Commission for Funky Chicken

Funky Chicken Commission Book Cover
www.funkybooks.com.au

Chook on the loom

It's been ages since I posted onto my blog so here is a bit of what I've been up to over the last few months. This is my brothers boutique kids book which he self-published last year, and a pic of me half way through weaving the illustration on the cover of the book.

Funky Books donates a percentage of it's profits towards the children's charity Just 4 Kids Inc. and Chris and his partner Nadia have been putting loads of energy into trying to make kids lives a bit more Funky for them. They tour schools and libraries promoting funky-ness for kids.

Funky Chicken, off the loom and steam pressed.

The design was way away from themes I have dealt with before, and the wild weft was radical to weave  at times. I believe they are going to use this weaving as a prize for a school library competition as part of the books promotion. It was a pretty funky piece to weave, and I was releived to get it done in time for my trip over to Australia in June/July.

Detail of the weft in the tail and wing

I took it over with me rolled up and bought some high-grade canvas to stretch over the frame my dad and I had built for it.. Once stretched, primed and painted, the weaving was ironed and steamed, and an  acid-free iron-on backing was attached to the work to stabilize it for sewing onto the frame. The exposed canvas area has cotton chook prints sewn around the border. as does the title and signature.

Funky Chicken sewn onto canvas

 All in all, a crazy little guy to weave. Had heaps of fun with this piece. Set at 10 epi it took longer than I thought so my next piece is set at 6epi to speed things up a bit.

Weaving in Progress.

Quick post showing progress of work on the loom for the weaving But The Suiters Do Not Suit Her. 

Try and remember to keep a visual record of all your work whenever possible, including some of the work in progress. It helps to put what you have achieved on the loom into perspective by reminding you of the time frame involved and the technical choices made. It keeps a record of the process and design involved in the making of that particular piece, what worked well, what challenged you, what made the piece relevant to you and the rest of your work as a whole. 

Warping up for more than one project.

When it comes to warping up I tend to be a good planner, which ultimately allows me to be a very lazy warper. 

As my warp is set at at a pre-determined set on each of the 3-4 different looms I work on, I am able to make use of this personal propensity towards short-cutting through the boring bits. Because I use up-right vertical looms with the capability to wind on metres of warp without too much bother, it makes sense to warp up for several pieces at the start. I weave the most urgently needed weavings first, just in case I need to remove one of them before I have finished all the pieces that follow after them as I make my way through the warp. In other words if I need to remove tapestries before I get to the last ones I planned to weave, I CAN cut off the ones I've done if I need to, then re-tie on the warp to the front beam, and continue weaving the other pieces. Of course this means I will waste a certain amount of the warp, so it is very rarely that this happens. 

Here below is an example of 4 separate weavings that shared a wider warp. 

Note the spare warps between each individual weaving.

The 2 tapestries below are shown here being woven side by side sharing the warp. Note the unused warp threads between the pieces. These weavings were preceded and followed by another wider weaving on the same warp above and below them. In total, this warp-up was enough for me to weave 4 individual works on it.

Weaving Letters Of The Alphabet

Weaving letters is always a bit of a challenge and has been the subject of many tapestry weaving workshops. However it is more time consuming than it is difficult to do. As long as you follow the lines on the cartoon behind the work and ensure the warp count is high enough to avoid obvious jumps across the warp threads, it is no more difficult than blending or hatching techniques can be. The speech bubble shown below here is part of a portrait weaving I will be exhibiting in the Four Directions show.

Tapestry Weaving from Drawn or Painted Design to the Finished Woven Image.

Above is a cartoon I have documented as it is being woven in the photos below. The original painting has been adjusted in Photoshop to produce a workable cartoon. This process helps to clarify and select clear boundaries within the painting. By simplifying the original painting with Photoshop or a similar program I was able to create an image that still retained the integrity of the original painting, while at the same time creating a weavable cartoon which better suited the technical restraints of the low warp count I was working on. 

Note that in this instance the weaving has well and truly deviated from the exactness of the detail, especialy in the dogs main body area. There are 3 reasons for this. The first is that the warp count was too low (there should have been more vertical threads). The second is because the size of the weaving space is too small (it would need to be a much bigger weaving to allow for the detail to be included). And thirdly, it was a play piece of my own, which enabled me to have the freedom of extreme artistic license. It now belongs to Su anyway, who lives near the dingo isle of Fraser, and who also happens to have been born in the year of the Dog.

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                                           2.

                                           3.

THE MAIN BODY AREA OF THE DOG HAS BEEN WOVEN USING HAND-SPUN DOG HAIR. OTHER YARNS USED ARE RAYON, WOOL, COTTON AND SILK.

  

Tapestry weaving WORK IN PROGRESS.

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The two tapestries were woven side by side.  Numbered 1-3 above and below, you can follow the works progression and clearly see the cartoon behind the weaving indicating the design lines which need to be followed. With these smaller pieces I usually avoid marking the actual warp threads as the cartoon is small enough to flip up and down into view to use as an adequate enough guide.

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Recent portrait work

Close up showing detail

The photo on the right is a close-up image of a portrait being woven on the loom. This close encounter with the weaving as you progress is quite intense and engrossing. When sitting up close to the work as you weave, your sense of perspective is constantly being altered and challenged. It is only when you take a step back from the loom that you appreciate the image as a whole. 

Because of this altered perspective, it is important to have a smaller image of the portrait design handy to remind you of the bigger picture you are creating.

Upstairs Workspace & Storage

The upstairs area accomodates two looms with plenty of working space to spare. There are two spinning wheels available for those who want to try their hand at making their own yarns. The wheel shown at right in this picture is a Colthart Wheel, and is very smooth and even to spin on.

(Jenny - if you are wondering where the Waiuku Spinners & Weavers took off to with your wheel when they bought it, here it is)

Note the tapestry weavings on the loom. Wound onto the the bottom beam and therefore unseen is one of four weavings. This hidden weaving has been followed by the bottom grey spacing, then 2 tapestries have been woven side by side. Above these two works is more grey spacing followed by a tapestry weaving of a sylized dog, which is still in the process of being woven and included hand-spun dog-hair. I subsequently entered it into the Whangarei 2010 National Creative Fibre Exhibition Festival being held over the Easter break at the Kensington Stadium. Do get along to see it if you are in the district over the long weekend. This judged exhibition features fibre works from our top artists and craft workers, and there are trade stands open for you to buy quality fibre related must haves. However - don't bother looking for the above mentioned tapestry as it was rejected by the astute judge. Even the relative experts like myself don't get it right everytime!!! If you are looking for a good starting point to show others your fibre work at a national level, visit the N.Z. Creative Fibre website and consider membership, they are tough but fair and it's a good way to monitor your own levels of quality control.

Work on the loom

Finished portrait

Work on loom

This woven portrait "Evad" won the Creative Fibre - Gisler Architects Award for Excellence in Artistic Design, when it was exhibited at the Creative Fibre Experience 2009 in Hamilton last year.
Working with what appears to be a predominantly black and white colour palette is a challenge for all fibre artists, and this piece was no exception. It measures approximately 1.3 metres by 900 cm. and took about 90-100 hours to complete; from the first stage of photo adjustment for the weavable design through to its final readiness for hanging.




Portrait Weaving in the making... Note the original photo above the weaving. This is used by the weaver as constant point of cross referencing while the work is being woven on the loom.