Bryony Studio

Last week I mentioned the new series "Beyond the Scarf", and its focus on creating items beyond straight garments. Two Scarves, Wool and Cotton Scarves, of course, can be practical, useful items. I live in Western New York (near Buffalo), and a good scarf in the middle of winter is a valuable accessory, but I can only wear so many scarves at once, and with my coat, I only need one or two scarves, yet I enjoy weaving. Now, however, I'm working on ways I can move beyond simple scarves. Some of the items I've used scarf width (10" at the max) material for include: Dishcloths Runners Purses/clutches Totes Dress Coat Shirt Some of the items are easier to make such as dishcloths - all you need to do is cut them down so they form a fat rectangle. After the cloth is hemmed, it should form a square. Purses, clutches and totes are all easy to make as well, depending on how items are made. I often use my scrap fabric for clutches, but for purses and tot...

Over the winter, I've been working on weaving up lengths of fabric, trying to decide what to do with most of it. Beginning on Tuesday, I'm going to start a new series called, "Beyond the Scarf." What I found frustrating when I was learning how to weave was the many 'beginner' projects included items I never used - table runners, table mats, scarves and other items. I've always enjoyed making my own clothes, and surprisingly, very little fabric is needed to make clothes. This poncho was made from cloth woven on a rigid heddle loom, but I've learned I can create other items that are both attractive and beyond the boxy cuts we usually associate with handwoven fashion.

It's been a crazy little while focusing on writing books, but I've been able to have some time to weave. Currently, focusing on producing lengths of material, primarily for scarves. Over the past year, I purchased a bunch of cones of yarn, and while I used most of them, I have some half-filled cones of yarn. To that end, I've been working through the yarn to see what I can create. It's proved interesting seeing how I can use the yarn. Unfortunately, it seems when I finish the warp, I need more yarn for the weft. Such is the problem with weaving. Also, I'm working on creating cotton warp with chenille weft projects. It'll be interesting to see if I can use the cotton/chenille material for clothes. On a side note, the book I'm currently working on has a main character who is a weaver. Some of the items I'll be focusing on over the next few months is creating items connected to the book.

One of the things most weavers have after awhile is a collection of leftover yarn. It's easier to purchase cones of yarn, but I rarely use all the yarn for a project. Now I have bits and bobs of various colors. Not all the colors go together, but sometimes they do. In this case, since it's getting close to March, and I had a lot of green, I opted to play with the greens. Ended up emptying two more cones just in the warp. I chose a rich forest green as the primary color (both for the warp and weft). With the forest color, I alternated another four colors: serenity, olive, teal and sea green. Out of the five colors, serenity was the only one not technically green, but was actually a pale blue. You can see it in the photograph above (second color on the left). While weaving, however, the blue blends in with the other colors quite well. I put on about five yards of warp, which should turn into a couple of scarves, one of which could be extra long. I won't know for cert...

Two weeks ago, I warped up my loom with a new length of material. Weaving the lace at 10 dpi left an open and airy fabric, very lightweight and beautiful. As you can see, it is rather open, though not as much as I thought it would be. I have about six yards of material. Four of the pieces I wove off at shorter lengths, intending them to be made into a skirt later. What I hadn't expected was the shrinkage after washing the material. What was originally about twenty-four inches shrank to a little over eighteen inches. Yet, despite the surprises, I think this will wind up making beautiful garments. I think it would make a good summer top, or with a contrasting layer underneath, it would make a wonderful gown or skirt. I look forward to see what I can use this material for, and how it could be made with different materials.

One of the things I love about weaving is the ability to experiment. It's fun trying different fibers, weave structures and color combinations. Currently, I'm working on an open weave structure based upon weaves from previous designs. The original version was like the ones above: lace weave done in cotton at 12.5 dpi. I had woven something similar at a wider spacing (7.5 dpi) with cotton and wool. The photograph below shows what happens with wool and cotton.     What I wanted to discover is if the same process would work at a 10 dpi. In other words, would I be able to make an attractive fabric with a wider lace design? Ideally, the project will turn into a dress, but I'll have to see how it washes up first.   Hopefully, it will turn out somewhat like I thought it would be. 

So I ended last year with a warp, a beautiful burgundy warp of chenille and cotton. My intention was to turn it into a tunic of some sort, but it ended up being a Christmas present. Ah well, sometimes things happen, I've learned. One of my biggest surprises for Christmas was receiving a dressmaker's dummy. Very excited about this because now I can start to design clothes with the material I weave up. I currently have material on the dummy as I write, but I'm still mulling over the design. I have great respect for fashion designers who can make beautiful garments for the masses. I'll post photographs later on. I hope everyone has a happy new year.

