Inspired SEVEN member and tapestry weaver on the loose!

July/August is coming up at an incredible speed. Well, speed is relative, but the days do keep disappearing and very soon it is not longer March but April. This means that I have to turn up the heat under myself in the effort of making my ideas for our EXCHANGE exhibit come to life sooner than three days before I have to board the plane and head for Copenhagen.
Today I picked up the glauber salts and the dyes which I had ordered at Gaspereau Valley Fibres, a much visited local yarn and fibre place.


It is not as if I had no dyes already, but it is important to always replenish your stash before you start another big production.
I had spun three ply skeins with different fibres represented in each skein. The original hue or colour of each yarn chosen for the ply was decided upon intentionally for its effect on the final dye result.

The skeins of yarn soaked in the tub  while I was out doing errands and thus when I returned home just before lunch it was nice and easy to put on the big dye-pots and all I had to do was wait for the water to get to a boil

When the two post started steaming I added dyes mixed to my liking and dumped the skeins into the bubbling liquid. I use two large pots at a time since once I am in it, it seems it just cannot go swiftly enough for me.

The next step includes lots of patient stirring and waiting for the water in the dye pots to go clear = for all the dye to be absorbed in the fibres. This can take quite a while so the trick is to have something on the go in your head or a good radio show in your ear.

Sometimes I pour the skeins into 11 liter icecream containers for their cooling period, that way I can get back to dyeing the next lot. It is interesting to watch the un-dyed wetted fibres up close to the newly dyed and vibrant skeins.

 I had  dyed some very small samples of yarn last week in order to see if I was headed down the right path with the dyes and the yarns. I checked it out by weaving and trying out techniques on my small tapestry copper frame  and this is what the sample looks like at this moment in time.

And as a little 'pre-view' to the larger not yet finished tapestry,  this is the initial idea put down with water colours to get a clearer vision of where I really wanted to go with the EXCHANGE exhibit in Denmark at Basal Elin Kunst in Copenhagen, and VærkstedsGalleriet, Kerteminde, my view of walls and surfaces which I have observed and felt inspired by here in Nova Scotia, Canada.



Cheers, Pia
Wonderous Woolerie