Making Olaf

Last year I undertook a the great task of making an Ikat. An Ikat is a woven piece where all the strands are dyed to form a pattern. here is a brief overview of my 7 month operation to create Olaf the Ikat. 

Process for making an Ikat:

Various designs must be drawn out on paper. After doing rough sketches, take the best design and draw it out on graph paper according to scale and decide on colours. After the design and colours are planned, the final design will be painted.

To calculate the amount of threads for the warp of the woven piece, wind the yarn tightly around a ruler for 3 centimetres and divide the number of threads by three e.g. 30 threads divided by 3 = 10 threads per cm. The design is 96cm wide, thus it will consist of 960 threads. The length of the warp is 450cm (including 100cm for waste and shrinkage). Bunches consisting of 30 threads each are put on the warping frame with a total of 33 bunches being made.

To bind the yarn, stretch a bunch of warps between 2 “G-clamps”.

The design is divided into sections from A to H to keep track of binding. A tag on each of the warp bunches mark which section is being bound for dyeing.
 
Sections for the first colour are measured and marked off with a pencil. Strips cut from plastic bags are then tightly bound around the bunch of warps to function as a resist for the dye.
 
The method of dyeing used is over dyeing and works as follows:
The design consists of 4 colours, namely red, blue, green and purple and there are three primary dye colours: yellow, turquoise and magenta, the principle is the same as any CMYK colour mixing.

• Yellow + Magenta = Red/ Orange
• Yellow + Turqoise = Green
• Magenta + Turqoise = Purple

To use the method of over dyeing means that the colour of the dye will not be mixed inside the pot, but on the yarn itself. It minimizes the amount of time spent dyeing and binding the yarn.

The first colour that will be dyed is yellow, although there is no yellow on the design. The yarn is bound so that all the spaces that must be green and red are left open.

To mix the dye add 1 part yellow pigment to 4 parts salt to 1 part soda ash in a pot of water on a heat source.
  
Stir the ingredients and when the water boils insert the wet yarn into the pot.
  
Stir the liquid for 30min to ensure even coverage of the dye. Remove from the heat source and let the pot stand for an hour before rinsing.

After rinsing put the warps on a flat surface overnight to dry and to prevent the dye seeping into white areas.
  
Rinse the warps a second time and hang to dry. When the warps are dry, remove the plastic bindings. If there are still some damp areas, hang the warps out again to dry and prevent mildew from forming.
  
Repeat the process with Magenta, leaving open the spaces that must be red and purple on the design. The last process will be Turquoise where the spaces that must be green, purple and blue will be left open.

The warps are now ready to be sorted and put on the loom.

As soon as the warps are rolled up, combed and the ends cut it is time to thread the yarn onto the loom.

After all the threads are pulled through at a width of 12 threads per centimetre the threads are “milked” by gently tugging an each thread to pull it straight and untangle threads.

 The threads are tied into bunches of 24 threads per bunch and tensioned at the front of the loom. Then the test weave can begin.

During the test weave trouble shooting is done and mistakes in the threading can be fixed.

 The final product: Olaf

 

Crochet Block Challenge

I love crochet, I knit as well but the instant feeling of gratification one gets from crochet can not be ignored. So after being out of it for a little while, I saw this morning a facebook group for crocheters were starting a block a day blanket. After carefully reading the guidelines, I figured why not do one?

How it works:

1. Pick a yarn (Colours and textures).
2. Pick a pattern, there a thousands for free on raverly, including this one.
3. Pick a hook that works comfortably for your hand.

Note, I didn't buy all the yarn, I have two balls of I love yarn French Affair that I had gotten as a present. So using them and then will be getting a the next colour. I am thinking of muted greens, blues and white for the colour scheme.

I also got a puppy for assistance, he is very keen and a great use-my-moms-foot-as-a-pillow, assistant. 

The aim of this is to have a wonderful blanket by the time the year is finished, I am honestly going to be keeping an eye on how big this gets so that I don't land up with a blanket bigger than my room.

Dress my imaginary house

I am starting to nest, that stage in life where planning the future home is getting important, to be able to put up any curtains I want and to have a say in the couch.

My need to nest is not helped by the internet and certain pc games that allow me to build whatever home I want to build. I am fairly sure my fiancee is getting sick of me dragging him into furniture stores and sending him pins of things I am convinced we will need when we live together.

