Pink party

The rain cleared, the moon came out, and so did the inflatable swans. Bunbury Regional Art Gallery turned on a great party to celebrate South West Art Now (SWAN 2022).

Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, SWAN22 closing

There are a lot of potential topics arising from my experience of being included in this event: about the richness of the visual arts in regional areas, the importance of local government and business support for ambitious art events, the value of a great curator and professional presentation (installation, catalogue). And the pleasure of conversations with other artists.

Thanks to BRAG and the City of Bunbury for buying my work! There are a couple more chances to see a selection of the SWAN works, at FORM, The Goods Shed Claremont, and The Painted Tree Gallery, Northcliffe, dates to be announced. I’ll let you know!

Sampling, confession

My second spinning sample was as over-plied as the first was under-plied: so much so that I ran it back through the wheel to remove some of the twist. Washed and knitted, though, it looks about right.

Salvaged fleece: washed, picked, spun, plied, knitted

My confession is: I can’t seem to be able to find or make a consistent approach to spinning, even though I happily count and measure and chart in other parts of my practice.

Perhaps the lack of consistency is more noticeable with this particular fleece which is short staple, part crimpy, part strong, with lots of second cuts and weak tips. I have been hand-teasing it before carding to remove the short and broken ends and decided it was open and airy enough to spin, without carding. This adds to the inconsistencies but is more enjoyable.

Spinning outdoors today with the sun warming the fleece, I fell into a lovely rhythm. For me, to make a lot of fine yarn for a big project requires strong momentum, preferably derived from pleasure rather than a punishing schedule of milestones and goals.

After some procrastinating and doubts, I feel that this project is getting going.

For any spinners reading this: do you work best with a measured approach, or do you prefer to work it out with the fibre in the moment? Or does it depend on your project?

To read more about approaches to spinning, check out Josefin Waltin’s beautiful, thoughtful and deeply creative blog.

Another Möbius

Linen warp and weft on the 10-shaft loom

I am finding more ideas for exploring weave structures and transparency in the Möbius form. This one uses two strong colours: red warp and blue weft and starts with a twill structure. As I change weave structure I need to beat less and less firmly. This takes a kind of meditative concentration and depends on mood, tiredness, distraction.

Images of the first of the series are here.

Sampling, still

I am continuing with a series of work that I started last year, of hand spun wool knitted into lace.

Hand carded wool rolag, 2-ply sample above, 3-ply sample below.

This is short-staple wool, which feels fluffy but not merino-soft, and keeps its body even when finely spun. I mistakenly under-twisted the two-ply, so that yarn looks gappy with the two plies pushing each other apart. The three-ply looks balanced and nicely plump. It would knit up into a nice, lofty, light-weight garment, but I’m trying for fine yarn that will work up into a large piece strong enough to hang and to show a more transparent lace pattern.

Next sample: to spin fine singles and a two-ply yarn that is balanced.

Sampling simple weaving

Sample weave: rag strips and yarn on cotton warp

I’m testing the simplest of equipment for some basic weaving practise. It turns out that the lid of a small pizza box makes a great loom, with little notches cut top and bottom for the warp. A safety pin works as a ‘needle’ for weaving under and over the warp threads.

Back to the blog

As many people (Austin Kleon, La Grosse Toile) point out, having your own blog is your own space online, unlike social media which feels shouty and is under the control of others (including algorithms).

I haven’t completely freed myself from Instagram, as it’s the only place to keep in touch with some, but I have planned for a while to move my studio notes and projects back here, to my old (very old) blog.

To all who subscribed aeons ago and are startled to receive a notification, hello! I hope you are going well.

30 Works 30 Days final

Day 30: wip

‘wip’: textile

Day 29: found

‘Found’: death, weather, observation

30 Works 30 Days Week 4

Day 28: Remember

‘Remember’: performance/duration

I drove a 500km round trip today, ate deviled eggs and homemade sponge cake, joined a 5-hymn service with a group of 80-100 people to decommission a 106 yo church where I had been christened, married and where my father’s eulogy was read. There were lots of flies. One of the old people asked me what I was doing now and visibly recoiled when I said I’m a full time artist. I put my name on the list to buy one of the pews. I stopped on the way home at a flour mill that has been converted into a café. It still smells of grain.

Time passes. Almost everything gets forgotten. Make art, look at art, anyhow.

Day 27: blow

‘Blow’: textile

Day 26: untitled

‘Untitled’: assemblage

Day 25: burn

‘Burn’: woodstacking

Day 24: fallen

‘Fallen’: drawing

Day 23: untitled

‘Untitled’: textile

Day 22: untitled

‘Untitled’: assemblage.

30 Works 30 Days week 3

Day 21: Red leather

Day 20: untitled

Day 19: Consolation

Day 18: art on a roll

‘Art on a roll’, imagination, bad handwriting and drawing on flimsy paper

Day 17: protest

Day 16: phoning it in

‘phoning it in’, ink on paper

Day 15: untitled

 

30 Works 30 Days week 2 part 2

Day 12 untitled

A piece of reused brown paper with a small sample of layered fabrics stretched and folded and stitched to the brown paper. The fabrics are dull shades of green, brown, pink and blue.

Day 13 rub

Day 14 peak