Exploring some new ideas
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
2d ago
I had a really interesting conversation a week or two ago with Hideo Mabuchi. Hideo is at Stanford, where he is a professor of applied physics, ceramicist, faculty head of the Stanford Arts Institute, and (most relevantly from my perspective) a weaver. He recently got a TC-2 loom for Stanford, and since Stanford, California College of the Arts, and I are the the only people I know of in the Bay Area with a TC-2, I thought we ought to meet. Hideo is generally interested in bridging the divide between STEM and art/craft, so we talked a bit about his plans for their TC-2. He had a whole bunch of ..read more
Visit website
Fire in the rain
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
1M ago
Well, the velvet attempt was a bit of a disaster. I’m still determined to weave velvet, but I’ve realized that debugging the process and solving all the problems is likely to take months. More on that in a future blog post. (I haven’t given up, just contemplating my next move.) Since I would really like to have a finished project – any project! – someday, I’ve decided to warp up the left side of Grace. I was initially thinking about a black and white warp, which is what most people put onto a jacquard loom because of its versatility. However, black and white is booooooring. (I also almost neve ..read more
Visit website
An afternoon playing with AI
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
1M ago
The last week or so I’ve been playing “Squirrel!!!” as I chase from one project possibility to another. The warp currently on Grace is about to come off, giving me space for one 29″ wide project or two 14.5″ projects. What luxury! So I have been chasing squirrel after squirrel as I attempt to choose between a dizzying array of options. I have also been experimenting with AI prompts. I know people have lots of reservations about AI (I do too), but it’s very clear to me that AI is here to stay. So either I sit down now and learn how to use it, or I’ll be forced to later, after it transforms the ..read more
Visit website
Set a new powerlifting state record!
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
2M ago
Saturday was the USPA Central Strength Classic, my second powerlifting meet ever. And it went well! I was nervous enough beforehand to make a list of 34 items to bring or do the morning of the meet. I figured the less I had to think, the better. And that turned out to be true… I arrived early, geared up in my (ahem) very subtle colors: Turned out everyone else was wearing black, though some got “racy” and added a little colored trim. (Why are people so darn afraid of a little color??) It was fine, though – I loved my outfit and didn’t feel particularly self-conscious about it. (I was too busy ..read more
Visit website
Painted warps and meet prep
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
2M ago
My next class at the Handweaving Academy is going to be Designing Painted Warps. So of course I have a painted warp on Grace, and have been weaving samples in lots of structures, stripe patterns, and so forth. The nice thing about a jacquard loom is that you can weave any structure you like in any sett you like (up to the maximum sett for your configuration), without having to rethread or resley. This vastly speeds up sampling. So far I’ve woven something like 25 samples, all in different structures and/or at different setts. On a shaft loom, that would probably have taken me 1-2 weeks at leas ..read more
Visit website
Sorting lots and lots of spools (with video!)
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
2M ago
The last week has been mostly boring infrastructure upgrades. Grace (my TC-2 jacquard loom) uses plastic pistons to help raise the threads. When it’s damp or hot, the piston expands ever-so-slightly, and threads start raising or lowering incorrectly. Digital Weaving Norway, which makes the TC-2, recently developed a new type of plastic piston that doesn’t have this problem. I elected to upgrade to the new piston….which means replacing one piston for every heddle on the loom. I have 3,080 heddles on the loom. It takes 13.75 seconds to replace a single piston. (Not that I timed it, of course ..read more
Visit website
A fabulous new tool
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
3M ago
Well! The new warp is dyed. This time, I got a little overenthusiastic with the dye, so while there are no white spots, there’s not much variation in color, either. It’s mostly deep navy blue, almost black, with a few lighter and a few darker spots, and some areas with hints of purple. That’s fine with me. I am also shockingly far along in the warping process, thanks to a nifty new tool that is the best invention since duct tape (the wheel is sooooo 5000 BC). It’s a Mesdan fisherman’s knotter, and it looks like this: It ties knots. Tight, secure knots with the ends neatly clipped off. A thing ..read more
Visit website
Setbacks in the search for velvet
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
3M ago
I finally gave up rinsing, though I got enough of the blue out that the rinse water was only tinted. Then I beamed the warp onto the loom: The trick of “crocheting” around the warp before dyeing seems to have helped. Despite a zillion rinses, the warp went on smoothly with a minimum of tangling and very few loose threads. Much better than other painted warps I’ve done before. The warp is not perfect. As you can see in the photo, there are some undyed white bits where the warp stuck together and didn’t take the dye. They’re sprinkled throughout the warp, a few here and there, just enough to be ..read more
Visit website
Velvet doodles
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
3M ago
The velvet warp is now dyed and in the Eternal Rinse Cycle. I say “eternal” because I’ve been soaking/rinsing it for two and a half days now and small amounts of color are STILL coming out. Really dark blues are prone to bleeding, and this is an extremely dark blue, but still, this is ridiculous. I am considering boiling it with detergent as a “Take THAT!” measure, because I am eager to get on with putting on the warp. Normally I wouldn’t worry about a teeny-tiny bit of bleeding (it generally doesn’t stick), but there’s some chance I might decide to use white for the pile, in which case even a ..read more
Visit website
Velvet progress, a new knotting tool, and autumn beauty
Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer
by Tien Chiu
4M ago
The last week has shown some progress on the velvet project. I met with Chris, my friend who is doing the cantra design (and probably most of the build), and we talked about the design. He thinks we can do better than the traditional cantra design, which involves a bunch of spools on a rod suspended in the frame. (For the curious, Peggy Osterkamp has some great photos of velvet looms on her blog.) Here’s a photo I took of one of Barbara Setsu-Pickett’s velvet cantras (which is designed to break down neatly and fit into a suitcase). It’s only partially populated with bobbins, but you get the id ..read more
Visit website

Follow Tien Chiu | Weaver and Writer on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR