ME AND ZIELINSKI: THE TWO DRAFTS COMPARED—PART ONE

AND A QUESTION ABOUT ORGANIZATION

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

When I started seriously working with these crackle drafts, I used overshot treadling because overshot treadling reveals most clearly what is going on.  So I decided with all the confusion going on with Zielinski’s threading blocks, which are somewhat different than my threading blocks, I would return to working with overshot treadling.

First, the draft with Zielinski’s threading blocks

 Next, the draft with the threading blocks as I did them originally.

The black is the warp.  The green is the weft. The second draft is wider because I  have repeated the outside block group on each side.

These are three different sets of treadlings.  The two sets I am going to incorporate into the final design are the bottom two.  Right now, I am thinking that Zielinski wins out.  Why?  Because, though imperfect, the weft diagonals are a bit more clear in his.

So now I have three folders in my Green Crackle folder:  Possible Drafts, Working Drafts, and Final Working Drafts a la Zielinski.  The three folders are growing fatter and fatter—well, they would be if they were real-life file folders in my actual filing cabinet……..

ORGANIZING DRAFTS?

And I have a question for your readers.  What do you do with drafts you have done for a project but discarded?  Do you keep them?  Delete them? Save them to another folder?


“Me and Zielinski: The Two Drafts Compared—Part One“was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on September 24, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

8 CRACKLE BLOCKS ON 4 SHAFTS: HOW NOT TO THREAD?

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Things had been going quite well in terms of designing the green crackle project.  Or so I thought. 

Over the weekend I cleaned up paperwork from my last project.  Got everything nicely organized and put away.  Got the current paperwork nicely organized in its folder.

Then I went to work on the green crackle project.  In the process of that cleanup, I had thrown out stuff.  Important stuff.

DISCARDING AND RECOVERING

I had thrown out the paper copy of the threading for the last crackle project.  Not a problem?  After all I can just print it out again.  Oh no. I had marked with pen the various blocks. That was the valuable part, the part that was not on the computer.  I used this to work out the threadings for the current green crackle project.

So I looked for the threading block draft for this green crackle project I am working on. I had thrown out the paper copy, but I knew it would be on the computer.  What’s more,  there were no handwritten notes on it. So what was on the computer would do just fine.
I opened the file that all this stuff is stored in.  Not on the computer.

Thank heavens I am recording stuff in my E-sketchbook.  I went to it and there was the threading block design.  So I used that to create one in the weaving software and saved it.  I made sure I saved it and saved it in the right place.   And printed it out.

PROBLEMS WITH THE BLOCKS

Then I started examining the threading against the blocks and discovered that I had made an error in the block order.  I could understand how I made the error. I had simply failed to reverse part of the left side of the threading block draft to reflect the right side. That was an easy mistake to make and easy to correct. So I corrected it.  

PROBLEMS WITH THE THREADINGS?

But then as I was rechecking the threading units in the blocks I started seeing some strange things. Some things I did not understand.  Something seemed to be wrong, but what?  And how could anything be wrong, since everything seemed to be working out just fine?
So I checked out the threading notes for 8 blocks on 6 shafts in Zielinski’s book (Volume 8 in his Master Weaver series.  There I discovered that my blocks were not always the same as his blocks.  This is copied from my E-sketchbook:



As I said, I see nothing wrong with my blocks.  I don’t see why I can’t continue with those threadings.  They worked fine in the last piece.  On paper they seem to be working fine in this piece.

NEXT ON THE AGENDA
Still, I need to redo the draft in terms of Zielinski’s threading units and see what gives.  So, time out from dyeing and back to work on the threading.

Related Posts: 
   Multi-Pocket Folders
   E-Sketchbook
   Preparing to Design Next Crackle Piece

“8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts: How Not to Thread?” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on September 15, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

E-SKETCHBOOK

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I have been enjoying working with my E-sketchbook. Earlier I had shown an example of a page using both images and words. Here is an example of what a two-page spread looks like:

There are no images, only words. The two red quotation marks might be considered design elements. The pages are not complete either in words to be entered or in the design layout. But possibilities for making an attractive and also useful layout are, I hope, clear.

Some of this you may recognize as having been pulled from a blog post. Entered here in the E-sketchbook, that information should be easier to access. It will also be easier to add additional information, ideas, and/or images.

What you see on these two pages are ideas I am using for my next crackle piece. For now I am keeping them in this E-sketchbook because of their applicability to all sorts of future weaving projects. I am close to being ready to start developing ideas specifically in relation to my next project, and those will go into my folder for that project, not here in my sketchbook.

SOME ONLINE RESOURCES

To read more about E-sketchbooks, check out this article: Electronic Sketchbook and Electronic Portfolios.

