Monday 15 September 2008

There's nothing like finality, part 2.

I finally got around to hanging an art piece that's been ready to go on my wall for months. This started life as a sample scarf, using an overshot draft to weave hand-dyed and hand-spun silk cap into 60/2 silk. I'd wanted to see what difference 60/2 silk would make compared to the 20nm-ish rayon I'd been using (I know it sounds a travesty to weave silk cap into rayon, but I have a lot of it and it gives such a lovely hand). The answer was that while one silk cap was more than enough for a scarf woven into the rayon, the increased number of ppi allowed by the 60/2 silk meant that this "scarf", at 1.2m long (if I recall correctly), was just a little too short to be a proper scarf. You could wear it as a scarf, but being much shorter than my preferred 1.8m it wasn't going to feel right. It was still a lovely piece however, so I decided that it ought to be the first piece I've made, to go on my wall. So I sewed it around a dowel and it's stayed dangling from the mantle of the fireplace for ages, because the hacksaw is hidden somewhere in a very full tool shed that I didn't organise. Far too full for me to want to rummage through, looking for one.

It was a stunningly beautiful autumn day yesterday so I spent the day working in the garden. Because he had the saw out, my partner offered to cut the dowel for the scarf. So when I came inside, I found this lovely little scroll sitting on the loom:



From there, hanging it was as simple as tying some invisible sewing thread around the dowel and draping it over the doorbell chime so the scarf appears to be hanging in mid-air. No need for even so much as a nail. This is now hanging on the patch of wall that faces the front door. It's now going to be the first thing that greets anyone who enters the house.


Job done. Now it just needs a really good press...but that's a job for another time.

2 comments:

  1. What a great idea for the "almost" scarf. I agree it is too lovely not to have out to admire, and you found the perfect place for it.

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  2. Thanks, Leigh. I did consider using Meg's idea of turning it into Christmas cards, but couldn't bear to cut it up.

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