These Isles

Earthenwear handwoven in the Celtic Crescent by Eloïse Sentito

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Weaving These Isles: the trickery of craft and market. No Serial Number magazine, 2018

Makership as an Act of Resistance. No Serial Number magazine, 2018

Who can afford artisan goods? For a truly green business, we have to kick the money habit. LowImpact.org, 2018

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Bladderwrack rock #rug, my #handwoven attempt to capture the drama of red weed that came up this little #Norse slipway on the west #coast of the #isleoflewis in #Scotland's last #storm. #craftfeatures #handmade #lifestyle #makershipasanactofresistance #weaving #theseisles with #britishwool from #Shetland and #donegaltweed. The Scottish #righttoroam rocks!

Having been obsessed with #weaving #seascapes for a year or more, my next compulsion may well be for #seaweed. (Perhaps especially for #edible #seashore fare, since #foraging fits quite neatly with my wildy #handmade #lifestyle and #backtotheland aspirations.) I can't get over these colours, and though I'm pleased with some of the #colourways as my current #handwoven #rug shapes up, I could spend a #lifetime attempting (hubristically and futilely) to get as good at it as #Nature. Hopefully our human efforts have their own charm.

#Weaving inspiration. Bladderwrack on the shores of #theseisles. I notice the way the black weed catches the light and turns blue. Hmm, #wool doesn't do that... And I'm not sure I want the olive on this weaving either, beautiful though it is. I'll be #abstracting the #image, rather than representing it. (Speaking of olives, my foraging friend of @liveslowcollective correctly pointed out that young, fresh, bladderwrack capsules taste much like the #Mediterranean delicacy, so my #Italian half is satisfied here too.)

Beginning a #bladderwrack #rug, inspired by a seaweed on a #Viking slipway on the #isleoflewis, and #woven in #Britishwool milled here on the same #Hebridean island. Here I've woven a short test patch to even out the threads after tying them onto the front beam of the #loom. This also gives ne an opportunity to test weft threads of different weights, stiffnesses and gauges to see which works better with my #sett of five thick #linen warp ends per inch. At this stage I also double check the threading for errors that will show up in different #treadle patterns. Once I'm ready to begin the actual rug, I #weave four rows of plain weave, or #tabby, with the linen, then link three ends and three rows at a time with a looping chain stich to create #tassles and a firm end for the finished rug. (I end the weaving with the same process.) #weavingtheseisles in a bus, woohoo!

#Rugmaking inspiration. #weaving #theseisles currently the #outerhebrides. #vanlife in #equinoxial rains.

Tying a #linen warp onto my poor, overworked #Ashford #loom to make another #rug. I've spent more time repairing the beam joint this week than #weaving. I've had this problem before, so had a spare beam on board, though that broke immediately and my first bodge didn't remedy it. I'll post a picture to illustrate the problem. Last year's fix endured another year's bashing, but rugs are extra hard on us both, so fingers crossed. Apart from the joint shudder and the technical problems, I do love making them. They make me think of the hearth that I've lived without these last three years... #Vandweller professionals, how much spare kit do you carry on board?

#Weaving inspiration from my morning dog #walking. And most of the reason I live and work in a tiny, mobile space: the only affordable way for me to live #lowimpact and autonomously in peaceful places in my native UK. It's wearing thin: they say that the price of #freedom is eternal vigilance. I suspect that this wouldn't be the case if most of us lived more simply and freely, in a land of #positivemoney where fair access to land and market distributed wealth more evenly, and where friendly, debt-free governments looked after both people and planet, rather than chasing capital with a ball and chain around their ankle. We'll get there, if it takes all century... #greenclothcollective #sustainablelivelihoods #neweconomics #localcraft #handmade #lifestyle

The kettle is something of a distraction when supposedly focusing on a #linen #rug warp. A #travelling weavery is very much a #lifestylebusiness and everything has to #dovetail very neatly or it all becomes chaotic, crowded and oppressive. I've only done a little #sailing, but now appreciate the meaning of #shipshape. Careful #stowing is an #art, and every time I open an upper cupboard after a move and something falls on my head I give myself a little air hostess speech about taking care opening ovethead lockers in case of baggage getting dislodged during flight. A Monday morning tidy seems a good way to #starttheweek, but I may be tiring of #vanlife, and my #business may be outgrowing it. That said, my next photo will be more inspiration from the #island morning #dogwalks, and a reminder of why I'm doing it.

Morning #dogwalk, #designing my next #seascape shoren #weaving here on the #isleoflewis. #Theseisles

Table #loom by night. #Weaving #Theseisles in a #bus. #Sustainablelivelihoods make use of what's close at hand. For a #neweconomics in which #sustainablebusiness is actually viable. Buy #slowcloth #handmade #locally, and less of it.

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