Another article to check out: How Keeping a Daily Sketchbook Benefits Artists and Designers. This particular article raises a serious question for me. Should I make this into a daily sketchbook? My fear, if I do that, is that this E-sketchbook will take over my life. Is this a realistic fear?

Related Post: Starting a New E-Sketchbook

“E-Sketchbook” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 20, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

SKETCHBOOKS FOR WEAVERS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

FIRST

Today is my birthday. When I came to my computer, there was a paper copy of the web page with the camera tripod I asked for. On it was written the note: “if you still want this, please order it.” Hurrah!

BACK TO THE BUSINESS AT HAND

Nigel had mentioned in an email a book by Kay Greenlees called Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists. I purchased this book, perhaps six months ago. I skimmed through the whole thing and then started reading it. I stopped about a third of the way through and put it away.

I loved the book. It was beautiful. But how does a weaver create a sketchbook? The notion of drawing rocks or manhole covers, or leaves, or flowers and working from them to a weaving just didn’t seem to work for me as a weaver.

I had been following Nigel’s blog. He is using sketchbooks in the Bradford course. I knew that was part of the Bradford course. But still, though sketching is nice, I still didn’t see any real sense in it for weaving. Maybe for tapestry weaving. But not regular weaving.

And then Nigel mentioned the Greenlees book. So I got the book back out. I began to read it a bit more carefully.

Greenlees says that a sketchbook can be a written journal. In a sense, that is what I keep on the computer. So if I were doing the Bradford course, or something similar, I would have to transcribe the written sketches on the computer into an actual sketchbook. And of course it would include actual weaving drawdowns.

E-SKETCH BOOKS

This time I noted that Greenlees discusses what she calls E-sketch books. She doesn’t seem overly enthusiastic, though she admits others are. She discusses pros and cons and suggests things to keep in mind as the artist looks for the most appropriate software for her purposes.

One of her concerns is the ease of mark making. So she is still thinking of an E-sketchbook as a computer equivalent of a literal sketchbook. I am not concerned with mark making or making sketches in a journal. I am interested in collecting ideas, both verbal and visual.

Any mark making I might be interested in doing can be done in Paint Shop Pro and I can bring anything I do there into other software.

HUNTING FOR SOFTWARE

I have some journaling software on the computer. I tried it a bit. It is a good way to keep the kind of stuff you would keep in any ordinary Word or Word Perfect document. But it fails miserably as an art journal.

Why? You can’t put objects anywhere you want on the page. You simply cannot design a page. And you can’t look at two pages next to each other.

MICROSOFT PUBLISHER

A number of years ago I did a newsletter for our weaving guild in Atlanta. Always interested in new things, I purchased Microsoft Publisher. Easy to learn. Creates an effective newsletter.

Microsoft Publisher. Why not? You can design pages freely. You can view two pages side-by-side. So I went to work. And here is a page I put together rather quickly, just to see how it might work:

SOME OBSERVATIONS

The blue and pink lines are simply margin guidelines and do not print out. Also, the light squares around the various pieces of writing do not print out. They are simply guidelines.

And my name at the bottom is for the purpose of this post and is not on the actual page. Also, since this is the first page, only that page can be viewed. But when I work on the inside pages, then I can view the two pages side by side, as if I were looking at the real thing.

And of course, when I have filled a volume (I can add as many pages to this volume as I want), I can always print it out and have it bound. If I want to.

I can’t attach actual samples, actual yarns, actual leaves…….. But otherwise I do believe this offers exactly the flexibility I need to create a sketch book.

I checked the latest version of Publisher. Mine is 2000 and the latest is 2007. But the latest version has no advantages for me over my version to warrant spending the money.

USING IT?

Now what I need to do is to figure out a system for using it. Ideally, putting in something once a day would be great. But I do not have that kind of time. So I am going to have to do it like one day a week or some such thing. Maybe Greenlees has some ideas.

Or I could just keep it open on the computer. Right now that is a bit dangerous for the novelty of it keeps me at it to the point that it becomes a time waster. But the novelty surely will wear off (though the novelty of blogging hasn’t worn off yet……….).

Related Posts:
Playing with Color
PixeLoom, Paint Shop Pro and Gradated Warps
Painting a Mock-up – with Paint or Computer Software
Crackle Jacket: First Rumblings

“Sketchbooks for Weavers” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 13, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

MULTI-POCKET FOLDERS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Recently at Office Depot I saw these lovely multi-pocket folders. They looked neat. Better than manila envelopes for keeping records together of a complex project. So I purchased two—one red and one green.

I am now using the red one for the crackle shawl/scarf/sample. The folder has a total of eight pockets. There is one each on the inside of each cover. There there are three pages, each with a pocket on either side.

This is how I have set up the red folder. The first pocket (on the left in the photo) has the details for what I originally called “Sampling for Crackle Shawl.” That sampling has morphed into the Sample Scarf, and this pocket includes the history of that morphing. The pocket on the right contains dyeing instructions.

