Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Feathers, fishers & fibers

This time of year I find my morning walks particularly enjoyable, listening to the ‘dawn chorus’ and doing my best to identify each new bird that arrives. Yesterday I heard my first rufous-sided towhees of the season, with their easily-identifiable “drink your tea” song. (Apparently their official name has been changed to Eastern towhee, but I’ll continue to call them rufous-sided ‘cuz that’s how I learned them.)

Then today I heard my first chestnut-sided warbler, singing his little “sweet, sweet you” song.

But most exciting of all, when I turned around to bring my little, old dog back home before I took my long solo walk, I saw our resident fisher run across the road about 75 yards in front of me.

My neighbors had seen him recently, but I hadn’t caught sight of the fisher for some years. Since I haven’t had chickens for them to harass decades, I enjoy knowing that these guys, members of the weasel family, live in my neighborhood. It’s always thrilling to see a wild animal that’s typically elusive.

I spent the rest of the morning doing some of those tasks that must be done, then managed to get in a bit of weaving this afternoon. I finished MG’s wrap with the black tencel and got just a few inches of TA’s with the navy tencel. I took many pictures to get one that captures the difference, at least a bit.

Now I’m sitting on my porch, enjoying the sound of my wind chimes in the pleasant evening breeze, hoping that the dark clouds do bring us some rain. The warm, sunny days are really lovely, but I fear it’s too hot & dry too soon. Nothing we can do about it but try to adapt.

Boys & Girls Together

The title of this post does not refer to the book by William Goldman.

Nor is it about the song by the Mamas and the Papas

You guessed it — it’s about weaving! Specifically, weaving baby wraps.

Although there is some similarity in the colors the moms choose, each new baby wrap warp brings variations in color. Going from pink to blue with purple in the middle, this wrap will work great for both boys and girls. The colors are bright and deep, pulling the eye across the width. I think I’m in love with the blue on the far right in the photo. It’s bright, but has some subtlety to it, a hint of purple, maybe a touch of gray. Maurice Brassard, the supplier for all the cotton for my wraps, simply calls it bleu.

This wrap is for MG & TA. M will have a black tencel weft, T a navy tencel. The photos probably won’t show the difference well.

Speaking of wraps with similar wefts, here’s the parting shot of WL & JC’s wraps. The black cotton is on the left, the black silk on the right. You can see the cotton is both brighter and more dense.

Fiber to fabric

Going from the threads in my last post to fabric — it’s sort of magic, isn’t it?

This morning I cut WL & JC’s wraps off the loom. Here they are ready to be hemmed & wet finished. I’m ready to get right to it while I have good daylight, even if it is completely overcast. So much better than having to use just artificial light.

Here’s a shot of me switching from WL’s black silk to JC’s black cotton. I had only thought about the facts that they were the same color and would feel very different. I hadn’t considered how much different those two blacks would look on the loom. The silk is much finer than the cotton, and so the black cotton makes much more of an impact.

Crazy Eights

New weavers pretty universally hate the process of warping the loom. I used to, too, but no more. In fact, doing all the planning, calculating, measuring, beaming, and threading is the most creative part of the weaving process. At least for many weavers. Those who do saori or other more freeform types of weaving include lots of artistry in the weft as well, but for weavers like me, by the time we get to throwing the shuttle, most decisions are made. What will the finished fabric be used for? What fiber will we use? What colors? How will those colors change across the width of the piece? How close together will we sett those threads? And many more questions, too.

When I do custom weaving, like all my baby wraps, there’s a collaboration involved. The mom and I go through a series of iterations, trading one color for another, changing the proportions of colors, trying out different wefts. These decisions are made in a virtual world on many levels. I’ve never met any of my moms in person; most live thousands of miles from me. So we work from yarn samples and weaving software, with images and reactions flying across the continents.

I still find it exciting to open a box of newly-arrived yarns and always smile looking at the depth of colors inside. And while using my warping mill to measure the yarns is a somewhat slow process, I get to see the color palette develop in real time. The moms remain in a virtual world for days or weeks until a completed wrap reaches their mailboxes. But not me. I’m lucky to be able to see the colors and feel the softness of the cotton, to watch the interplay of warp & weft as weaving proceeds. This is the lucky life of a weaver.

I’ve now got the 8 colors of WL & JC’s warp on the loom and I’ve got about 3/4 of W’s wrap woven. It will be quite luxurious, with a black silk weft. Only the second wrap I’ve woven with silk, since it adds quite a bit to the cost and the care requirements. But wrapping your baby in silk? Totally worth it!

I made it

In these days of instant information, most of what lands in my physical mailbox isn’t worth spending much time on. But yesterday I got this envelope. I knew it had important information for me.

I am not a person who waits well. The teenager in me still craves instant gratification. In fact, when I’m watching a movie or reading a book in which a character (always a woman) puts an unopened envelope in her pocket to read later, I always find such an action incomprehensible. Good news or bad, give it to me now. Unless it’s a bill, I rip open envelopes on the way back up my driveway from collecting it out of my mailbox. That’s what I did with this one, too.

The letter was going to tell me if I remained a regular RALA Artisan or achieved the status of RALA Master Artisan. So what’s RALA? Roycrofters At Large Association. That phrase might not be meaningful to lots of folks, but when I say that the Association was founded on and maintains the principles of Elbert Hubbard, a leader in the Arts & Crafts Movement in the late 1800s, more people start nodding their heads.

Here are the five criteria to be a RALA Artisan: high quality craftsmanship, excellence in design, continuing artistic growth, originality of expression, and professional recognition. A person has to be an Artisan for at least five years in order to apply for Master status, and that designation is far from guaranteed. I know some folks who applied for and were denied Master status. Plus, in order to keep the RALA designation as both Artisan and Master continue to be meaningful, the Board is applying increasing scrutiny to the work submitted.

The jury process for RALA status, both Artisan and Master, starts with photos of the work. You may remember my glam shots for this year’s applications. For shows, that’s all a jury sees. But for RALA, the actual work must be submitted for hands-on jurying. Imperfections that could be hidden in a photo are there for all to see in a hands-on process.

So it is a definite honor to be selected as a Master Artisan! Now I need to make sure I live up to that status.

If I ever get a real break from weaving baby wraps, I’ll probably look into the Certificate of Excellence designation through the Handweavers Guild of America. This is a very in-depth, multi-stage, more-than-one-year program. I know I can’t devote the time and energy to it right now.

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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