Basket Making

There were a few of us. More than in the pictures. We gathered at Rocky’s and Margy’s place. A great shared lunch to get the creative juices flowing and then outside to make baskets from various vegetation found there on the farm. And we didn’t let the drizzle hinder our progress. We were lucky to have four very experienced basket makers – Margy, Kaye, Rocky and Jill.

Jill, Georgie, Kaye, Annie and sorry but I forget her name.

And here is Kaye amongst it all – her favourite place.

I was feeling fairly crap by the end of the day because of chemo side effects so didn’t get the images I would normally get – like the finished products!

But I have ended up with a basket that I will treasure. I can still take a photo of that and post it in the future.

Woven Creations

Finally getting around to posting images of the woven creations of other students. These items were exhibited at the Hamilton Sheepvention Show early this month and will also be shown at The Royal Melbourne Show. The majority of fibre used was alpaca, being part of a deal done with the Alpaca Association and SouthWest TAFE here in Warrnambool.

First off the ranks are three scarves woven by Jeanette Tollerbond.

And two wraps also woven by Jeanette.

The next four items are by Georgie Crow. As a matter of interest the bottom wrap in the second image as well as the wraps in the final two images were all woven on the same warp.

The next four are a variety of knits by Jill Hunter.

And last but definitely not least are items by Rocky Blair. Rocky has used alpaca fibre from her own alpacas and felted it to produce these hats with the final image being a skirt and wrap woven on the same warp.

And to conclude, I must thank our stunning model who suffered all types of indignities without complaint for this photo shoot.

The display at Hamilton.

Lots of yarn

While waiting patiently for our commercially spun alpaca yarn to arrive we have easily kept busy on other projects.

Here is Georgie weaving a beret on cardboard. In the background you can view our revamped room. Much more civilised now. Oh and BTW, Georgie has a sore knee. She isn’t really that lay back.

And Jill and Rocky hand spinning alpaca fibre.

Jill is the most productive, spinning and knitting beautifully. Below is a wee bit of her hand spun alpaca yarn.

And Georgie was unable to wait. She warped up with an unknown from the store room and used hand spun alpaca by Rocky for her weft. Georgie is experimenting with lace weaves for her alpaca project.

And I stole some fibre that had been dyed for another class. I walked past it, saw the colours and couldn’t help but take just a small bit to spin up. I love it. On the bottom left is the single thread and on the right is the plied result. Should have pinched the whole lot.

Jill again. More hand spun alpaca yarn. Beautiful stuff.

And another ebay mistake! I bought quite a large amount of tussah silk from some guy who was destashing his weaving studio. It looked luscious so I bought a kilogram of the stuff. This is the photo supplied on ebay.

Here is what I got. Very beige with no sheen and it sheds. I hate shedding. When will I learn? I’ve washed it and whacked it but it still sheds, otherwise it could still have been used in some project .

Alpaca Project and other stuff

Each Tuesday morning we congregate in the art department at the Sherwood campus of Deakin University at Warrnambool.

Below is an assortment of alpaca fleece spun by Jill.

Jill decided to experiment with the brown and white plied yarn and dye it blue. These are the results. The verdict is still out.

Jill bought in her Majacraft spinning wheel to show me. She loves it and now it is on my wish list.

Here is Georgie warping up for her first alpaca piece. Georgie is concentrating on lace weaves for her theme.

THE OTHER STUFF

The flower ( not sure what it is) was photographed for an assignment on ‘composition’ for the Photoshop course I am doing.

And these birds are corellas. There are lots of them around at the moment, having a distinctive squawking noise. They also seem to be public enemy number one in many parts of Victoria for the damage they do to crops and the environment.

Truly amazing…

I went to a clearance sale today – something I’ve never really done before. I certainly haven’t ever bid at an auction before, other than ebay. The sale was at Glenormiston and I went because I knew there were a few looms on offer. I would like an 8 shaft table loom. However, there weren’t any of these on offer.

Glenormiston is primarily an agricultural college managed by South West TAFE.

Anyway, on with the story. Georgie, a student in my weaving class, happened to turn up. We had a quick chat, and soon after the auction began. Things happened very quickly. The weaving equipment was the very first to go under the hammer so to speak. I was hoping to get an old drum carder and a raddle, but wasn’t too worried if I didn’t.

Shock no. 1 – they offered it all as one lot.

Shock no. 2 – Georgie and I had a bid and got the lot for $30. We’re talking about 2 x huge floor looms, 6 x four shaft table looms ( on a recount there are seven of the table looms), and a huge assortment of accessories like raddles, reeds, a warping mill and much more. We literally need a truck to cart it all a way. Luckily, Georgie does have a truck and an unused shearing shed to house it all. We are returning Monday to pick it all up.

I bought one of the smaller looms home and Murray got to work on it. It has cleaned up beautifully.

As I said, truly amazing.

Part 2 of today’s story – Also at the auction was Karen, our weaving teacher, who also happens to do machine embroidery art work. We now have to bow down to her as she recently won the PFAFF International Embroidery as Art Excellence Award for her piece Ruined Forest, which can be viewed at:

http://karenrichards.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=26#

As part of her prize, she got to fly and stay in London to accept her award as well as receiving a whoopee do sewing machine. Truly amazing… More details here .

And so I don’t have a post without an image, here is the feted artist herself.

Rug weaving

I really need to update my computer. I am starting to strum my fingers in between mouse clicks. Oh so frustrating.

This is Georgie busy on the rug loom.

One of the projects we have to complete for our course with TAFE is to weave a rug. Some kind soul donated this loom to the Art Department and Georgie was the first person to tackle it. It has been a challenge but she has managed to tame it and is busy producing a rug from her own design.

Information on the loom - built by Stanley Dann.

Georgie’s doubleweave

This is Georgie’s doubleweave cloth – the first to be taken from the loom. You’d think I would have remembered to photograph both sides considering that is what doubleweave is mostly about, but no. Georgie still has more plans before this is fully finished. It’s final role will be as a wall hanging.

Every Tuesday morning…

I go to South West TAFE, to the Sherwood Campus, on the outskirts of Warrnambool, for weaving classes. It is approximately a forty-five minute drive from home. Last year I spent all day Wednesdays there studying Experimental Textiles, Colour Theory, and Design Elements and Principles. This year I can only afford, time wise, to do a morning.

There is only Rocky, Georgie and I doing a minor study in Weaving, although there are a few others just beginning with an Introduction to Weaving, which we did last year.

We have started out by doing double weaving, also called double cloth, samplers. I always wondered how this worked and now I know. Put simply, two cloths are being woven at the same time; one on top and one on the bottom.

I am unable to show you the layer underneath, which is shades of green, until the cloth is removed from the loom.

With double cloth, you are able to weave the two cloths separately, join one side to make a cloth double the size, or join both sides to create a tube.

Here is Georgie working on hers. I am always lagging behind Rocky and Georgie because I generally spend the afternoon with my grandchildren who live in Warrnambool, and they stay on weaving into the afternoon.