Serinde lives up to her name update 27 Aug 2024

[Serinde]

And I was trying to find combinations of colours that might represent clouds. Colours are tricksy things: all you can hope for is to capture that one brief moment.

[Mabel Figworthy]

The middle one makes me think of a beach scene late evening, with the wooden piles of a breakwater in the foreground, the sea lapping at the beach in the middle, and then the dark sky with perhaps the silver gleam of moonlight in it, or the reflection of the last of the light from the sand.

[Serinde]

It could be all these things!

I'm now embarking on a Summer of Tapestry online course (runs until July, although the platform is available "forever"), and as it happens the theme this year is an exploration of colour. Serendipity, I call it.

[Serinde]

And because I am doing this online course, in preparation, I decided to divide all my tapestry wools into one of 24 colour categories and store them that way. Easier to find different colour palettes. (I purchased this useful thing years ago: https://www.handweavers.co.uk/ultimate- ... wolfrom.ir.) Well, the results surprised me, let's just say. No, not because I have SO MUCH tapestry wool from one company, although that's true. It's the preponderance of violets, blue-violets -- which includes shades down to midnight sky which appears nearly black -- and aqua-blue and turquoise blue/cyan with an equally boggling number of yellows, yellow-green, chartreuse, yellow-orange and orange-yellows (which include tints right down to oatmeal and stone). Broadly, these groups happen to be complementaries or (more usually) split complementaries of each other across the colour wheel. I thought I had more reds and red-violets, but I don't. Not to forget the greyscales (white, black, grey). I didn't "plan" any of this. Guess I know what my favourite colours are, eh.

[Mabel Figworthy]

That seems to be very clear!

[Serinde]

Here's the first attempt. There is SO MUCH wrong with this weaving... but I was experimenting with a warp that was, it turned out, too slender for the weft with a sett that was also wrong (should have been 12 warps/inch instead of 7.5). Luckily, you can't tell how "sleazy" (by which I mean thin and lacking body) the fabric is! Worked with the colours I had to hand, so periwinkle blue instead of more of a hyacinth blue. Still, it's meant to be an impression.

The one thing that did work was the use of single strands of DMC embroidery thread in two of the colour mixtures. Photo isn't good enough for you to see it, but that, at least, does work.



based on this photo

[Steam.Jo]

Learning is all about trying stuff and working out what works and what does not. I am sure if you listed what you learnt you will find it is longer than the to be improved list and I am sure you have a better idea of how to go about doing it next time

Jo

[Serinde]

Oh, that's definitely true! When you work with such slow crafts (embroidery, weaving), it's almost impossible to give up a piece. You always think you can salvage it if you do this or that. The next piece is about light, for which I have an idea I'm going to be sketching out. If it works out, I might be able to use a bit more embroidery cotton to enhance the bright bits, too. Might graduate to silk one day.

[Mabel Figworthy]

That's a really interesting impression of the photo, I like the way you have sort of distilled it down to its essence.

[Serinde]

The weaving is tiny: 9x6cm. Not a lot of room for detail! And that's the point, really. Simplification is really hard. one's inclination is to put in so much more detail, but weaving tiny pieces doesn't allow this. I keep thinking like an embroiderer -- imagine the detail I could have included, even in such a small space!

But there are similarities, too. The finer the sett (the space between the warp threads), the more detail that can go in. Just like you can get more detail when stitching on finer count fabric, or (especially?) surface stitching (where the thread count is really high). And then there is the grid, which you can't avoid.

Some people do sudoku to keep their brains active. I weave. Problem solving is just a pleasurable part of it.

[Mabel Figworthy]

This definitely beats sudokus, much as I enjoy those - they are not nearly so decorative

In my canvaswork I have to realise that I simply cannot be as detailed and "painterly" as I could be in surface embroidery or even fine cross stitch, and I am finding it really hard!

[Serinde]

Exactly. It's the same sort of thing. That's where being able to simplify is important.

[Serinde]

Here is another example from the Summer of Tapestry course. This is the prompt: temperature. I'd never really thought about gardens and the colour ranges of hot and cold colours before. I was visiting an open garden a fortnight ago, and had an ah-ha moment. So here is the picture I took in the garden followed by my little weaving (3in sq). It's not meant to be a direct representation (impossible in such a small space and with my lack of technical ability), but I know what it is. Must say, I have fallen in love with the alstroemeria (variety Indian Summer).

[Steam.Jo]

I can see in your piece exactly what the photo shows

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

That is a really clever representation!

[fccs]

I can see in your piece exactly what the photo shows

Jo

I’m late to the game but I totally agree.

[Serinde]

Here's the weaving reflecting the fourth prompt: "looking through". I wish I could show you some of the other solutions -- people are so, so creative. I realised that I need to up my game! I understand (sort of) about transparency in weaving, but it's a curious thing, sort of a combination of optical illusion and suspension of disbelief. But "looking through" was an easier ask!

[Serinde]

And I realise that I never posted the third prompt: growth. I based this on philosophical growth (rather than organic), as the Buchanan Monument is right up the hill from me, and he was responsible (for better or worse) for giving the Reformation in Scotland its intellectual backbone.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I'm not the best person to talk about abstract representations in embroidery (see three years of Canvaswork...) so I was immediately taken with your more representative piece, the monument, which you have captured really well - I love the 3D feel of it!