trying something new

Back when I started this round of Project Spectrum, I decided that I was going to use the project this time around as encouragement to try new techniques. Of course, I then spent the first 3 months doing exactly what I’ve always done for PS: knitting, and taking pictures. Heh. These aren’t bad things, mind you… and honestly, I think they’ll always be my first love anyway.

But in month #4 – the second half of the second “cardinal direction” – I did try something new.

This is soumak weaving, a centuries-old Persian tapestry-weaving technique that basically consists of thousands of tiny knots, individually hand-knotted on sturdy cotton warp on a loom. It took a while to get the hang of it – getting the tension right is harder than you’d think, at first – and don’t be fooled, it IS laborious and time-consuming. But once I got it all figured out, I fell in love.

This bracelet, which I’m calling Pele’s Fire, is a really simple example of the craft: it’s done with all one yarn, just back and forth like normal loom weaving. That isn’t traditional soumak at all, but it was one of my first pieces and I wanted to practice making the knots… not to mention that the yarn I picked, that pesky hand-painted Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, is too busy to be conducive to much patterning.

The bracelet was begging for beads, which turned out to be really difficult – again, because of the busyness of the yarn. I ended up scattering some antique red glass beads, from a 1910s necklace, over the surface randomly. Then I backed it with cotton tape, and added a button and loop closure. Everything is hand-stitched.

I admit that I’m a little self-conscious about it, because it is a new technique for me. I posted a picture on Facebook, where I’m used to getting immediate praise for my handiwork; hours passed without a single comment, so I sheepishly took the picture down. I don’t know if the bracelet really sucks, or if it’s just that people don’t know what to make of it, because it’s such a departure from the delicate lace and soft fuzziness that I normally make.

Actually, I’m finding myself not completely caring if it does suck. I like it, even if nobody else does. Also, this is me continuing to do what my yarn tells me to do, which seemed to work out pretty well for the Magellanes shawl – and, incidentally, I thought that shawl was atrociously ugly and was convinced that nobody would ever buy it. So who knows, maybe my judgment is just that whack.

But Pele’s Fire is what she is, and she’s also on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27191519

~ by Casey on 30 June 2009.