A few years back I was fortunate to be able to take a workshop from Sarah Swett called "Tapestry on a Box". I had seen her article called "Weaving on a Box" in the Winter 1997 Spin-Off and was anxious to try it myself. It was a great workshop and I ended up making an interesting little bag, to which I added rings and a strap. I particularly liked the technique of using eccentric weft to create a sort of freeform flow to the color segments.
Sometime later I was asked to do a workshop on textiles for a troop of Girl Scouts. In addition to kool-aid dyeing yarn, and teaching them to identify what is a textile vs. what isn't, each girl wove a small pouch around a cardboard loom. To prepare for the workshop I created a sample pouch. I used misc. ends and bits of handspun, and wove a sort of landscape, inspired by the lake filled Washoe Valley, south of Reno.
I used this same technique to solve an organizational quandry at work. I needed something to hold a stack of my business cards that could be attached to the wall just inside my office door. An envelope taped to the wall was just a little too mundane for me. So I wove a small pouch around a piece of cardboard. I stuck the hook side of Velcro tape to the wall, and just pushed the pouch onto the velcro. It works great and adds a touch of uniqueness to my office.Soon I hope to get around to weaving a mousepad.
3 comments:
What a great business card holder! I'm not so sure about the mouse pad though, the fibers might not be compatible with electronics... just sayin'
Thanks!
As for the mousepad, my mouse is optical, so there is no roller ball to collect fibers. I have tried using a sample I wove on my miniature Navajo loom and it worked fine, but was too small. I am also thinking about knitting and fulling a laptop bag, but the loose-fuzz-getting-into-important-orifices problem does worry me. I don't like sewing, but I might have to make an exception and put a smooth fabric liner inside.
These are great ideas to get people weaving. I love your little bags.
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