Sunday, November 09, 2008
This is a tapestry weave sample I have just finished. It started out as just an exploration of lines but seemed to get extended when the Guild Challenge was issued ('A song for christmas'). There is nothing Christmassy about it and the notes don't refer to any particular sone but it was just the notion of music lines that seemed be an additional aspect to build into the sampler.
Problems encountered are the continuing problem with 'furrows' - I seem to have a persistant tension thing as I finish off on the right hand side which creates a sort of ridge. Elsewhere I feel there is a general uneveness in the weave that I need to work on.
I have also pulled the left hand edge in a bit in the lower quarter - another thing to watch out for! Now I am working on another sampler that is developing diagonal blocks and also blending colours.
Problems encountered are the continuing problem with 'furrows' - I seem to have a persistant tension thing as I finish off on the right hand side which creates a sort of ridge. Elsewhere I feel there is a general uneveness in the weave that I need to work on.
I have also pulled the left hand edge in a bit in the lower quarter - another thing to watch out for! Now I am working on another sampler that is developing diagonal blocks and also blending colours.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Travel, travel
Well I have been to Limerick and to Sestri Levante over the past two weeks. Both were very interesting visits, with lots to learn even though I was very busy on both occasions. One area in particular that came over as something to be explored more is mobile learning - in the sense of the use of mobile devices to support both formal and informal learning. A survey undertaken in Limerick showed that whilst very few of those questioned had access to a computer 90% had a mobile device of some sort - seems like utilising mobiles is a no brainer. I was especially impressed with Judy Brown, who was one of the platform speakers at the DECOM day in Sestri Levante - she has a wealth of knowledge about how mobile devices are being used and about their potential.
In between these stimulating activities I have flown, hoteled, eaten and taxied - and always felt I was living in some sort of bubble. Such is life. I came back home to find the hens just as I left them and suddenly things fell into a perspective I could relate to.
Meanwhile Howard and Daniel have spent an exhausting six days down in Lostwithiel helping Kat and Mat prepare their new house for habitation - still needs a lot doing to it but hopefully they can move in with some degree of comfort.
Well I have been to Limerick and to Sestri Levante over the past two weeks. Both were very interesting visits, with lots to learn even though I was very busy on both occasions. One area in particular that came over as something to be explored more is mobile learning - in the sense of the use of mobile devices to support both formal and informal learning. A survey undertaken in Limerick showed that whilst very few of those questioned had access to a computer 90% had a mobile device of some sort - seems like utilising mobiles is a no brainer. I was especially impressed with Judy Brown, who was one of the platform speakers at the DECOM day in Sestri Levante - she has a wealth of knowledge about how mobile devices are being used and about their potential.
In between these stimulating activities I have flown, hoteled, eaten and taxied - and always felt I was living in some sort of bubble. Such is life. I came back home to find the hens just as I left them and suddenly things fell into a perspective I could relate to.
Meanwhile Howard and Daniel have spent an exhausting six days down in Lostwithiel helping Kat and Mat prepare their new house for habitation - still needs a lot doing to it but hopefully they can move in with some degree of comfort.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
And where have YOU been?
Well at least six weeks on from the last post I at last check in to update this blog. Problem is I am now running two blogs, participating in three Yahoo! groups as well as maintaining a fairly steady level of communication with assorted individuals via email. Anyway, quick summary; 10 in in France (lovely, and much more detail in Mat n' Kat's blog at http://www.matnkat.com/blog/ 8th October); started an extended weaving workshop with a design weekend and now am dyeing yarns in order to warp up for the weaving weekend at the start of November, Howard and I launched our own company, I tidied my storeroom and have started the tapestry sample, entertained some Norwegians and started my three years as Chair of The Berkshire Guild of Spinners, Weavers & Dyers, another academic year started as Chair of Governors of Badgemore Primary School, went through the excitement of getting a new laptop and the pain of realising that it was Vista and that lots of things I know and love will not work on it.
Meanwhile the hens are now in full moult and looking very sorry for themselves. One of them, Foreigner, has regrown her flight feathers and taken to roosting in the Yew Tree again, the garden has been stripped of it's onions, potatoes, sweetcorn, cabbages, peas, mange tout and runner beans. The next crop of Broad Beans has been sown.
Non stop on all fronts!!
Well at least six weeks on from the last post I at last check in to update this blog. Problem is I am now running two blogs, participating in three Yahoo! groups as well as maintaining a fairly steady level of communication with assorted individuals via email. Anyway, quick summary; 10 in in France (lovely, and much more detail in Mat n' Kat's blog at http://www.matnkat.com/blog/ 8th October); started an extended weaving workshop with a design weekend and now am dyeing yarns in order to warp up for the weaving weekend at the start of November, Howard and I launched our own company, I tidied my storeroom and have started the tapestry sample, entertained some Norwegians and started my three years as Chair of The Berkshire Guild of Spinners, Weavers & Dyers, another academic year started as Chair of Governors of Badgemore Primary School, went through the excitement of getting a new laptop and the pain of realising that it was Vista and that lots of things I know and love will not work on it.
