a picture

This is my favorite of the shadow weave scarves I have been weaving lately.

I Just LOVE Teaching Weaving

There has been a discussion on a weaving group I belong to about weaving becoming one of those skills that folks only see in a historic context which gives the false impression that it’s an archaic skill just when it’s anything but archaic?

Why is handweaving not archaic? Because there’s so much weaving that commercial weaving mills just don’t do. Just as an example, right now, I’m doing shadow weave. You’ll never see a mill doing shadow weave for the same reasons you won’t see a mill doing any number of other really cool weaving patterns.

One reason is that the threading for shadow weave is not that versatile. Mills like versatile threadings because a versatile threading means you can made a bunch of yards of one type of fabric and then a bunch of yards of another type of fabric without rethreading.

Another reason is that the potential for making mistakes in the setting up of the loom and in weaving the fabric is more than for simpler weaves. Mistakes cost mills money. Why not just avoid the potential for them as much as possible.

It all comes down to money, of course. For a mill, the balance between the labor costs of making certain kinds of woven fabric and the potential profit from them just doesn’t balance, particularly in these days of really cheap textiles.

Therefore, learning weaving opens a person’s access to all kinds of fabrics that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise (aside from buying the work of handweavers like me, which I very much encourage.)

I just love it when my students light up. When suddenly, in their minds, they’ve grasped just what the loom does and how it does it, and they can “see”  all the different possibilities they have just gained access to, all the unique and unusual things they can make at such a low cost and have the pleasure of saying “Thanks, I made it myself!” 

Now, I’m not saying that I wouldn’t be glad to do a demonstration of weaving in a historic context. Historical fiber facts stick to me like burrs, friendly burrs that I feel proud to carry and display. (Did you know the last cotton spinnery in the UK closed 8 years ago?) (Could you identify the dye plant alkanet that grows as a weed in the UK and  yield everything from green to purple depending on the conditions?) Someone suggested just yesterday that there might be a demand for me to give lectures on the textile history of the UK, which made me laugh as an American who has only been here 4 years, but gathering the amount of info I feel I would need to not feel like a fraud doing that would be downright fun!

So, go ahead, ask me to teach you weaving. Ask me to give a lecture on the textile history of the UK, on the textile history of the US even. Go ahead! I’ll be weaving the latest shadow weave scarf. (I have a feeling there will be a bunch of them.)

My Business Model is Evolving

Oh I still have every intention of reviving Norwich’s textile industry in a hi-tech cottage textile industry kind of way. My vision of what I’m building up to never changes, but my ideas of how I might get there, and my ideas of what I’m going to be doing with my time to bring in a living seem to be evolving in front of my eyes.

I’m not really surprised. One problem I’ve always had was with market research. Basically, the only way to know which of the things you want to offer people will actually spend money on is to put your offers out there and see what happens.

So far, I’ve found out that there’s apparently not much demand for bespoke interior textiles locally. At least I haven’t been able to locate it. Nor was there much demand for my handmade goods from the people who came into the Textile Centre, though at least one other person in the Centre seemed to be doing pretty well.

But I’m getting weaving students. And weaving and teaching weaving are probably the things I like doing the best of all the things I know how to do. Sometimes, the world decides to cooperate with you.

Considering the state of the UK’s textile industry, it would seem that setting myself the task of reviving it would be an unlikely career plan. But slow but surely, it just might be working.

So I’m not saying I’d turn down a commission of some sort. I’m just saying it begins to look like I’ll be doing a good deal of teaching (which pleases me mightily since I highly value all these handskills I have and it would be a pity not to pass them on) and some making of the really fine things I want to make (I’ve got a shadow-weave chenille scarf on the loom just now.) and about ten other ideas for how I might be able to bring in a little cash from one way or another.

And, recently, I’m really enjoying my life.

(All the sunshine we’ve had this summer has something to do with it. I make sure I get my hour in the sun every day there’s enough sun and heat for that. But the other things I’m doing have a lot to do with it too.)

