hand-weaving a new outdoor daybed
this blogpost is not about sewing, instead I want to introduce you to my other passion which is textiles and interior design. I always like to experiment with weaving and other fibre arts as well as little crossovers to furniture design. Just like pattern making it’s a bout constructing and solving problems and I like that a lot – especially when I get something cool in return- like a cool & contemporary charpoy.
Charpoys are Indian daybeds that are usually made with a wooden frame and a colourful woven top.
I really need a crafty project at all times and for a few weeks now my contemporary charpoy idea has been lingering in the back of my head. So when I first moved to Bangkok I had a few metal frames made to measure -one for a coffee table – one for a side board and one that was to be the dining table. The side board has been outside ever since we moved into our rental home. While it is nice as a plant stand, it was just rusting away.
I couldn’t really find a good spot for the side board in 2 years – so I wanted to turn it into something new
I used to decorate it over and over again
Back in the days in a cozy condominium in Bangkok the 95 cm x 160 cm x 20 cm frame was the centre piece of the living area. I used to decorate it over and over again. The Magpie came from a flea market in Antwerp and the Mermaid is a painting I made when I lived in Germany. It’s Lorelei from the river Rhine.
The Condo was pretty cool but I had no work space at all and was obsessed with keeping the place tidy. Now we live in a house in a near by area of Bangkok and I finally have the luxury of a workroom!
We have a large terrace off the bedroom with an amazing temple/pagoda view.
I love the terrace as it’s also the home of my palm trees collection. I always thought that I could turn the side board frame into a day bed or something just to try – and I finally did it!
memories of masami chan
I had an old hammock from a friend who passed away 2 years ago and I always wanted to do something with it. I like to work things with a history or some kind of memory attached to them into my work. I feel it gives them a bit of soul and meaning. Anyway so I unraveled the entire hammock that was woven like a fish net & ended up with green, yellow and white cotton rope. I used most of the white to weave the warp onto the frame.
It took me a few afternoons and that’s why in the end the whole thing took me about 2 months to make. I made the warp a wee bit too tight to be honest but after a while experimenting with different ropes, ribbons and what ever I could find in my fabric etc. hoard I ended up with a pretty decent combination of reclaimed ropes, cotton tape and yarn. The tape is what I usually use to make draw strings etc. for my prototypes. It looks super cool!.
I worked the weave into a twill/ herringbone style that gives a cool ziz-zag chevron pattern
– which I love – seriously I can never get bored of chevron patterns and I constantly fantasise about old French parquet floors – I almost managed to get it right, I tend to loose track and skip bits of the pattern but in the end it looked pretty good.
