Shifu - New Technique

I recently bought a book called Paper Textiles by Christina Leitner which is mainly concerned with making Shifu and I decided to try her technique of turning Lokta into Shifu.  The difference to my previous method is that the paper is wet, rolled in a towel and left to dry and rest for a while.  I leave it overnight before spinning.   This seems to make the final product stronger and because it has been rolled before separating the strands, it is easier to spin.

I cut the strips about 1 cm wide.

The paper is then unfolded on to a towel and sprayed with water.

This  is what it looks like before being  sprayed and wrapped in a towel.

Next I gather the paper and roll it to separate the strands before spinning.

Next I tear it into one long piece (hopefully) then spin it.

Then I spin.

Then I weave.

 This is to be a cover for a book 10 cms square.

This is for a subject for my Tapestry Weaving course called "Produce a Body of Work".  I know it isn't tapestry weaving but it is weaving and it takes as long. I am producing a series of miniature books using Shifu similar, but not the same as, the one I did earlier this year.

Studio

I have finally put some furniture in the studio and some tapestries on one wall and I have tried to buy nothing new to fit in there, so far.

 

The desk was free  except that we had to get it which was fun and the dresser came from the local Op shop.  Lenny kindly painted it the same colour as the wall. The set of drawers was free as was the  model.

This is the wall adjacent to the desk with the tapestries that I did for my Major at RMIT.  The idea came from a drawing I had done (the one on the right which also became a tapestry) and the other one was an ink blot that I was playing with. When I put the small image of the digitized flower petal on it, my teacher at the time suggested I weave  it.  I laughed at her as I didn't think I could do it; I still don't know how I did.  However they look nice on the wall. Maybe I should put the drawing there too. I have something special for the red wall but it needs a little attention.