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balgarvieweaving

Lately it’s all been about business development

Lately it’s all been about business development but today I was distracted whilst making, restocking galleries now that it’s officially woolly weather! these will be a couple of dozen Pictish inspired coin purses #smallbusinessuk #smallscaleproduction #everyoneunique #picktishdesign #madeinscotland

Day 20 of #septtextilelove and the prompt from @se

Day 20 of #septtextilelove and the prompt from @seam_collective today is newfound skill. Ive been lucky to have been picked to host a travelling espinner from @daedalusspinningwheels it’s a wonderful tool allowing even me to make a regular singles yarn. Hopefully I’ll be able to do justice to the multicoloured Brockie Cheviot fleece that would normally be cast aside as waste ( can’t help coloured lambs being born) as it is not processable in industry into yarn. The wooden yarn production process needs only white wool that they can be bleach into uniformity then level dyed to suit the consumers demands for a “perfect “ cloth I hope to offer an alternative to the mass production. Back in the day every mill town had its own spinners. Now there is little infrastructure left here and with lead times of 12+ months from artisan spinning mills this could be the way forward for my wee business. An affordable solution buy once and use year on year making yarn production part of my seasonal process. It’s a fabulous tool although I am thinking of homing a bigger brother and working on manifesting a wee flock to allow folks not only to learn but also to hire to produce their own yarn for weaving or knitting or anything else they wish yarn for. Ideas on how to do that from the collective would be most welcome 🙏

Day 18 #septtextilelove the prompt today is geomet

Day 18 #septtextilelove the prompt today is geometric from @seam_collective Well as a weaver working on a flat plain with straight lines and repeating patterns geometry does have to be an interest at least. I don’t have a mathematical background or one of science but I have a curiosity, which I believe is always a good thing. I’m hooked mainly on sacred geometry to be honest how spiritual beliefs and geometry coincide from every religion really. The images are from something I’m contemplating at the moment. It’s based on the Fibonacci sequence, the golden ratio, found in nature although it’s not the spiral usually associated with this I thought it would be good to base my design on. Thinking of using ore than just the first few numbers but not sure about the integrity of the cloth then again it might open up even more possibilities???? #whatif #somethingforthefuture

Day 17 of #septtextilelove with the prompt structu

Day 17 of #septtextilelove with the prompt structure by @seam_collective I love a structure called deflected double weave you could say it’s a wee obsession since finding it 30+ years ago I love the bold pattern possibilities of a true double cloth with the lightness of a single cloth plus the tactile textures of the wool l use or a combo of fibres to give differential shrinkage- but I can weave any other way of intersecting warp and weft If you are a gallery who wishes a bespoke batch of scarves exclusively for yourself or are a farmer wishing to diversify or add value to your fleece I’m happy to weave at a fair price for you. #lifeofaweaver #smallbatchproduction

2,222 sales thank you 🙏❤️

2,222 sales thank you 🙏❤️

Day 25 prompt from @seam_collective #septtextilelo

Day 25 prompt from @seam_collective #septtextilelove Sketch book. I generally have more than one on the go at any one time. This is a flick though one more of d place to save weaving samples, drafts and thoughts. Not particularly neat or organised let alone beautiful

Prompt 14 from @seam_collective #septtextilelove

Prompt 14 from @seam_collective #septtextilelove Floral. The origin of this #deflecteddoubleweave was not only floral in colour also in design. A direct inspiration also was historical weaving call “ blooming leaf” found in German and American tradition weaving remade in a my contemporary woven structure

Prompt 13 line I love how the lines are able to m

Prompt 13 line I love how the lines are able to morph as I weave playing at the loom to find new “pattern” combos

I’ve a few days of #septtextilelove to catch up

I’ve a few days of #septtextilelove to catch up with this is from prompt 12 mark making. Some scrafito and some bleach on ink from one of my sketch books I do love doodling with no specific purpose but it will come out somewhere #lifeofaweaver @seam_collective

Day 11 #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Detai

Day 11 #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Detail. Weaving is such a mindful craft with attention to detail in every step of the process all needs to be just so that the final outcome,the finished cloth, is a good one This picture is the lease sticks with the warp being wound onto the back beam before I can finish dressing the loom I like the soft light highlighting the 4 light 4 dark of the repeat #lifeofaweaver

Day 10 catch up for #septtextilelove by @seam_coll

Day 10 catch up for #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Fibre I’m a Champion for natural true fibres if I’m to “ put cloth out into the world “ I need it to sit right with my soul it takes a fair bit of effort to make a handloom woven cloth. I don’t want to use synthetic or regenerate fibres. The picture is from my friend the shepherd these are his Cheviot sheep. It’s a pic of the gathering you see these sheep are custodians of the land they are hefted generations of knowledge passed from ewe to lamb. Wool is the perfect cloth for us to use in our environment our climate because it was grown in this place. I use it in its beautiful natural colours.

