I-Loominating! Scrapwood frame loom for under $2

The Idea

Weaving seems like a fun, low commitment, low pressure hobby. No deadlines, lots of potential yarns and fibers to experiment with. Let's build a frame loom! Even better, let's build a frame loom for almost free using scrapwood, some screws already on hand, and a box of wire brads that cost less than $2. Yeah.

The Creation

I had some easy-to-handle sized scrapwood pieces, so I laid them out on the floor to see how big my loom would be if I didn't make any cuts.  I thought it might be nice to have a wider piece across the bottom, so I just went with these pieces as they were and decided to make a 'vertical' (portrait orientation) loom.

Loom pieces

Not pictured in this post, but I happened to have a vat of indigo blue dye already on hand when building the loom, so I dipped the pieces in the dye bath just for funsies.  After the wood had dried for a few days I gave it a coat or two of shellac (already on hand from another project) because I wanted a smooth surface to minimize any yarn snagging.

Next step was the placement of small brad nails to hold weaving warp.  This stage is where I confirmed that I wanted to make a 'vertical' loom rather than a 'horizontal' loom. I laid out a piece of painters tape on each of the short pieces to make a straight edge and then measured 1 cm increments.  I then nailed in each brad at the marked increment.  I chose to use brad nails because they have a small head which seemed like it would make warping the loom, and later removing the warp, easier.

Tape measurements and nailed in warp supports

Tip: Do not nail your nails through the painters tape, nail it NEXT to the painters tape edge. The small space between each nail can make removing any stuck tape a bit tedious. I think I used tweezers at some point because I couldn't fit my finger between the nails.

Brads nailed in place

Once the brads were all in place I assembled the 4 loom pieces together, using two screws at each corner. If you only use one screw there is a possibility that the pieces could get 'out of square' with each other, and nobody wants a wonky loom.

Loom top with warp threads

Conclusion

The loom is heavier than if I had used MDF or some sort of thin plywood, but as far as a scrapwood loom that cost $2 and some time it works juuust fine.  Here it is with a test weaving showing that everything is holding together under the warp tension and (light) weight of the weft fibers.

Loom in action

Happy freestyling, or bargain creating if that is where the wind takes you!

Mood Mirrored Indigo

The Find

Textiles can be a tricky freestyle find, there is always a question of the lurking unseen microbial presence on whatever fabric has been sitting outside, unattended, for some amount of time.  And of course, things on the curb could always fall victim to a lifted dog leg. But if something is small enough to go STRAIGHT INTO THE WASHING MACHINE upon arrival at home, well, then, I feel pretty good. I've stayed in hotels, how different could it be?  Now that you've read my thoughts on freestyle textile find hygiene, let me tell you about ... a freestyle textile find!

I came across this cool pillow cover (with separate insert) embellished with numerous tiny mirrors, one of a few options in a giveaway box at the end of someone's driveway. So much sewing detail, possibly done by hand - I appreciate such work.  There is no tag on the pillowcase, but the fabric felt like cotton, so I immediately had an idea for a makeover.

Freestyle pillow find on curb

The Makeover

I had an existing dye bath setup from some exploratory home-shibori fun in the color Indigo, and the dye type was one for natural fibers. So after a hot wash in the washing machine, the pillowcase went into the dye bath to sit for a while and (hopefully) absorb as much dye as possible.  Without any fiber information I wasn't sure how the results would look, but as a hedge I let the pillowcase sit in the dye bath for a long time. As in, it sat in the dye bath for multiple weeks. I also decided to order some dye fixative, since my previous shibori experiments had faded quickly without this critical ingredient.  Lesson learned.

Ingredients used to dye pillowcase

This is what the mirrored pillowcover looked like when it finally came out, lots of deep indigo color.  But would it hold?

After the dye bath

There were hopeful signs that the dye fixative had done as promised since the color was dark even after rinsing the textile in cold water until the water ran clear.  But the true test is always the washing machine.

Conclusion

The indigo color held up well after a washing machine cycle, so I'm calling it a success.  Here it is, minimally 'styled' on a couch with two other throw pillows (yes, they were free too, the complimentary colors are a coincidence).

Mirror mirror on the indigo blue pillowcase

Here are two detail shots that highlight the interesting diamond pattern embroidery.

Embroidery detail: angled view

Embroidery detail: front view

Happy freestyling, don't be afraid of a little elbow grease that might be needed to clean something and make it your own!

NQF: How to dye an Ikea sheepskin in the washing machine

 Not Quite Freestyle (NQF)

How to dye an Ikea sheepskin in the washing machine

The cat is a pampered cat, as befits his status as undisputed apartment ruler. As he has demonstrated a fondness for fleecy and wooly things, his human servants thought he would appreciate a sheepskin.  The human acquired a RENS sheepskin from Ikea for the cost of approximately some-amount-that-the-cat-doesn't-care-about.  

Tag on back of Ikea sheepskin

Upon close inspection the cat commented that he didn't think the sheepskin coordinated properly with his eyes, so we decided to dye it purple as befits his royal majesty.

Inspection 1.

This was pretty simple, fill the washing machine with dye and hot water, but pause the wash cycle before it agitates. Put the sheepskin in, and swish it around with a stick every once in a while. While wearing gloves, pull it out to look if the color is getting any darker.

In-progress view

After a good bit of siting in the washing machine (maybe 2 hours), add some gentle soap, close the lid, and let the gentle wash cycle continue.

