Weaving a Nest

Willow nest in the Cherry tree

As I wrote about a little while ago I've got a slight sphere/nest obsession thing which has been going on for some time. I recently made a piece on the theme of 'home' for an on-line exhibition based on my nest ideas. This weekend Mr. Stitches decided he wanted to cut the hedges and trim the little Glasgow Willow in our front garden, I asked him to save the willow for me as I thought I might have a go at a bit of weaving.

The raw materials

Work station

I started off with no real plan, I just wanted to have a play about with the willow and see what would happen. I'm planning to do a traditional basketry evening course this term so I thought a bit of free form messing about might be good. Obviously the willow I was working with was very fresh (leaves and everything) and I had a somewhat random selection of lengths and widths. However, I chose to embrace this as part of the project and one of the things I'm really interested in is to see how the piece changes over the coming weeks, how it weathers and if it can retain it's structure.

Willow circles

Starting to take shape

I began by making a few different sized willow circles by gently flexing and bending the willow and wrapping it around itself. As I started playing around with the circles the idea of a nest popped back into my head so I set off (very vaguely) in that direction.

Nest entrance

The finished nest sculpture

I've done a fair bit of willow weaving (mostly giant puppets!) but this was quite different. As I was working with quite short lengths and unstripped stems it was harder to see the structure emerging and I've ended up with quite dense areas and very open areas rather than a more even spread. I also was not using tape, as I have done previously, but relying on the willow itself and a few bits of linen thread (I wanted the whole thing to be totally bio-degradable) which has led to a perhaps less strong structure than I would normally create.

Finished sculpture hanging up

Weave detail

Entrance detail

Despite these challenges (and a very limited supply of stems) I persevered and I'm quite pleased with the result, which I've hung in a tree in our back garden. I'm looking forward to seeing how the nest changes and alters over the coming weeks, how the weather and nature will affect it and how long and in what format it will survive. Maybe I will wake up tomorrow to a pile of twigs and a heap of thread or maybe it will survive the winter and the climber that grows up the tree will colonise it, or maybe something entirely alternative...

Fabric Pom-Poms

Pom-pom making

Today I have been making fabric pom-poms with the No Borders art group (the guys are from Carlton Day Service and the group is run by Prism Arts.) Over the past few weeks we have done some weaving and some tie-dye. I thought something a bit more sculptural might be fun so that's what we did!

The pom-pom I made as an example

Pom pom detail

Pom-pom making using fabric

Using wool and fabric

Fabric and lace, all in warm colours

The guys really enjoyed the pom-pom making; I've never known them be so quiet! Everyone was deep in concentration and did really well, I think these pom-poms are going to look great when they're finished.

Tie-dye from last week

Tie-dye

Weaving

Weaving

Weaving Wonders

Mixed media piece woven on a simple frame loom

Materials include ribbon, plastic, trim, button bands from a shirt and fabric

Starting on Wednesday I am running a series of textile workshops for Prism Arts. One of the things the group wanted to do was weaving so I have been busy refreshing my skills (and learning some new ones!) I've really enjoyed playing about and am looking forward to working with the guys to see what they come up with. For now, here are some pictures of my endeavors.

Detail of mixed media piece showing button band

Bead detail

Button detail

Strips of fabric woven on a cardboard loom

Detail

Detail

Woven pipe cleaners (detail)

Woven pipe cleaners. This piece is fun to play with as the pipe cleaners make it very pliable!

The Lace Space

The Lace Space

This was one of the pieces I made with the Creative Textiles group during our two week community art project, Universal, at The Heathlands Project. We started off experimenting with cutting plastic bags into strips and fusing them with the iron, this produced some nice effects but the 'lace' was not very strong so we decided to knit the strips and then fuse the knitted piece. This created much firmer pieces which we were able to sew together to form the final piece. It took a lot of plastic bags and a lot of knitting, crocheting and weaving but I think the final piece is very beautiful and it is lovely to stand inside and look out. 

I cut out a pattern for the piece from newspaper and used this as a guide to lay out the pieces of 'lace' we'd made. Once all the pieces were stitched together the stitching was also fused with the iron.

Laying out the pieces and stitching them together

Weaving and stitching the pieces together

Detail: Crocheted lace

Detail: Knitted piece

Stepping inside (in the rain!)

Detail: Entrance arch

Swaying in the breeze

Detail: Knitted lace

 

Harris Re-fencing

Head Space Weaving

If I could do a passable impression of a Geordie accent I would now be saying "Day 7 on The Heathlands Summer Project." But I can't so instead I will regale you with tales of weaving, sunshine and shiny things. This afternoon (in the sunshine) we used the fabric we've been dyeing to weave two panels of Harris fencing. It took rather a long time but I think the panels look really good. One of the panels is just woven in calm restful blues to create a waterlike space and the other panel features a head and 'thought bubbles' and it has a working title of 'Head Space.' These panels also cunningly disguise the bins and recycling area as well as improving the Harris fencing, of which there is a lot around site.

Weaving begins

My Able Assistant!

 

Weaving complete

Onto shiny things, in Costume I've been making shiny silver space hoods (I'm not totally sure what they want them for) and a Mummy Alien costume. More pictures to follow...