Tapestry Weaving
Weave-Along 7: Continuing to Weave
Bead/Fiber Combination, Tapestry Weaving
Weave-Along Week Three: Weft Interlock
Time for some weft interlock.
Add two silk wefts and weave for a bit. Then replace with single silk weft.
Add a row of beads.
Weave a the silk weft.
For a bit!
Add another color of single silk weft. Weave for another bit and then add another row of beads.
Continue with some single silk weft.
Add some railroad yarn to the silk weft.
Weave a bunch of it.
Add some single silk weft. The double it up.
Weave some doubled silk weft.
Change it up a bit by replacing one silk weft with a new color. Play!
Bead/Fiber Combination, Tapestry Weaving
Silk Purse Weave-Along Week 2 (Weave-Along 7)
If you have a bottom spring kit, as I do here, start weaving your header. If you don’t have a bottom spring kit, cut a thread three times the width of your loom. Engage the shedding device, weave it to the threaded bar, wrap it around the threaded bar, change the she and weave it back to the other threaded rod. Tie the two ends tightly around the threaded bar. This will serve as a base for starting your weaving. Make sure the two threads make a straight line. Arrange the warps so that they are evening spaced at ten ends per inch. Then begin weaving a header.
Next, weave the left weft to the right but weave over one more warp. Do the same for the other three wefts. The goal is to create a diagnol shapes by weaving over one warp when you go to the left and reducing by one warp when you weave to the right.
Follow the pictures. Your left shape is gong to get bigger and bigger whereas your right shape is going to shrink.
At some point you can remove the guide threads as they won’t be necessary.
To end the left weft wrap around the end warp so it is hanging to the back.
Weave back all the other wefts.
Stick the ends of the other wefts to the back of the piece.
Done!
Insert a new silk weft.
Weave it for a few passes.
Add a second weft to the existing weft that is longer.
Weave until you run out of the first silk. Replace with a new silk weft to add to the existing weft.
Weave until you run out of one of the silk threads and replace with railroad yarn.
End the railroad yarn and replace with silk weft.
Weave a couple of rows of silk weft.
Tapestry Weaving, Uncategorized
First attempt at iphone/smartphone case
Bead Weaving, Bead/Fiber Combination, Tapestry Weaving
Weave-Along 7, Day One: Silk and Bead Purse
Welcome to Mirrix’s 7th Weave-Along!
The first step to weaving this fiber and bead purse is to decide how big you want your purse to be.
My piece will be just big enough to fit an iPhone and a few credit cards. If you are making this piece for another phone or for something else, you may want to make your piece a different size.
For example, if you plan to use this for a different sized phone, measure the width of the phone and add another inch to the width of the piece.
Then, measure the height of the phone, double that, add an inch and then add two and a half inches for the flap or whatever you decide you want your flap to be.
If your phone is 3 inches wide and 5 inches tall your piece would be 4 inches wide and 13.5 inches tall including the flap.
When you warp there should be about 10 warps in one inch. (So if your piece is 4 inches wide, you’d warp 40 warps across.)
My piece is warped 40 warps wide using a ten-dent spring. If you are using a twelve dent spring, you will warp the same amount of warps across but when you have finished warping you will loosen your tension slightly, spread your spring out where your piece is (until there are ten spaces in an inch instead of twelve) and then put tension back on the loom. This will make the twelve-dent coil act like a ten-dent coil.
My piece will be thirteen inches long (including the flap). To accommodate this, the loom is set at about 14 inches high (measure from the bottom of one beam to the top of the other).
Have you never warped before? Don’t worry, it’s easy!
For this project we will warp for tapestry with the shedding device. We have detailed warping instructions here: http://blog.mirrixlooms.com/images/warpinginstructions/tapestry.pdf.
If you have any questions about how wide or long your piece should be or how to do any of these steps, just ask us! Email claudia@mirrixlooms.com or elena@mirrixlooms.com.
Bead Weaving, Tapestry Weaving, Uncategorized
Crafty Class Has Launched
It’s here. In the middle of April Elena and I traveled to Denver for five days. Claudia spent three days behind a camera talking and moving her hands around a loom to demonstrate the weaving of a bunch of projects on the Mirrix Loom (primarily . . . although she (I. . . why am I talking in the third person) since there was a brief demonstration on a hand made loom and a rigid heddle loom). Getting ready for it was hard. Had to have everything in Denver in advance for the filming. Couldn’t just run back to my studio to pick up some forgotten loom or material. I was very stressed. The filming itself was fun although hard. I am afraid to watch the whole thing all the way through. That is your job.
