Julia Sherman....wow and thanks!

I just wanted to thank my Aunt who sent me the link to the most amazing textile artist, Julia Sherman.  As I am still contemplating what architectural links I can draw from weaving to create my woven artifact, Julia's Cone of Power and also her Room a Loom works have been extremely influential.  As a community weaving/building experiment, I am considering conducting my own version of a room-wide weaving next semester. 

Its about time!  After a lengthy blog hiatus due to the Black Mountain Conference and also beginning my thesis written document,--which is already 50 pages--I have begun a new piece.  I am going big or going home on this one, as the dimensions are 3'x12'.  After suggestions from my mid-term presentation and thinking about my previous smaller pieces, the techniques and different elements I am investigating deserve to be bold.  The warp is made up of natural wool and also monofilament fishing line. I measured out about 1500 yards of wool and fishing line thus far.  As expected the wool is easy to work with despite the length.  The fishing line however is another story.  Fibrous materials (most of them) in weaving are frozen in tension, creating the overall balance of the work.  The materials have a memory of their previous state and create tension as they attempt to revert to this state.  Lets just say fishing line is very stubborn or very lazy, I'm not sure which yet.   Its been doing everything but cooperate, but I am hoping that once I get it tied on, that things will come together.  This weaving is definitely about letting the materials dictate what the weaving should look like, based on their capacities or in abilities to revert to that previous state.  I will also be integrating some rolled hardware cloth to create voids in the warp and investigate if this could be a habitable architectural space.  Things that will be woven: wool yarn, fishing line, welding wire, floral wire, zip ties, and plastic bags.  I am looking into old 35 mm film, pantyhose, and a mule tape, a wire pulling material called mule tape.  Keep you posted! ciao!

Halfway there and not slowing down!

I've been so busy preparing for my Thesis 1 Mid-Term presentation (today) and also the Black Mountain Conference this weekend, that I haven't been very religious with postings lately.  Reviews today of my work went very well and I am posting a picture of what the pin up looked like.  It's hard to believe that I am 25% done with the entire thesis project.  I will be presenting the same work weekend at the BMC conference.  I will be back next Tuesday and am looking forward to starting a new project and blogging more about it.  Materials on the list: zip ties, fishing line, welding wire, and other thin gauge metal.  Its going to get good!  Now its time for a nap! ;)