My one and only TUTORIAL***** Warping*******

The other day, while I was reading this book , I saw another way of puting on a warp. I know about a rolling warp, and to be honest I always felt like there was a hell of a lot of tension on all the parts of the loom and the modifications didn't really work for me. I know others have no problem with it, it's not for me.
This method, that I will attempt to explain, this time with photos, unlike the disaster which is my Tapestry "yap" page of FB (you can find here) It seemed most people were scratching their heads...Anyhoo, here goes.

 Please keep in mind, I am not at all TECHNICAL....this is huge for me to even investigate this stuff.

* Also, what I am showing is the first time I have done this...I made a few mistakes, and fixed them...read it through before you attempt to do this.

This is what we are trying to achieve...(not the vertical foot loom...ignore that)
I'm not exactly sure what this method is called, but what this method will allow for,
 is this:
1. to be able to use almost twice as much of the warp.
2. Much less wastage.
3. Portability, (you could transport weaving from home to Uni, without having to take the whole loom.)
4. Making more out of the equipment you have availabe to you.

First you will need

A loom, frame. This one has tension adjusters at the side, I see no reason why you couldn't use a frame without tension adjusters.

Seine twine, or what ever warp thread you use.

Some dowel rods, cut to the width of your loom

and

PaddlePop (popsical) sticks

1.First, you should have your artwork, measure it. Theoretically, it could be at least the height of the loom. For example, my loom is 34" or about 86cm. My artwork, that I intend to weave is 28" or 72cm high.
Normally, if you were to put on a warp by just wraping it around and around, you could only comfortably weave about half the space inside the loom -eg-15" or 40ish cms.

2. Make a generous estimate of the length of warp you will need, remember you need to tie knots and have enough space to weave. For the sake of this experiment I measured all the way around, just so I knew I would have enough..

3. I put the pieces of measured warp on like this.

I think this is called "Larks head". The first photo from the book has the warp just looped over.

I measured and worked out how mant groups I needed. I also used tape to secure the groups.

4. Next, you have to connect the warp to the other rod...this is my first mistake...what was I thinking? This is not very weaver-ly...this knot eventually has to go.

5. Here you can see, all the warps are now connected to the rod, and I'm about to bring it up, and tie it to the other rod.

I used hair ties to keep the rods in place while I tied them with some warp.

I worked evenly over the warp, I think I ended up tying about seven loops

7.To create tension on the warps insert the sticks, and twist...See the first photo to help explain.

When I do this again, I would make my warp a little shorter and the loops connecting the rods a little smaller too, to take full advantage of using this method of tensioning the warp.

I had to make up the difference using the tension device on the loom.

Now to re-tying the warp, in a much more weaver-y way.

With the point of my bobbin, I undid all the stupid knots I did to begin with, and replaced them with these. kind of a reef type knot, that starts at the back, and finishes up on the front of the warps. So much better, and firmer. All the warps have a similar amount of tension...

8.Now that all the warps have been re-tied, loosen the tension a little bit, and push the rods to the bottom of the loom, like this picture above.

9. I have put in the "floor", and begun to weave the "bed". I'm just weaving on the warps on the front surface.

I haven't put in a shed, mainly because I intend to weave over a different amount warp at a time, and I find a shed a bit anoying when I'm doing that. Also if you like to weave with leashes, you can put them on as normal too.

 I hope this has been a little bit interesting, 

I will keep my reader posted as I eventually get to work on this...I have something else on another loom at the moment.

Cheers

r 

x

Kate Derum Award for small Tapestries 2013

Monika Beniulyte, With Love.....14x20cm

I love this tapestry so much, and I was very happy when it won the prize for the

 Irene Davies Emerging Artist Award.

I like this tapestry because it embraces new(ish) technologies, of I think, laser or ink jet printing onto a beautifully woven surface. How exciting to see something utterly contemporary in a tapestry show.

Anton Veenstra won the main award with his tapestry Everyman clown. 

Here are some pictures from the exhibition.

I also really liked Tim Gresham's piece Acqua scales, which is hanging above mine.

So sorry it's blurry...I was a bit blurry too, not alchohol, weepy tears...

when people started talking about Kate, I just went all sad....I guess that's ok.

I liked this one too, mainly because of the fabric-y nature of it.

Shubankar Ray, Man in meditation

And how fabulous to meet this lovely artist Kyoko Imazu! She is currently doing a residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop. Learning to weave too! She is a very good artist, and you can see her work from the link.

There was a lot of build up for me, just getting around to doing my work, now, I just have to get on with making more work...work work

Allan's walk projct. Test Match...Tag Team Tapestry.

This lay-out is a bit strange....
This is the result of about 7 days work that Hilary Green and myself did while participating in the Test Match Programme at Allan's Walk Artist run studio in Bendigo.
We started to put the loom together on the Wednesday night, after dinner. We had the intention to warp it up on that day aswell but it just got too late and also Hil thought she had it, but it had fallen out of her bag on the way in.

