A Landscape in Weave

June 2014

Finally after over 340 hours of weaving over a few months my Navajo landscape strips were complete and ready for the exhibition at the American Museum in Bath. 

‘Erosion’

Jan Kinsman

Weaving: mixed media, linen, cotton, silk, wool and steel.

1m x 2m

Inspired by the many beautiful Navajo blankets and rugs at the museum, I have become very interested with the history of the Navajo and their weaving.

I  chose to depict the ‘Long Walk of the Navajos’ as a woven landscape in three strips, to represent the hardship and loss of life they endured when, in 1863, they were forced from their sacred homeland in Arizona, to walk over 300 miles to the Bosque Redondo Reservation in New Mexico . Over 2,000 Navajo died from ill treatment, exhaustion, disease and starvation during the walk and the four years in which they were incarcerated on the Reservation.

Combining Navajo weaving techniques with my investigations into the rusting of metal, the strips of weave diminish in colour and texture to echo the gradual erosion of the Navajo’s spirit and health. The rusting metal stands as a metaphor for their diminishing strength.

Navajo's 'Long Walk' in weave

After approximately 90 hours of weaving my first strip is complete. I have used two pieces of steel spaced out across the length of this strip, 176 cm X 13 cm. 

A mixture of cotton, silk and woollen yarns have been blended in mainly rich reds through to burnt oranges.

This strip is the most time consuming as I have woven with fine yarns at half centimetre spacing. 

Some texture has been incorporated by varying the thickness and number of yarn threads.





Detail showing mixed yarns.

So far so good, I am very pleased with the result.
Now on to strip number two which will have more texture and rusty metal.

Eccentric weave

Weaving the first strip is well under way now and the heddle bar has certainly made the weaving easier. I have based my first design on the patterns of rust appearing on my steel strips, combined with a variation of Navajo style weaving techniques and the colours of both rust and the  landscape of Arizona.

As the weaving progressed I incorporated one of the strips of steel, that I had not yet rusted, to reflect the strength and courage of the Navajo race. 

The metal was woven in at a wider warp spacing than the weave to secure it in place and the warp threads were dyed a rustic colour to compliment the rest of the work.

Detail of metal strip showing warp spacing.

Later  strips will be added across the weave, gradually becoming more rusted as the landscape progresses, to represent the Navajo's deterioration of health.

Landscape in weave

Making America Exhibition

I have at last started my exhibit for the American Museum 'Making America' exhibition to be held in June this year. Inspired by the beautiful Navajo rugs in the museum and the history of the 'Long walk' of the Navajos to the Bosque Redondo reservation in New Mexico back in the 1860's, my piece will be in the form of three long strips of narrow weave to reflect the 300 miles of the journey they undertook.

This is a rough guide to the colours I intend to use beginning with fine vibrant reds and oranges, going through to more medium oranges and yellows and finishing with coarser pale yarns in  siennas and grey.

The first strip begins with my version of a Navajo design. Using the colours red black and white in distorted diamond bands that will travel the landscape.

Professional Practice Module

Professional Practice Module

For this module, I with several other students, had to plan and run an exhibition based on a common theme. Our title was 'It's About Time' and each of us interpreted the theme in our own way by producing a piece of work for the exhibition. 
My focus continued to be on the landscape of the South West and in this case I chose the fault in the cliff face at Aust, under the old Severn bridge. 

Dodging tides over Christmas to collect rock samples and take photos of the cliff face and famous fault line was my starting point.

I chose to highlight the passing of time in relation to the landscape. By looking back at the Earth's surface through the ages. The time bands of the past were clearly visible, particularly at the top of the fault line with distinct colour changes.

Parts of the collected rocks I ground down to a dust and added this to my pigments in the painting as well as using some of the rocks to actually paint with to add texture.

These rocks and minerals are over 200 million years old so my painting became the landscape.

The remaining dust was collected and placed in labelled pots.

These I displayed next to the parent rocks and labelled with a time line in order to show the passage through from the Triassic and jurassic periods to the present day.

Silbury Hill - A new perspective

This is an update on my shaped canvases. Having made the frames with MDF surfaces and spent hours sanding , priming sanding again and then painting, I was very disappointed with the finish. I didn't like the surface and the multiple glazes I had been putting on just weren't giving the depth I wanted.

So in the end I decided to to cover the frames with canvas. Not an easy task as the corner angles meant the canvas would need to be cut . 

To get around this problem, I sewed extra pieces of canvas in various v shapes into the corners and then was able to stretch the canvas over the frame and do so nifty folding where I had added bits. The end result worked quite well but was very fiddly. The picture at the top of this post is the end result of my aerial impression of Silbury Hill with its mutiple surrounding field boundaries that have changed over the years.