So What do you get for your $29.99? A lot. You get to watch six hours of instruction. If you can stand watching me for six hours, this is a good thing. I show you how to make nine bracelets! Two tapestry/bead cuff bracelets; two No Warps to Weave in Bracelets; Five affinity bracelets. The course is designed to flow so that you keep piling on skills. The goal is for you to move into your own territory . . . take the skills and concepts you’ve learned and create your own masterpieces.
I think it’s a great class for both beginners and those who haven’t tried these projects yet and are ready for something new.
So how does this format work? It’s a great format combining the best of a real in-person workshop with the best of video. First of all, it’s longer than any video you’d ever find. Secondly, you can access it on the Craftsy site any time you want. There is a forum for asking your questions and I will get on a million times a day to check for these questions and answer them. There is also a place for you to post your projects. The whole thing is very interactive and community like and you can keep interacting for as long as I am still hanging out on this planet.
And even better: there is a special Craftsy/Mirrix store where you can buy some really amazing kits created just for the show at really, really great prices. Those same kits will not be in our regular store. The kits are cheaper when you buy all three and even cheaper when bought with a loom.
So sign up for a lifetime (literally) adventure in the world of Mirrix: craftsy
Uncategorized
Book Giveaway!
Chris Franchetti Michaels, (you may know her as beadwork.about.com‘s fabulous guide) recently released a new jewelry making book “Teach Yourself VISUALLY More Jewelry Making”. Now, I know this blog is dedicated to weaving on a loom, but I’m sure many of you are multi-talented when it comes to your crafting skills and I wanted to offer one reader a FREE copy of Chris’ book!
Spam will not be entered.
You must live in the continental United States to win
You must be at least 18 years old to enter
Oh, and you should probably check out Chris’s Affinity Bracelets she made on her Mirrix.
Uncategorized
Weave-Along 6: Crystal and Two-Cut Bead Affinity Bracelet
Bead/Fiber Combination, Uncategorized
Craftsy
It was a year ago next month that we posted our first project to the then brand-new website Craftsy. We watched as they grew from a simple place to post projects to a great resource for patterns, instructional videos and inspiration. We connected with them fairly early on and eventually planned an online instructional course that we’ve been shooting this week!
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Claudia, filming! |
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Claudia’s hair and makeup was done by the fabulous Danica. Check out her website: http://danicajardien.com/ |
Expect this course to be available in the next month or so. Thanks to everyone at Craftsy and remember to check out their website at www.craftsy.com.
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UPDATE:
You can view Claudia’s Craftsy Class Here
Uncategorized
Weave-Along 6: Week Two, The Second Bracelet
The supplies you need other than the warp and the beads include: C-Lon (or some kind of) beading thread, a bead weaving needle, a tapestry needle and a scissors.
We used eight warps. You can use as many or as few as you’d like, but we like this number of warps for this particular weave.
Tie the end of threaded C-Lon thread to side bar of loom using a slip knot.
Weave one row of beads. Remove tied end from side bar and make half of square knot and pull so that the warp threads are arranged so that there is no space between the threads and the beads.
Trim weft tail.
Start the gold thread. We have used six strands.
Once you’ve woven six or so rows, trim the gold weft tail.
Weave another row of beads, burying the gold thread along the side of the piece.
Wasn’t that fast! We are almost done weaving. See how tight and GOLD this piece looks.
Close up of that magic gold thread.
We discovered a way to keep the piece from running all round when trying to finish the ends. Just use a nice big C-clamp and clamp the body of your piece to a table edge. Works great. Do not break asn beads though. You will notice that the piece we are finishing is not the one that was on the loom. The finished piece uses size 11/0 seed beads.
Tie over hand knots in half the threads. Use your tapestry needle to push the knot toward the base of the piece.
We have braided our ends instead of making roes.
Make a peyote tube for closing. Instructions for this are in Affinity bracelet One tutorial.
Now it’s time for you to explore your bead stash and make up new design to share with us!