For five euros at a yard sale, a fifty year old but like new loom for kids. Isn’t it cute?

J’ai pas pu résister, cinq euros et comme neuf malgré ses 50 ans, un métier à tisser pour enfant.

I was not able to be consistent with my interlocks, you can see in the first picture that a double interlock joint follows a simple one. I fear it will show when the tapestry is finished . Also, I was not able to stick with my first choice of colors, I struggled a lot, and I am now stuck with a whole bunch of colors, and the urgent need to find a solution in order to make this design consistent. I have a radical idea in mind, I still have to finish this row to try it. I have the feeling that Alice and Anita 2 will have a better weaving but a less stronger design than the first one. That’s all part of the learning process.

Manque de cohérence, que ce soit dans les liures du bord ou dans le choix des couleurs. Ca va être une sacrée galère d’arriver à faire un tout avec beaucoup trop de teintes. J’ai une idée un peu radicale, je l’essaierai à la fin de la rangée. C’est en forgeant…..

• 

• 

I don’t know where they come from, I don’t know what they are made of, I don’t know what they were made for. These tiny objects have been with me for years now.

Encore une petite énigme, d’ou viennent ces petits objets, en quoi sont-ils faits?

• 

I didn’t feel like working on my projects, too tired. So I decided to sample some of the yarns I got. These ones are leftovers of yarn shops, they are sold on sale in a hangar near my place. I warped my loom with linen, and despite my efforts, the warp is not even. I like to weave with a linen warp. I put a tag with each yarn, in order to find them easily, as some of them look alike. I will continue with the Vancouver yarns. I particularly appreciate the brown/mauve cotton, and the light blue cotton. The cream wool is great too. The very white cotton is a pain in the neck.

J’avais la flemme de me mettre à mes projets, alors j’ai commencé à tisser des échantillons de fils que je trouve dans un hangar de laines en solde pas loin de chez moi.

I spent the summer in Canada, and came back with a bunch of yummy yarns. I don’t know what I will do with these wonderfuls threads, I have to wind and sample them to get an idea. For sure, some will stay for months or years in their boxes. Doesn’t matter, yarns are like books, they patiently wait till you’re ready for them.

J’ai rapporté pas mal de différentes fibres du Canada, soie, coton, chanvre. Il va falloir que je fasse des échantillons pour voir ce qu’elles donnent.

Not exactly a loom, more a large frame, one of the millions old looms in the world. It has now a new home, I washed it, waxed it and mounted it with the help of Celina and Olivier. I was first disappointed because I was told that such a large frame without tensioning system wouldn’t do for tapestry. I then found online a wonderful artist and kind person, Louise Oppenheimer, https://www.louiseoppenheimer.com/, who has been working for years on simple large frames, and who gave me confidence. Also that night, instead of sleeping, I decided to warp my loom for a try. Here it is!

Un nouveau métier, ou plutôt un cadre, car il n’a pas de système de tension. Mais voir le travail de Louise Oppenheimer qui travaille sur de simples cadres me met en confiance, et j’ai monté la chaîne cette nuit, pour essayer.

Celina admires this artist, and she is planning to pay hommage to him in a tapestry. She did this sample to try her hand at windows. She first considered to make them with soumak ( the bottom window) but after seeing the hommage to Louise Martin woven by my friend Jon, she decided to go with slits. I can’t wait to see the whole piece but it will take some time because as me Celina has a full time job).

Célina va se lancer dans un hommage à Hunderwasser, elle a tissé ces fenêtres en échantillon , les lignes verticales sont en soumak pour celle du bas, et indiquées par des fentes dans celle du haut ( comme dans une tapisserie de Jon), ce sera son choix final. J’ai hâte de voir la tapisserie terminée, mais ce n’est pas pour tout de suite!

You may know, if you follow that blog, that I spent this summer weaving Link, who is the a character of the LoZ. My daughter made this fanart piece, that I fell in love with, and I decided to weave it. ( You can find the original digital art here)

I first made my cartoon, choose my wools, and begun to weave in June, I finished this summer in the parks of Toronto.

When I showed it to my daughter, ske liked it, but made some remarks that made me want to do it again. I will detail them below the picture.

1- The weaving doesn’t follow the line of the drawing

2- This part is not the skin, but the hair, souldn’t be different from the sides.

3- You can’t recognize that it is a little woman

4- You don’t see that the background is a castle

5-the value of the top of the hair is too light

6- This part is too complicated, it’s only the hair, should be one color

7-It was not necessary to line the eyebrows. ( But it should have been great to line the eyes on the top too)

8-There was a shrinkage at the end.

So I tried to take all her remarks in consideration ( but I must admit I forgot some of them, and that sometimes I didn’t follow her prescription because it didn’t seem right to me: for example, she thought the purple was unnecessary, I found it fundamental). Even if it doesn’t show on the photos, all the colors are the same except the deep green of the Hoarin Link 2 (they may sometimes be arranged differently). Here is the result.

I am sure that the weaving of Link 2 is much better. But some parts of each are better than the other’s. I had fun doing that, and if I didn’t have a full time job, I would do a third one.

Which one do you prefer? You will find below pictures of the process, and some details.

Mes chers amis français, c’est trop long de tout traduire donc en bref: deux versions d’un Fanart de ma fille à partir du personnage de Link du jeuLegend of Zelda.

I found this as usual in a flea market, in Paris, about 6 years ago, sweet memories of this moment shared with my mother and my niece Aina.

This piece of textile is beautifully and neatly framed (7×10 cm) with exotic wood and silver. The design has a forties ( or sixties?) look to me. But I don’t know what is this textile so carefully sealed. Antic Peruvian? If one of my readers have a clew, I would be glad to hear it.

J’ai trouvé ce textile très soigneusement encadré de bois et d’argent au marché d’Aligre, il y a environ 6 ans. Si quelqu’un a une idée de l’origine de ce tissage, merci de la partager

• 

• 

It’s a place in Toronto where a 1850 village has been re-created. You can learn more here.

I had the chance to see there an outside exhibition of quilts, more info there.

I wil never make quilts, but as often, I’m in awe of human skills and creativity.

Une fabuleuse expo de patchworks à Toronto.