Subject: Re: Hello!
Author:
Posted on: 2013-02-03 12:31:00 UTC

Hi DawnFire, I think you're my sort of person too.

For the weaving, a good starting point is Peter Collingwood's "The Techniques of Rug-Weaving". It focusses on weft-faced rugs, but there's enough to keep you busy for years; you will need a very sturdy loom that can stand high warp tension. The book is pretty dense (coming from someone who read an arts degree at Oxford, that's a significant warning), and available as a free pdf from www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books.html If you get the opportunity, his son Jason is an excellent teacher, and does sometimes travel to the US (if that's where you're based).

Dyeplants are great fun: if you have room to store a seperate set of utensils (don't use them for food ever again) and a box of mordants, I'd experiment. Even if you don't have a garden yourself, lots of weeds and common plants will give you shades of yellow, orange, brown, and drab to play with, and you can buy madder, indigo etc. from specialist suppliers. I have to add that I do also enjoy using acid dyes, and they're a lot less hassle!

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