The remaining pockets, which are not visible in the photo, contain details for the crackle shawl itself in the third pocket, the details of the sampling I did on the leftover warp from the red crackle art pieces which is where this current project had its beginnings, in the fourth pocket miscellaneous mostly handwritten notes, in the fifth pocket technical information on the weave structure, and in the sixth pocket information on finishing techniques, including fringe twisting.

I have a lot of information in this pocket folder, all neatly organized. I should be able to find information easily and well as add more information and ideas easily.

In the green pocket folder I have put the materials on the handspun shawl I am currently weaving. That is a bit of overkill because there is really very little material: the sampling that I did, the drawdown, and information on the materials. One normal manila folder would work just fine.

Related Posts:
Organizing Projects: Part One
Organizing Projects: Part Two

“Multi-Pocket Folders” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 12, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

Organizing Projects: Part Two

The project in the planning stages is usually the most fun, if only simply because it is the newest kid on the block. This is one reason I choose to sit at the loom first. If I didn't do that, the part of my day devoted to weaving might focus exclusively on that newest kid.

But after sitting at the loom, the temptation, of course, is always to turn to that planning-stage project. Witness, for example, how long it is taking me to get to finishing up the mending on the last crackle fabric. And this despite the fact that I have not been sitting at the loom this week in order to give my back plenty of time to heal. This is the one I have to work at moving along. This is the one, as I plan my day when I wake up, that I am most likely to shove into the background.

Ultimately I do get that finishing done. It may be simply because of the psychological need for closure. It may also be because the project in the wings is moving closer to the loom and I am beginning to sense another idea about to become a project in the wings. This is what is happening to me now. So I am going to try hard to put my energies into finishing that crackle fabric sooner rather than later.

The project in the wings is also the most complex, so in addition to all the notes I make and accumulate, I keep a very short to-do list. This consists of 3 or 4 items that need to be done next. I put only a small number of items on the list so that I don't look at it and throw my hands up in desperation. I also try to make the individual items small enough that it does not take a tremendous amount of effort to gear myself up to do them. For example, here is my current to-do-list for the next crackle project:

1.Wash out old dye containers
2.Make 1 liter of SAB Yellow 1% Stock solution (throw out old stock solution)
3. Make an additional 400 ml of Mustard Yellow

The first to-do item is the hardest and the one I most dislike. These are the dyes I mixed for the last project which I did not throw out because I thought I just might use them. I never do use them, so I don't know why I always pretend that I am going to. I am simply trying to avoid the cleaning up. The second two I will do at the same time, since once I have everything ready to make stock solutions, I might as well make all that I need. It just looks so much easier to write them out as two different items. Besides, when I am done, I can tick off two items, not just one! And then I can just delete these items and add the next few.

As for Dorothy's comment about a second loom. Yes, I can see that happening to me. But since I can sit at only one loom I have no reason for getting a second loom. Were I to get a second loom it would probably be a table room which I could take to workshops. When I was in Georgia, CHG workshop participants could rent looms for the workshops. That was really nice. Here, however, I am not close to a guild offering workshops I would be interested in. So I suspect a table loom would probably gather a bit of dust.

There is a time when I do covet a second loom: when I am taking part in a swap of some sort. Then it would be so nice not to have to worry about weaving off what is currently on the loom so I can put on the warp for the swap. But that is a luxury I cannot afford!

Organizing Projects: Part One

Dorothy made the following observations on my post "Weaving for a Living...........or Not":

"Hmm. I think I manage two weaving projects at a time. One on the loom, one I'm designing, or finishing off. But really, I prefer one at a time. I was thinking the other day that if I had more than one loom I'd have more than one project, and I'd like one better, or just find it more interesting, and then the other wouldn't happen.

"So, if you have three projects, how do you organise them? What happens if one is a big favourite, do you still keep a couple of others moving along?"

Back in the dark ages of my youth I firmly adhered to one project at a time. Then sewing projects were my major projects. Indeed, I would not buy the fabric and pattern for my next project until I was almost done with the current project. Part of this was not wanting to end up with a fabric stash, most of which would never be used. Part of this was just my one nature.

When I came to weaving I was in my early to mid 50's. I could weave for fairly long periods once I figured how to strengthen and stretch my quads and hamstrings in order to protect my knees when treadling. Then it was mental fatigue which got to me. But after entering my 60's the rest of my body started to argue a bit as well. Exercise helped enormously. But still it was clear that I just had to come up with a way that I could spend the majority of my free time weaving but only a part of it at my loom. Over time, the current process of having three projects at different stages grew.

I don't have a specific plan for organizing all this activity other than making my first priority to work at the loom each day. That is my first priority. That done, I try very hard to get at least something accomplished on one of the other two projects, depending on time available, my mood, the weather..........