Archive for month: June, 2007

A friend of mine in California was given this baggie full of fiber. The purchaser’s husband thought he was getting a package of rubber gloves, and was quite surprised to find the wad of fluff inside. She says it looks like cotton, not like silk. It is short-stapled, not shiny, with bits of what appear to be vegetable matter. I’m wondering if the labeling on the package would clarify. I’m thinking it may be silk noil. I’m curious what it’s bagged up like this for – it doesn’t look like it would be for spinning, in an amount like this – maybe it’s for some household use? Is silk fluff used like cotton balls, for wiping off makeup, etc.?

The two characters on the left-hand side of the second line mean “silk,” and the same characters are in the middle of the green band at the bottom. But, that’s as far as my Chinese-character-recognizing skills go. Can any of y’all give me a hand?

Thanks!

I’m working on materials for a class I’m going to be teaching in Fort Worth next weekend, and also eventually for the classes I’ll be teaching in Santa Monica this August.

I teach beginning and advanced tablet weaving by starting with a simple sampler that teaches a variety of techniques, from simple checks and stripes to Egyptian diagonals and doubleface, moving on into brocade. I have several of these little samplers, but they’re small… usually I do them with something like 10/2 cotton, so the ribbon is about half an inch wide.

I decided to give it a try, weaving the sampler with macrame cord – so that I can hold it up and point to it, and an entire room full of people can see what I’m talking about. It was….. an experience. Weaving with macrame cord is tough; I definitely can’t recommend it as a delightful experience. But, it had the desired effect – the sampler is at this uber-magnified scale.

more photos