So on the Thursday we warped up and put in the floor and bed...red of course. I like red. Hil always uses red for the bed, it always looks snappy. By the end of Thursday we had made good progress.
Although it is amazing that even though I hadn't done any weaving in months, I still had as sore a shoulder as if I had been weaving full time at the VTW...
Friday was more weaving, we felt pressure to get quite a lot done because we had to give a studio talk on the Saturday afternoon.
We had loads of visitors, and got in the local paper. The Bendigo Advertiser. Someone heard the project talked about on the country ABC radio National, plus Hil was interviewed on the local radio Station.
The talk was good, except we only got about 6 people to come. My friend Jen + her friend came all the way up from Melbourne, which really was great. Plus there was a few people who had been in the previous days. We were interviewed buy a girl called Ulanda, who had great hair. She is writing an essay about the whole project, not just us.
On Monday Kate and Brian Derum came to visit us, which was fantastic. We went out for lunch and I discovered a great toy shop called Mr Goodtimes...it was good times.
Else was sooo good, firstly she had my Mum looking after her then Pete came up to look after her for the rest of the time...
In the actual weaving, (which is what we were there for) we incorporated a few elements of what interests both Hil and I.
Firstly we started with a 'ground' of rock rubbings that Hil had made at a place called One tree Hill, we wove this for a while and then though that it may get a bit busy, plus I think we were looking forward to incorporating more 'objects ' into the work. So, we left that idea, and started to invert the tones, like a negative. Then eventually turning it to black. Which we thought looked pretty great. Especially when some of the objects, like my fern frond came in, then the start of the girl.
We didn't get much more done than that.
We didn't really have the right kind of chairs to weave much higher than we did. As it is, my shoulder is still weak, and sore...

Then what happened?
Well, Hil and I put the tapestry on to two rolls and took it off the loom and rolled it up, to weave it another day. We are thinking about entering it into a few exhibitions when it is finished.

Guts Loom...weaving tales from Caroline Tully

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/njal/njal156.htm
On Good-Friday that event happened in Caithness that a man whose name was Daurrud went out. He saw folk riding twelve together to a bower, and there they were all lost to his sight. He went to that bower and looked in through a window slit that was in it, and saw that there were women inside, and they had set up a loom. Men's heads were the weights, but men's entrails were the warp and weft, a sword was the shuttle, and the reels were arrows.
They sang these songs, and he learnt them by heart:

THE WOOF OF WAR.
"See! warp is stretched
For warriors' fall,
Lo! weft in loom'
Tis wet with blood;
Now fight foreboding,
'Neath friends' swift fingers,
Our grey woof waxeth
With war's alarms,
Our warp bloodred,
Our weft corseblue.

"This woof is y-woven
With entrails of men,
This warp is hardweighted
With heads of the slain,
Spears blood-besprinkled
For spindles we use,
Our loom ironbound,
And arrows our reels;
With swords for our shuttles
This war-woof we work;
So weave we, weird sisters,
Our warwinning woof.

"Now Warwinner walketh
To weave in her turn,
Now Swordswinger steppeth,
Now Swiftstroke, now Storm;
When they speed the shuttle
How spearheads shall flash!
Shields crash, and helmgnawer (
3)On harness bite hard!
"Wind we, wind swiftly
Our warwinning woof
Woof erst for king youthful
Foredoomed as his own,
Forth now we will ride,
Then through the ranks rushing
Be busy where friends
Blows blithe give and take.
"Wind we, wind swiftly
Our warwinning woof,
After that let us steadfastly
Stand by the brave king;
Then men shall mark mournful
Their shields red with gore,
How Swordstroke and
Spearthrust
Stood stout by the prince.
"Wind we, wind swiftly
Our warwinning woof.
When sword-bearing rovers
To banners rush on,
Mind, maidens, we spare not
One life in the fray!
We corse-choosing sisters
Have charge of the slain.
"Now new-coming nations
That island shall rule,
Who on outlying headlands
Abode ere the fight;
I say that King mighty
To death now is done,
Now low before spearpoint
That Earl bows his head.
"Soon over all Ersemen
Sharp sorrow shall fall,
That woe to those warriors
Shall wane nevermore;
Our woof now is woven.
Now battlefield waste,
O'er land and o'er water
War tidings shall leap.
"Now surely 'tis gruesome
To gaze all around.
When bloodred through heaven
Drives cloudrack o'er head;
Air soon shall be deep hued
With dying men's blood
When this our spaedom
Comes speedy to pass.
"So cheerily chant we
Charms for the young king,
Come maidens lift loudly
His warwinning lay;
Let him who now listens
Learn well with his ears
And gladden brave swordsmen
With bursts of war's song.
"Now mount we our horses,
Now bare we our brands,
Now haste we hard, maidens,
Hence far, far, away."

Then they plucked down the
Woof and tore it asunder, and each kept what she had hold of.
Now Daurrud goes away from the Slit, and home; but they got on their steeds and rode six to the south, and the other six to the north.