My Personal Dress Aesthetic

In thinking about establishing a clothing company, advice from someone who almost certainly knows (Kathleen Fasanella, author of  the Fashion Incubator blog and The Entrepreneurs Guide to Sewn Product Manufacture) is to first determine who you would hang with, that is, which clothing line appeals to the same person who would buy yours.

I wonder if there is another line with the same aesthetic I would have. (Don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.) Like most, I would like to make clothes for my type of person. That type of person is a 50+ woman who is militant about never accepting being irrelevant. We appreciate the traditional skills.

I thought about my favorite outfits. Every piece includes expressions of  those “archaic” skills.

My favorite summer tops are either handwoven or handknit or hand crocheted, any decoration provided by weave techniques and textured knit or crochet stitches.

The bottoms, aside from blue jeans, which I don’t plan to attempt, (I have no idea how many different designs of blue jeans I would have to provide in order for most 50+ women to find some that would flatter them.) are woven fabric with any decoration provided by hand embroidery (I am really not fond of machine embroidery. Somehow it always looks cheap to me.) some form of fabric manipulation or some form of fabric painting or dyeing (including screen printing).

My woman hates boring clothing and considers a large part of what is offered in women’s sizes boring. I have this pair of pants (trousers for those of you in the UK) that are made up of patches of bright African, South American, and South Pacific fabrics. The patches are about 5 inches square. Hardly a day passes when someone doesn’t tell me they like those pants. Those pants make me feel like myself, quirky, maybe a bit excentric (I earned my excentricity), interesting. And my customer will be the woman who would like to find a pair of pants like those for herself, and who would have the nerve to wear them as often as she likes.

So I ask you, who do I hang with? Chico’s maybe?

Reviving Norwich’s Textile Industry

I know I’ve taken this blog in an entirely different direction than I origianlly intended. This is probably because what you really want to do WILL surface, if you let it. Close just doesn’t really count, no matter how “unrealistic” what you really want to do is.

I want to establish a contemporary kind of high-tech cottage textile industry, in Norwich, because Norwich should really have one. Schools and universities in the Norwich area graduate large numbers of folks with textile qualifications. Norwich University College of the Arts is even planning a fashion program. Many of those students would like to remain in Norfolk. In fact, they do, doing jobs they aren’t nearly as interested in as they are interested in textiles, and doing or selling a bit of what they would truly love to be doing on the side. I think that’s a real pity.

Wool and alpaca and a natural dye company are all present within the county. (I hear that farmers are burning the wool or giving it away to whoever will pay for the sheering, another real pity.) Linen and silk is produced in the EU, and if Turkey joins it, cotton will be too. High quality cotton.

The technology for taking fiber to  products has been automated and has shrunk to the point that all the equipment needed could fit into a room not much bigger than the average living room. And there is no need for the work to be near as punishing to the human body.

I envision a new kind of high-tech cottage textile industry.

Shoes, My Next Speech, and Items of Rooted Beauty

Today was a good day. I definitely needed one because yesterday was not.

I spent most of the day in a business training meeting. The first part was on networking. I was surprised how little internet networking possibilities were mentioned. I have some notes on changes I want to make to my business card though, and I’ll be looking for some FREE local networking activities. I have a feeling they won’t be official networking activities. More likely are visits to exhibits, during which I keep in mind networking. Maybe just an effort toward constant awareness of networking possibilities, but hopefully more than that. Also, my elevator speech is now one that can be delivered on the elevator of a building of less than 75 stories. It’s actually down to 30 seconds flat and I like it.

The second half was about presentations. Considering that I’ve been active in Toastmasters for a good half a year now, it was not surprising that there wasn’t much advice and strategy of presentations I hadn’t heard of. But the timing was perfect. Tomorrow I give my second speech at Toastmasters. I’ve been turning different ideas over in my head, but hadn’t really sat down and worked on it yet.

