rockpool candy

USA tour - month three

It seems like a lifetime ago now, the warmth and romance of Florida. It's taken an age to settle back into Northern Irish life, but our adventures there inspire us ever on.

(Yep, MyTarPit did paint the sign.)

There was Weaving Day: A day I spent encouraging already accomplished weavers to weave differently.

The clay loom weights we'd made had fired well, so we decided to build a loom in the ancient oak trees.

We dragged some dead wood to an appropriate spot.

Did some light pruning to make uprights and a cross beam which we lashed to a horizontal limb.

And tied a warp with crochet cotton to match the weights.

Separating out a shed.

And weighting the warps.

I wasn't sure how these women - all of whom have way more weaving experience than myself - would react to my shennanigans.

 

I needn't have worried. They began weaving grasses, peacock feathers, spanish moss, ribbons - in fact everything that I'd provided.

The results were rather pleasing. A mixture of rustic charm and summer colour on both sides.

 

We left a few weights on to balance the piece visually. Everyone seemed pretty pleased with the freedom of weaving outdoors and with the spontaneous nature of working together under the trees. It was incredibly liberating. Weaving is usually so precise.

Spanish Moss Sculpture Prototype: 

I've also been wanting to try out weaving a stupa from willow and moss. It'll be large enough to sit beneath, so that the moss deadens all sound and you're enclosed in a rich, earthy silence of green.

 

The spanish moss growing in abundance at Oak Hammock Farm gave me the opportunity.

 

It was the wrong season for bendy willow whips, but I was able to find some slightly pliable dog fennel to try a prototype.

 

I wanted to suspend the structure down amongst the ancient oaks.

It took a good bit of effort to haul it up.

But only a 5th of the way into weaving, I hadn't counted on the fact that spanish moss drives mules WILD with desire. Shiloh helped himself and well, it was never finished.... but I plan to weave a full one now I've learned from my mistakes. (Namely letting a mule into the paddock!)

Weaving on a Triangular Loom:

 

I'd never tried this before, but it was great. You create warp and weft at the same time.

I wove with my hand-dyed handspun. It's so quick. There's no tying off or threading heddles.

 

I'm really pleased with the final piece, which is a lot less open-weave now washed.

Alfalfa Graffiti: - Artwork That Will Grow.

Ever wondered what'll happen if you mix up a paper pulp with sprouting alfalfa seeds to a sticky paste and then spray it at high pressure through a stencil? Nope? Well we did. Watch this space because we plan to create more living, growing artworks. (Unfortunately the Washington DC snow killed it off before it got started. But come spring time... we're gonna go freaky.)

MyTarpit Release: Floating down to Cuba.

Key West - home of sea-worn wood and salty seadogs.

 

Our surroundings inspired the hub to paint up a wakeboard he'd picked up floating in Lake Tahoe, on the other side of the USA.

As it had come to us as flotsam, it seemed only right to release it in the same way. Will it ever make it to Cuba? Who'll find it?

And Finally: Well it wouldn't be me if I didn't add a few carousel images. Enjoy....

New York, January. -22 degreesC.

An empty carousel spinning.

A beckoning menagerie hare.

 

And good friends to ride the carousel with.

Perfection.

Artist in Residence

So for the last three weeks, I've been lucky enough to be staying at the most beautiful of schools, Shiplake College,

where the hub and I scored the deal of being artists in residence.

Set on the River Thames, it's like Harry Potter with rowing facilities. (Their Dep.Head is an Olympian Gold Medal Rower, don't you know...)

As you can see, the beautiful surroundings, wall-to-wall sunshine, misty mornings and general eagerness to explore and learn at the college were hellish....

With the luxury of an orchard all to myself, I was able to while away the hours crocheting on the trees,

using neolithic principles to build a loom

and creating a 12th Century-inspired spinning wheel from 21st Century junk.

I span Herdwick on the newly-built wheel. The resulting cob made my heart leap, as it mirrored the huge cones on a nearby fir. Pleasure perfection.

I ventured into new realms of natural graffiti, creating leaf stencils

and veneer marquetry to reinstall in nature.

Along with students, we explored the space amongst the trees using threads and fibres,

then challenged our egos by taking them down, often without even a photographic record. (These are two of the few taken.)

Ask yourself, as an artist, do you need everyone to know that you created a piece, or was the process satisfaction enough? Ironic to discuss on a public blog, but I for one, do not show and tell a great majority of my work. Sometimes it's a secret between me and the piece.

So the adventures continue to bloom and blossom, not just in England, but in just a fortnight across the pond, in the USA, too. Again with the hub, I will be exploring all these ideas and more, with the students of St Lawrence, Canton, NY. I am beside myself with excitement and cannot wait to meet them all. I hope they're looking forward to it, as much as me.

Whip Up & Inside Crochet!

Ladies, Gents,
not only am I featured on whipup.
But you can also catch an ickle feature about me in Inside Crochet mag issue 2.

And more in issue 3.

And then there's Let's Knit mag. (Although I'd have preferred if they'd got it right and not referenced my Cor Blimey Crochet! as knitting. You'd have thought THEY would get it correct!)

The secret guild

Now I don't know about you lot, but my image of a guild is either one of a bunch of blue-rinsed old biddies munching on custard creams and knitting nasty acrylic layettes or a deadly assasin's group meeting under cover of darkness, all sporting one rolled trouser leg.

How wrong could I be?

Last Tuesday I sought out The Ulster Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers for their monthly meeting at the Ulster Folk Museum.
I was met with warmth and smiles by about 25 women of various ages and nationalities. Some had their spinning wheels with them, others brought split braid work, felting or current projects.
Not a custard-cream crumb-encrusted layette, or a rolled trouser was in sight!

I found myself surrounded with a wealth of knowledge covering several generations; a cupboard filled with the guild's small but invaluable library (available to borrow at £1- a month); and enough fibre inspiration to feed my yarn obssession for many years to come.

As young (ehem, I mean late thirties) women, we seem to have cast off the guilds and all that they can offer us and I reckon it's time we did something about this.
A week ago I would never had thought of making a circular loom from a hulahoop and a few screws.

But the guild had been donated one that evening and they lent it to me along with a book explaining how to use it.
So now I can add circular weaving to my long list of fibre-related addictions. I was up until 3am with it that night and have a long list of ideas to try on it.

My first attempts might be a bit ropey, but the resulting anemone form isn't that bad.
And can't help thinking it's a brilliant way to introduce kids to weaving, too. It's cheap, easy and very hard to mess up.

So grab your hula hoops and find your guild. You never know what's waiting for you. Just don't roll your trouser legs up.