Wonderful Wednesday Feature

It's Wednesday Etsians and you know what that means!!!  Yep it's another Wonderful Wednesday Feature Artist.  

You gotta love this one.  Her site is called "  Stupidcats"   and her work is marvelously cute (and I'm not even a cat person).    

I also follow her on Face book under the same name and I think you should too.  Her work is whimsical and wonderfully silly, just as cats are known to be.

Please visit her and like, convo or purchase. 

  

Periwinkle and white Cotton weaving progress pictures!

Internet has been so flipping quiet that I have been immersing myself in the weaving.  This one measures 13 1/4" by 14" so far...it will be longer when I finish so this will be a larger tote style instead of a "Purse".  

I even have both looms warped up at the same time.  If you look closely you can see the big one behind the little one...it has green warp on it.  I am going to try to do a Gecko on that warp.  

I got a commission on a bracelet and two drawings so I may have to complete those first.  You know, its a money thing.  

Here are the pictures.  Enjoy!

 

Submitted my handbag to the Weavolution projects page

I am on Weavolution...or at least my soumak handbag and my periwinkle and cotton beginning hand bag are.  Check it out!  http://www.weavolution.com/all_projects

It has basically doubled in size!

Since I posted this morning I have basically doubled the size of the weaving.  Silly RSS feed blew up.  This is what it looks like right now.  Just a little update.

I definitely have the Weaving BUG again!

After the white on white soumak bag I see to have the weaving bug again.  I am hoping this one turns out to be a bag also.

I have a gecko design that a friend of my stepdaughter's, Tara, did for me years ago.  We were having a bon fine and a cook out while all of us ladies worked on our craft projects.  This teenage boy sat down and graphed it out for me so I could bead weave it...somehow I never got around to it.  I have had this piece of paper, with all of its stains and such, for over ten years trying to figure out how to do something with it.

Long story short I was going to weave it into this piece, but the graph calls for more warp threads to the inch (up and down threads) than I can use on this loom with this thicker cotton yarn.  

Sooooooo, it is one of my "  wing it, design it as I go"   things once again.  It happens that's what I'm best at anyway.  

So here is the beginning.  Let me know what you think.  

Marci, I thought it was blue...but it is more purple than blue......periwinkle????

 Oh yeah, the weft (horizontal threads), I spun that cotton myself!  How cool is that?

White on White Handwoven Eco friendly Envelope Hand bag / Tote

I am totally dumbfounded that his bag has turned out so well.  I feel like a proud mama who's child just rode off without her training wheels.  It has been listed on my artfire , and I would love to know what each and every one of you think of it.  Here are some pictures but the listing has all of the details.

Ok, here are the progress pictures of my handbag!

Please keep in mind that I had no idea, as usual, what I was going to make when I warped up the loom.  Not to mention I have been in something of a creative slump lately.  Anyway here are some of the pictures when the weaving was done, just before I took it off of the loom.  Front and back.

Tomorrow you will get to see the pictures of the completed piece!!!

Some of my work!

These are a smattering of little things I did for my friend Marci of KraftyMaxOriginals.  Just something to look at...you will some me featured in several spots on her blog if you scroll down a little ways.  

New listing coming up soon of new handwoven handbag.

Wonderful Wednesday Feature

Its time yet again for a Wonderful Wednesday Feature Artist!

This one I found while looking around on Etsy .  The site is called Aranwen's Jewelry and she does Victorian, Goth and Renaissance jewelry.   I love the steampunk.  What I would give for one of these watches.

Her work is very inspiring and imaginative. 

Please go and check her out, don't forget to convo, click, "  Like" and/or purchase.

My babies

I really hate the way things drop off of Facebook so I am posting the pics of my puppies here too!  Enjoy!

The little brown one is called Wiggles, she is almost a year old.  The white one is Lacy and she is my old lady dog at 12 in August.

Wonderful Wednesday Feature

Now we get to look again at a new artist on the Wonderful Wednesday Feature!  This is one I found on facebook , she calls her site Bent Realm Studio.  She also has an Etsy site of the same under Aurey Sorrow.  She does Fantasy art and I just wish I could do the same.  

I can't wait to see what she does next!

Don't forget when you go to visit her site to click, convo or purchase and help further out kindred artists. 

 

New small tapestry loom all warped up

I had a particularly messed up day yesterday and didn't do a single artistic thing...not one.  

However, I did start a new weaving a few days ago on my new, home-made tapestry loom.  

