PROGRESS REPORT 28

A L I S A

I have three puppet heads and three puppet bodies. I have zero time to work on them now because of a large amount of spinning homework I have to do by the end of the month. Right now, I would rather be working on my puppets, but I must push on with homework. My one indulgence during homework time is that I still go to the weaving studio. These little guys will have to keep smiling at me from my desk as I spin… I'll reunite with them first thing in February! 

J E N N E

My worktable today.  Felt, Felt, more felt, designing, stitching, planning.  Little dolls, Chinese New Year decorations, lots of little things for celebrations this year.  The word for this year is INTENTIONAL and in the realm of my craft its focusing on what is relevant to our lives and what makes my heart sing.  Looking forward to the first warp of the year on the loom this weekend, making lots of real food, and making by hand the little things.  Happy new year!

PROGRESS REPORT 24

J E N N E

Halloween said hello and consumed my studio time this last week and as much as I felt like I was cruising along with the weaving I had to take a break to make this come to life.  Cotton Flannel, Silver Lame, Sparkely Yarn, this was 100% my daughters input at the fabric store and I either was not paying attention or was super tired and came home with these materials.  Next day reviewing the project and, whoa.  Yet somehow, flannel is a perfect backing and support to silver lame.  Not hard to sew at all.  Wings, a hat with a mane and a braided tail, no jumpsuit as in the pattern but please a pink dress and tail the same as my favorite denim dress.  Yes, of course, Happy Halloween my little pink pegasus.  

A L I S A

I have been studying tapestry weaving with Ixchel Suarez for about four months. In mid-September I started a larger piece, moving on from my samplers. It's been wonderful because I'm able to incorporate all the textural techniques into it that I love! This picture is to show one of the techniques that I love the most - knotting! It's great because you can go back to the area and cut/trim it to suit the piece. This part is much longer than it will be in the finished piece. I'm done this area and moving back to a flat weave to fill in around it. It's labour intensive as an art form and I'm enjoying taking pictures of the piece at the beginning and ending of each session. I would say it's about 2.5' x 4.5' ish, so it's quite large. I'm missing working on it this week, but I'm teaching a doll making class which is also very fun…. one can't do it all!

PROGRESS REPORT 18

J E N N E

The sashiko stitching continues.  I keep most all scraps from other sewing projects and last week went through them and cut many into the same size to do some stitching experiments with.  I am really interested in playing with the colors of the threads vs the stitching and the combinations and possibly layers that will come.  This is another big experiment with a vague idea of what I am aiming for but letting the material dictate what will be done with it.  Yesterday Alisa sent me a picture of a poster on the wall at her school that says "Detach from outcome, commit to process."  I am really feeling that right now, freely experimenting with the materials I have and letting the process dictate where I go with it and what to try next.  

A L I S A

This is what my puppet looks like assembled. All the pieces that were in the last Progress Report all went into making Rocky the Goat Puppet. This is a final project for year three of my formal spinning education. I really loved how it turned out and loved the process of making it. The story of Rocky goes like this… When I moved back to Canada from the USA about 6 years ago, I was working at a yarn mill and totally getting into spinning and knowing how the textile and fibre arts work from the basics up. The mill was on a working farm that raised Angora goats for Mohair. Rocky was the first animal I ever saw being born and I really took a shine to him. I spent a lot of time with him over the next few years and the owners of the mill/farm gifted me all his fleeces. I have wanted to make this totem since then. The puppet is made out of his fleece that I was present for the shearing of and processed myself. Rocky started this amazing change in me to stay curious about materials and where things come from and to know about fibre animals and what goes into making yarn. 

PROGRESS REPORT 17

J E N N E

Sashiko has become the work of the summer. I spent a week working on clothing for my daughter and I decided to make a dress with sashiko stitching on the bodice. With sewing you have transformative powers in your hands, in your needle and thread.  You don't have to follow a pattern to the letter or use the fabric as is.  I have been trying to use up everything in my fabric stash and in this case made a new fabric out of a cut of denim that honestly doesn't match the rest of the pieces of the dress. (Look carefully at the skirt fabric, its more teal and the back has darker pieces.  Maybe only I can see it, I spent years scrutinizing shades of color in my last job and years of printing color in the darkroom)  Add handstitching, or block printing, or any sort of surface design is a way to make something imperfect more imperfectly perfect - a sort of wabi sabi magic that I am completely embracing right now.

