Monday, February 25, 2008

One Step Backward...

Here's a first for me: I have panel #6 of 7 for the THE BIG COMMISSION all threaded and ready to go, but I have to get ready for my selling trip in Santa Fe. It will take many hours of weaving (that I don't have to spare) to weave off this panel. What to do? What to do?

Yes, I took to the bottle---my essential oil blending hobby and mixed up 4 lovely blends.


Then I marched back into the studio and carefully removed the warp from the loom for later use. I quickly began setting up a Bambu 7 Horoscope Warp, one that I can use as a sample in Santa Fe.
I have just begun weaving another horoscope weaving in the foreground. This one is in Bambu 12. I know they look very similar now, but just wait.

I can't tell you how difficult it was to take that step backward even though I know I can re-thread the loom for panel #6 in just a little over an hour. Even though there are advantages of putting on short warps (4 yds) in narrow widths (9") in a straight draw, it was mighty hard. Now that I am moving forward, I am off to weave.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have only had the misfortune of taking off a warp once, and that was because once it was on, I had no desire to weave it. (It was a heavy cotton chenille. This was how I found out that I am not a fan of chenille.)

At least you know that you will be putting the warp back on again.

Peg in South Carolina said...

At first I thought oil-blending was a euphemism for mixing dyes. Then I clicked on the pictures. What oils did you blend and what did it do for you?
I have never taken a warp off a loom, though I have seen it done and also have instructions. I hope I never have to do it. But it was certainly the obvious solution for you.
I noticed the shiny gold metallic yarn on your shelf. Do you use metallics when you weave?

Bonnie said...

Hi Peg,
I don't know if I mentioned that for exercise I go to NIA classes. It is a dance fusion fitness class that incorporates martial arts, dance arts, and healing arts and is loads of fun. Recently they have begun to offer hot scented towels at the end of class. I started playing around with various essential oils (left over from my hippie days), and now I am the official oil person. I supply the oil blends and I get my Nia classes for free. That's what the oil does for me. I use oils like lavender, bergamot, jasmine, rose, just to name a few. I am happy to talk about this more with you via email if you are interested.
At the very least it makes my whole apartment smell great.

In answer to your second question: metallic yarn--I often will use it as the thread that stands for the sun in the horoscope weaving. I have used metallics in other ways in the past, but this is my current use. It adds a nice touch.