more house changes

Yesterday the patio door has been removed

and french doors were put it.

Cannot wait for warm sunny weather to come...

I'll be able to weave and almost be outside :-)
From the outside it used to look like this

 and now it looks this way

bead making

The last 2 weekends were spent with the grandchildren and this last week I spent indoors with a bad cold. I'm still not feeling 100% but some time ago I booked myself for a workshop bead making with silver clay for this afternoon and I did not want to miss this. What fun it was. However, after the 1st bead (on the right) I felt I'd had enough but managed to make another bead (left one), though it did not come out as I had wanted.
The first one has a leaf and a flower on it. The second one has 4 flowers. I wanted them to look like the flower on the first one but could not get it as I wanted, so I made it simpler.
I think the silver clay is a great product.
When it comes out of the oven it still looks like clay but than you start to abuse it with a wire brush and sand blocks and out comes the silver. I also had them blackened and again had to do the brushing and sanding. Lastly they were put into a tumbler and they came out lovely and shiny.
Thinking may be buttons for a special woven item, so will go back one day for another workshop. This time it was just 3 hours, though we were there for 4 hours so that we could finish what we all had made.
If I go back I'll book a full day workshop and think beforehand about the design. Now that I know how it works and what is possible that will be easier.
For now, I just want to feel better again, so that I feel like weaving again.
I managed to finish this book in the last few days, that I had started 2 weeks ago. Enjoyed it very much. Would have finished much sooner had I felt better as I did not want to put it down.

warp & weft

Last month a new book was published by Jessica Hemmings: Warp & Weft
woven textiles in fashion, art and interiors
It's not a "how to weave" book but very informative about what is being made at this moment in fashion, art and interiors.
In 2010 the author organised a symposium about interdisciplinary approaches to weaving during the exhibitions Warp and Weft  curated by Laura Thomas. This all prompted the author her work on this book.
I did not go to the symposium but I did go to the exhibitions and it was so worth it, making the round trip to Wales. That was my last holiday with my husband, as he died shortly after we came home from that holiday. On hind side he must have been feeling unwell during the trip but he wanted to do this textile holiday for me. What a lovely lasting memory.
I've been reading and enjoying this book very much. The book is divided into different chapters (threads-light-motion-sound-emotion-community) and it was very interesting to read about what is being done by textile artists/weavers in these different chapters. There are some stunning photos in the book.
In her introduction Jessica writes "Over the course of writing this book I have heard again and again of the weaver's sensibility, a way of approaching the visual and material world that guides thinking far beyond the construction of cloth"
In yesterdays Metro paper was an article "Tegendraads" about a Dutch textile artist who graduated this year. She could very well have been in this book too.