For the past few weeks I have been working on (yet another) massive yellow project which has added up to more than 20 meters of gloriously yellow textile, which I wove in the open Taito Lappi weaving studio. Had I done all of this alone at home I might have lost it a little, I tell you. Over the course of the past few weeks my yellow effort got more than a few curious looks from the other weavers wondering what on earth I was making yellow after yellow after yellow.
Well, remember the Entreprenurship gig I did at the end of the summer? I basically knitgraffitied University of Oulu for the Entreprenurship campaign. That particular project lead to an order of a batch of hand crafted lamp shades for a newly designed startup entrepreneurship lounge on campus over there.
I still don't have shots of the finished product, I hope to do the final shoot on site when they are placed at the lounge, but I've put a lot f emphasis on texture when making them. Since I had the one main color to to go with, I really got to push the limits on trying to make them indivudual and different while still being visually connected somehow.
As most of them are, as said, YELLOW, I learnt a lot about how to let the warp do it's thing. By using different picks with the warp and everyting form 1-3 shuttles of weft, I think I achieved a satisfactory number of variations in texture.
Weaving in itself is so meditative I sooner or later fall into a state of flow. And usually that's where I start coming up with stories to go with the piece I'm making. I thought I might share with you a few connections I made between the textures I was weaving and the place they will end up, the entrepreneurship lounge.
Here goes.
This texture made me think of bees and so I call it "Beehive". There's something about how the yellow and black keeps repeating itself in these thin stripes that nailed me to it. To get some variation I added a cloud of bees there too mainly for giggles (doesn't show on the pic). Anyway, making this beehive connection is somehow suitable for a lounge that is created for lots of new startups and people to be buzzing around.
The second textile I want to write about is related to something more personal maybe. While making this project I happened to be finishing driving school ( I got my driver's licence the same day I finished weaving these btw!) and the stark yellow and black made me think of street signs here in Finland. I named it "Crossroads".
Crossroads, signals and such lead me to thinking about all the signals that entrepreneurs have to learn to follow and work with to make a thriving business. Crossroads also made me think of how meeting and colliding with different people during your entreprenurial life span can help you greatly in moving forward.
This particular texture is repetitive and manic almost. I call it "Pulse". Having an awareness of rhythm and keeping a steady pulse in your business is really important. It also made me think of peristence and pressure for entrepreneurs to be learning more all the time and to live with an ever changing beat. And someday reaching a level where you are able to thrive on the constant beating and pulse of the demands on your in business.
"Same, but different". This piece repeats two different tones of yellow, and thus I want them to tell the story of how entreprenurship can really benefit from the juxtaposition of different mindsets. I have learnt tons from entrepreneurs that are completely different from me exactly because their minds work in such surprising ways to me.
While working with similar problems and issues you can really gain a lot from hearing a totally different person's point of view, even if it is someone who's operating in a totally different field from you.
We may all be yellow, but look at how many applications of it are out there!
There's a few more of these which I didn't photograph yet.
Next is getting these mounted and hanging from the roof. 'Til then!
