Flour Resist

I have been planning to try flour resist for ages and here is it:

I used one of those cheap white cotton bags you can buy everywhere. I washed it and inserted in the bag a piece of cardboard wrapped in plastic bags. The cardboard was as big as the bag to keep it stretched.

I have mixed a pancake batter consistency mix of wholemeal flour and water and squeegee-ed it onto one side of the bag.

I left to dry several days (read: I had no time to perform stage 2 for several days).

I scrunched the resist but I could have done some more.As you can see the crackles aren't too many.

I prepared the paint using manutex and procion dyes, I painted it in using a large brush on both sides.

I then inserted the bag in a plastic rubbish bag and left it to cure for 48 hours.

The resist came off very easily in large chunks. I used the back of a cheap table knife as scraper.

North Ronaldsay

I just finished plying the last fo the North Ronaldsay. I love it: it looks rough but it is so soft and cozy.

I must choose carefully the pattern to use it with.

Paper Yarn

Inspired by the pictures from Paperphine http://www.paperphine.com/?tag=weaving I have tried to spin paper.

These are my tissue paper threads, the spinning (or more accurately the twisting) is a tad frustrating because the strips do break often but all in all I like the result.

The red one has been a nightmare: I did not realised that I had cut the strips at 90° from the directions of the paper fibres: instead of breaking every 10 minutes the paper broke every 30 seconds.

To make this thread I have done the following:
1. Cut the paper from from 1 cm to each edge


2. Wrap the paper in a wet towel for several hours

3. Ripped the paper to have a continuous lenght of paper

4 Twisted the paper on the spinning wheel.

I made several attempts and found that it is better to keep the hands very close to the orifice. I also think that at the beginning most breakages were due to the time it took me to arrange the "changes of directions of the paper"




The main problem of tissue paper is the colour: it bleads out horribly: I will have to use these threads in a place where they will not come in contact with humidity or I must find a substance to seal them in.


I made experiments with newspaper, for the newspaper I cut the paper after having whetted it. I guess it worked only because the newsprint is much more resistant.

The result is quite stiff and I am considering using it to weave a basket.

My last test was with my birthday presents paper.


It is one of those pseudo-handmade papers, almost transparent and with thicker fibres visible. It was much easier to spin but came out fuzzy: the fibres seems to be poking out especially if the paper was particularly wet.

So... I am restarting this a s a diary.