Getting Closer…

Time seems to speed by and it often feels like nothing is happening with the weaving.  That is not true, but sometimes just how I feel.  In any case, let me tell you what is happening.  In the last weaving blog entry, I wasn’t sure about the header and the weft protection.  I received great suggestions and encouragement.  I did begin with a little nylon as weft with each of the groups.  I used the “highly scientific” method of using the end of sharpened pencil as my measuring stick for how high to weave each group.  (Somehow I’ve lost my ruler – just another reason to go shopping at Hobby Lobby!)  Anyway – here are a sample of the groups along with my latest idea on how to hold this together when I take it off the loom – paper clips!  No not the spiral wire kind – I’m using the big black mechanical spring kind.  My intent is to hold these groups temporarily.  Once off the loom, I want to work with each group one at a time removing the paperclip and nylon weft and then choosing some knotting method from Collingwood’s book.

So with all the groups ready, I’m a needing to get some bamboo in here.  I did finally finish taking the branches off the last one.  So now what?  I decided they needed to be washed from their time outside in the weather and then maybe wipe them down with mineral oil.  I was shocked almost immediately with how wonderful they looked.  All the colors deepened and sharpened.  I was nearly speechless.  Not quite though – I ran inside and asked James – How can I make this more permanent???  He made a few suggestions and I decided to try using Tung Oil.  The Tung Oil will penetrate into the wood unlike other varnishes or lacquers.  So one by one they were cleaned, dried and oiled and then propped up against the fence to dry overnight.

That’s about 1/3 of them – and I’m beginning in a very small way to understand those who choose to spin their yarn before they weave!!!  But isn’t it worth it – look at the before:

and after:

Next is to figure out how to cut them without splitting them and try out the weaving.  Then I figure the next hurdle is – how will this wind up!  Hee, hee, hee – what fun!

LeClerc Warping – Part 2

The saga continues with my new-to-me loom.  This is a continuation from Part 1.  I can now say that it is warped, but I now wonder about the header.  Suggestions are DEFINITELY welcome!
With the warp beamed, I was able to set up the sections of warp through the heddles and reed.  There are four warps to the group and I set the two outside into one harness and the inside two to the other.  The groupings of warp are 3 inches apart, so I set a tape measure on the reed to tell me if the placement was correct.I was rather proud of myself when I finished the last group, until I realized that I had not sent the warp over the castle before heading into the heddles.  This is one reason that I’ve chosen this simple warping – mistakes like that are not hours in the undoing!
I tied off to the bottom rod.  Tommye Scanlin has a great tip in tying off the bar to the front of the loom to get the first round of tying off complete.
Here we are over the castle, through the heddles and all the groups checked out for being in the correct harness!  I then inserted 4 of the spacers within the warp and spaced the warp out correctly.With that you can see here the outside/inside order of the groups and hopefully can imagine what will happen once I start placing the bamboo in there.
The next step is generally to put in a header and some sort of weft protection (something to keep this from falling apart when I take it off the loom).  I’ve thought about tying off a small portion of warp at each group, but wonder what you all think?
Still plugging away at preparing the bamboo, but hopefully I’ve got enough to get started and see where the next roadblock is!

Leclerc Warping – Part 1

Okay – I’ve gotten to start warping the Leclerc and I thought I would blog for my own journaling sake, but also to solicit all the tips I can get.  It’s working so far, but I am certain I am not working in a conventional way.  So, I apologize upfront to any and all that I might shock or offend ;-)

First off, I’ve chosen a “simple” warping project.  On one of my walks with Shadow I came across a large pile of bamboo that had been cleared from someone’s yard.  James was kind enough to go with the trailer and help me bring it home.  Then he also started with taking off branches.  It’s been slow going.  They are rather tough, so we do a few here and there.  With all the rain, I did get the leaves cleared off of them.

 

 

 

 

 

I can hear you now – what does that have to do with warping a loom???  My plan is to make an outdoor wall hanging or rug for the front porch.  With the introduction of the loom, I knew this could be a good means of getting the job done.  So the warp I bought was a thin nylon with a number of colors from the bamboo.  My intent is to have warp every 3 inches along the length to let the bamboo shine through.So I got all the instructions I could find – including those online. 

I started filling up the warping board.  Shadow was fascinated with the spool flying around in the basket!  He wasn’t always this calm – of course it wasn’t moving while I took the picture!  We still made it! I did use the rattle I had made.  Tommye Scanlin shows on her website using the reed as her rattle.  Once I had everything spread, I realized at that moment her great wisdom.  I had the bar from the top apron through the loops.  I wanted to start from there to let gravity help me through the heddles and the reed, but how was I going to to attach it to the bar on the loom and keep the warp spread in the rattle???  I resorted to putting a “cap” of painter’s tape over the nails around each group.  So I was able to pull without losing all the work I had just done.What I’ve done is place 4 warps in a group and spaced those groups out every 3 inches.  My thought is to have the two outside warps in one harness and the two inside in the other.  I have bamboo blinds that are warped this way. 

