Newspaper Weaving. First Steps.

A few days before New Year (actually it was before last New Year) I had an urge to start newspaper weaving. I found a couple of projects online and the way of weaving that seemed to me (and still seems) much simpler than ordinary in and out weaving I tried using several years ago.

Now I just needed to find as many newspapers as possible. All right, not many, just some. OK, at least ONE newspaper. I had never noticed before what a difficult task it is – finding  a newspaper right after New Year. Almost all newsagents are closed and there no free newspapers left in the shops (usually they have some with local ads and the shop promotion materials). After searching the neighbourhood for quite a while I found a single open newsagent kiosk at the metro station.

There is one newspaper in Russia I really like working with – it’s an ads newspaper, just ads, nothing more. But I can be sure that at no moment will I be tempted to stop working and start reading.

Rolling straps of newspaper into thin tubes is not easy at first. Fortunatelly, I learned this art during my previous attempt at weaving (in total I had about three or four of them) and now couldn’t understand how this process could ever be difficult for me. But I clearley remember that it had been. My very first attempt ended with me throwing away all my conuses and cigars (that’s what my tubes looked like) and promising myself never to do such stupid things again.

Now I spin the paper with my right handn around a 2 millimeter knitting needle that I hold in my left hand. Lots of people find it easier to weave on the table, rolling the needle on the paper. But for some reason it doesn’t work for me.

My first vase with lining

I sewed the lining from a piece of linen and knitted the lace.

I worked using plain newspaper tubes, then covered them in varnish to make the structure stiff and then painted with acrilic paint. 

Dish

Dish

I don’t have any photos of the process but these are my two first attempts, so I don’t think there was anything interesting there.