Layers of ink: Weaving

Monday, May 2, 2016

Home Loom Weaving

Hi friends! I hope you had a lovely weekend and managed to get some crafty time. We went to a spring celebration on Saturday and enjoyed the warmer weather that finally seem to have arrived. It is Monday and of course time for a new Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. Our theme this week is Home Décor, and I am looking forward to seeing the submissions, especially since home décor is one of my favourite types of projects.

Since this is the first Monday of a new month we are showcasing a company/designer, and this month it is Prima Marketing. Prima has so many gorgeous products and I also love their range of mediums, such as the new watercolor paints (check out this Watercolour Tree art journal post if you want to see an example). The first Prima product that I remember loving were the glass milk bottles filled with flowers, quite some years ago now.

Layers of ink - Home Loom Weaving by Anna-Karin, with Prima Marketing Desert Sun Fiber Arts Loom Kit

This week, I decided to do something a little different. When I was a child, I loved loom weaving and I made an endless supply of carpets, blankets and table cloths for my dolls. Since then, I have not once used a loom weave, which made it extra special to weave this wall-hanging. I used Prima's Desert Sunset Fiber Arts Loom Kit, which includes everything that you need to start loom weaving. My wall-hanging isn't perfect, but I was happy with the final result and it is now hanging in the living room. The process of making this loom weaving was in itself a part of its meaning. Not only was I remembering how much I loved to weave as a child, but my son also got involved.

My wall-hanging is 9 in wide and 13 in tall (including the tassels). The loom included in the kit is quite large. I used about two-thirds of it width-wise, and almost, but not completely, the whole length.

When I went to pre-primary school, I made this loom weaving. I can still clearly remember how happy I was with it and it was hanging on my wall throughout my childhood. Even then, I loved making projects with houses, just like today. This week's project is inspired by this old one.

I didn't take step photos, since this was the first time I wove anything in years. I'll do that for my next loom weaving project. The kit comes with a great leaflet with instructions and it is not difficult to do a basic weave. It also includes four kinds of yarn, all of which I used. I only added a few small pieces of fibers that I found in my stash, from when I started scrapbooking years ago and fibers were very popular. The darker blue fibers here were from one of the first time ever I visited a scrapbooking shop.

Here you can see all the four yarns included in the Desert Sunset kit (apart from the black chimney). I really like the colour combination. Prima also has a lovely neutral coloured kit called Aspen Blush.

I wanted the edges of my house to be sharp, as on the original weave, which is why I left the opening that you see between the house and the sky. Later, I changed my mind and wished that I had closed that opening up, but I didn't want to do everything over again, so I left it as it was.

The kit comes with some lovely flowers, leaves and embellishments. I used some of the flowers.

I also glued a Finnabair Tin Heart to the weave once it was finished.

To make this project even more personal, I got the idea of including the boys. They posed for this photo the same day, with the purpose of using it here. To give it a textured, fabric look, I printed it on canvas. Tim Holtz number 2 brad fit well together with the two of them, and because I always feel that a house needs a number.

Look at this lovely fabric flower, also included in the kit.

The cream roving at the bottom is meant to look like far away trees/hills, and I also added some green yard from my stash, as grass. The weave was finished with gray - as a street in front of the house and garden.

The weave was finished with gray tassels and at the top, I stitched it to a dowel stick.

As I wrote in the beginning, the making of this loom weave became even more meaningful since my son wanted to get involved. Some time ago, I got my old loom from my parents' house, but we hadn't started to use it yet. How I loved this loom as a child, and I still find it to be really really cute. It is a small version of a real big room loom, which my grandmother had. So while I worked on my Prima loom, he worked on this one (with a little help now and then). There was a half-made project in the loom already, and Anton completed this old childhood weave of mine, so many years later.

I haven't had time to tuck away the lose ends yet, but to the left of the gray stripe, is the part that I wove as a child. Anton started with the gray stripe and finished the project. He is going to use it as a carpet for his toy figurines, so that 'they have something soft to walk on'.

I hope you will join us in our Home Decor challenge. You don't have to use Prima products, but it is always fun if you do. As every week, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.