Seasons Past – Botanical Weavings

One of my longtime pleasures is the creation of whimsical wall pieces woven from the dried remains of summer garden splendor.

It is such a change from my usual very colorful and functional weaving. Here are a few from this season. As the snow is falling and the year is drawing to close, I am taking this last look back before diving ahead into the unknown drifts.

   

Drunken Temari Balls

Historically, temari were constructed from the remnants of old kimonos. Pieces of silk fabric would be wadded up to form a ball, and then the wad would be wrapped with strips of fabric. As time passed, traditional temari became an art, with the functional stitching becoming more decorative and detailed, until the balls displayed intricate embroidery. Temari became an art and craft of the Japanese upper class and aristocracy, and noblewomen competed in creating increasingly beautiful and intricate objects. Rather than follow an intricate pattern, well, there is no pattern—hence the “drunken”.

In addition to the cavalcade of scarves, I created 150 ornaments for my holiday sale and beyond. These are just a few.

Each ornament is like a jewel

I never get tired of looking at them, however, my wrist gave out after 50 of them, and I had to enlist help from friends and from The Missoula Weavers Guild. Thanks to all!

Here are some great tutorials for making sober temari balls YouTube

It’s Ornamental

It is also ironic to be thinking about how commercial the holiday season is and then make lots of things to sell during the holidays. Does it matter that my ornaments are one of kind and that I developed a wicked case of tendonitis? These may well be the last of the red hot ornaments.

Although this collection of scarves is woven in luxurious cashmere, it is cashmere recycled/un-knitted cashmere sweaters. I just found out that the official word for un-knitting is “tinking” (knit spelled backwards, very clever) And most importantly I wove them on my Saori Loom—so much fun!

Here are all the scarves on display at China Woods. It was a totally lovely sale.

I set out to make a series of one of a kind scarves using weavers wool from Mountain Colors right here in Montana combined with the recycled cashmere. I wound each warp individually (3 yards sett at 12 epi).

I can’t help loving my thrums. (not good for the tendonitis) I can’t wait to show you the scarf I am going to weave on the Saori loom with these yummy colors.

I have sold 1/3 of the scarves so far. I was always told (in my craft fair days) that if you sell 1/3 of your inventory, you have had a good sale. Long range plan: to join the scarves together and create a blanket.

THE 12 DAYS OF WEAVING

Some things never get old---welcome to the holiday season!