Cutting rags, talking on the phone and weaving. And not to forget: listening to audiobooks. In short: enjoying life!!

I am weaving twill these days. It is called vaðmál in Icelandic. The English term is vadmal.

These terms indicate that the lines that the warp and weft form are diagonal and there are various angles of lines that make different forms of twill : 14°,18°, 27°, 45° and 63°.

The different forms of twill have an array of names: herringbone, goose eye, overcheck herringbone, barleycorn, houndstooth, broken twill. plain twill, glen check, gun club check, broken twill and tattersall. Probably there are more terms.

The one I am weaving is a weft faced herringbone, at 45°.
Of course it is made from RAGS! ;)

Over a year ago I beat this ragrug together. The device that I actually use that is on the loom is called a beater  and one really does use quite some force to make a really good rag rug.
I am making a series of small wall pieces now and will soon publish a photograph of the first one to leave the loom and get plaited and ready for leaving the studio.

This one's colours are the autumnal colours a year ago. Very lush indeed. I am pleased with this piece and I think it is good to be pleased about ones own work. I remember years ago I made a wall hanging depicting a bird. When I took it out of the loom I found it hideous, so ugly that I rolled it up and put it in a closet and didn't see it for a couple of years. By some reason or another I took it out of the closet and had a look at it. Alas! I liked it, and couldn't understand why I found it so hideous earlier. Either it must have been me or the ragrug that had matured. I will have to dig it out and make a digital photograph of it and show it here on the blog.
You might recognize the red part of the autumnal piece. I use it as the banner for my website.  It is actually for sale, even if I am a bit reluctant to part with it. If you are interested see here

Fyrir rúmu ári síðan sló  ég saman þetta tuskuteppi.  Verkfærið sem ég nota til að gera það með heitir slagborð og það þarf svoldið afl til að slá saman almennilegt  tuskuteppi, eða á maður að kalla þetta leppateppi eða tuskuteppi ?

Ég er nú að slá saman seríu af frekar litlum veggverkum sem að brátt verða birtar myndir af hér á þessari síðu en fyrst þurfa þau að yfirgefa vefstólinn og verða fléttuð á langhliðinni.

Þetta teppi er í haustlitunum frá því í fyrra. Litríkt og höfgafullt.  Ég er mjög ánægð með það og mér finnst það vera gott að geta verið ánægður með eitthvað sem að maður skapar sjálfur.  Fyrir þó nokkrum árum óf ég veggteppi sem að sýndi fugl.  Þegar ég tók það úr vefstólnum fannst mér það svo ófrýnilegt að ég rúllaði því saman og setti inn í skáp og leit ekki á það fyrr en að nokkrum árum liðnum. Þegar ég barði það aftur augum fannst mér það bara flott! Skildi ekki af hverju mér hafði þótt það svo stjarft.  Annað hvort hafði ég þroskast  eða kannski teppið í skápnum.  Ég þarf að finna það og ná af því stafrænni mynd og birta á blogginu mínu.

Það getur verið að þið kannist við rauða hluta Haust teppisins en það nota ég í fánanum efst á heimasíðunni minni.  En það teppi er til sölu sjá hér

This rug was woven in the last century! Must be old as h.... Somehow I hadn't photographed it before it moved down under so it was a nice surprise to receive a photo of it last year. Sometimes when I see something old again I wonder: did I make that? How did I come up with exactly that?
Can't explain what it is that makes one estranged to ones own creation, perhaps some of the readers can?

This rug actually is "living" in Greenland, without the frame. The colours were inspired by Landmannalaugar in the south highlands of Iceland, and was made around 2002. It is not for sale.
But if you are interested in purchasing a rag rug by me look here

Introducing the Jolly rag rug. I found these two colours difficult so I decided to join them into a long rag rug that is sturdy and will lie flat on the floor most of the time. Something happy looking and with a nice feel under the feet first thing in the morning when you take the first steps of a day full of...adventure.
Kynni káta teppið. Mér fannst þessir tveir litir vera erfiðir einir og sér en saman, var hægt að gera eitthvað ekki væmið með þá?  Káta teppið leit dagsins ljós, þykkt og stöðugt teppi á gólfið sem gott er að tipla á sín fyrstu spor, dag hvern á leið  í ævintýri lífsins.
More here/ Meira hér

I wove this rag-rug for an exhibition in the maritime museum in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was on display amongst other items inspired by fishing tools and boats. It was quite fun making and instead of having it only in the bright turquoises of new nets I wanted a bit of the fading colour. Think it turned out ok. It is for sale if anybody cares to tread on it e.g. when waking up in the morning and finding the way to the loo and then the coffee maker.  ISKR 80.000 or 490 ECU.

Not very sharp images from the exhibition  but they were taken in  haste in between a job in Borgarnes and a trip to Shetland.

I wandered around the lavafield Gálgahraun today as the Wandering Spinster. It was a windy day with a few snowflakes reaching the south-west corner of Iceland where Gálgahraun is situated. The days spent in the field have been beautiful in some sense but very wearing to, devastating actually.  When trying to protect the lavafield from the bulldozers with other demonstrators we were arrested and put in solitary confinement for half a day. It didn't brake us completely. Some people among us who have been demonstrating mostly in the written for more than a decade to stop the building of the road are completely devastated and feel they can not step into the lavafield any more. Most of the people are in good spirits in spite of the sad days in the resent weeks.
You can read a bit about this event here
If it doesn't kill you it strengthens you, as the saying goes, and I think I will survive to make a few more Wandering Spinsters.
You can watch the latest  short movie if you care to. A lot of thanks to the cameraman, Kári,that I grabbed in the lava, it was too windy to let the tripod stand on it's own!