A L I S A

I've been taking this six year long course through the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Guild in hand-spinning. It runs for 10 days a year in a beautiful place called Haliburton at a beautiful school up there. It is much more than hand-spinning though. I've been learning all about the properties of fibre, both natural and synthetic dyeing techniques, construction techniques and, of course, all aspects of spinning on a wheel. I'm going into my fourth year this year and I'm finishing up some homework. Homework for this course is pretty intense and very specific. The planning portion for each project is much more in-depth than anything I would do for work outside of school. This picture represents a fair amount of hours of work in fleece selection, spinning, weaving and crochet. It's going to be an angora goat puppet! I will post more pictures here as I progress….

PROGRESS REPORT 15

A L I S A

I've decided to use up all my stash before I purchase anything new. I also have a (newish) rule to only purchase enough stuff to make a whole project because, when I first started spinning, I would buy a bit here and a bit there… so, I have all these bits laying around and decided to put them together to make enough yarn for a sweater. I have four different colourways of some nice merino and I'm spinning them to create a yarn with very long colour repeats. I have two brights with neutrals between. I'm ready to ply up a skein to see how it looks - I'm sure it will be fine because I like things a little kooky anyways!

J E N N E

Trying out new stitches and techniques is fun, but what to do with the samplers when done?   Make pillows of course!  On the left is a sashiko embroidered pattern (a preprinted pattern from Olympus.)  I loved making this piece - it was a sort of a test for sashiko that I want to incorporate into other sewing  projects.  Its different from the embroidery that I did for the Alabama Chanin inspired dress - though the running stitch is the same in sashiko its approached as an allover pattern vs. embroidering motifs into a pattern as you go.  The right is the completed Nigerian reverse applique piece which has such a rad 3D quality to it.   Quilted stained glass.  I am having a lot of fun learning these techniques - and have figured out a way to possibly a very exciting project combining them.  

PROGRESS REPORT 13

J E N N E

This last weekend I took a class on Nigerian reverse applique techniques with Adebayo Agbelekale AKA IB Bayo  His work is AMAZING (incorporating every kind of dyework, quilting, sewing, all mostly by hand - mindblowing!) , and a lot of it is in reverse applique.  This is my sampler - playing with adding different color blocks and shapes.  His approach (a blend of technique from his family's eight generations work with textiles and contemporary African American quilting from working with Rachel Clark) is a really easy hybrid approach to doing the reverse applique.  The biggest thing I learned in this class is to just do.  I was paralyzed at a point with making the design - this is the third design after I decide to stop thinking and just get cutting.  It also has me thinking about what kind of iconography I want to develop - where are my roots in textile traditions, what are the influences in the past and today that I can express in pattern in thread.  Also to just start cutting and go with it!  

A L I S A

I know all I've been posting lately is stuff from my weaving class, but that is what I'm into right now! OK!? (not that I heard any complaints…) So, this is the complete exercise in gradation. It was really fun and super challenging to complete. I got a little bit cocky at the beginning of this exercise because I've always felt at ease with colour. Serves me right! This was indeed very challenging and there were parts I couldn't wrap my head around. Especially the horizontal and side to side gradients. I would be going to sleep at night thinking, "Ok, so if I did it this way…. hmmm, no… that way…." Thank goodness my teacher is amazing - watching her and having her explain things verbally and show me by doing has made this process so amazing. On to texture!

PROGRESS REPORT 10

A L I S A

I feel so happy and on track. Lately, I've been really drawn to weaving, especially tapestry weaving. I know the basics and I've tried looking in books and just winging it, which is fun and great, but I was feeling a little lost too… So, I did a little research and found a wonderful tapestry artist who has changed my weaving life! Ixchel Suarez is truly a life student and master tapestry weaver and I have started studying with her guidance at the Oakville Tapestry Studio. I started this week and she is having me work on a tapestry "journal". A guided weaving that teaches many different techniques. I learned some basics while I was there and now I have some homework to do - incorporate the techniques I learned into another block in my "journal". I'm in heaven...

