Category Archives: Loom & looms & small loom weaving

December 23, 2016 · 1:48 pm

Wooden and Woven Dolls for Christmas

Recently, I had a lovely conversation with my darlin’ grandson.

He said to me: ‘Nanma, I LOVE your dolls. Will you make me one for Christmas?’

I was thrilled that he is pleased with my work and that he wanted me to make him a doll for Christmas.

What an awesome 7 year old he is!

I asked him if he wanted a wooden one or a woven one, and I was convinced that he said, ‘Wooden’….

So, I stayed up very, very late one night, and got up early, to carve him a wooden doll:

I used a birch branch from our son’s neighbour’s tree. It’s been drying for a year and a half and is lovely to carve.

Tottie Tomato cheered me on as I carved.

She comforted the new doll, because she knows that the knives, chisels and sandpaper are very uncomfortable, and that paint brushes tickle….

After he was done, and I had knitted his sweater and jeans, Tottie Tomato and New Boy went to hang a few ornaments on the tree in the village.

Something was feeling not quite right….

I thought: I have to check and see if Grandson actually said that he wanted a wooden doll…..

So, I asked him which dolls he loved?

Wooden or the woven art dolls?

We were out at a concert of his Grampa’s music, so I sketched the shape of the 6th Sense art dolls in the air.

YES! he said, firmly!

THOSE are the ones I love!

Oh oh….

I asked him to draw in the air and show me what shape he had in mind.

Yup….. Woven Women 6th Sense art dolls, and NOT 6 inch tall wooden dolls….

oops.

He specified that he wanted it soft to cuddle and that it had to wear black shoes.

I asked him to draw exactly what he wanted…..

He held his hands up in the air and showed me the size.

So…………………………

I have been weaving up a storm……………. well, a doll, along with a few other things……

I used the tapestry weaving technique to weave the body front, and plain weave for the back.

I did a clasped warp technique for the arms and legs to make the color changes work for the arms and legs.

I hope that he approves of how I interpreted his design!

I hadn’t thought of making him a doll for Christmas, so I am incredibly grateful that he asked.

And, because I didn’t get the brief right first time around, our little sweetheart gets TWO dolls, not one!

For now, they are chilling out by the Village Christmas tree, enjoying themselves in knitted armchairs that I designed for Findlay and Flora Bear.

The pattern for the chairs is in my etsy shop:

LINK

I can’t bear to wrap them until the last moment, so I will have a chance to enjoy them, too!

Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, Happy Solstice, Happy Yule, Happy EVERYTHING to you and yours!

Love and blessings all round.

May 2017 bring Peace, Wisdom and Compassion!

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Filed under doll & dolls & dollmaking & doll making, Findlay Bear and Flora Panda, gifts & easy to make gifts & presents, knitting, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, wooden dolls

Tagged as Christmas dolls, Christmas gifts, dollmaking, dolls, hand made dolls, handwoven, holiday gifts, Noreen Crone-Findlay, small loom weaving, spool knitting, tapestry weaving, weaves, weaving, weaving techniques, wooden dolls, woven

December 13, 2016 · 1:06 pm

6th Sense One of a Kind Art Doll- Tree Mother

Last month, when there was a spectacular Super Moon, we stepped outside to admire it.

The gigantic moon looked like it was suspended in the huge trees that line our street.

The image of the Great Tree Mother, rocking the Moon in her arms, rose up in my mind….

and I knew that I had to build one of my 6th Sense one of a kind art dolls.

Here she is:

Great Tree Mother Rocked The Moon in Her Arms:

While I was contemplating how to build the Great Tree Mother piece, my husband and our daughter took the dogs for a walk one morning.

Chloe came home with a wonderfully gnarly branch that had been pruned from someone’s tree and tossed into the alley.

She just knew I needed it…. even though, at that point, I hadn’t told her what I was mulling about 🙂

We have a very deep connection!

It is perfect.

So’s our daughter….

Anyhow…

The faces….

Years ago, my dear friend found a moose antler that had been shed and she asked me if I could use it.

I cut 3 faces from it, and carved them and painted them.

Two of them became part of this piece:

Tree Mother’s face.

She also has a ‘Hidden Face’ that is hidden inside the piece and will never be revealed.

Too bad I didn’t photograph it! Oops…

Here is Moon’s face:

I carved the hand from wood.

