12 inches when finished.) If I redo this threading, I'll skip the stripes and go with 6 inches at 10 epi. I will also aim to make each piece more unified. The look of many of these pieces says "sampler" , which is not necessarily always desirable. I've got to get over this need to improvise every 6 inches or so.
Or not.











this is the warp in the process of being chained and taken off the reel.




to the left is the whole warp all chained. it looks like a large snake.




above is a view from the back of the studio looking west. what good light this is to work in.

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I was born in Massachusetts and grew up in the countryside west of Worcester. I was an art major in college, worked in human services for several years before studying to become an acupuncturist. I worked as a Doctor of Acupuncture in private practice in RI for about 10 years. I recently have begun weaving, spinning and designing projects for the loom.