Bedroom lamp

We had 2 rooms in need of a lampshade. One is the den: “link to the post” and the other was our bedroom. I am ultimately planning to paint a piece of silk that I will then apply on a frame I have already purchased. The silk fabric had been purchased years ago for a different purpose and I am still unsure where it might be. For a while I assumed I would find it quickly and get the lamp done but as other matters took precedence I realized It would take a while before I can do this.

I have therefore purchased another inexpensive lamp shade and, in the space of less than one hour, proceeded to transform it in something I would not be ashamed to show to people:

I have used newspaper yarn. I had spun it ages ago and some of it had been died in pink and wine. (I believe that I was dying something else and simply dropped the still wet yarn in the leftover dyebath). “link to paper yarn spinning”

The yarn is wrapped around the frame and held in place by tying the yarn ends with sewing thread. Once I am ready to make the silk lampshade I will be able to recycle the yarn.

Tissue paper basket

I have been trying to find uses for the tissue paper I have spun in the last year. Some of it is in small quantities so I made a small basket.

The basket was crocheted around a length of spun newspaper. 

The crochet technique involving crocheting around another thread has a name but I could not remember it. I tried to find it and while looking I found this tutorial: http://makemydaycreative.com/2013/06/12/crochet-rope-basket/

I made the base crocheting back and forth a few times, I then widened the base increasing at the corners and after 3 rounds I stopped increasing the number of stitches. 

I started with a pale yellow and when I ran out of it moved to darker and darker shades.

I am now making a second basket with a narrower base and the same technique.

Rainbow

The guild had a competition with "Rainbow" as the subject. Rainbow reminds me of pencils and childhood and childhood is made of paper. What best use could I make of my paper yarn?

 This is my rainbow. I made a few attempts at mixing various shades within the section but as the paper is rather thick it did not work out.



I have used my rigid heddle loom to make the band.

Originally I was planning some sort of sculptural piece all twisted and coiled upon itself but at the end I could not go to the meeting. In a fit of annoyance I hung it to the window and, I think, it looks very pretty there.

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.