Monday, November 30, 2009

"Piece de Resistance" ...so far


Wow I know its been quite a while, but as you will see below I have been very busy.  I finished up the semester with a rather large weaving: 9'x3'!!  There were several concepts involved, but the overall goal was to embed meaning into the weaving, weather that takes place through materials, memories, or space. My favorite part was weaving with the 16mm vintage movie film.  When I ordered it on Ebay, I had no idea what images would be on it.  As luck would have it, it's a home movie of small children!! Perfect for woven memories! Other materials I used were fishing line, floral wire, welding wire, my grandfather's tie, copper and Plexiglas rods, plastic grocery bags, which I fashioned into yarn--or "plarn," hardware cloth, and a wooden dowel.  The first image gives a sense of the size of the work.































Thursday, November 5, 2009

the first construct

Just a quick note....after some inspiration from fiber artist Janet Echelman, I created this crazy woven construct  from floral wire and some very bumpy yarn.

Soft and structural.
Enclosed and open. 
Opaque and translucent.



Wednesday, November 4, 2009

and so she shall weave...

After quite a battle with the fishing line, I finally got the warp  in place, all 12 feet of it!!  The fishing line put up quite a fight when I was trying onto the front and back apron rods.  (K)not staying put is the best thing that it does.  Also it obviously doesn't stretch similarly to the wool yarn, so that is making a difference in the tension I am trying to maintain.  Despite these difficulties I think it was a really great choice to use something with such a similar form but from a completely different origin as the wool. The purpose of this weaving is to express embedded meaning, communication, and memories.  As the current state and appearance of the wool yarn still give reference to the sheep that it came from.  I didn't shear the sheep, but most people are familiar with the shearing process and then the process in which raw wool is spun into yarn.  Physical properties of wool  traditionally denote warmth, comfort, protection, and softness.  All of these qualities in some form are all present in the yarn and are more apparent as I weave them into cloth.  The fishing line is a completely different ball of wax.  Other than being made from petroleum, I know next to nothing about what chemical processes and procedues are required to create the product.  Furthermore, it is traditionally used as part of a recreational activity, is transparent , and spends a lot of time being wet....a long way from the loom.  Essentially its in foreign territory, so lets put it to the test!!  What can and can't it do?  So far, all it wants to do is roll back up on the spool it came on...argh. But alas, we must listen to the materials!  Oh and I've got some old 16mm movie film on the way.  Nice!!