2009 Weave of the week #22: “Who Robbed Roy and How?” May 31, 2009

This week’s weave is another mind-bender from my friend Ann Rosenthal, whose complex woven piece “When Opposites Attract” I wrote about in January.
This work is called “Who Robbed Roy and How?” Ann described it in her weaving notes as being a combination of “2×2 twill [the checks and lighter tan background], doublecloth tapestry [the spotted [...]

2009 Weave of the week #21: Lady Dai’s mittens May 24, 2009

The delicate, woven silk mittens shown above were made 2,200 years ago for a Chinese noblewoman known today as “Lady Dai.” When she died, they were placed into her tomb, along with hundreds of other luxurious items, for her to enjoy in the afterlife.
The “Noble Tombs at Mawangdui” where Lady Dai, her husband, and her [...]

2009 Weave of the week #20: Lucky bag May 17, 2009

This week’s weave is a woven raffia bag (shown above) from West Africa, probably Ivory Coast or Nigeria. It was given to me by a couple I knew, in exchange for boarding their cats while they were traveling in Africa.
Looking back, I’m amazed that I did such a daft thing. Taking responsibility for the well-being [...]

2009 Weave of the week #19: Sample weaving, part two May 10, 2009

At the end of my first sample weaving article I described how bored I had become with my handweaving job at Burlington Woolens, but when I came across this swatch yesterday, for the first time in years, it reminded me how quickly that situation changed.
First, Elke left and Joan replaced her as Burlington’s designer. I [...]

2009 Weave of the week #18: Ribbons, ribs, and repps May 4, 2009

The striped ribbon shown above is a rib weave and, like all rib weaves, is a modified tabby.
It has evenly spaced groups of warp threads that have been woven as a single end to create the vertical ribs. The warp is white but has been completely covered by very tightly woven filament wefts that create [...]

Naoki Nomura kimonos @ The Nippon Gallery May 3, 2009

Naoki Nomura, one of the living masters of the Kyo Yuzen style of kimono design, will have an exhibition of his new work at The Nippon Gallery, 145 W. 57th St., NYC, from May 6 to May 12.
Kyo Yuzen is a traditional method of dyeing and painting on silk that enables artists to create designs [...]