So, the scholarship application. Someone suggested I ask for an extension in light of the delay in getting the info, so I emailed the powers that be, but I haven't heard back, so my money is on no extension, and I will hear from them just in the nick of time for me to send it Fastpost at extra cost. Dread. I did get a softcopy of the 2002 instructions after begging, and our National President answered all my questions promptly over the weekend, so fair enough. This is why I've been working on the application, even though I know I should be weaving for The Next Wall. I will be finished with the word part today or tomorrow; I still need a "portfolio" of photos and samples of recent works; selecting them shouldn't take overly long; I haven't decided how to package it all, though. My Word file application looks drab; it's so me I can cry. I might invest in a few sheets of fancy paper but that's about all I can get my mind around...
Nynke Piebeanga is our current National President. (And I found my friend Dianne, too.) She's the one who has been answering my questions over the weekend, and before that she really tried to figure out the "too many technical errors" for me. In the end, she told me the technical assistant couldn't recall my piece, the notetaker had a family member fall seriously ill, there were over x number of submissions to proceess in y number of hours, (read: busy), I'm in good company for having works rejected, and Nynke herself had had works rejected in one place, then awarded top award elsewhere. Oh, and the technical assistant is an excellent weaver. None of these wash with me, and it didn't with many at the recent guild meeting, though those who agreed wouldn't have told me, I'd imagine. But I'm not too stupid that I can't emphathize with or appreciate all but the last, and I thanked her, profusely I hope, for trying.
Because you read this far of a rant/rave post, I'll give you something to "take home". Here are some of the reasons works were rejected, which may or may not help you in planning your future projects.
- Uneven beat
- Not exhibition-quality
- Fringes on baby blankets (unsafe)
- Synthetics for baby blankets (try telling that to a busy modern mum!)
- Fringes not crossed
The last one may be useful to you, though. Say you're making fringes with four ends per strand and two strands to a fringe. You count the first four ends for the first strand, and then the next four for the second, right? Wrong. Take ends 1, 2, 3, 5 for the first strand and 4, 6, 7, 9 for the second and make the first fringe. Then ends 8, 10, 11, 13 and 12, 14, 15, 17 for the second fringe, and so on. I had hoped to show you in a pic, but I don't make fringes any more...
6 comments:
Goodness,the crossed fringes - I had absolutely no idea. I have six scarves loitering around my living room awaiting fringing, so I'll employ that technique very soon.
Is your problem with the application process the writing pricess itself, or the lack of transparency? The lack of transparency would bother me. It seems to imply that one can only obtain grants on a "who you know" basis, which can take on a flavour of nepotism.
So, once in a blue moon, my blog can be a little educational!
Re. the scholarship, to me, the instructions are muddled, but I am most frustrated that I have so little time to prepare.
But maybe this is not a bad thing. I have always bee one of those kids who, when I finish an exam quickly, I go over them and then change the correct answers to wrong ones.
That seems a rather non-negotiable approach to fringeing. I have twisted fringes that way, but in general I Just Don't Do That. If I am going to make a twisted fringe then I hemstitch the cloth on the loom so that all the ends for one twist are in a bundle together. When it comes to the actual twisting then I choose two halves based on balancing out the colours, so as to avoid the barber's pole effect. That - rather than counting - is my priority. If I took the alternate end approach to fringeing with shadow weave, for example, then a barber's pole is exactly what I would get. Hmmmm.
Yes, exactly, Cally. I don't know if, as you said, a shadow weave scarf would have been rejected by this technical assistant in this instance, but it appears she had an extremely narrow definition of what was acceptable, from what others have told me.
Plus, to me, if you hemstitch on the loom, I'm not sure if how the cross looks or works.
Sue Broad told me she hemstiches by strands, because it's easier to count on the loom, and then automatically takes two or three strands when fringing, and I've never seen a weaver fringe so efficiently/quickly!
I don't think high standards are bad at all, but rules set in stone seem to me to go against the spirit of weaving. But that's just me, a consummate newbie.
Crossing threads between tassels always looks like a mistake to me. Why do it? Is it to stop wear on the first weft thread? How long do we want a piece of weaving to last?
A row of twining at the start and end of the weaving before tasseling makes a professional finish.
Time the Society laid down some exhibition rules (heaven help us) if these are the sorts of things to reject work by.
How many years would you like to allocate for THAT project??? Lordy. I can see how some people don't send things to National now. It's so subjective, the selection.
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