Scandinavian ceramics

I'm a great fan of all Scandinavian ceramics and my two favourites patterns are Bersa by Gustavsberg and Eden by Rorstrand.

This fantastic photo on Flickr triggered the idea to turn the pattern into a fabric. Et voilà...

I wanted the "leaves" to be a little more spaced than in the original design - and the good thing about sampling is that you can "adjust" your weaving by changing to a suitable thicker weft or even stray from the original idea and use a different treadling without being worried of "ruining" your fabric. The honeycomb effect really comes out after the fabric has been washed, so trying out different yarns in the weft is always a good idea!

More on photos

First of all, thank you Cally for your kind words! I am honoured to be mentioned in your blog - and I am even happier I had the chance to meet you in Bradford - your work has always been very elegant and inspiring - right from the first project!

I wanted to share some links on taking photos - for our Final Project at the Bradford course we had to prepare a business card, in the size of our choice, in order to promote our work.
Hiring a professional photographer is a fantastic thing, but can also be very expensive - so of course the first attempts were done at home with my old and beloved digital camera.
I had no idea whatsoever about composition, light, colour, close-ups... I just had a go and then had the photos printed as postcards with my contact details on the back.

Now I look at them and think - how could I possibly think to use those photos? they're awful! -

So, it doesn't matter if you are taking photos for promotion, as homework for a course, or only for your records - it's nice to have good photos, showing the whole as well as the detail, and the 'real' colours

You will want to take into consideration:
size - you want to be able to figure out how big or small an item is,
function - how you wear a scarf or a shawl or a particular garment,
styling - a nice environment will improve the look of your creation

Caitlin Holcomb has an Etsy shop where she sells her creations. I love her styling:


another one I love is Yokoo, with her Etsy shop here and her photos here:


Etsy links on how to style your photos here, more here , here and here

felicia lo has a blog with great photos, and a couple of very helpful and downloadable PDFs here

...and finally, an article by Daryl Lancaster on weavezine

There's a whole world of talented bloggers who post fantastic pics, the list could be endless - and Flickr of course! - I often use compfight or multicolr - they're great for inspiration!

What are you doing still here? Get your cameras out and have fun!

from the 70s

This is what the new palette was about -a recent thrift find. I really like the shape of this chair, and even if I am not particularly fond of the colour, I thought I would keep it like this anyway.
I wanted the seat cover to have a geometric pattern, but not too evident, to suit the colour of the frame and obviously to resist normal wear and tear. The choice was a diamond twill, and as weft I used a skein of wool unevenly dyed with cochineal, so that subtle stripes would show. I slightly fulled it after weaving, so as to make it firmer, and suitable for upholstery.

Once finished comes the best part - the photo session! I realized how difficult it is to take decent pictures of handwoven fabrics, how the real colours are difficult to capture, even in natural light, and I am slowly learning - trial and error - what looks good and what doesn't. And never ever without a trypod!

New Palette

Would you believe it? Spring at last!

And some new projects as well. The turquoise-green fabrics were the first attempt for a chair that needs a new seat, but I wasn't quite happy with them. Today I found a colour card by Farrow&Ball: the colour names are really entertaining! ...colours like elephant's breath, or dead salmon...
so now I know that my chair is painted skimming stone, and the next fabric will have the warp in babouche and the weft in radicchio, I am curious to see the effect!

Will this rain ever stop?

On Sunday we immersed ourselves in the fog, on the way to the new house of a couple of friends, where we enjoyed a lovely lunch and afternoon together - and their kid - who speaks a funny mixture of Italian and English!
Back home while "hiding" some clutter, I found a paper bag with the above contents.
It was in a box together with all the stuff a lovely lady, Anne, gave me when I bought her floor loom, and it belonged to her husband.
I thought it was a nice collection and I put it in a little box, to be stored as a little treasure.
This reminded me of Antonio Marras, the fashion designer - who bought a small suitcase full of embroidery yarn, cotton, buttons and so on when he was in London. He kept the case intact with all its contents - and eventually it became a source of inspiration for his work. Another treasure!

I finished another cushion - this was a sampler from a weaving demonstration, but the stripes with different patterns were appealing... I like the result when you put on a warp and just go as you feel, with no particular treadling!

Lamps!

Yesterday I went out with a friend and on the way home we stopped in the most fantastic charity shop we've ever seen! We restrained ourselves, thinking of our husbands... she collected some stuff to use for her fantastic lamps - you can see them here - they are made with all types of recycled materials; mother of pearl buttons, baking cases, anything she finds around. Thank you Nadia, I really enjoyed our afternoon together!

embroidery?

We're back from the UK where we had all possible weather - rain, wind, fog, sunshine, snow, ice, blue sky...all in 4 days! I got this fantastic book from a second hand shop - more photos here - some of the stitches could be reproduced on a woven fabric. The samples are really inspiring!

...and some finished one-stripe bags!