I have been warping today. That is I am creating the warp that will be beamed on the loom.
To be able to weave one needs an amount of threads that are stretched side by side. The least you need is 3 threads, perhaps 2.
I warped 375 threads, that are 12 m long. you see from the images that instead of laying the 12 m threads side by side on the ground I use a warping mill that turns around an axis in the middle. This way I can stand in the same spot and warp instead of walking back and forth 275 times.
I have then assembled a bunch of people next weekend to help me with the beaming on the loom. Actually the only instance where I need labor force. I could do it on my own but by receiving help the threads are more evenly stretched on the beam and it is easier. After toiling there are cake and coffee. 

I finished slaying the reed, threading the heddles, tying the warp and tying up the foot treadles to the harnesses. I have been beating the weft into the warp. It was a bit hard first as I haven't woven fine woolen cloth like this for some years but it all came back to me and soon the cloth is ready. This is totally different work from my usual rag rug weaving. This is more craft like while making the rag rugs feels more as creating art and takes different angles of making. Totally different pondering physically and psychologically.  As you can see from the pictures this is not at all like the rag rugs. I have thoroughly enjoyed this procedure and am glad I got the opportunity to make it. The cloth is custom  made for a client.


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I spent a day sleying. I am learning new English words and sleying is a new word for me but the process i have known for long. I know the weaving terms best in Swedish.
Sleying means to draw threads through the reed with a reed hook ( see post 26/10/2012) . The threads that I was sleying are together forming the warp that is in the loom at present. Dark blue as you can see from the images.

The reed sits in the batten and is used to keep the threads in their position a certain number of threads per width and also is used to beat the weft into the warp. Also you can see the heddles on the pictures. The warp is also threaded through heddles.

I am going to weave woolen cloth that will be turned into cushions, you can also see the balls of wool that will be used for this project. Not a rag rug this time. I very seldom weave anything else but rag rugs. This is one of the rare other pieces.

Words for the Icelanders:  Sleying = draga í skeið. Reed = skeið. Warp = uppistaða. Heddles = haföld.

The process of preparing a the warp takes time, is slow and fun (I think). A friend was photographing me while I was threading the heddles. If I am lucky I can show you some of those images here. I am listening to an audio book by the Swedish author Jan Guillout "Brobyggarna"  = Bridge builders, with all this work and having a splendid time. A book, an adventure, that takes place in early 20th century.

Being a weaver doesn't sound all that exciting nor does it seem to be an occupation full of action. But it can be overly exciting like the other day.
I was preparing to dye the warp in my cauldron.
In order to make the dye I fill a pot with leaves and cover them with water and boil for a while.
What I did this day is unforgivable: I left for my paying job and ...forgot the pot on the stove on full blaze.
But this I didn't realize before I had opened the front door 5 hours later.
When I arrived back home I stood for a while outside to admire the starry sky and hear a smoke detector in the distance at somebodies house. Thought that somebody should be alarmed.
I opened the front door and realized the howling was coming out of my apartment and that it was full of smoke.
I immediately realized what had happened. Memory all of a sudden was alert. Still wearing my thick woolen mittens from the bike ride I went straight into the kitchen where the smoking cauldron was.  Unbelievably cool in the head I turned off the red blazing hotplate lifted the cauldron off the stove and took it outside the house. Returned inside  and opened all windows and doors and got a refreshing gale in through the house for about 3 hours. As the draft was really strong I had to release the walls of various items that hung there as they were fluttering, banging and hitting the walls.  When I finally settled down in a cold but fairly freshly aired apartment the shock came.
It could have been worse, the whole place could  had been on fire!
I calmed myself down thinking, but it wasn't on fire. So?
Lucky in spite of all.

It has been a week now and this unwanted huge incense is still influencing the place but the smell/ fragrance is getting fainter every day. So it is not too bad. Tomorrow I will have a gang of warp holders at the studio helping me to warp the next piece.
I have received a lovely Stollen from Dresden  that will be served to the warp holders with coffee and I have to bake something for them too.
Warping can  also be very, very exciting;) procedure. But I hope it will not set the house on fire.

The municipality of Reykjavík is for the first time taking part in the European week for waste reduction.  My work has been used as an example by Reykjavik how you can create with waste and that is in Icelandic. But for the not-understanding-Icelandic-people there are pictures you can look at without much language knowledge and there are translation options online, somewhere.

The image I use here on the left is an old one that my friend Stéphanie Morissette  took out of a video she made. This was in 2002 or 2003. We had been granted studios by the municipality of Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. They were situated in an old haunted house called Straumur, next door to the aluminum smelter at Straumsvik south of Hafnarfjörður.  It was during this stay that I made the piece "A Proposal for a new Coat of Arms for the republic Iceland".  At that time most of Icelanders were brainwashed with the great need of aluminium smelters and huge hydro power stations. If you opposed to those ideas you were a sentimental idiot, according to the government and most of the nation. 

Here we are 10 years later in deep  debt because of folly. Not just us Icelanders but most nations I can think of at this moment. I am still doing the same thing as then, using discarded garments to make art. Trying to be in sync with the environment. 

What happened was that my mum and I were on a visit in Kristinestad/ Kristiinankaupunki in Finland. We went to my grandmother's cousin Imbi's house, where she was weaving as usually. And what an adventure. I was allowed to touch the loom. And look my eyes are closed while cherishing the strength of the loom. This day made up my mind: I had to learn how to weave to survive.  Strange thought isn't it especially in our modern society when I should have chosen something like engineering  to make a career. But I can't get away from it, I don't want to leave my universe of rag rug weaving. 

From red to orange and from there it goes on to some kind of rose or light red or brown. For me a very exciting time in the loom  Sounds like I am eccentric.....well who is not? 

This is what is in the loom at the moment. 
RED.
In the background behind the warp you can see a bit of the Vernal piece I made this year.  Haven't woven during the summer as I was busy earning my living by working as a guide.
I take a great pleasure in weaving again. 
I will be presenting my pieces at the annual Craft market, Reykjavík town hall in November this year.