I wove the bands on 2 different looms and knitted the grey hand spun cloth of her robe.

All of the 6th Sense Woven Women have 6 pennies incorporated into them, as a metaphor for coming to our senses, and embracing intuition, intelligence and inspiration.

She is 29 inches/72.5 cm tall and the branch spreads out to 15 inches/37.5 cm wide.

She is not for sale.

By the way, she is also a celebration of creative adaptive re-use and upcycling. I love that.

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Tagged as celebrate the moon, celebrate trees, doll, doll making, dollmaking, dolls, hand weaving, hand woven, handwoven, knitted doll, moon, moon doll, narrow band weaving, Noreen Crone-Findlay, one of a kind art doll, small loom weaving, textiles, tree, tree doll, Tree Mother, trees, upcycling, weave, weaves, weaving, wooden dolls, woven, Woven Women tapestries by Noreen Crone-Findlay

July 1, 2016 · 3:38 pm

Woven Women- Essence

For the last few months, I have been working on a very large mixed media tapestry in my series of ‘Woven Women’.

This one is called: ‘Essence’.

Woven Woman (Essence) by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)

She’s over 6 feet tall, and has about 2 feet of warp strands hanging below the lower edge, so she’s about 8 feet tall in total.

I used many different looms to weave her…. beginning with my ‘Story Loom’ (designed by Susan Barret Merrill of

Weaving a Life LINK)

“Essence” on the Story Loom (c) Noreen Crone-Findlay

I also used: A rigid heddle loom, a narrow band weaving loom, peg loom, weaving sticks, Star Loom, tatting and wire work.

I posted links to 3 videos that I made about various looms and techniques I used in weaving ‘Woven Woman: Essence” here: LINK

And, made a video so you can see her a little more clearly:

Happy Weaving, and here’s to Essence, however it reveals itself (or in this case: Herself).

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Tagged as hexagon loom, peg loom, rigid heddle weaving, Star loom, Story loom, weaving sticks, woven women tapestries and mixed media weaving by Noreen Crone-Findlay, Woven Women tapestry

July 1, 2016 · 1:35 pm

Weaving the Flower of Life Pattern on a Hexagon Loom

I’ve just finished weaving a new Woven Woman mixed media tapestry. LINK

Woven Woman (Essence) by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)

I’ve made 3 video tutorials to show how I wove various aspects of her:

Peg Loom Circle with outside band (c)

How I wove the ‘Galaxy’ circle at her heart: LINK using the Peg Loom

weaving with wire on weaving sticks

How I wove the narrow copper band around her face, using Weaving Sticks: LINK

And, the third video shows how I used a Lily Speed o Weave loom to weave a hexagon, using the ‘Flower of Life’ pattern, with spool knitted cord.

I spent several days shooting a video, showing how to weave the Flower of Life with wire, but the wire just doesn’t show up in the video. Sigh.

So back to the drawing board, and several more days, but this time, using spool knitted cord, because it shows up well in the video.

Flower of Life pattern woven on the hexagon loom by Noreen Crone-Findlay

You can use all kinds of things to weave this pattern that is a celebration of geometry- Lucet cords, wire, thread, yarn, art yarn, roving (use thread or embroidery floss or yarn to tie the intersections), t shirt yarn, fabric strips…. no limits!

By the way: In my etsy shop, there’s a great eBook:

LINK

(Lily Speed o Weave patterns and designs)

Another YouTube video for a different Lily Speed o Weave tutorial :

Happy weaving!

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Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, hexagon loom, how to weave on a hexagon loom, Lily Speed-O-Weave loom, Noreen Crone-Findlay, open mesh pattern on hexagon loom, Sacred Geometry, weaving hexagons, weaving with spool knitted cord, woven hexagon

March 24, 2016 · 4:31 pm

Woven Women- The Stories We Tell

This is the latest in my series of Woven Women mixed media tapestries: “The Stories We Tell”.

Here’s the video that explains it:

I wove the center galaxy section on a 15 inch peg loom from Dewberry Ridge looms. The dragonflies and star were also woven on looms that I designed for Dewberry Ridge.

I wove the words on my double slotted rigid heddle.

I worked the hand in Teneriffe lace and lucet cords.

It’s 20 inches/50 cm wide and 21 inches/52.5 cm tall.

It took more than 8 weeks of intensive weaving for me to complete this piece.