This is a tapestry weave, also know as an even weave, which means over one under one for one row and then reverse on the next row and repeat.  Because of the wide spacing of the warp threads ( the vertical threads), it creates what is known as a weft (horizontal threads) faced fabric.  

Weft faced fabric can range from very boardy and stiff to very soft and slinky.  These things are controlled by spacing, fiber content and how tough you pack down the weft (horizontal) thread.  It can be very creative since only the horizontal thread shows you have complet design control, anything from pictorials to simple stripes.

This one is white on white and I am using multiple's of Soumak.  Soumak is a kind of wrapping technique that creates little raised designs that look like an embroidery stitch and sometimes a crochet chain stitch.  Depending on which side you start and/or how many warp threads you cross over.  

This piece is 100% cotton, peaches and cream cotton actually, the color is called natural.  It could actually be used for just about anything from a wash cloth to a doily or even a handbag which is what I will probably use it for.

Pictures to follow.   There are close ups of the Loom as well as the weaving, in case anyone else wanted to build one.

New small tapestry loom all warped up

Well girls and boys I am indeed back to my roots.  Definitely back in my comfort zone.  Anyway who says you can't use weft face fabric as a face cloth!  I'll start a new trend!

I was kind of thinking though...I have really been pressuring myself to do something that will sell, maybe that is why it really isn't working.  So for now I will weave for the pleasure of it.  

I really wish this selling your art thing didn't take quite to so long.

New small tapestry loom all warped up

Seems to be working!!!  Only buckles slightly, but I think if I get 4 more of the large washers for the bottom warp bar it will stabilize perfectly.

Weave or bust!

O.K. frustration level at an all time high. 

For those of you who don't know me ,you should know that my art adventures started with cross stitch...didn't last long though, stitching is not my thing. Don't ask me how I ended up doing Pine needle basket weaving (probably why my hands are so sore from needle pricks LOL). 

My friend Kraftymax (you really should check out her site, its awesome) brought over a Mirrix Bead loom one day that her parents had sent her from California  (They own Gilmore Looms).  From that moment I was hooked on weaving.  I started out with bead weaving...hated all of those ends (i.e. fringe, still do sometimes) when you got done...soooo one day I took out yarn, and it was ON. 

Unfortunately in Fl not many people weave, let alone tapestry a.k.a. weft face weave, and who ever heard of wool.  Lots of research on line, books were even hard to locate.  Kind of like with the square peg loom I have been playing with.  That was somewhere between 10 and oh 15 yrs ago.  I have built a lot of trial and error looms since then, and then had a friend of mine who welds build me one that combined the Mirrix qualities I liked combined with the Navajo loom features I liked, and I had him build it big. 

Unfortunately, even though I do have a place to weave where I am now, I prefer to downsize so I can weave in my room...thus the frustrations that lead to things like trying backstrap weaving, and the potholder loom.

    Soooooo, where all of this is leading to is that the last face cloth that I did today didn't turn out quite right either...made me pretty pi---- off.  So I just went up into that inferno of an attic and dug into my packed up boxes from home and put together a smaller version of my large tapestry loom.  Amazingly enough I found all of the parts and when I assembled what I could find it seems that it might even be better than the original as over the years I have continued to modify this TOOL of the trade.  What this means is I now have a portable loom and am about to warp (that is the up and down threads on the loom) it up and do some weaving that I am actually pretty good at.  WOOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!

Stay tuned ladies and gentleman...same bat time same bat channel you will be continuously updated as usual.  Here are pics of the loom and a couple of my first weavings.

Homemade Pot holder loom

Ok so it's complete.  This one turned out great (so far).  I don't have it off the loom yet so fingers crossed.  

It has two shades of purple thread along with a silver thread all head together (triple strand).  I also figured out how to incorporate a little bit of design.  YEAH!  Tell me what you think.  The pictures run from beginning to end.

Homemade Pot holder loom

Ok...so I decided (after I finished the first post) to share what NOT TO DO on a pot holder loom.  You definitely want to use yarn that is the appropriate size for the spacing of your nails/pegs.  

I really was disappointed, the first one even turned out better than this one.  The second one, the white with delicate threads of purple and green added in, turned out perfect...this one a total failure.  Bummer...Self taught is definitely a great way to "learn from your mistakes".  Never never never use too fine a yarn on this particular loom.  LOL!  Notice how sloppy the edges are.