Monday, February 18, 2019

30 Paper Weavings in 30 Days

I recently completed a 30 day online class run by Helen Hiebert called Weaving Through Winter. The class had a very open structure, Helen did a 30 minute video introduction each week on a theme and workshop participants could take the concept and run with it. We posted pictures of what we made and offered comments and suggestions to each other. It was a wonderful daily practice and meditation. If you want to see all 30 of my pieces check out my Instagram posts at @gina_pisello. I will show you my favorites below and tell you a bit about what inspired them.

Enjoy!


This is one of the last pieces I made in class. I was inspired by weaver Kay Sekimachi and light streaming onto the red paper before sunset.

This weaving went through several stages before becoming the piece at the bottom. I tried folding an origami bowl with it, but the shape and size of the weave was wrong for this particular origami piece. I would like to try again with a different weaving pattern.

I wove abaca paper strips together then folded it into a Tomoko Fuse spiral. I love the way this turned out.

A simple weave around a silhouette.

I didn't know what to weave on this day but found inspiration in torn paper torsos I made years ago that sit framed on my desk. This one was hard to weave, but I really like the results.

This is a Danish heart basket, commonly made at Christmas time. I used folded paper and wove a love letter with a Japanese paper bag for this simple weaving. There are many more designs for this if you search Pinterest.

One week of the course was about weaving shapes. I wanted to do a simple circle and the tension of the weaving caused this to curve nicely off the page.

I experimented with hexagonal weaving trying to work out the formula for doing so. Turns out quilters have a way of doing this called triaxial weaving. I liked building this out from the center, but want to try doing it the "right" way sometime soon.

The completed hexagon weaving.

Another hexagon weaving.

I remembered that Claire Van Vliet and Hedi Kyle invented ways to weave books together in the excellent book Woven and Interlocking Book Structures. This one is my favorite with its crossing shapes and locking structures. I created the pages with eco-dyed paper.

This was an early weaving from the class. I wanted to explore strips that were angled. I like the optical illusion of it.

This is one of the later weavings. I cut warp strips around the leaves on the eco-dyed paper. Then I cut weft strips one at a time to bend around the leaves. I wanted to enhance this central image. 

11 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your work. Delightful!

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    1. Thank you Julie. I am glad you like it and thank you for stopping by.

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  2. Joanne (@occasionalbird on IG)February 20, 2019 at 8:04 AM

    These are so beautiful--I keep looking and looking at them. Thanks so much for sharing them here and on IG.

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    1. Joanne, thank you for the comment. I am glad you like what I made. It was a really great and creative class.

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  3. beautiful! Sorry I missed that class.

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    1. It was a lot of fun. The daily practice was a wonderful idea. I just need to get back in the habit. Thanks for stopping by.

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  4. What a wonderful resource. I have for a long time been following various artists' book sites gleaning information for my own attempts at simple folded structures - how have I never come across your blog before? Ideas here to keep me going for years. Thank you.

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  5. Schöne 3D Geflechte sind das geworden von dir.Werde es nach meiner Arbeit beim Hamburg Mercedes direkt mal selbst versuchen.Grüße Jürgen

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    1. Danke für deinen Kommentar. Ich hoffe, Sie können versuchen, Papier zu weben.

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  6. These are so nice. I have been experimenting with hexagonal weaving with both paper and ribbon. What is the surface you are using during the process? How do you anchor the finished project? I was thinking of stitching it with a sewing machine but am open to other options.

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    1. Jenny, thanks for the comment. I tend to glue down the ends of my weavings carefully after I am finished. I weave on top of a cutting mat and tack down the vertical strips with washi tape when I start. I also have a small weaving tool that helps sometimes, but really you should experiment and see what works for you. I think sewing down the ends is a great idea. Good luck.

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