Small steps

 The cleaning up of the driftwood is progressing slowly, there are some lovely colours which will be brought out when I reach the waxing stage.

The beginning of my weaving for The Quilt Show at the NEC next year where I am taking part in a joint exhibition. The piece uses nettle and plant dyed british wool yarn. Certain similarities in shaping to the driftwood perhaps.

Before

I have made a start, the browner pieces are where I have started
removing loose bark

 I am just starting on a new driftwood piece, it occurred to me that I don't take photos of what the pieces look like before the clean up so here are a few pictures.

Some of the debris

The fibrous bits are from the layer under the bark and are quite
wet. There are odd spots of green mould.

I am weaving some of the fibrous bits on a very small loom while they are still damp, an experiment.
There after photos may not appear for some time, it will depend on weather and my available time. Both pieces will probably go in next year's West Country Quilt and Textile show at the end of August.

For Barbara

A view of the piece of driftwood the nest is attached to and the beginnings of another piece of weaving on the same branch. This is all tied on to my upright loom so I hope you can make sense of the photos.
Mo and Grace both liked the way the hag stones looked on the nest when I was using them as weights, they will end up being part of another piece but I think I will try and make another delicate
structure, it did seem to work quite well.

Nest making

Using witches stones as weights

Finished nest

I am gradually getting back into making, this little nest was a right pain to make. I have made it directly onto a piece of driftwood and weighted the warp threads with stones. It is woven from the top down something I have never done before and although it is weighted there is no tension. Normally weaving is done under tension, it is also partly woven from grass. I guess for a first time try it was a rather stupid thing to start on. I probably should have experimented first but thats' not how I work, I have an idea I want to do it immediately. Keeping any sort of tension was hard, the yarn and especially the grass did not want to stay put the warp kept getting muddled and I was sorely tempted to just give up. In the end though its passable.
This is part of a much larger piece of driftwood so more weaving to come. I am making this for our exhibition next year at Weston quarry.

I am also working on another piece for the Festival of Quilts next year as part of a group show of the southwesttextilegroup.org this is under wraps for the time being.

Pictures from 'Shoreline'

My work

Liz Hewitt (pebbles) and my work

Liz Hewitt, Dominic Hewitt (photography) and my work

Lizzie Matthew's left and Liz Hewitt right

Liz Hewitt

Dominic Hewitt

Liz, Dominic and my work

Close up of Liz's work

Liz and my work

Liz's work

My work

Liz and my work

My work

My work

Lizzie Matthews(ceramics) and my work

Detail, my work

Detail, my work

Detail, Liz's work

A lot of pictures, none of them brilliant I am afraid, don't know what was up with the camera except that the battery is fairly low.
We have had very positive feedback from this exhibition.

I am not being idle

Close up with smaller woven squares

I haven't posted for a while but I have not been idly twiddling my thumbs, not much anyway.
I have been considering weave with Jude Hill, mostly in my head, but I have started a sampler to try out different techniques as Jude introduces them. Those of you also considering will realise I am a little behind.
I have also finally managed to get two more pieces of ivy off their respective tree trunks, the sea does not always give up its gifts easily. I am now working on these, while the weather is good, to get them to a state where I can add a little weaving.
Thirdly I am working on a couple of pieces for an exhibition next year.
In between these activities we have been picking raspberries, sugar snap peas, courgettes and lettuces, digging potatoes and pulling carrots and doing a lot of watering as it has been so dry and hot and generally enjoying the garden and the weather. We have not had the expected thunderstorms in our area yet.

Exhibition opening - too hot

Sand Bay - bottled and shelved

 Our exhibition opening went quite well but it was so hot I think most people just stayed at home or went to the beach. I forgot to take any photos but these are images of my own work.

Mellow Yellow

Detail

Lichens

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Driftwood with weaving.
This piece is about 3ft tall 

Waxing lyical

I have been working on my driftwood again today, I am becoming more and more drawn to it, its just a pity that not many useable get washed up on the beach. I feel that I am using something that nature no longer needs, the pieces are from trees and ivy that have usually been cut down sometimes before their useful life has been completed. Then they are washed by the sea and thrown up on the beach.

Small driftwood piece placed on my favourite chair

I am then giving them a second life, they are lovingly cleaned up, sanded, washed, and then thoughtfully adorned with wool and silk. What better way for a piece of wood to have a loving retirement than decorating some appreciative person's home.


This seems to want to publish with a white background, the emphasis is not mine.

A sunny day at last

What a beautiful day, have spent the whole day outside. This morning I was vegetable gardening with my brother and Mum and this afternoon I have been tending my own garden and also starting work on the ivy covered driftwood log I found on the beach earlier in the year. I have never tried cleaning up a piece as large as this and I think it is going to take a very long time, there is quite a lot of rotten wood which all has to be removed to avoid further deterioration. I have been attacking the crevices with my stone carving files, a craft I gave up on after about three pieces, anyway they all have pointed ends which is good for digging out loose bark, dirt and woodlice, but after breaking the end of one decided to be more cautious. I was trying to think of crafts that use strong pointy tools and then thought that having tartar removed from your teeth is a very similar procedure to what I was attempting to do. Now do I have enough courage to ask my dentist if he has any old tools he no longer uses?

Driftwood

Found this on the beach, I am looking forward to warmer weather when I can sit outside and start working on it. I get great pleasure from removing all the rotten wood from pieces like this and then hopefully it may be suitable to do some weaving on. If not I may be able to remove the ivy from it or just keep the whole piece for its sculptural effect.

Ivy Branch

This is a piece of my work. This piece uses driftwood that I find on the beach I then construct a wire warp directly on the wood and weave in it.