FISH.

My husband Freddy and I have visit the Danish Aquarium and I totally fell in love with the colors of the fishes. They are amazing and wish I were not affraid of swimming with my head under the water. It could be fantastic to be able to discover all these colors in real live, but I am satisfied with the aquarium.

The blue, almost like indigo is a favorite of mine. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

I think this fish is able to light up in the dark or perhaps that is just an idea because of the strong color.

The structure of these two plants is almost unreal. I wonder how they would feel if it were possible to touch them.

Here the pattern of the fish is very interesting, something I would like to try to weave one day. And I like the three tones of grey, yellow and blue.

GERANIUMS.

I have just come back from the weekend at my parents in a little town called Karup, in the middle of Jutland.
My mother have the most wonderful and beautiful garden, full of flowers. It is from her I have my pasion for flowers, so I am lucky to have my own little balcony together with my apartment in Copenhagen, full of flowers. I collect the Geranium family; Pelargoniums and Storkenæb (danish).

Today I would like to show you some Storkenæb, both from my mothers garden and from my own little balcony. The flowers are full of colors, patterns and structures. So pretty.

I have pressed some of the flowers, as I hope to be able to keep the beautifulnes of the flower, so I can look at them in the winter, too.

The Geraniums is not a big flower, but with the macro lense it is still possible to take a nice close-up.

This one is from the Oxonianum family and is called Julie Brennan.

Here I have pressed it, hopefully it will still look nice during the winter, with the beautiful lines on the leaves.

A nice inspiration for weaving.

Jolly Bee.

I think of the people in Norway, so this heart in bobinlace is for them.

MOJIRI-ORI samples.

I have just received these lovely samples of mojiri-ori from John Marshall, bought through his blog. John Marshall writes about historical, technical and cultural information about Japanese textiles and dyeing. Each week he have a textiles of the week, where he writes about a special technique and then it is possible to buy textile samples.

I have in an earlier post wrote about mojiri-ori in Japan and also about Takeshi KITAMURA -a living National Treasure.

John Marshall calls gauze karami-ori and I asked him what the exact term is. He told me that technically, the correct term is "karami-ori". It is considered standard Japanese and can be used anywhere. "Morjiri-ori" is more of a regional term (for the Kyoto/Osaka area).
The verb mojiri means to distort, or torture. The verb karami means to entangle or find fault.

For me I will continue to call gauze in Japanese mojiri-ori as this is what I have learned from Takeshi KITAMURA.

I bought four beautiful samples from John Marshall, about the first one he writes;
"Sha-ori sample.

This fabric sample is an example of a variation on the basic sha structure of weaving in which pairs of warp threads are mated to twist back and forth around one another, so that in the end they appear to be a single thread.

The bolt is labeled High Quality Real Sha Double Weave, with the top layer woven in black ad the back woven in red silk. It is the crossing over of these planes of color that creates the figurative work, even though each taken alone is a simple sha weave".

 These two pictures shows the front of the sample.

The back of the textiles where the red warp is in focus.

This next textile is very beautiful. John Marshall writes; "Sha Weave sample.

Ro is a weave that employs the sha structure with the addition of areas of plain and /or twill weaves.
Images evoking cool, languid times have always been polular in karamiori weaves. Here we see a very popular pattern called seigaiha, blue ocean weaves.
At first glance the sample appears to be a very finely woven ro. However, close examination shows that there is no flat weaving in the structure. Every cross has a twist. By definition this makes it sha rather than ro". 

This green sample is a favorite.
 
John Marshall writes; "Classic Ro sample.

One of the attractive features of this silk sample is an almost linen-like stiffness. Coupled with the lozenge-shaped pattern, it is ideal for summer clothing – it will stand away from the wearer’s body and allow any hint of breeze to cool unhindered.
If we zoom in to focus on how this lozenge pattern is achieved, it is easy to see that the twisting pairs are actually made up of two sets of four threads. Each bundle of four makes a twist to the right, followed by a twist to the left. Between the twist, bundles divide into parallel rows of eight and are worked as a flat weave. Twist/flat, twist/flat, repeated throughout the entire bolt is what created this seemingly complex motif".

 I am in love with this red sample, so therefore it is my favorite of the four samples.

John Marshall writes; "Ro/Ra sample.

In Ra weaving, pairs of warp threads are free to meander and recombine forming highly intricate webs of relationships, often pairing with threads three or more rows away.
The label on the bolt of this sample clearly states that it is ra. However, if the weave structure is closely examined it becomes obvious that it is composed of neighbor pair twisting – interspersed with areas of flat-weave weft. This is the classic definition of the structure of ro".

 These three pictures shows the front of the textile.

And the back with the white thread twisting from right to left.

Every time I see something new about gauze, I have to either read more or buy. To me this technique is so fantastic. I can't get enough.

All I can say is: LOVE LOVE LOVE.

STICKY STRUCTURES.

I have started collecting cactus, after my sweet husband gave me one as a gift.
I like the different kinds of structures that these dessertflowers can give me.

This cactus is not so big yet, but I have seen them huge, so perhaps one day, in 20 years same will happen to mine.

This one is funny. It is like there is pink flowers on the cactus and in the top I guess it is starting to open up.

One of my favorites. Beautiful patterns!

Another favorite with hair!

PAPER FOLDS.

I am in love with paper folds. All kinds, even the really simple made by myself.
For me this one were a little bit difficult to fold, perhaps for a weavingstructure.

I like the complexity where the folds goes up and down just after each other.

An artist I am crazy about is Richard Sweeney. He makes the most wonderful and complex folds, also for big installations.

On flickr one of my contacts is the japanese Professor Yoshinobu Miyamoto who is an architect.

His foldings and paper cuts is absolutly wonderful.