Now hopefully this weekend we’ll get to the heddles and reed!

Accessories for the Leclerc Tapestry Loom

Weekend before last, I did go pick up my new-to-me Leclerc 45” Tissart loom.  This is my first loom with treadles and a reed, etc.  This also means that I am without many other things like a warping board, a rattle, and lease sticks.  So this weekend, I did a little woodworking.  I’m proud to say I did all this for under $45.

First step was to cut all the boards to length.  That involved cutting the molding for the spacers as I wind the warp, the boards for the warping board, and the dowel rods for the warping board.

 

I, of course, had supervision for all of this.  Isn’t he a good boy?  Shadow didn’t like the noise, but he likes the smell of sawdust!

Once cut, I did lay out all the spacers for winding the warp so that I could spray them with lacquer.  Unlike most of you, the warp will likely be on the loom a long time and I wanted to make sure that the wood was sealed to prevent any discoloration of the warp.  Two coats on each side and those are finished!  I now have 14 in all.

Between coats, I started on the warping board.  I’ve decided I really didn’t need to have more than a 10 yard capacity –

remember I’m a weekend tapestry weaver!   I decided the warping board would be a square and the passage from one side to the other would be about a yard.  With the dowel pins in the middle of the side board, that meant the length of the sides needed to be 39”.   Shadow agreed.

 

 

From there, I marked off the positions of the dowel pins.  (Yes that’s actually James’ hand.  He decided I needed a line straight up the middle of the board – so I let him do it!) 

   Of course, with the marks in place, the dowel pin holes could then be drilled.  The dowel rod was just over 3/4”, so that told us which bit to use.

 

A little wood glue was put on the ends of the dowel pins and they were pressed into the holes in the board.  Shadow was quite fascinated by the “sticks” and wanted very much to “help” with them! 

With the dowel pins in place, the sides of the square can be assembled into the warping board.

   The vertical pieces sat on top of the horizontal pieces.  The end of the vertical was lined up with the side of the horizontal and the two were squared up with a speed square. 

A little wood glue had been spread in between the two pieces and they were joined with a finish nailer.  Three nails would be sufficient, but I put in 5 like Purina logo!  (I don’t know why – it just felt right!)  And here’s the warping board resting from all it’s work! 

 

With that complete, I started on the rattle.  I marked off 2 dents/inch on the centerline of a 48” long board.  With that I began tapping in the finish nails.  Sounds simple enough, but after about 2 feet, the board started splitting on both sides!

 

James fortunately had a piece of alder that he was willing to give me.  With a new set of marks we headed back to the drill press to put in the 91 holes for the rattle!   The nails were then tapped into their respective holes.  That’s 91 nails – quite a line up!

 

 

 

It was a productive day and now I’m ready to think about warping.  Especially since I have the Shadow seal of approval!

New to Me Adventure

Saturday, James, Shadow and I went on a road trip over to Georgia.  It was about a two hour drive one way which is not bad, but is certainly the longest that Shadow has had to go in the car with us.  I was proud that he handled it just fine.  In fact, the ride back he generally slept – but I get ahead of myself.  We were heading over to pick up my new-to-me Leclerc 45” Tissart tapestry loom.  James had seen it in a guild newsletter.  I measured the space in the room of strings and it would fit.  I made an offer, she accepted and so we went to pick it up!  We took the van, but the loom still needed to be disassembled since we only took out one of the bench seats.  It all fit and a couple of baby gates kept Shadow out of the parts.
So here are all the parts once we got home – and the assembly process – and the new-to-me loom in it’s new home! I’m excited and overwhelmed at the same time.  If you remember from last March at my class in John C Campbell, that class was the first and only time that I have warped a floor loom.  Now this isn’t a floor loom, but there basically the same principles – it’s just vertical and I only have two harnesses.  I’ve been offered much help and instructions.  I’m not worried and I’m just giving myself some space and time to do it right.  First step – I don’t have a warp board or rattle – so we’re starting there with building some!
In other areas, I want to give an update on the blogging advice.  I’ve receive a great deal of good tips and I wanted to share what’s working for me.  I’m using the free Picasa from Google for the processing pictures.  There is an automatic export function that resaves the pictures in a web-friendly size into another folder.  I immediately export and work with those.  Then, the second software is also free and is Windows Live Writer (Thanks Lyn and Janet!)  It’s part of an entire Microsoft suite and allows easy creation and editing on my computer.  In fact, I simply cut and paste the pictures from Picasa.  When I’m finished, I upload the entire entry at once.  This entry took 30 minutes – including the upload of the pictures from my camera.  The actual blogging time is about 10 minutes once the pictures are on the drive!  Loving it!
One last thing – a Shadow update – he hounded me for a baby carrot when I was munching on them in the kitchen.  I gave him one.  He sort of ate it – but actually treated it like a chew toy.  So since he LOVES sticks in the backyard, I bought him a pound of carrot sticks.  A little wiggle and he sits right down to chew it up tail wagging to beat the band.  He eats about 2 bites and shreds the rest – which do end up in his food bowl later.  Is that not funny???