J E N N E

Sewing steadily along.  Cutting out a dress that I drafted in Cal's Pattern Drafting Class and its going to have a pointy collar and black pockets and this crazy dotted animal not animal print.  What I am loving about this whole process is that there is no fail.  If it doesn't work exactly move the darts, move the line, redraw resew and try again.  I actually have two different dress fronts with different dart placements - I couldn't decide which I liked more but I am sure with different fabrics/patterns its good to have options.  Going through the process of really analyzing my body and putting that on paper has me thinking of all the different possibilities of clothing to make.   Its also reminding me that I did take 2 years of patternmaking classes, and that whole time I used a size 8 dress form to make slopers and muslins and patterns and never did I consider taking the tape measure to myself to make myself clothes.  Which is why I think I stopped.  We went to our storage space last week and I unearthed my slopers and textbook from when I was in that class, digging through those for ideas and calculations to make.

PROGRESS REPORT 9

A L I S A

My tubular weaving continues. I haven't painted the puppet heads yet, but I've finished making their bodies! I'm kind of obsessed with just making woven tubes. In fact, I've made so many of them they are starting to look "too nice"! You know, when you do something new, it might be a little weird or "off"? I like that - once you get good at something, it's starts to get nicer and more even and I always long for the "off" look of learning...

J E N N E

Drawing and cutting and sewing and redrawing and cutting and sewing and ripping out and repeat.  I hurt my arm this week in a fall, not too bad but enough to feel too nerve tingly-bruised to knit weave or hand sew so I dove deep back into patternmaking again.  Finished a redraft of the Endless Summer Tunic to reshape over my shoulders and lengthen into an Endless Summer Dress.  Cut out of muslin fabric and sewn and yes.  Ready to roll.  Finished my basic dress from Cal's Pattern Drafting course, this is the sleeve, last component, sewn together, fit, yes.  Two, no three patterns now to start sewing iterations of - the tunic and the two dresses.  

PROGRESS REPORT 7

J E N N E

Getting back to my handmade wardrobe.  I have several muslins going right now, testing different dress patterns to find a uniform in which to make a million iterations for every occasion.  None of them have been satisfying enough in fit to make "the one" so two weeks ago I started Cal Patch's Patternmaking Class on Creativebug to make a pattern to just fit me already.  I am halfway through that process (and it is MAGIC.  I have a bodice that actually FITS!)   I took a break from patternmaking this weekend to break out a new pattern to try and wow.  This is the Endless Summer Tunic, the first pattern from A Verb for Keeping Warm. I made one first too big then took a chance and made the smallest size and it fits perfect. Fabric is insane, something that has been in my stash forever, asymmetrical batik/shibori/bleach don't even know (lots going on) and silver dots printed over it.   So now I have a dress to wear while I finish my tunic from Cal's class.  So much closer to that handmade wardrobe.  

A L I S A

These are some doll/puppets that I'm working on - a Rabbit, a Goat and a Cat. I finished building the heads over the weekend and so now I have to paint them. I have to make a woven body for the Goat too. I'm totally into making these and am not quite sure how I'm going to display them. I kind of want to make shadow boxes for them and crochet and weave other stuff to jam in the boxes with them - not sure yet, we'll see. 

PROGRESS REPORT 5

J E N N E

Hand sewing buttonholes.  This dress is entirely sewn by hand and this weekend I almost broke out the sewing machine to make the buttonholes as its been finished save for that last step for over a week now.  I started this dress over a year ago, what felt like over many lifetimes ago in our tiny apartment in the city with a view of streetcars and buildings.  Today I am sitting on our couch looking out at tall  trees and listening to the birds with the window open, stitching.   Its spring again.

A L I S A

Oops! So, I have this wonderful sort of tapestry loom. I say sort of because it's made very much like an artists easel and you place a branch or dowel in a groove on the top and bottom and then tension your warp using the branches or dowel or whatever you decided as the "frame" for the weaving. It's made by my favourite tool makers, the Willette's. Anyway, I started this weaving, which I really didn't like too much but was continuing to work on anyway. I folded up the loom to bring it to a class I was teaching to show the students and as I was putting it in my car and boink - the whole thing popped off the frame and now I'm left with sort of a mess. I don't know if I should reattach and continue or, take it as a sign that since I didn't like it in the first place, start over...