Meanwhile the hens are now in full moult and looking very sorry for themselves. One of them, Foreigner, has regrown her flight feathers and taken to roosting in the Yew Tree again, the garden has been stripped of it's onions, potatoes, sweetcorn, cabbages, peas, mange tout and runner beans. The next crop of Broad Beans has been sown.
Non stop on all fronts!!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Dancing Queen
We have been to the local cinema this afternoon to see 'Mamma Mia - the Movie' - I am not a musical type of person, on the whole, but this was just GREAT!! I suspect anything with Abba songs in is a winner - they are so infectious, so well known and so, well .... sing-a-ling-a-long-able! The other film that springs to mind that drew heavily on the Swedish groups repertoire was 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' - a film that went to a stage show. Come to think if it, the two films were not so far apart - both fairly camp and not taking themselves too seriously but packed full with audience connection. Lovely stuff.
We have been to the local cinema this afternoon to see 'Mamma Mia - the Movie' - I am not a musical type of person, on the whole, but this was just GREAT!! I suspect anything with Abba songs in is a winner - they are so infectious, so well known and so, well .... sing-a-ling-a-long-able! The other film that springs to mind that drew heavily on the Swedish groups repertoire was 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' - a film that went to a stage show. Come to think if it, the two films were not so far apart - both fairly camp and not taking themselves too seriously but packed full with audience connection. Lovely stuff.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Social networking gone mad
I seem to have suddenly plunged into a lake of social networking sites! How to keep up with them all is the challenge. I am a member of a number of blogs set up to enable those involved to share ideas and progress and to support each other toweards gaining particular objectives. I am also involved in three Yahoo! Groups, each at different stages of development and each needing careful attention and nurturing.
How to find time for ordinary activities such as weaving, spinning, family history research, eating, sleeping.....
But we did have time for a special visitor recently; our second au pair, Erika, came to visit us from Iceland. It was amazing how 25 years just fell away. Kat and Mat came to stay with us and Daniel also put in an apprearance and it was great to sit and chat about both old times and about her life now.
But now it is back to the hum-drum internetting........ will I get square eyes, I wonder?
I seem to have suddenly plunged into a lake of social networking sites! How to keep up with them all is the challenge. I am a member of a number of blogs set up to enable those involved to share ideas and progress and to support each other toweards gaining particular objectives. I am also involved in three Yahoo! Groups, each at different stages of development and each needing careful attention and nurturing.
How to find time for ordinary activities such as weaving, spinning, family history research, eating, sleeping.....
But we did have time for a special visitor recently; our second au pair, Erika, came to visit us from Iceland. It was amazing how 25 years just fell away. Kat and Mat came to stay with us and Daniel also put in an apprearance and it was great to sit and chat about both old times and about her life now.
But now it is back to the hum-drum internetting........ will I get square eyes, I wonder?
Monday, August 11, 2008
The rain it raineth....
I know the weather is not a feature unique to us in the Chilterns - but it does seem to have been really wet here over the past week. Somehow I just never seem to be prepared for it, though. A case in point was a trip I tool up to Liverpool on Saturday to see the Association of Guilds of Spinners, Weavers & Dyers National Exhibition - the sun was actually shining here when I left. By time I had boarded the train in Reading it was raining. I had no coat and no umbrella. Then there were power outages at Allerton so the train was stopped at Runcorn and we waited an hour until a group of us clubbed together and got a taxi into Liverpool itself. The lovely taxi driver gave me an umbrella - how nice was that!! I then waded around the city looking for the Cornerstone Gallery - not easy to find. The exhibition, when I got there, was a real disappointment - there was some fantastic work on display but it was very limited in quantity and there was virtually no information available about the display. What a shame - and then a very cold, wet journey back home again, where it was still raining.
Another aspect of wet weather we are grappling with is slugs - slugs in their millions (well, that might be a slight exaggeration but there are a lot of them), slugs of all shapes, sizes and colours. Howard goes out each morning and sweeps them up in a dustpan - sometimes fifty or more. He then takes the dustpan and empties it into the woods outside out garden. How long does it take a slug to travel 50 metres, climbing a six foot fence on the way...?
I know the weather is not a feature unique to us in the Chilterns - but it does seem to have been really wet here over the past week. Somehow I just never seem to be prepared for it, though. A case in point was a trip I tool up to Liverpool on Saturday to see the Association of Guilds of Spinners, Weavers & Dyers National Exhibition - the sun was actually shining here when I left. By time I had boarded the train in Reading it was raining. I had no coat and no umbrella. Then there were power outages at Allerton so the train was stopped at Runcorn and we waited an hour until a group of us clubbed together and got a taxi into Liverpool itself. The lovely taxi driver gave me an umbrella - how nice was that!! I then waded around the city looking for the Cornerstone Gallery - not easy to find. The exhibition, when I got there, was a real disappointment - there was some fantastic work on display but it was very limited in quantity and there was virtually no information available about the display. What a shame - and then a very cold, wet journey back home again, where it was still raining.