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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, Peg and Stick Loom weaving, tapestry, weaving & handwoven, Woven Women tapestries and woven works

Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, healing stories, mixed media tapestries, mixed media weaving, stories, story telling, storyteller, tapestry, Woven Women tapestries by Noreen Crone-Findlay

August 14, 2015 · 7:14 pm

A truly tiny wooden doll

I couldn’t resist.

I just had to see how small a doll I could carve …

So….I cut very small doll parts from another birch tree twig.

And, I carved a doll that is not much bigger than a quarter.

Here’s a comparison of dolly sizes – ‘Bitty’ is right above the ‘yr’ in copyright.

She really is ‘Itty Bitty’.

She was fun, but rather challenging to carve. (of course LOL).

Bitty, Coco and Joy had a lovely tea party in front of the Story Door.

They had a lovely time, and were pleased that the missing teacups have re-appeared, but wondered where the cat and dogs were.

I wove a chair seat for Bitty, which is less than an inch square.

It makes her feel much more comfortable and she’s very please with it.

Coco, Bitty and Joy have heard the sounds of more carving in the studio, and are excited to see who is going to join them at the Story Door.

🙂

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Tagged as crafts, doll, doll making, dollmaking, dolls, hand weaving, hand woven, handwoven, Noreen Crone-Findlay, small loom weaving, weaving, wooden dolls, woven

August 10, 2015 · 7:05 pm

Carving and weaving for the Birch Tree Sisters

Lately, I have had a very magical time, carving small, and even smaller, (much smaller) dolls and weaving for them.

It all began just over a week ago, when one of our son’s neighbors gave us some lovely Birch wood.

I knew that there were dolls inside the Birch wood that were just longing to get out!

So, I took some of the Birch branches to the bandsaw:

And, cut out the rough shapes for the 6 inch tall dolls, and then I started carving:

I showed how I wove dresses for ‘Hope’ and ‘Joy’ in my previous post: LINK.

They could hear that there was a little sister calling to them from inside one of the branches on their family tree:

So:

After a day or so of carving:

Tiny ‘Coco’ happily emerged from her branch.

Then, I got out my 2 inch square vintage Weave It loom to weave her a dress.

She’s about 3 1/2 inches tall.

Coco Birchtree is very happy to have her picture taken at the Story Door and to join her sisters and the other

Story Door Dolls in my studio.

I’m looking forward to seeing what she and her sisters discover about life around the Story Door!

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Tagged as doll, doll making, dollmaking, dolls, hand weaving, hand woven, handwoven, Noreen Crone-Findlay, small loom weaving, Weave it loom, weaving, weaving techniques, wooden dolls

July 31, 2015 · 12:05 pm

Quirky wonderful loom

My son, Angus Findlay, and I have just co-created a loom and stand that I absolutely love.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay www.tottietalkscrafts.com

Last January, I asked Angus to build me a box that I could turn into a loom.

I made the ratchets and pawls from purpleheart wood, cut the ends and sides into the shapes I wanted, made the warp and cloth beams and started painting it.

I loved it, but found it a bit too big to hold in my lap while weaving, and I didn’t have the perfect table to sit it on and weave comfortably.

So, I asked Angus to take some funky old legs that I had bought at a garage sale, and build a stand for the loom.

Woo hoo! I love it! I am enchanted by Angus’ design and how he built such a whimsical and quirky (and VERY solid and sturdy) loom stand.

He intuitively made it just the perfect height for me.

I brought it home and started playing with embellishments.

I cut out some of my favorite wooden shapes to glue on it, and then painted 3 coats of gesso to prime it.

Then, I slowly began the layering on of paint:

Painting was a long slow process, as I applied layers of acrylic paints in thin washes to build up the color shifts.

The screen behind the loom shows how I use this layering technique on other pieces, too.

I was quite surprised when the loom started to lead me in this direction, as I had had a totally different concept

in mind before I started painting.

But, I believe in listening to the piece and allowing it to tell me how it wants to be.

The ‘Dancing Girl’ and ‘Resting Rabbit’ motifs are a theme that I have used for more than 40 years.

They’re just me.

I made the metal image of the Dreaming Lady of Malta with sheet metal, using the repousse technique of pressing and shaping the metal from the back.

Because I work with my dreams and use them as one of the main sources in my art and artisanship, I felt that placing an image of the Beautiful Dreamer was a great metaphor.