Sri Lanka

It is 2 months since I have blogged and since then I have been on a textile tour of Sri Lanka, done piles of homework and had my Shifu book selected for a book exhibition at the East Gippsland Art Gallery at Bairnsdale in country Victoria.  I was very excited about that;  all I have to do is post it off by Friday.
The trip to Sri Lanka was busy, interesting and I saw some amazing textiles,  unusual sights and went to some different places. The hospitality of the people was warm and generous and we had some great curry lunches.  There is a more comprehensive overview of the trip at srilankatextiles.blogspot.com.au.
The first pictures are of women handknitting and embroidering jumpers for sale in Sweden.

 

The next photos are of lace being made in Galle where we were shown wonderful hospitality in the form of a huge curry lunch - the first of several we experienced.

Lastly, a plate of curry.

Some of the memorable experiences.

Beautiful Trees

I am enjoying living in Kyneton. One of the things that is different is that I have inherited 2 beautiful ash trees - a large golden ash in the back yard that provides shade in Summer and in the front garden there is a tree that is a claret ash.  Both are in glorious colour at the moment.

It glows in the sun.

It has  a lovely pinky tone.  There are a lot of both trees here as well as other spectacular autumnal trees. The council has used claret ash as a street tree and  many of them that are huge, so I know what I have to look forward to.

I have still not done any weaving apart from my Shifu book.  One day

Shifu Book

I finished my Shifu Book and I am very happy with it.  The book is titled "In Conversation" and there are no words on the page; the words are in the page (see last blog). The pages were easier than I thought to sew together using chain stitch then I reverted to the days when I was studying to be a Teacher-Librarian and we learned to make books and made the cover and end papers to keep it together. I used silk paper for the cover and a fine paper I had for the end papers; both papers I bought in Vietnam.  It pays not to throw things out as they will come in handy one day.

The red leather strap is attached to the inside front cover.

 I used some of my original white thread to add contrast.

It worked quite well for someone who has not done this for ages and I enjoyed it.  

Shifu

I decided to see if I could remember how to  make Shifu.  Shifu is the product of this process.
There are 8 steps in my process.

1. Write on the paper; I used black walnut dye andblack ink.

2. Write some more on paper with a finer brush and purple ink.

3.  Fold the paper in half and cut in fine strips.

4.  Open paper prior to trearing into one long strip.

5.  Tear into one long strip; if possible.  Tie breaks together.

6.Spin paper and roll into a ball.

7.  Weave on hand made loom.

8.  Finished product.

I have even made stripes.  What will I do with them?  I am thinking of making a book.

Miniatures

Last Sunday when we were walking to a birthday party, we walked past the salvos shop and spotted the most exquisite miniature mesh models of a dress and jacket which we just had to have.  So while I was shopping on Monday, Lenny was at the shop by 9.30 to buy them.  The woman in the shop knew nothing about them other than they came up from Melbourne in a truck.  The detail on them is amazing - the darts on the dress, the decoration around the neckline, the pockets on the jacket and buttons; they stand 57.cm tall. They are superbly made and we love them.

If anyone knows anything about them could you please let me know.

Marta's Yarn

I am not surprised that it has been 3 weeks + since I have blogged; I think I have been tapestried out.

One of the things that was commented on regularly was the colour effect at the top of the tapestry. This was achieved by using a hand - dyed yarn that I bought from Marta's Yarn shop in Caulfield several years ago.  I bought the wool to knit a pair of socks for my daughter and used what I had left in the tapestry.  My main concern in using it in the tapestry was about running out of it.  However my daughter still had the socks and if necessary I contemplated getting them back and unpulling the knitting; fortunately I didn't have to.

I used one strand of this with 4 strands of ATW wool.  What's left is precious stuff.

More square

It is difficult to get a perfectly square photo with a loom that is slanted so I had Lenny hold it up straight.  The result is better but not perfect. However it is a better picture.