More on basket weaving

I used up the last of my spinifex to make a flat base or coaster, which I was rather pleased with.  Now I have to go out and find some more grasses.

Ipiri weaving using native grasses and raffia, flat

©Christine Linton

This is a detail which shows the construction quite well.

Detail of the above.  Notice the centre where I wove evenly across to make the centre stable - learnt at the workshop last weekend.

©Christine Linton

Having run out of grass, I thought of an article I had been reading about indigenous people using the fishing nets left floating uselessly, off Arnhem Land, by using the nets in place of the grass in the coiling, (this is called ghost net weaving) and I pulled out my bag of mesh nets (from bags of oranges and onions) which are very plasticky for the most part but still a usable found item.  I used them in the coiled basket below, the orange-reddish for the actual coil with red raffia for the stitching and a black one for the top coiled row, still with red raffia for the stitching.  It is rather slippery to work with and I was back to being a beginner again but will do some more of this.

Ipiri woven basket using plastic mesh bags

©Christine Linton

Now feeling adventurous enough to consider some freeform weaving (can't stay following someone else's instructions for very long) I found these websites -
http://ncbasketmakers.com/2013/high-odd.pdf
and
http://gallery.baag.com.au/?p=1576
and
http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/how-to-make-iris-weavers-for-basketmaking/
with the last using iris leaves which are dried out and ready to be pulled from the plant anyway.  Wow, you really can use anything.

Indigenous Basket Weaving

This weekend I participated with lots of others in a terrific workshop at Port Adelaide, Ipiri Weaving, in which we learnt basket weaving, the coil method, using native grasses such as spinifex, and raffia, and using beads made from native seeds and nuts as decorations.  Three Anangu women from the APY Lands shared their knowledge with us, through Better World Arts.  While I was there, I looked into the Better World Arts shop next door, and bought a great little book called "Art, History, Place", a good primer for people like me who are woefully ignorant about the indigenous art in their own country.  I have put a couple of links in this paragraph for those who want to find out a bit more who I am talking about.

©Christine Linton
The basket I made at the workshop (beware the blue dye - my hands still bear traces!)  Inside are some painted gumnut beads, and some quondong seeds made into beads.  The seeds on the border are Ininti seeds which is a native tree that grows in the Western Desert of Central Australia, which is part of the APY Lands.

The basket I made at home - notice the improvement once I knew what I was doing!  

©Christine Linton

I noticed when making the second basket at home that the bunch of native grass is drying out and more likely to crack but still overall fine to use.  I vaguely remember from school putting long strands of some basketmaking fibre (willow?  too long ago) into water to soften and I can always try that if it gets too dry before I have used it all up.

Making beads

I've been making beads for embellishment of a book I am making.  The colour palette is black and white with a touch of silver glitter, so for the beads I used white crochet cotton, black crochet cotton, and some silver-edged organza ribbon and silver thread.  To make the beads, I wound the crochet cotton round and round a PVA-brushed straw keeping the thread close together, until it was long enough - each one a different length.  I added more PVA glue over the top to hold it in place - being clear this was no problem.  With the ribbon ones, I wound small pieces of the ribbon around and wound the silver thread over the top; again finish with more PVA.  I find three or four beads will fit on each straw comfortably, and then I slip the straw over the top of a wooden skewer stuck into a sponge.  These can sit until the beads are dry.  Usually they slip off the straw but if they don't you can just cut the straw.  This is a technique I learnt at Marden Senior College in Cert 3 Visual Arts (Textiles), with Suzanne Gummow.

Hand-made beads 

©Christine Linton

Weaving with mesh bags

I have been saving up my mesh (orange and onion) bags.  These are often very plasticky but sometimes more flexible.  Either way I wanted to use them and as they have holes in  I naturally tried weaving into them.  I found this very difficult - manageable, but the effect wasn't worth the awkwardness.  Uninteresting.  (They could be fastened to a frame to make it easier).  So I turned the idea around and thought, what if I tried to weave with the bags instead?  So I ripped them into strips of varying widths - they rip neatly along a straight line so next time I will try rough cutting to get a ragged edge.  Then I used a piece of tapestry canvas from the Op Shop to weave these strips into.  One strip at a time looked very sparse - even though I was leaving it loose on top - so I doubled up the strips which gave it a much fuller look.  The overall look was quite ragged looking which I liked very much.  It is a bit hard to see in the photo because the mesh of the bags is thin.  But I like the visual texture (the actual feel is a bit yukky because it is a plasticky type of bag) and worth keeping in mind for some of the 3D stuff I want to start working on.

Weaving with mesh bags, on tapestry canvas

©Christine Linton

While I was thinking about experimental weaving I did some "searches" and found this wonderful piece but with no name:  click here.
Also some other contemporary experimental weaving:  click here.
Once you start searching, there's plenty around, such as Megan Walsh-Cheek, who recently had a terrific exhibition of her weaving up at Hahndorf.