Tien Chiu

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New warp + new studio

I’ve been relatively silent the last week or so because I’ve been working on the new warp! It’s a long and tedious process, but I’ve re-wound and re-dyed both warps, and have started putting them onto the loom. This time things are going better, albeit slowly – it takes over 20 minutes to wind a yard of warp, due to stickiness and tangles. (I think my tactical error last time was starting to wind the warp when I was already tired and cranky – my hastiness and irritation helped me botch the winding-on. It’s much easier to be patient when you’re well-rested and well-hydrated!)

Here are some pictures, so you can see the beautiful colors:

2nd red warp going onto the loom
2nd red warp going onto the loom
second blue warp going onto the loom
second blue warp going onto the loom
two warps on the trapeze
two warps on the trapeze

Meanwhile, other major things are happening in the studio. Emmy (my 40-shaft loom) was supposed to go visit a friend for a year or so, but for various reasons that wasn’t able to happen, at least not immediately. So my buddy Alfred and I disassembled her on Sunday and have moved her into storage for awhile. That freed up about half the garage (Emmy is a big girl!), so some major studio rearrangement is happening over the next few days. My indoor studio is moving into the garage, to be replaced with more indoor storage, another desk, and some file cabinets. And then I’m going to totally rearrange the garage. Plans are to finish that this week.

So it’s been a busy week! Watch for photos, both of the new warp and the new studio.

(P.S. for weavers: While making the warps, I discovered an embarrassingly easy way to put on a super-wide bout without tension problems. You simply wind one bout, then split it up into smaller bouts and weight each bout separately when you beam on. As long as you separate the bouts far enough down, they’ll behave just like individually wound bouts. This is handy if you want to dye a wide painted warp without having obvious stripes at the boundary between bouts. Of course, your winding equipment has to be capable of winding a very wide warp without too much build-up at the ends. Fortunately, I have a 3-meter Glimakra warping reel, which handles such tasks with aplomb.)

Comments

  4. >You simply wind one bout, then split it up into smaller bouts and weight each bout separately when you beam on.

    I split the full width of the warp in two, attach an extension cord, throw over the trapeze, then weigh each half with an 8 lb dumbbell. Has never failed me….so far.