Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Weaving for Art Shows




I promised to add some pics of the weavings I created on a cotton/linen warp on my 8 shaft Schaht Mighty Wolf. I wanted to capture the essence of the aesthetics of Japan and the minimal abstract qualities of the Bauhaus. My thought was to create two long narrow panels using my handspun yarns for the weft and bits of Japanese kimono fabric from my 2005 home stay with a family in Tokyo as accents. The first one I completed, I call Marshland because the colors and textures and movement of the marshes are an ever present reality here in coastal Georgia.


The second is not quite finished but I call it After Kandinsky (one of the Bauhaus Masters). It's much more abstract and plays with shapes as well as the textures of the handspun. I will share the "before" here... But I'm not quite happy with it so, I'm going to do some playing with it...


The last is After Albers. Josef Albers was one of the few Bauhaus students who later became one of the teachers (Masters). He is known for playing with color and line and shape and his most popular and best known works are his Homage to a Square series that he did after his Bauhaus years. But before this he drew and painted several line images. Most weavers have heard of his wife, Anni Albers who wrote several books and taught with him, when they emigrated to the US, at Black Mountain College outside of Asheville, NC.


The framing and display of these weavings was a real challenge. I did not want to display them hanging on a dowel rod! I wanted them to be woven art pieces. I think of cheap hanging printed towels when I see woven pieces hanging from dowels. Sometimes weavers are fortunate to find interesting free form wood pieces or antique pieces or items from other cultures to hang their work on and that works. But I wanted my woven pieces to be framed. And that became a challenge... The two finished pieces had two different resolutions. For Marshland I added black ultra suede fabric by sewing it to the finished tapestry to mimic the borders on ukiyo-es. I, then, stretched it using 11x28 stretchers. I found angle molding strip for the outside frame that I had Home Depot cut to size and then got my hubby to help me cut notches into it to have them fit at the corners… No easy task! I spray painted the frame with gold… Again to mimic the ukiyo-e look. For After Albers I wanted to create a line drawing on the 8-shaft twill fabric that I wove. I stretched the handwoven cloth over and around the edges of the 9x9 inch canvas stretchers. Then I stitched into it with black wool/mohair blend yarn. I outlined the small square with stitches and then created a warp of the yarns and needle wove into it to create the woven square. I did not like the edges of the woven piece showing on the stretcher so I added some black ultra suede to cover them… Right side against the stretcher wood, a piece of cardboard the size of the wooden stretcher side stapled down on top of the cardboard. Then I folded the ultra suede over the cardboard and pulled it to the back of the stretcher and stapled it. it created a nice frame effect, but I wanted a mat-like look. I purchased some 1/4 inch plywood and had Home Depot cut it 13x13 and spray painted it black. I tacked it to the back of the stretchers with 1/2 inch brads. because I wanted the piece to stand out from the wall I covered 2 inch by inch foam core pieces with some ultra suede and hot glued it together and to the back of the piece. I am still thinking about an appropriate solution to mounting After Kandinsky! Displaying handwoven art pieces is ALWAYS a challenge! viewed 7 times - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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