Going Internet Old School

It seems like anymore, our communications are limited to a few brief sentences at most.  Sometimes it's just an image.  But lately I've been having the desire for more.  More words, more images, more communication.  So I'm going to try to set the goal of writing a blog post every week.  We haven't been able to keep up with the video podcast very well over the past year - changing family dynamics, Nik's career  and HipStrings growth have meant that the hours it takes to record and produce a video podcast just haven't been available to us.  

So words it will be.  I'm going to try to keep to fibery things.  Experimental work, the things that I'm excited about, the ups and downs of having a fiber business.

This week I'm working on finishing up three art pieces for my second art gallery show (several years ago my spindles were included in a gallery show that was focused on handspinning).  It's a fiber arts and fired (glass/ceramics) themed show and they open the show by doing Raku pottery - a firing process originating in Japan and now adopted in Western practices.  The three pieces are inspired by different styles of Raku pottery. 

The first is a simple piece reflective of traditional Raku pottery - neutral colors, simple shape.  The yarn used in the piece is black Romney spun from locks and topped with Cormo carded handspun. 

The second is inspired by modern Raku pottery that uses fantastic metallic glazes - corespun from a Hobbledehoy Art batt is used to represent the metallic glaze.

  The final one is inspired by a subset of Raku where typically white bisque pottery is marked with horsehair or feathers being burned onto the surface of the pottery.  The yarn is a corespun white domestic wool with an addition of black horsehair.