Well, I finished the project. Turned out to be a shirt, and not a dress, however. Oh well. Lessons learned, right? Front of shirt Here's a shot of the front of the shirt. This was woven with 8/2 cotton at 12.5 epi (ends per inch) on my 12" loom. Actual weaving width on loom is around 11.5". Once washed, the material shrank to 10" wide. Overall, I had around one yard of the lighter colored material (that on top) and two yards of the darker material (that on the bottom). I use a mixture of peach, teaberry and rust colors to create the warp, but I only used peach and teaberry to weave. Coral was the lighter color and teaberry the medium pink in the shirt. Back of shirt What I discovered while creating the shirt surprised me. First of all, I it's surprising what you can make out of three yards of 10" material. As you can tell, I ran out of fabric for my sleeves. Second, it proved interesting putting the items together. It's definitely one o...

As part of the December challenge I made for myself, I finally finished weaving the fabric. Yeah! Now, it's waiting to go into the laundry. The next phase, of course, is designing the dress. Once the fabric is washed, I'll be able to see how much material I have. Currently, it's almost three yards, maybe a little more, but it will shrink once it is washed. No, the cones above are not the finished colors for the dress, but they are the next project. Each year I make the majority of my Christmas presents. My sister wants a throw blanket for her apartment, and the cones are the colors she chose. Honestly, the warp is beautiful, even if I did have to add an olive color to the mixture since I ran out of the 8/2 cotton yarn (the one on the right). Still, since the yarn I bought for her is a shade greener than the computer shows, it's turned out well. Do you make anything for Christmas, or do you purchase handcrafted items for friends and family?

This month, a group called Dessember (check out the website here ) focus their attention on ending human trafficking. The point of Dessember is to raise awareness and money specifically for International Justice Mission. Personally, I think it's a brilliant way to do something besides raise awareness. Often times, myself included, all we're able to do is talk about human trafficking, but this is one way to do something tangible. After all, few of us will go on trips to rescue slaves or spot someone being trafficked in our community. Awareness, however, is important, and if that's all we can do, then proceed. Yet, I wanted to try something in honor of Dessember. For someone who hasn't worn dresses often since college, I don't have a lot of dresses neither do I have money to buy dresses. What I do have is material, some handwoven, and some store bought. This month, my goal is to make one dress from handwoven material. Not the material in the poncho above, bu...

I have to admit, any time I can weave is a good time (unless I'm dealing with one of Helen the Loom's moods, but that's an entirely different situation). The past two weeks therefore, have been painful to say the least. First weekend in November, I ended up twisting both my knee and my ankle. Even for weaving on a rigid heddle loom, it takes you're entire body to weave. I realized I wouldn't be able to weave on the floor looms, but it never occurred to me I wouldn't be able to weave on the rigid heddle loom. I mean, there is no foot control whatsoever on the loom. Yes, but to keep the loom from wiggling around as I wove, I needed to keep both feet on the base, and apply pressure. Thank God I'm able to walk without crutches and apply a little pressure to the loom. I have Christmas presents to weave. Over the remainder of this year, I'm going to focus a little bit more on clothing design instead of just accessories. We'll see how it goes, but i...

One of the hardest things I do is not so much difficult as it is not a habit ... yet. What is this, you ask? Keeping a journal. The Swatch Journal A journal?! If you've visited here on a regular basis, you'll probably remember I'm also a writer by profession (check out the blog, here ) Subsequently, writing should be something I do naturally, but it isn't. The primary reason is simply the process involved with writing the journal. Today, I'm going to focus on three different journals a weaver keeps: a swatch journal, idea journal and finished projects. For each of these, you'll need a journal, pen, pencils, glue and whatever else you want to make the journal yours. The journals may be a book, like the ones I'll show in here, or they can be a notebook, or even a file on your computer, tablet or phone. Swatch Journal or the Weaver's Journal This journal, like the one shown above, is a record of what I've woven. In this journal, I keep a r...

Not much going on today in regards to weaving, so I wanted to let you see a beautiful Fibonacci scarf in black and orange.

On Wednesday, I introduced the concept of creating a color palette. Today, I'm going to focus on the next step: choosing yarns. Once you have the palette, you need to choose the yarn or fabric based upon the theme. If your local store doesn't have colors available, the Internet often provides a good choices as well. For me, I like using my local weaving store's yarn supply, so while I have a palette available, it is often a guideline for the colors. In the Rocky Weed colors above, I don't have those exact colors, but I have a close proximity to each color.  One way you can expand your colors is by thinking a little outside the box of colors. For example, in the selection of yarn colors I have, I don't have any grays, but I do have blues and greens that would work for gray. The next step is to mix the yarns together. At this point, you can travel many paths, but two primary ones are whether or not to include textural inspiration from the photograph. In...