Day 9 catch-up #septtextilelove from @seam_collect

Day 9 catch-up #septtextilelove from @seam_collective Colour. My new collection and the way forward for me is to work with the natural coloured Cheviot wool in celebration of the whole fleece to have my own palette with my home grown plant dyes. How the fleece takes up the pigment to give subtle hues Orange this year from the biannual madder that’s done great this year😀 I feel my whole journey has come to this point #happyweaver

Day 8 of #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Sti

Day 8 of #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Stitch. The first photo is of my “stitch” collection after I designed it I realise how like sashiko and borro stitching although it was made independently ( I am fascinated anyway how the same designs throughout history are in do many cultures). I like how I can morph the patterns. I did an apprentice really with a Savil row trained tailor after the woollen mill I was an assistant designer in went into receivership like so many in the 90s so I can sew therefore I make all my purses, bags and of course the new developments of my hand seamed in the raw to give a very secure finish utilising the strong handloom woven selvedge

Day 7 of #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Edg

Day 7 of #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Edge. Well us weavers have many edges and a good selvedge is a sign of all your handloom weaving skills. I have 3 main edges a hand twisted fringe, a true selvedge and a doupe de loop cut selvedge. The first image is my recent project where the piece reflects a dark tunnel going into the light, my edges being dark the weave morphing ( as our lives have during this pandemic) coming into the light centre. There is also a pic of a garment I’m developing we’re I sew the fabric in the greasy state with the same yarn as I wove it with utilising the strong selvedge. Once washed it makes a strong seam. I’m still to master my edges at design school our samples were cut upend displayed so I didn’t learn as much as I could about dressings loom correctly ( oh the impetuous youth) with every respect warp I improve( mainly) #handloomwoven

Day 6 of #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Reve

Day 6 of #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Reverse
This is my day ….
The best thing for me from my #deflecteddoubleweave #handloomwovencloth is that the face and the reverse are equally beautiful #twolooksinone #twosidedcloth

Day 5 #septtextilelove by @seam_collective trying

Day 5 #septtextilelove by @seam_collective trying things out. Well I’m in flux at the moment on the cusp upscaling and honouring the fleece Trying to make a viable product that can be accessed by many all about production effort v cost #lifeofaweaver #tryingsomethingnew #wayforward #makeitlast #soiltoskin #soiltosoil #hilltohome #smallbatchproduction #rightformthesoul

Day 4 of #septtextilelove Method/ technique. Aft

Day 4 of #septtextilelove Method/ technique. After working in industry I wanted to work more with my hands. My technique allows every cm of the yarn I use goes through my hands both warp and weft, more so with my current project where I sort, wash, dye then spin before the weaving begins. A complete opposite to mass produced. It results in a very different cloth #smallbatchproduction

Day 3 of #septtextilelove an project by @seam_coll

Day 3 of #septtextilelove an project by @seam_collective to allow folks to share their textile practice. my whole journey has come to this point. Trained in the heart of the once thriving Scottish woollen industry where fields were full of sheep, wool for the mills many of my friends and family all employed either by the mills directly or on the land as herds / farmers all most all gone now. Heart braking to see once profitable farms “ put to the plough” making way for tree plantations and lately plans for Scotlands biggest wind farm in the valley I used to live in …. The farmers were stewards of the land, the fauna and flora .whilst we import vast amounts of essentially plastic clothes! So I wish to celebrate wool not just any wool as there is no cloth more suited to our environment or more organic than hill reared sheep perfect cloth for our climate I wish to highlight the beautiful coloured fleece that is essentially waste,can’t help coloured lambs being born! as there is no market for it fetching pence per kg less than it costs to sheer for good animal husbandry. There little infrastructure left for processing wool here with wait times for the few left over a year I might have bitten a big bite !Im going to spin my own yarn this way I can select parts of a fleece darker or lighter hopefully to have a gradient of blacks, browns and greys truly celebrating the whole fleece. Alongside I’ve been growing in my garden madder, a ancient rose red natural plant dye, which is a biannual and is ready to harvest now. All that being said, currently today I’ve been mordanting border Cheviot fleece to dye with madder #lifeofaweaver

Day 2 of #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Dis

Day 2 of #septtextilelove by @seam_collective Discipline/craft. I’m a handloom weaver. Collectively I do believe we are so used to textiles in our everyday day lives we have lost connection with not only the fibres used but the whole process of making cloth and use it almost as a disposable commodity. Hopefully I will be able this month to reconnect you the viewer and examine the textiles you have in your world and inform so you can make good textile choices in the future My weaving is an alternative to the mass production synthetic raw materials. I use only natural fibres, mainly local, if I’m to put cloth into the world I need it to be right, honest and from my soul.

Hello to all my followers old and new. I don’t u

Hello to all my followers old and new. I don’t usually post a pic of myself but today is different I’m going to take part again in #septtextilelove by @seam_collective so today is day 1 and I’d like to introduce myself. Hello again I’m Janet Hughes I’m a trained textile designer in industrial design (woven textiles) from the then Scottish college of Textiles in Galashiels. Many moons ago and it was after years teaching at FE college and latterly as an artist in residence for the mental health team at Fife NHS (as there is virtually no textile industry left in Scotland well not the same as when I worked in it in the 90s and it was a rewarding way to share my skills and “make a difference “ to folk’s lives) that I took the step to set up my own garden weave studio here in fife. I work only in natural fibres on two traditional wooden handlooms a big full sized 1970s Glimakra and a single width AVL I like to experiment with weave structures and have an aversion to 2/2 I guess after working in a border tweed mill - I like to use the mirada of other ways to intersect warp and weft as production looms do twill better faster and cheaper than I could and to be honest it’s fun to do something a bit different figuring out colour and weave effects too oh ! & I’ve recently embarked on my hill to home , soil to skin traceability from sheep through spinning and weaving from my friends coloured “waste” Cheviot sheep fleece- long story I hope to share here. Come say hello I’m looking forward to sharing and meeting new folks this month thanks 🙏 jan x

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