Once the washing machine cycle is done, DO NOT PUT THE SHEEPSKIN IN THE DRYER.  Instead, place it somewhere it can fully air dry, like on top of a bucket inside a bathtub.  Wait for the sheepskin to air dry, this could take a while depending on the humidity level.

Drying time

After the sheepskin has dried, fluff the wool generously, then present it to his royal majesty for final inspection.

Satisfaction

Conclusion

With its new purple wool the sheepskin passed inspection, and the sheepskin was granted a charter bestowing upon it the royal cat-nap privileges in perpetuity. 

After completion of this project, the humans ran an empty load in the washing machine to flush out any remnant dye, and all was well in the land.

Chair season - furniture finish comparison

Paint vs. Wood Dye

Earlier in the year I decided to refinish two different chairs, one using black dye on the wood and the other using sort-of-black paint named 'Wrought Iron'. The outcomes were very different, and I thought this would be a useful reference - for others or for my future self - when deciding whether to sand a piece of furniture down to bare wood in order to dye the wood or just paint it.  Sanding is an unpleasant chore, so sanding down a whole piece can be quite the investment in time and clean-up energy.

Here are the two chairs, the splat-back (left) and the angular colonial reproduction (right).

A little bit closer view, the left chair was sanded and dyed and finished with furniture wax. The chair on the right was painted with a variation in Benjamin Moore 'Wrought Iron' that I had to bring back to have more dark pigment added.  The hardware store folks were really nice about adding more pigment to try to get me to the 'soft black' color I had in my mind.....but I'm not sure it exists in reality.

The tricky part about sanding and dyeing is that you have to remove EVERY. SINGLE. PART of the old finish before dyeing.  If you miss any spots while sanding you will get places on the chair that resist the dye, and show up as light spots.  This shouldn't be a problem if you are working with raw wood, but for furniture makeovers it is something to consider if you plan to use any sort of chemical or mechanical stripper.

Conclusion

If I were working with raw wood, or wood that was confidently fully sanded, I would use the dye. The way the color sinks into the wood while leaving the grain slightly visible is a much more satisfying look. What's the word I'm looking for instead of satisfying: maybe authentic? aged? natural? organic? inviting? woody?  Something along those lines.   However, in the case of chairs with lots of spindles, if the chair already had a finish on it I'd try to get the right kind of paint to apply over the existing finish.  Sanding spindles sucks.

Happy freestyling!

The cerusing bug strikes again, bookshelf edition.

In a desultory fashion I keep an eye on craigslist for free oak furniture, because I really like free stuff (obvi) and I liked the results from my first attempt at cerusing. You never know when you will hit the jackpot, like seeing a posting for a beautiful oak bookshelf in good condition in a nearby neighborhood!  The giver was accommodating about scheduling a pickup and had exactly the type of home you hope your free furniture comes from, a clean one.

I used a short term car rental service to transport the bookshelf, super easy. The bookshelf was heavy enough to make me think it was solid wood.  I bartered with a friend to have him remove the existing finish, which turned out to just be some stain. There was no polyurethane or finishing oil to strip off. While sanding down the bookshelf he discovered that the "solid oak" of the sides and front casing was really a high quality thick oak veneer over particleboard.  Although cerusing is not recommend for veneers I decided to carry on with the original plan.  Here is the bookshelf after being sanded down to remove the stain.

Next step was to dye the wood, using the blue aniline dye I purchased.  The initial dye layer looked green, probably because of the yellowness of the oak. (Next time I will try to bleach the oak before dying, if that's even possible). After 3 rounds of dying and drying the color looked blue, and I was satisfied. Although in retrospect it might have been better to do another round, because after applying the shellac the color looked green again.

(top half) Dyed blue veneer with shellac layer on top, (bottom half) dyed blue layer.

I like greens, blues, and teal, so while this was not the bright cobalt blue I was going for, it didn't stop the project!  To improve the strength of the finish I applied two coats of shellac to the horizontal surfaces and outside faces of the bookshelf.  This worked out to about 1.5 cans of shellac.

After the shellac dried it was time to apply the liming wax, and to learn a lesson about not following directions.

I did a test run of the wax on one of the removable shelves, by wiping on the wax, working it into the grain and then immediately wiping of the excess with #000 steel wool. This was easy enough and the results looked normal. Then I made the mistake of reading the directions on the tin, which said to let the wax dry for AN HOUR before wiping or sanding off the excess. So that's what I did. Maybe that works if you want an overall whitewashed finish and just want to smooth the surface with a bit of light sanding, but for cerusing over dyed wood this was a huge mistake.  The wax got really hard and was difficult to remove with #000 steel wool through hand sanding.

With a lot of elbow grease I eventually sanded, or buffed, all the surfaces down so that the grain was filled in but without a white haze over the rest of the wood. A day later I applied clear furniture wax to help seal and protect the surface even further.  The furniture wax was easy to wipe on and buff to a shine, and it smelled good too.  The instructions on that product say to let the waxed surface 'cure' for 30 days before any heavy use.  That sounds like a long time, but given how long it takes me to reorganize anything or move furniture around in my apartment I think it will be fine.  In the meantime I've been admiring the naked bookshelf in it's new colorful state. 

This is what a naked shelfie looks like.

If you're interested in cerusing something, go for it! It is a bit more involved than a one-coat paint job, but the intricacy and richness of the final finish are worth it.

Happy freestyling, keep an eye on your local craigslist free section!