So I used the opportunity to practise for tomorrow, and I’ll be darned, what I produced was highly praised. I do think my attendance at Toastmasters has produced noticeable results. It’s done wonders for my confidence about actually being able to make a business of this. The instructor said the kind of enthusiam I have for my business is a good predictor of success. I’m finding myself imagining how it might actually happen. Amazing!

The second thing I want to write about is a project that pays nothing, though it might produce some useful publicity, and it should make some money for a charity. I’ve been commissioned to review a book for a website (the commission being keeping the book). The book is about turning unattractive or dull shoes into some really impressive shoes. Since it’s an instructional book, I think trying out a project needs to be part of the review. I proposed making a deal with a charity shop to allow me to take some of their shoes and tart them up. The website liked the idea, and the very first charity shop I approached approved it on the spot and let me choose three pairs of shoes to transform. Then they’ll be featured in the window with an attribution. Dig it!

Ah yes. and “Items of Rooted Beauty”. An e-mail discussion group I subscribe to has been discussing how difficult it is to make a living in one of my favorite craft arts these days. It was partly that discussion that had me down yesterday. But it is also that discussion that led me to try to find a description of the difference between the types of items I make and all those mass market things that might fill some of the same purposes. What I make are:

Items of Rooted Beauty.

Bringing the Textile Business Back to Norwich

I have set myself a very large task, and I’m not sure I’m up to the job, but I’m going to give it one heck of a try. Norwich graduates textile students from at least three different schools every year. This means that the skills for a textile-based business are here, just as they were in the 1500′s when Norwich’s textile industries were going strong.

There are sheep being raised all over Norfolk, and the wool can be gotten for free aside from paying for the sheering.Otherwise, it is being burnt. True, by now, these sheep are not bred for the quality of their wool. I’m told that this makes a huge difference. But there is certainly no reason why sheep could not t be raised for fiber in the county, aside from it not being a profitable business. And why not?

Yes, back in the day, the textile industry was a back-breaking industry not known for being a good place of employment. But is there any reason that must be? There are new technologies such as computer controlled dobby looms that make it possible to weave all kinds of patterned fabric quite easily as a cottage industry. There are also new technologies for many of the other textile arts, everything from knitting to embroidery. Why aren’t we buying our clothing made to measure from local makers? Why are we settling for Pri-Mark with all the associated moral weight of abused workers in the far east?

Not that I have any of this high tech equipment. Like the song says, ”I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope, and I can’t get it out of my mind!” I just know that everything needed is here, and with a little organization and pulling together, it should be possible to identify textile products that can be made profitably in Norwich.

Am I crazy? Am I tilting at windmills? After all, they are available in the area for tilting with, but I think I’ll need a rather tall horse. Where does one go for a grant to start up something like this? Who do I present my vision to? I’ve got all the BizFizz ideas to push me along, and in fact, this post amounts to a first draft of a press release. Would you read the story?

Steampunk?

I woke up today wondering how I could possibly find a way to talk enough people into paying me minimum wage, just minimum wage is good enough, for doing the quality of fiberwork-needlework-fiberarts you now usually only find in shops that sell antique textiles.

There are people who manage to do it one way or another. Some are costumers with high-end clients or costumers for period dramas where the work will be seen up close and has to be authentically done. Some have written books and are well enough known to be in demand worldwide as teachers. The lastest issue of Selvege

http://www.selvedge.org/

 features a studio known for the quality of its pleating. LeSage

http://www.lesage-paris.com/

 and Hand and Lock

http://www.handembroidery.com/

 do exquisite embroidery.

My version of “If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow why oh why can’t I?”

Tonight, for some reason, I decided to finally see what the word “steampunk”, which keeps entering my range of awareness, really meant.

As I understand it, the origin is a type of fiction that blends older times (often Victorian) and modern advances (think the old TV show/movie Wild Wild West) . What if the Hindenburg never happened and the dirigible was highly developed instead of the airplane? What if computers ran on clockworks? In fashion and furnishings, it’s related to punk. A corset made of a computer game based print might be steampunk. I’m still getting a handle on it.