Leashing and knotting 14th March 2014

14th March

This is my loom all warped up and ready for weaving. I have used the legs from a Rigid Heddle loom frame to support the loom at a good comfortable angle for working. 

As I am intending to weave 3 long horizontal strips on the one frame, I should be able to work on the first two from this side then disconnect and turn the whole loom round to work on the last strip.

I have allowed about 3 in between each strip  for knotting and finishing. 

To make the weaving quicker and easier, each lower warp has been attached to a heddle bar by a loop of yarn.  

This way, when I want to weave under the lower warps I just need to lift the relevant threads and the gap will be made open.

Three rows of weave completed and two half hitch knots on each of the 720 warps done.  All set.

Preparing the Frame 8th March 2014

                      8th March 2014

Ok so now my weaving frame is made, just a slight adjustment required. The corners have been reinforced with a small metal plate to avoid any distortion which may occur due to the length of the weave over such a long frame.

The inside edges of the plates have been angled ( by my very ingenious husband) and only fixed on one side of the frame so that they don't get in the way when I'm weaving.

Next step is to do a test area to see how much warp I require.

30 cm of the frame was warped up at half centimetre spacing and I used approximately 49 m of fine linen warp.  This was with the help of my daughter, sat the other side of the frame. We passed the reel between us, each holding the tension at each end, which made the job easier. Will have to think of something else when I do the main warping up and she is back at Uni!!

Allowing for a few rows of weave at the beginning and all the knotting over each of the strips I calculated that I will need at least 335 m of warp! I can see this is going to take some time to get all set.

Weaving frames and samples

After hours of research and planning the time has come to finally make the weaving frame for my exhibition piece for the American Museum. 

As I intend to make three 6' long narrow tapestries, I decided to make the frame large enough to fit all three strips across the warp, running parallel to each other. This will  reduce the amount of warping up needed and will allow me to develop the composition to flow well.

The frame will be used on its side, horizontally for eccentric weaving which fits best with the long vertical rust patterns of my design.


At first I was concerned about the tension in the middle of the frame due to possible deflection in the over the long length of timber but under light pressure it held well. So fingers crossed. 

To gauge the best size warp I am making small samples on a make shift mini frame using different sizes and types of warp with the same design so that I can compare  the results. 

This first sample did not go too well as the warp needed to be fairly loose to weave on the short frame which led to a narrowing of the work.  Further samples are being made on a larger frame to avoid this problem.

Eccentric weaving, Rag Rugs and Rust

Continuing with my weaving experiments I have been using eccentric weaving techniques to depict the texture of rust. Our old rusty Frogeye Sprite has become the focus of inspiration for pattern and texture. Sadly the car is beyond restoration but can live again as a model for my rust work.

Several of the rugs at the American Museum were made using a rag rag technique which I think may be useful as an addition to my eccentric weaving where I want rust to bubble on the surface.

I did this practice circle and found it is quite quick and easy to do as long as you pick the right fabrics. Elastic fabric worked well and my dyed netting was best. In some areas I used standard stem stitch to vary the texture and size of fibre.

American Museum Project

In collaboration with the American Museum, Bath, we have been asked to produce a piece of work in response to the Museum's permanent collection, to be exhibited in the museum in May this year. 

Drawing our inspiration from the diverse forms of 'making' to be found in the collection, our responses will reflect on the relevance of hand - making in the context of contemporary textile practice.

I was particularly inspired by the plight of the Navajo Indians and the styles and weaving techniques of the American Indian rugs and blankets. 

As our exhibit also needs to tie in with our current investigation, I have decided to make some strip weaving, depicting the deterioration of rust, in the style of the Navajo weaving techniques and referencing the long walk.

Here are some of my sample weaves looking at the claw and lazy line zig zag patterns.

I particularly like this mottled yarn in muted rusty colours

Shaped MDF Frames

Continuing with my 2D contemporary landscapes investigation I have been making shaped MDF frames to paint on. Not an easy task! For a start you need a good sharp tenon saw to cut the MDF board and a very steady hand.

I began by making a scaled template of the shape so as to minimise wastage of board and position the shape best for cutting.

Next was measuring the composite and acute corner angles. For this I used an adjustable sliding bevel  (fantastic tool ), to transfer the angle to the 2"x1" timber frame pieces.

Each corner was glued and secured with panel pins

Once all the angles were cut and glued I sanded all the edges smooth.

The MDF was also nailed to the frame support at regular intervals with a nail gun. ( would not recommend doing this again, as it was very difficult to hide the indents on the surface after filling and sanding and depending on size of frame was not necessary)

A support bar was added across the middle for strength and hanging.

Then came the endless filling sanding and priming !

 

All ready for further coats of acrylic primer then the fun begins !