Art Deco Diamonds

So in a few short weeks, it will be 2020 and a whole new decade. Roll the clock back 100 years and it was the start of the 'roaring 20's'. The world shook off the whole WW1 thing and partied, and enjoyed life again. 

Think Great Gatsby, the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922,  flappers and the Charleston, jazz bands and speak easy's, bobbed hair, cloche hats and shorter skirts.   

I also think of Art Deco.   This unique form of architecture and style started prior to to WW1 but came into its own by 1925  at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925.   One American classic building example is the Chrysler Building on the east side of Manhattan.

In Vancouver, BC, its the Marine Building which was completed in 1930 right after the Great Crash and the start of the Great Depression. It cost 2.3 million to build (in the dollars of the day I might add, and had a cost overrun of 1.1 million) and was sold off cheap for $900,000.   I have been in this building and its amazing! There is literally something unique to see everywhere you look and the front entry way and the elevator doors are works of art. 

We even have an art deco theme with our dining room set with a 1930 replica table. 

So imagine me spotting #68017 at Handweaving.net and seeing this draft that reminded me of classy art deco diamonds  ( now attributed to Jan / USA 2015    “Ulla’s Beautiful Diamonds” )

Soon this draft was in my weaving lineup... and then on the loom!

There were some slight modifications for an edging and border made by me.  This is 10/2 black tencel, sett 28 epi and 8/2 tencel in Pompeii as weft.  I can't say I recommend weaving black warps at  this time of year!  I had lights all around the loom as I threaded and sleyed the reed. Its so darn easy to leave a dent  or  to double sley.

For the second scarf I used 10/2 tencel in a colour called Tussah from Textura Trading from my stash.  All my 10/2 dyed tencel is precious as you can't get it any longer. Only undyed tencel, and I'm not set up to dye my own at this time.

The diamonds wove up just a smidge smaller this time but interestingly when I measured the small inner diamond (or box if you turn your head sideways), the box measured perfectly square in box scarves regardless of the size of the weft yarn used. I can only assume my beat was correct for both!

Now they have been finished for awhile but this time of year with its rainy dark days have not been conducive to taking photographs.  It brightened up a bit today and the sun almost made a full appearance  so I dashed and snapped this pictures.  We have a week's worth of wind and rain ahead according to our weather forecast and I didn't think you or I want to wait another week for a blog post!  😳

My Favourite of the two scarves.  They measure 8 inches by 72 inches.

One take away from finishing these scarves was that manipulating the fringe twister is playing  merry heck with my arthritic wrists and fingers. I'm using a quad fringe twister currently and I seem to twizzle  a lot of fringe over the course of a year. So how can I maximize my efforts and get more done with less effort?

By ordering one of these!

I'm looking forward to giving this big girl a whirl soon and I'll report my findings back here. I'll be able to do a total of 5 doubled bouts at a time.   I'm going to hang onto the quad for now as a back up.

You know, they even make one that has 20 clips!  Nice to know you can upgrade your ride!

Neither Here or There

It feels weird at home right now and I suspect it will for a time to come.  (No matter which house we're in.)  We have started visiting local businesses we frequent and friends in this area and saying good bye.  We went and saw our family Doctor and and caught up on things there too.

In between this we're at home purging closets and cupboards. I'm amazed at what I'm finding as I'm not a fan of keeping stuff and try to  have a relatively clutter free home.  Its like the stuff breeds when the doors are closed.

We sold off our guest room furniture and so now have one (almost) empty room.   We decided to sell our Colonial style dining room set. We bought it second hand in the late 1990's and it was always meant to be a temporary arrangement until we got our ducks in a row and bought something else.  Well, you know how Life is..... the ducks never quite behaved.

Bruce was checking the "Used Nanaimo" web site on line and found a rather unique dining room table and six chairs , and also two hutches / china cabinets for sale.   Some research told us it was a reproduction of a French 1930's Art Deco  model.  (Here's a link to the real deal)  We drove up island and had a look at it.

The table is just over seven feet long and so it will make a lovely set for the dining room.  Gently used and not at new retail pricing!   It will come to our new home in mid October.

We were so excited about this new addition that we stopped at Home Sense on our way home and bought a new rug for underneath.   Now I had some nice comments about the home but a couple did mention the lack of colour.... or vanilla decor.  We may in time add accent colours to some walls but for now we're leaving things as they are.  We'd like get a feel for the place first and add colour by way of  accessories.   So we started with this:

We got one rug that is 5 x 7 and a larger one for under the new table of 9 x 12.    Its made in Belgium and the fibre is lyocell.... or tencel!  Europeans use tencel for bed linens and many other household effects.   I hope to use the smaller one under the dinette.    So we now have an accent colour chosen to liven things up!

I wove off the last scarf on the Louet Spring and they are rolled up and packed. I'll finish them once we are more settled.   I made a big push in the studio to prep as much as I can for the movers.   Bundling up warping sticks and breaking down warping mill and warping boards.   I've taken the loose beams off the Spring and tied the beams up snug.  The studio is an organized mess right now as I work my way from spot to spot around the room.   I think the Megado loom will need a larger take down.

Its my habit to take a photograph of my start of each new project and I do this for a couple of reasons:

• sometimes you simply can't see any threading errors, but the camera finds them. I learned this by sharing a picture with a friend and she gently asked me if I had fixed the error yet?  So with complicated twills, it really helps!
• I also like to work the treadling and create a border and sometimes I create on the fly. Taking a picture at the start is a neat way of recording what I did so I can reverse it at the other end. You only have to forget to write it down once (okay twice), or unwind a whole warp once to find an easier solution!

I have a couple of pictures to share something fibre related with you until we're moved and settled. So remember this?  An eight shaft fancy twill.

I put a new  olive green 8/2 tencel warp on and threaded it just the same as the scarf above. But I wanted to try something different as I have two scarves in this pattern already.  So I worked on some treadling variations and  the first was worked in a snowflake style or twill progression.

On the second scarf, there's a change in weft colour and a change in treadling again.  Just a simple run back and forth across the treadles. There's a slight change at either end of the scarf which will be hi lighted when finally finished. Stay tuned for that. 

So as you can see, you can get a nice variety from one threading.  I demonstrated this once before with this post.

So this is most likely my last post before the move but trust that I will have my camera handy and be snapping some shots to share later on.    See you on the other side!