I may or may not have bullied him into letting me decorate his sort of flat, (Its part of his folks home but has a kitchen and own area so I am counting it as a flat). He teased me that I will be using the special box of stuff I am collecting of cute fun stuff for when we have our own place but somehow I doubt my owl teapot will be of much use in his area.

Things I learnt from  months of crawling through the internet:

1. White paint, is nearly 1000s of different shades and how to take the light you have in account with the shade of white that you chose, learnt this here. Not that we will be painting his room, but future home yeah.
2. The layout of the room is probably more important than what we often think.
3. Figure out all the thing the area needs to fill and then what you need in order for the room to work.
4. Sometimes you can do small things that have a big impact, for cheap.
5. Organise your space, seriously just that can make any place look better.

Happiness is a warm slice of pizza

Just off Jan Shoba Street (formerly Duncan Street), in South Street and next to the “Hatfield Zoo” is a cosy little pizzeria named Bravo. From the street it does not seem too grand with the interior seemingly mismatched and very casual with picnic tables outside and scattered chairs with low tables. Inside are couches and an open kitchen and bar area, where the coffee and milkshakes are made. All of these features add to the charm of the pizzeria.

Let’s face it; the interior of a restaurant does not really matter when there is pizza involved. Good pizza. The ingredients are always fresh and the pizza is always happy to see you and you will be even happier to see it. With names like “Talented mister Ribley”, “Penny Lane”, “a fish called Wanda” and “Cherry bowl”, who would not be happy?  When you dig into the fresh avocado, pancetta, olives or whatever your heart desires on a pizza, you immediately enter heaven and you feel nothing but joy. Not to mention their tantalizingly good signature Prego sauce.

The menu is not only limited to pizza. It also includes: chicken- and beef burgers, smoked chicken salad, a rib basket and more. All this is freshly made on the premises, using high quality ingredients. With Hatfield being an area occupied by many students the food sold at Bravo makes for a sustainable meal during exam times or any occasion that might not allow time for cooking.

I am not sure what is the most appealing about Bravo. It could be the coffee, it could be the pizza, it could be the homely atmosphere or it could be the fact that Bravo makes the best wood fired pizzas in the world. Yes, the world.

Be sure to pop in for a meal. Seriously…

Peace and love

Clara

PS: This was not a sponsored post.

https://www.facebook.com/bravopizzeria012?ref=ts&fref=ts

Busy (fashion) week

My apologies for being so quiet the past week, but it was one of those weeks that had me running up and down every single day. Not that I am complaining, it was a great week. Some of the interesting events included a meeting with the SABS on craft standards, finally visiting Karoo Café, Fashion Week Pop Up shop, meetings with the designers for our fashion show and the Spar Women’s race.

So here I sit with my stiff legs from the race and think back on what I saw at Fashion Week Designer Pop Up shops at Brooklyn mall. What struck me most is that most of the designers that were showcasing and selling their work have been in business for eight years or less and the amount of talent in such a small space was astounding. Some of the more seasoned designers at the event were Clive Rundle, Albertus Swanepoel and Black Coffee. Some of my favourites, however, included YOUMEWE, Hannah and Jane Sews. If only my shopaholic budget allowed buying an item from every label, luckily I did not walk away empty handed.

Now I have a good idea of what to expect this coming summer in terms of trends. The most obvious of the new trends is the new colour palette; pastel colours. Not my favourite, but black, grey and white featured enough to not make me lose hope.

The second trend in terms of fabric was that prints are making a comeback and the popular dyed effects are taking the backseat.  The popularity of digital fabric printing is on the increase. What is so spectacular with digital printing is that it breaks away from the flat colours that one is used to with printed fabrics and gives a more realistic and dimensional look. The reason for this is that with digital printing there is no limitation on the amount of colours that can be used. Another print that was very popular was bold African inspired prints in bright colours, a contrast to the pastels that made their appearance.

Thirdly; high waist skirts are very popular. The prints and colours are varied and the lengths are from knee-length to long and come in many different types of fabric. The thing that really awoke my inner-child was that I saw Tule used for skirts in more than one collection. Now I cannot wait to buy myself another tutu, but this one will be fashionable and not just me running around looking like a fairy.

Today is officially the first day of spring and I will be wearing flowers in my hair and stocking piling anti-histamines. Let’s hope the rain will be here soon.

Wishing all our readers a wonderful week.

Peace and love

Clara