In a couple weeks, I’m headed back to London for the annual London Design Festival and Lomographic World Congress 2007. I’m so excited about this my brain is on the verge of exploding… already. Just wait ’til I get there. Want some visual overload? Visit http://www.lomography.com
I’m in Vancouver for another four nights and then I’m off again (this time to traipse around London). In the meantime, I owe you so many things starting with my photography presentation from WAY back in March… so here are the bits and pieces:
The cute little mention of my stilettos and weaving in this past issue of Handwoven magazine reminded me that I was supposed to blog about Catharine Ellis’ woven shibori workshops. Ooops. Now I’m hanging my head on that one… I ended up coming home from Fiji without enough time to do the preparation work for the workshops… so I didn’t attend. I did, however, carry Catharine’s book all over Fiji with me in preparation for the workshop… but attending the workshops meant weaving actual yardage or warping up a table loom beforehand. Ahh well. Her lecture at Heritage Hall was quite inspiring, as she showed photos and projects from the last 30 years of her weaving career. Experimenting with one variable at a time in a very scientific way, it’s like a do-it-yourself PhD in weaving. I know for certain that I can’t be that methodical. No PhD for me.
Check it out, Louisa wrote up her experiences at Catharine’s workshop…
Speaking of Fiji, I did take notes of the teeny bit of weaving I found in Sigatoka… these are the notes that I just re-discovered on my laptop:
2007-04-19
We got in the car and just started driving… our destination was Pacific Harbour, about 2 hours drive away from Nadi town. The closest town centre to Nadi is Sigatoka, about 45 minutes south. We stopped just to look for water and snacks, but ended up wandering into La’s shop. La has been weaving professionally for the last ten years, weaving mats. When I told her I was a weaver too, a smile spread across her face with understanding and appreciation, saying simply “when you find something you enjoy, you just have to do it.”
For the mats, she determines how wide she wants the mats to be and then begins weaving down the length. At the very end, she finishes the two short ends of the mat, sometimes incorporating different colours in a variety of patterns. The mats take at least a day to weave.
Tapa cloth is made from pounding mulberry bark into flat sheets. The sheets are then screenprinted with a dye made by boiling the mulberry bark and mixing it with the red earth/clay that seems to be so readily available. The darker colours have soot added to the mix to deepen the colours. For tapa cloth intended for village chiefs, the mulberry bark is dyed first with the mulberry juice so that it takes on a dark amber colour before it is flattened out into sheets. The Fijian tapa are screenprinted while the Tongan tapa are handpainted. The tapa made in Tonga are also backed with synthetic, fusible interfacing for strength.
Sooo… let’s give away some yarn, shall we? My first stop is actually Fiji, so I figured, let’s give out prizes to the five commenters that said Fiji — Dani, Liza, Cedar, Elizabeth, and Beth… Send me your snailmail addresses by email (info at sweetgeorgiayarns dot com) and I’ll send you some yarn. And the randomly picked, winner, Madame Purl — send me your address too. Y’all get yarn 
And in other news, I’ll be giving a program for the Coquitlam Weavers Guild this Thursday, March 8 at 7 pm. The meetings are held at Place des Arts in Coquitlam and new members and guests are always welcome. So, if you aren’t already a member of the guild and you are in the Lower Mainland, come on down! I’ll be talking about photography for textiles and such. If you can’t make it, I’ll be posting my handout of tips on this site for people to download later. It’ll likely be in PDF format. Cheers!
OMFG, it’s sunny. I may actually decide to leave the house today. I love living in Vancouver, but the winters here are so utterly depressing and grey. But this morning, it’s gloriously sunny and snowy with a big clear blue sky. In this situation, the only thing to do is to seize the opportunity and take some photos.
Besides, I’ve been invited to give a talk in March to one of the local spinners and weavers guilds about taking good fibre photos and I thought I should practice… so I at least appear to know what I’m talking about
Last January, I started Michelle’s Great Big Green Blanket project. This January, I’m starting my own blanket project. I fell in love with the Boheme colourway — all saturated magentas, chocolate browns and teddy bear browns — and decided that I want a blanket like this to put in the living room, against our dark, dark chocolate brown leather couch. Little does the DH know that I’m going to re-decorate our living room to include copious amounts of fuschia…
Anyhow, the warp yarn is dyed here in four colours and will be wound soon. A mix of mohair and wool, it will still be springy like Michelle’s blanket but maybe a little more drapey too. The weft will be a dark, saturated wine colour in brushed mohair (980 ypp). With this project, I am going to try warping from front to back… designing in the reed as I go. I don’t like having to design on the warping board because it’s so sequential and linear. Designing in the reed seems a bit more flexible at this point.
And that brushed mohair weft… anyone ever use an end-feed shuttle for brushed mohair? Hmmm… nightmare in the making?
Wow, what a way to start the week. I have good news! There’s a new yarn shop opening up in Vancouver called “three bags full” at 4458 Main Street (between 28th and 29th Avenues)… and they will be the first shop in Vancouver to carry my hand dyed yarn and fibre! There is some Blue Faced Leicester rovings, Superwash Sock yarns, Handpainted Lace yarns and Candy Floss brushed mohair going to the shop next week before their grand opening on Saturday, August 26th. I’m so excited!! (can you tell?)
After meeting with Francesca and Zoe from Three Bags Full, I drove out to Langley to do this:
Lara from greysquare photographics and her assistant, Dan, came to photograph the alpacas at Kensington Prairie Farm in Langley Township yesterday so that I can use them in some print advertising that I’m putting together for Kensington Prairie Farm. So. Much. Fun. We were outside shooting the alpacas from about 6 pm until the sun went down and then inside shooting alpaca product (yarn, scarves, socks, fibre, and my favourite… blankets!) until nearly midnight. The woven alpaca blankets are seriously to die for…
I’ve known Lara since we were both about 12 years old. She had always wanted to go into advertising so it seemed natural that she studied to be a professional photographer. I gotta say it was very cool to finally get to collaborate with her on a project. And it’s a plus that Lara is also a knitter.
Finally, my first post has appeared on Whip Up! This first post, called “Killer Colour”, is all about safe dyeing practices… a good way to start before diving into playing with dyes. Whip Up invited me to write about dyeing and spinning for their site, so I’ll be doing that a couple times a month. The photo at the top of that article as well as this post? The Procion MX handpainted warp? Well, I’ll post about that tomorrow.
Driven by an obsessive, passionate and often tumultuous relationship with colour, Felicia Lo is the owner of SweetGeorgia Yarns, a handpainted yarn and design company based in Vancouver. Founded in 2005, SweetGeorgia Yarns is about intense, relentless and unapologetic colour in luxurious natural fibres and textiles. She writes about all things knitting, spinning, dyeing, and weaving here at sweetgeorgia.
SweetGeorgia Yarns Studio is located at #401-228 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5T 1G5 near the corner of 4th and Main. We're officially open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 am to 6 pm. Other times are available by appointment. Just give us a call!
Missing out on SweetGeorgia Yarns updates? Just add yourself to our list and we'll let you know when something moves.