If I understand it correctly, a cushion made of black muslin smocked with neon threads or threads that are essentially white until they turn colors in strong light would be steampunk. Free lace done all in black, perhaps. (I keep thinking black, but all the Victorian colors would work. I think I see the potential for using all those practically achaic skills I love and admire in a way that has a current market.

By the way, I finished my ethereal random-long-tucked machine knit shawl. I’ll scan and post a picture detail of it tomorrow. I like it. It gives the impression of well-worn tatters that I wanted. I’m going to do more with the technique.

Mark-Making w/ Tucks and a Book

I’ve finished my double-layer skirt/shrug.  (It really is time for a photoshoot.) It is gathered, almost in cartridge pleats, by matched side-by-side tucks, and I’m going to add some decorative crochet on the edges of one of the layers. On me, it is definitely a shrug, rather than a skirt, and I think the idea will work better on a one-layer skirt, but first I’m doing another project.

It’s my first machine-knit “art fabric”.

My knitting machine is a bulky, and meant to use thicker yarns than a non-bulky knitting machine. My play with organized tucks using several threads at once has produced the Gutsy Gatsby scarf (mentioned in another post, but not yet photographed) and the cartridge-pleated double layer shrug/skirt, both of which producing decorative elements that could be easily used for cushions.

So now that I’ve got a good handle on tucks, I’m using a single thin yarn to make a very light and airy translucent fabric, so translucent that tucks can be used to “draw”, to “make marks” that will be visible from either side of the fabric. Afterwards, I plan to drape the fabric on a dressform, layering, and gathering, and tucking, and pleating a unique garment in which the tuck “marks” are a feature.

I’also gotten my hands on a marvelous book. Some time ago, I saw the book in a bookstore, thought it was a new book, and decided to ask to review it for a website with the idea that I’d get it for free. But it wasn’t a new book, and it was gone the next time I went to the store. I looked it up on the web, but I wanted to look through it again before I bought it.

Now I have, and oh, the ideas it has inspired. What can be done with plain muslim is amazing.

Alright, I’ll tell you. The book is “The Art of Manipulating Fabric” by Colette Wolff. And I can’t wait to start using the techniques to make fabulous things. I’m going to have to add a page. I just know it.

Tiles, Crochet, and Madonna

No, I’m not going to try to connect those three things.

Tiles has to do with a trend report I saw a few days ago on

www.trendhunter.com

about some marvelous sgraffato tiles.

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/ann-sacks-tiles1

Being me, I couldn’t help thinking I’d like to try that. So today I stopped by a tile store to see if they sold bisque tiles that I could theoretically paint a glaze on, scratch my own designs on, and get fired. They had one possibility at a pretty low cost, so now to find an appropriate glaze and way to fire them, or to find real bisque tiles (not at one of those pottery painting places where it would cost a fortune). I’ll report of future progress on this idea.

Crochet has to do with the advanced crochet class I taught today. Some years ago I earned my living, a pretty poor one, mostly making crocheted sweaters. In the process, I figured out for myself how to do almost anything you’d see in a knitted sweater in crochet, particularly the textural bits. I also invented several patterns. Today we had a student at the center who already knew the basics, so I taught her some of these stitches. Afterwards, it occurred to me that there were several groups of them that I could offer as advanced crochet classes. Got to prepare an announcement and post on

www.gumtree.com

which is like Craigslist for the UK.

I’ve now spent a good deal of the evening watching a Madonna performance from her recent Sticky and Sweet tour. She has always been an influence on fashion, and I don’t watch any performance without noting the costumes, so of course I took notice of these. She wore Hammer pants in satin for some of the show, and two dreadlocked dancers wore some very wide pleated or gathered eastern-style pants, which was a very interesting look I will keep an eye out for. I wish I knew the name of that garment. But what I will be looking for in the charity shops, just for the fun of it, will be some American style football shoulder pads. Her’s were glittered and beaded and sequined to a fare-the-well, which would be a fun project, whatever the results.

With ideas and influences as disparate as these in a single day, is it any wonder that my creative life splits in so many directions?