Tag: colour

Warp speed

PiaWeaving

In case y’all wondered just how fast that really is, I can tell you it’s right around snail pace.

Spent a couple of hours last night threading the heddle with those colourful warp chains, then I had to finish making dinner so it went up on the wall to be cat safe. Getting some use out of my homemade adjustable warping board too.

rainbow_warp2
rainbow_warp3

Needless to say, I’ve been rather dreading how to get this mess wound on straight to begin weaving! I’m as yet undecided whether I’ll be making squares with black lines intersecting or use a more wabi sabi saori approach. I’ll know when I see the first passes. Maybe. There will be three panels that are to be joined side by side, but even if I think I do make even squares there really is no guarantee they will match up completely at this point in my journey. Rigid heddle looms are not the most precise creatures I suspect.

Now, since I did not get it done over the weekend, I was debating whether to try this on my own or wait for an assistant. My immediate response is usually the former, but it’s not always a wise choice. 😉 But it was preying on my mind, distracting me from my other tasks of the day, so I thought I could at least tie it to the beam.

huge messy warp!
rainbow_warp5
rainbow_warp6
the end!

Now it’s 3.30 pm, I’m knackered, the house needs tidying, the dog needs walking, so the loom is back on the wall and I hope to get back to my paints during the week. I just wanted to have a project started that doesn’t need as much light, quiet and equilibrium. Well, it’s started!

Winding away

PiaChit Chat

Just a twirly sort of day yesterday. Winding bobbins, shuttles, warp chains and plying. Still have some tapestry bobbins and a stick shuttle to wind, then I’m ready to thread the loom and paint some more! Very colourful blanket coming up.

As I was finishing the muted yarn I finally, after two years of just looking at the fiber, figured out how I would have really liked to spin and ply it! Isn’t that just typical…. Where’s that Ctrl+Z when you need it?

twirly
Not really happy with any of these yarns, but now they’re done and that’s how it goes.

rainbow_warp

During breaks I get to play with this:byld

Big brown pony is recovering from a monster abscess in his left hind hoof. Very ouchy, swelly and gooey. I’ll spare you the sight.

No socks

PiaChit Chat

Somebody asked me why I don’t knit socks. The answer is same as why I don’t make my own underwear: I don’t have to. With my crafting time so precious, my knitting so slow and all the crazy childrens’ socks I can get in a bundle for a few bucks, it’s just not important to me. Besides, they’d probably itch. Possibly it also has to do with having to make two of the same…? (btw I do draw the line at spiderman socks)

sox

So tell me, why DO you, or not, knit socks? They’re rarely seen outside the house (unless they’re drying) and not something you notice as much as a nice sweater for instance.

I was going to make a post about how much fun I’m having with painting lately, but then I began to rush to have something to show you and suddenly I was struggling again. I wouldn’t say that I’m on a roll yet, just one day off can block the way forward, but it’s definitely very close to the feeling of flow as I know it, verging on bubbly. When I’m not distracted by sick pets. Gets me every time.

Too dark

PiaChit Chat

It’s a rainy day today, very dark. Great for indoors activities, and yet – my lamp seems to shine in the wet paint, so I’m going to have to hoist up the dinner table lamps (glass) even more so I don’t knock them out when I move the easel around.

I have quite a few ideas for using my “intuitive backgrounds”. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I get really into the stage where I lash on paint and create some nice effects and then I’m afraid to paint a motif over the top for fear of ruining it. Perhaps I’m to be an abstract painter? Yesterday I had the notion though, to incorporate some horses. I need to learn to loosen up, not try to paint realistic, because it deadens my work. When I painted before, I mostly had a plan before I even started or I did a bit of background doodling to see if it began to look like something, and then I made a plan.

Anyway, today’s question is not about getting ideas, it’s about taking photos of your work. I wanted to take some good photos of each stage in the paintings to use on the computer. Textures to blend with photos. In fact I have the notion to also leave some canvasses (how many s’s?) as backgrounds and simply save them to use for photographing yarn or found objects on/against. (Like my tulips above, against a blue painting, I’ve got a variety of those)

Do you have any good tricks for me, when they’re too large to pop in a scanner? Do you simply wait until there is good light? I really was counting on painting all day again today (although the loom is calling), but then I’ll miss some “stages”.

Or is it simply another exercise in going with the flow of life and wait for the sun….

coverup
This is just a first layer cover-up of the previous owner’s “cactus in a window”. It distracted me too much to paint on it as it was.

Tumeny words

PiaChit Chat

poppy01

I’m painting today and I’m determined to keep at it even if there are loud phone conversations upstairs, lunch requests and various pet related incidents. I started out with something easy, filling in the poppy shapes I did months ago (I think I’m going to have a look at real poppies before I move on 😉 ), but I also want to get a sketch done which has lived in my head for a long time. I bet it’s blocking the way for others!

sketchWhy am I persisting with a medium that seems so difficult for me? (not new, I did paint quite a lot many years ago) I actually wrote a 3000 word blog post on that over the weekend, it’s not even done yet and I don’t think I’ll ever publish it. But the short version is: A because it keeps knocking, B that I suspect the things which are easy at first may not be the ones where you ultimately excel, and C I have to get over my story of how I need perfect surroundings before I can begin. At the very least I should tell it differently.

See, in just over 200 words! That was some kickass editing if you ask me.

Right, egg sandwiches done and on my part eaten, back to work. While waiting for the others to dry I’ve hauled out one of the used canvasses I “inherited”. At first I tried to work with the lines and colour there, but it’s not working even if I see some kind of forest scene in my head. But nevermind, today’s exercise is simply: keep at it. That’s my only ambition. All day, only the necessary breaks when somebody is either hungry or needs to pee. After all, it’s not Molly’s fault that I’m an idjit. (‘m allowed to blog while I eat egg sandwiches)

I think I may have answered my colour question from last week. I keep wanting to mix in clean colours with the black and olive, I even happily dipped away in phtalo blue when I thought I’d reached for the ultramarine…