We got home late last night, but I woke up early due to jet lag. (I was getting up at 6 am on the East Coast, which of course is 3 am here – not the nicest of hours to be awake!) Just as well, I suppose – I have a tremendous amount to get done! I need to write several articles for Complex Weavers Journal, mail out a slew of packages, start writing my Creating Craft book blog again, and start work on my book proposal. The book proposal is probably going to be my main focus for the next 2-3 weeks. It will require research and some deep thinking about topic and audience, plus polishing up my sample chapter. So not something I can toss together “off the cuff”.
This does not mean I’ll be neglecting my weaving, though! I plan to make a trial piece using the lacquered paper that John Marshall gifted me with:
The paper will be used as weft. It requires a special hook to pull it through the shed, but I stopped by Habu Textiles while in New York City, and to my amazement, Takako had one! It’s a very simple piece of bamboo, and I could probably have carved one myself, but I thought it was pretty cool, and it wasn’t too expensive, so I bought it.
I haven’t yet decided what warp to use with the lacquered paper. Silk, of course, but what color and weight? I’m not sure. The trouble is that I can’t use the lacquered paper as warp (it’s not designed for saganishiki, the strips are too short), so I can’t experiment with weft colors. And it would be a real pain (and quite wasteful) to put on multiple test warps. This may be one of the very few contexts where needleweaving samples is the only way to go. So I will tackle that as soon as I dig myself out from under the mundane stuff. I think I’ll try a real variety – bright orange-red, royal blue, muted sage, and black. I’ll have to dye some of those colors before I can weave the samples, though. I also need to test different weights of warp yarn – I have no idea what would be appropriate, so figuring that out will be the first order of business.
If the lacquered paper weaving works out, I’m sorely tempted to make my own lacquered paper. With the appropriate rice paper, airbrush paints, lacquer, and a laser cutter, it shouldn’t be too hard to produce my own thin strips. And wouldn’t that make really interesting art?
Off to write another Creating Craft post! The sooner started, the sooner done!