Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Critiques

The silk fabric is finished, and the shirt sewn.

Here is a cool pic of the warp still on the loom:

silkwarp

And the fabric just off the loom:

silkfabric2

(looks a little stiff, huh?) So I washed it:

silkfabric5

(ah, now it looks more like silk)

Here's a close up:

silkcloseup2

I've been a weaver for close to 30 years, and a member of weaving guilds for almost that long. In that time, I've heard lots of speakers, seen lots of exhibits, and taken lots of workshops. Throughout all of them,I've heard many critiques, both formal and informal, and some speakers whose opinions differed from mine. Over the years, I've heard: *if you are still doing plain weave painted warp, it's boring*, and *top stitching is tacky* and *if you are not warping my way, you are not weaving*, along with the previously mentioned *peasant cloth* comment about my fabrics.

If I had taken these comments to heart, this shirt would not be. It's only because I chose to select what was important to me, out of all the advice given, either sought or not, that I can produce what I want, and what suits me. So here it is, a *tacky*, *boring*, *peasant cloth*, shirt, that must be crocheted, because I don't put a warp on my loom in the manner she presented:

silkshirt

7 Comments:

Blogger Baycolonyfarm said...

Gorgeous! Absolutely Gorgeous!

12:36 PM  
Blogger claudia said...

What about a model shot? C'mon. You know you want to.

1:03 PM  
Blogger judy said...

The colors, the fabric, just blow me away!

1:04 PM  
Blogger Kate Robertson said...

The fabric is just gorgeous. The bad thing about blogs is you can't feel the fabric,yarn etc. I for one am delighted that you ignored all the comments over the years and continued to weave your own way. I would never describe your work as tacky or boring. Actually I think your blog is one of the most inspiring ones I look at.

4:05 PM  
Blogger Freyalyn said...

It's just gorgeous, and gives me something to aim for in my next thirty years as I begin to weave. This is just what I'm aiming for, except mine will be green.

12:26 AM  
Blogger LauraJ said...

Fortunately, you don't seem to take the remarks of nitwits to heart. I hope you do take seriously the remarks of those who love and admire you.

Now, where should I look for a pattern along those lines? I was looking at a bamboo yarn last night that would look very nice on Ellie, but I have never had much time for _knitted_ (except t-shirt gauge) cotton and so forth. (This line of thought leads to charkas, but we won't follow it that far.)

5:37 AM  
Blogger beadlizard said...

There is not a sufficiently grand superlative to describe the beauty of your work!

8:39 AM  

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