Friday, July 2, 2010

Soumak again

Spiral

First of all, let me say that these pictures do not represent anything that I really like, either design-wise or good craftsmanship-wise. I am simply experimenting in a non-threatening environment. In the top picture, you might notice the line with text. This particular area points out one of the major problems that I have with using soumak lines. I forget the direction with which I am wrapping the warp! To get the top portion of the orange line to be straight, observe that I was entering from the right, and then catch myself when I forgot that.

After reading the appropriate section of Line in Tapestry, I decided to try the spiral next. I am drawn to spirals nearly always, but I prefer to have one a little more filled in. This soumak method might work with a filled in, thicker spiral to kind of smooth out the edges—I just don’t know yet. Obviously, there are a few problems with the spiral technique. When I want a square spiral, I will make it square. All angles in this spiral were purely unintentional and caused by my faulty soumak technique. In a piece that mattered, I would have made corrections. For this I am sticking with the warts! I think a technique like this would work with simple petroglyphs-style of design.  Below is a close-up of the spiral.Spiral_close-upAfter reading the posts in the Tapestry Yahoo group for the last few days, I may attempt some text in the last square to be woven. Yes, I said last square! Yippee! Because I am so bored with these small tedious squares. I think I need to try something that fills the available space next. On the other hand, I am also looking forward to finishing this in order to see what kind of whomper-jawed cube I end up with. This started out as a pulled warp idea. Hmmm…

image

At the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft is a show called Paper Runway. Here is the link for the creator of the above dress.

This is a link about textile mills in North Carolina that have escaped Armageddon.

Website: http://sherriwoodardcoffey.com

Blog: http://sherriwoodardcoffey.blogspot.com/

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