Another aspect of wet weather we are grappling with is slugs - slugs in their millions (well, that might be a slight exaggeration but there are a lot of them), slugs of all shapes, sizes and colours. Howard goes out each morning and sweeps them up in a dustpan - sometimes fifty or more. He then takes the dustpan and empties it into the woods outside out garden. How long does it take a slug to travel 50 metres, climbing a six foot fence on the way...?
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Tapestry Sampler
Here is the sampler that we started doing as the first piece of work on the West Dean Summer School. It starts with plain weave and then goes in to diagonal weave, stepped weave, hatching, weaving round a shape and then finally into blending and hatching used to blend. These were the basic techniques. We were weaving on warps spaced at four ends to the inch and with a weft thread made up of about five different strands of yarn.
Water colour flowers
This was an entirely unexpected outcome of the Summer School at West Dean College. For one half of one morning we were encouraged to have a go at one of the other skills being covered and so I chose watercolour. The tutor, Francis House, showed us a fantastical technique that was really simply but had an amazing effect. I won't bore you with the technical detail apart form to say that the lovely 'mottled' effect on the flower heads is gained through using water-resistant ink with the watercolours. I could get hooked on this....
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Learning, learning, sharing and learning
I am in the middle of a one week summer school at West Dean College. The course I am on is 'Exploration of Tapestery' tutored by Caron Penney. It is fantastic! Caron is a very good tutor and there is so much learning going on but through the process of doing rather than being told. West Dean College itself is possible one of the most beutiful places in the UK - classic English country plie with sweeping estats to all sides, clusters of little cottages and wonderful gardens. In addition it is the home to some outstanding artists and one is surrounded by some exquisite piece of art work ranging from the tapesteries through fine art to ceramics, printing and metal work. It is really well worth coming and experimenting with your own creativity.
We paid a short visit to the Professional Tapestry Studios here at West Dean were they are working on a twelve year project to recreate the Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries currently held by the Metropolitan Museuem in New York. The replicas have been commisssioned by Historic Scotland and are to be hung in Stirling Castle.
I am in the middle of a one week summer school at West Dean College. The course I am on is 'Exploration of Tapestery' tutored by Caron Penney. It is fantastic! Caron is a very good tutor and there is so much learning going on but through the process of doing rather than being told. West Dean College itself is possible one of the most beutiful places in the UK - classic English country plie with sweeping estats to all sides, clusters of little cottages and wonderful gardens. In addition it is the home to some outstanding artists and one is surrounded by some exquisite piece of art work ranging from the tapesteries through fine art to ceramics, printing and metal work. It is really well worth coming and experimenting with your own creativity.
We paid a short visit to the Professional Tapestry Studios here at West Dean were they are working on a twelve year project to recreate the Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries currently held by the Metropolitan Museuem in New York. The replicas have been commisssioned by Historic Scotland and are to be hung in Stirling Castle.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
My first rug!
Well here it is. I started this rug on a table loom. Originally it was going to be a warp-faced weave but then I found that the weave just wasn't tight enough for a rug. I then switched to a weft-faced weave structure using hemp for the warps and the original warp yarn for the wefts. Having wasted yarn on those original warps I then ran out of yarn for the wefts :-( So the rug is about half the length I wanted it to be - never mind, it is a substantial mat. I wove this on the Glimakra loom. That was a first as well. I have never used a countermarche loom before and I had to work out how to tie it up. Lots of learning and a large mat to boot!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Talking about rants...
When it comes to rants there are few better examples I have I came across than this one I found in the Times Higher Education Supplement Online. Tara Brabazon, in her article 'They come not to teach' has a real problem with anything related to technology and learning. That in itself is somewhat short sighted. But her greater offence is to confuse 'e-learning consultants' with 'educational technologists'!! Any journalist worth their salt would have done enough research, when writing such a provocative article as this, as to ensure that they got their basic facts right - and this one didn't. Kind of leaves me with a sense of skepticism bordering on distrust when an article this badly put together is allowed to get into print.
However, this is clearly Dr. Brabazons' style as she lets rip again this week - and the focus of the latest rant? Helvetica font! I ask you.
Tara, by the way, is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Brighton.....
When it comes to rants there are few better examples I have I came across than this one I found in the Times Higher Education Supplement Online. Tara Brabazon, in her article 'They come not to teach' has a real problem with anything related to technology and learning. That in itself is somewhat short sighted. But her greater offence is to confuse 'e-learning consultants' with 'educational technologists'!! Any journalist worth their salt would have done enough research, when writing such a provocative article as this, as to ensure that they got their basic facts right - and this one didn't. Kind of leaves me with a sense of skepticism bordering on distrust when an article this badly put together is allowed to get into print.
However, this is clearly Dr. Brabazons' style as she lets rip again this week - and the focus of the latest rant? Helvetica font! I ask you.
Tara, by the way, is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Brighton.....
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