New Warp

I have a new student Yuko who is nimble learner. Very good with her hands and quick at calculating warp count. She has a sterling sense of color and ingrained knowledge of Japanese color combinations. It is her first time to weave but the project is quite complex. She is a graphic designer and I bought $1500 worth of Adobe software several years ago and it sat in the boxes unused. So we are exchanging lessons. Weaving for Creative Suite...about as far apart on the analogue and digital spectrum as you could move.

It is early early spring and persisting with my notion of weaving the local landscape we wound these Japanese wooden waku with ten colors that we see outside. The cherry and apricots are out so we have some pink shades. Other than that just some faded greens and fawns. No youthful green yet. The landscape is bleary-eyed and hopeful. Inclement breezed with some rhythmical decay and determined steps towards warmth. We will weave up a project together. 5 cm wide Japanese scent bags. We warped four 'bags' worth and will play with the interference of the wefts on the warps.

Here are the basics colors we started with:



All of the silk comes from silk I've raised and reeled and dyed myself. The dyes all natural. Kudzu vines. Laquot leaves and branches. Plum tree bark. Madder (Akane). Thistle stems. Persimmon tannin. Most of the silk was reeled from ten cocoons and 7 combined with a single Z twist. 250 turns per meter. Only the pink was fully de gummed. The other thread was simply semi-degummed in boiling water so it isn't shiny.

Snoopy played her part as Gaurdianess of the Winding Warp. She never gives up hope that the entire process will eventually end up as some sort of barbeque where she can feast on the leftovers.



And the four sections of the warp to be later cut into strips.