All in Good Time
These warps were painted in 1987:
Yep, 20 years ago. They've lived in baskets and boxes since then, hauled from place to place through 5 different studios.
What was wrong with them? Well, they were boring. They were purples, blues and pinks, screaming fuchsia pinks, with no accent colors. I just could not think of how to use them.
So I packed them away, hauled them around, shuffled them from basket to box to bin. They never sparked any ideas, they never seemed right. They were stewing.
Recently, in yet another studio purge, they surfaced. I thought *now or never* and threw them in a dyepot of yellow.
Aha! Now they worked, the colors pulled together into something I could see woven.
The fabric is 5/2 and 8/2 mixed warps of cottons, sett at 24 epi, woven with an 8/2 cotton in plum, about 5 yards.
Good things come to those who wait (and wait, and wait). All in good time.
Yep, 20 years ago. They've lived in baskets and boxes since then, hauled from place to place through 5 different studios.
What was wrong with them? Well, they were boring. They were purples, blues and pinks, screaming fuchsia pinks, with no accent colors. I just could not think of how to use them.
So I packed them away, hauled them around, shuffled them from basket to box to bin. They never sparked any ideas, they never seemed right. They were stewing.
Recently, in yet another studio purge, they surfaced. I thought *now or never* and threw them in a dyepot of yellow.
Aha! Now they worked, the colors pulled together into something I could see woven.
The fabric is 5/2 and 8/2 mixed warps of cottons, sett at 24 epi, woven with an 8/2 cotton in plum, about 5 yards.
Good things come to those who wait (and wait, and wait). All in good time.
posted by Sara at 6:21 AM
11 Comments:
I really look forward to seeing them woven! I'm weaving my second piece on a 4 shaft loom and the whole learning process was inspired by your blog which I starting reading in June. Thanks for your great posts! Lisa in NC
You made me laugh, and feel vindicated. Thanks.
Nice save. Makes me wonder what *I* have in the fiber room from 1987.
Brilliant!
Fantastic. Screaming fuschia pinks being softened up with a yellow overdye. That's the kind of story that I adore.
Thank you, I feel much better about the warp that's been waiting around since 2003 now. It's just a baby!
I just read Leigh's blog about weaving twill and now I've read your's about painted warps, and all of a sudden it has dawned on me that the ache in my heart I am feeling, because I am time-at-home-poor right now, is because somehow over the last year, I have become a weaver. It snuck up on me.
Hehehe! I'm feeling so smug about some of my warps. They've only begun to age. I can only hope they'll look that good once I decide what to do with them.
Beautiful! And whatever the fabric becomes, you can tell all who admire, "I worked more than 20 years on it"!
Lovely fabric!
I want to hear about your studio purge process. Mine isn't very efficient, and usually amounts to clearing out a bunch of stuff, but just moving some of it, as with a bulldozer, and always, always, leaving a small pile of undecided amorphous stuff that usually becomes a seed pile for future clutter.
Haha! This is ABSOLUTELY how I roll!
Hmmm what to do with this hideously colored yarn I dyed in college? back in the dye pot with the new stuff...let's see what happens!
Hey it's better than letting it sit around any longer. You never know!
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