This coming Saturday is the end of the Saturday Artisan Market fair season for 2014. All in all, it's been a good year for me. As the autumn season progress into winter, I'm taking into account what I've done, what I can do better, and how I can learn from my year. Probably has something to do with closing season, my birthday last week, and general changes in the season. Would you believe that yesterday we hit almost 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Western NY? Today, we're to be in the 60's. Kylemore Abbey, Co. Galway, Ireland, 2007 The winter also brings more time for writing and weaving. Writing includes books I need to finish, whereas weaving provides time for experimenting and seeing what it is I can do on my looms. Also means I finally have time to repair the floor looms ... hopefully. Do you have any winter weaving projects? How about weaving related adventures or writing? Leave a comment, I'd love to talk with you.

I've recently posted about how I'm using cotton for my warp and chenille for my weft in a series of scarves, ponchos and wraps ( here ), but I haven't mentioned using chenille for both warp and weft. There is good reason - I rarely do. Rayon Chenille Scarf This is an up-close photograph of a chenille scarf I wove a year or two ago. Notice the lovely sheen to it. Compare it to the cotton/chenille mixture below in a side-by-side shot: Rayon Chenille and Cotton/Chenille Scarves While the cotton/chenille scarf is beautiful, the full chenille scarf is both more luxuriant and softer to the touch. It also drapes better, almost like a silk, howbeit a fairly heavy silk. The other major difference between the two scarves is the weight - the full chenille is heavier. Over Appleumpkin weekend, I had a lady place an order for a scarf: it had to be purple, and she preferred the full chenille scarf opposed to the mixture. I purchased my cones of yarn (a pound was needed...

Since 2009, I've been showing at Appleumpkin, a small fair in the village of Wyoming in Western NY. Once again this year, I will have a booth set-up on Route 19 (South Academy Street) with handwoven goods, hand bound journals and, of course, books to sign. Everything begins at 10 am and goes until 5 pm both Saturday and Sunday. Find me at the blue dot below. Once in Wyoming NY, I'll be across from the Middlebury Historical Society and next door to the Village Hall.

First, some news: the Saturday Artisan Market at Canalside didn't go as planned for the second time this month. We're on the terminal end of the Erie Canal before it goes into Lake Erie, and wind is always an issue. The last two Saturday Artisan Markets have had sustained winds in the 20 mph range - not good for tents, let me assure you. However, we will be there (providing the winds die down) the first three Saturdays of October should anyone want to come visit. I'll be at Appleumpkin in Wyoming NY this weekend. Now, the news aside, onto the scheduled post: Moonlight over Deep Waters. So, this poncho (which I think is gorgeous by the way) was partly inspired by my book, Azure Maris . The book cover is a link that leads you to the Amazon website where I do earn a little money off the clicks. For those who haven't had a chance to visit my Bridgette ni Brian site, and learn about Azure, she is a mermaid princess-priestess from the kingdom of Deep Waters. The po...

Probably like many people, I like the feel of soft and luxurious chenille. I have a purple scarf I wove up last year made with rayon chenille for both warp and weft. It has a nice weight and drape to it, but I don't have as much yardage on one of my chenille cones of yarn as I do with the 8/2 cotton I use. A couple years ago, I saw an advertisement in Handwoven's magazine about a bath towel using chenille and cotton (weft and warp respectively). The idea stuck, so I ended up trying it out on a smaller scale. Rayon Chenille and Cotton Cones The rayon chenille has 1450 yards/pound while the 8/2 cotton has 3300 yards/pound. The colors are respectively, Spruce and Teal. The chenille runs about $10 per pound and the 8/2 cotton at $8 per pound at Daft Dames in Akron NY, my local yarn store. Chenille is one of those yarns that needs to be woven securely in that there are now loose strands. Once going through the wash, the chenille will lose the fuzzy part that makes the chen...

Most people, when they consider art, very rarely consider science. For most people, indeed, the two fields of Arts and Sciences are on opposite sides of the spectrum. They are as equally opposite as reason and emotion are. Art is emotional, not logical; science is logical, not emotional. I happen to come from a family balanced in art and science, much to my chagrin in school. I tended towards literature, history and, of course, art. I did well in my science classes, and okay in math, but I struggled the older I grew because the math became more difficult. Oddly enough, I still enjoyed science and math, I just didn't understand it. Only until recently, did I realize part of my trouble with my math and science classes was the application  of it - I didn't understand the why, so I couldn't memorize the equations. Halloween Fibonacci Scarf Art owes a great deal to science, even as science owes a great deal to art. There are stories of serendipity from science even as ...