A bold and bright August…

We have done such a variety of weaving this month, almost all of our looms are busy and there is a veritable hum of activity in our weaving studio.   We have been dyeing colours we have not used for some time, in weaving a tufted carpet that must begin with  a beautiful light, dusky pink and move through four gradually darker shades – in order to do this we have dyed a set of four colours and mixed combinations of these to keep the colour changes as subtle as possible – flamingo like.    But in weaving, like many things the result is only clear once the work is done.  While you can see sections of a piece on a loom, and get a pretty good feel for it, until it comes off, you do not see the final complete outcome.   So there is always nervous speculation that accompanies these sort of orders.  However, we have such a skilled team of weavers, their judgement of colour, texture and feel of the yarn is honed and impressive;  our dyeing team is excellent and the combination results in few transgressions in style or customer brief.   

Our current work focuses on mohair carpets.  An intense yellow tufted mohair carpet that will be displayed on the Mohair South Africa stand at Maison & Objet along with three cotton/mohair tufted throws; two graded dusky pink tufted carpets for a home in France; two ribbed mohair carpets for a home in South Africa.   A set of pink raffia table runners for a special private function in Maputo are also being woven.  Not sure what it is with pink at the moment.

Sitakele has officially become a weaver this month, she partnered in weaving several items.  This is always a positive event, how someone is able to move from bobbin winding (assisting a weaver) to actually commandeering a loom.  Sitakele has taken over short periods of simple weaving when her weaver needed a break and under the careful tuition of one of our senior weavers, Maria, has learned the basics.  Sitakele will continue working closely with another weaver so that she can learn the complicated techniques, the trouble-shooting and the gentle rhythms required to weave well.  Weavers generally do not want to lose a good assistant, so the apprentice weaver has plenty to negotiate, as she needs to extract herself from her weaver and learn from her at the same time.  Fortunately our weavers are very supportive and help where they can assisting the process but not making it too easy, it really is a rite of passage, and a slow journey that requires commitment from the apprentice.

I have never liked a combination of pink and yellow – but cannot separate them in the picture gallery, they look rather jarring.