Sunday, November 1, 2009

Letty's Woven

Part A:
Tea meets coffee.


Today's bag is created by an artist in London, England. I'm tempted to call "Lettuce" an old friend- and she is by blogging standards. I first "met" letty through the practice of tripping and travelling through blog land. I liked her photos and her descriptions of her garden.


Then something unbelievable happened. My brother was diagnosed with cancer- a cancer that claimed him rapidly.


At the same time, letty began posting about the decline of her mother. She wrote some poetry that made me weep inwardly and outwardly.


Her mother lived longer than my brother; but the cancer got them both.

Part B: For my fortieth birthday, this virtual stranger sent me the most beautiful box of buttons. Some of them were truly exquisate; all of them were an act of generosity and selflessness. (she'd proposed a button swap prior to this, and my greed prevented me from obliging...)

On another occasion, she sent me several amazing bags to auction on the Darfur project. I couldn't even auction them for the first while because I just had to have them around for the pleasure of their company.

Part C: My sister travels a fair bit. One of her destinations was London, England. We arranged to have letty meet sister, and I gifted her with one of my humble bags. My sister confirmed my suspicions that this woman was lovely, generous, and kind.

Part D: letty sets up her own website to auction items for charity: Made4Aid.

But does her generosity stop there? oh no. She sends another package-- and here it begins.












The description is copy and pasted from the made4aid blog. I didn't want to risk my own description, since I've never done any weaving whatsoever.

This auction is for a shoulder bag, handwoven on a table top loom. Its one of a limited series woven according to a "Monks belt" weave pattern, where the weft distorts and goes wavey, making a nicely-textured weave.

The warp threads (the vertical ones) are soft cotton in pastel candy shades of lilac, green, cream and pink. The weft yarns include chenille, soft cottons and shiny ribbon and threads in a range colours from soft mauve through to pink and red- there was a bit of using up of leftovers and remnants going on here.

The strap was also woven on a table top loom as a long strip, on a strong cotton warp.


The bag is fully lined with vintage fabric - black with small white polka dots - and there is a little internal pocket.

It is finished by hand with a vintage green button with a little plaited loop fastening.


Woven mainly in cotton, this bag is quite soft but it will be durable and its washable by hand.
The dimensions of the bag are approximately 9.5 inches/24cm (wide) by 10 inches/25.5cm ; the strap is 35inches / 89cm long.


Thanks again for sharing your talents and excellent taste, letty.

Auction details: Bids begin at $25- Cdn please. Auction will conclude at 9:30 pm, cst, November 2, 2009. FAQ link can be found in the side bar.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am thrilled to bid
I have purchased from Made4aid recently and am now the proud owner of a wee woven basket

I am up to my proverbials in cookie dough as we speak for the fundraising for DOctors without Borders but I will be back on line tonight to follow the bidding

I bid $35

janice said...

I am holding out for another quilt piece "laptop" bag. Except if I see another beauty.

This is a beautiful bag. Just checked out made4aid.

I saw your button present. WOW. My mom and many aunts were all great seamstresses (don't know how to spell that) and we had a button box and spent hours playing with buttons, as children.

Anonymous said...

the ripple effects are at play...
and Joyce - you are like the pebble making the splash...
lettuce...
to fancy...or is that too...
mwaaahaaa haa.
and I am a simple trouble maker - playing with a certain bidder's mind....
anxiety - there has been more comments posted...
B.B.

Anonymous said...

oh oh. has a certain someone been too busy in batter to notice how many comments are being posted at Letty's Woven!!!
B.B>

Anonymous said...

oh oh,
I am too busy teasing a very devine cookie maker - that I forgot to sing praise. Letty's Woven is one fine bag!
and what a story telling bag it is.
B.B.

Anonymous said...

lordy a girl can't leave this site unattended for one moment without BB striking at my insecurities!
Trust me I will wreak havoc at anther time when i learn how to spell bwaahaa or something equally sinister

Is it crazy to out bid yourself
possibly but i will bid $40
between 2 real special people Joyce and lettuce I think this is an easy decision

Anonymous said...

yippee,chortle
glee i hope ??

joyce said...

I think the rest of us just eavesdropped on a making of The Office. cookies, you say? I'm sure they're divine- but I'm feeling rather satisfied myself after a dish of cappucino ice cream, two black licorices, and a teeny weeny halloweeny chocolate bar.

ARe you making any black licorice/cappucino/crunchy bar flavoured cookies?

(pleased am I to hear that you are doing this for docs without borders! I hope you come back and tell us how your cookie sales went)

Janice- thanks for the button commentary. I am glad someone shares my enthusiasm. I was speachless when I received that. I had to leave it in the box and not look at all of them at once, because it was just too positively overwhelming.

well, Fancy, after outbidding that conniving fancy of 9:27 am, you are the bag's new owner!

lettuce said...

um.... theres much in these comments that i can't understand at all!

but happy this little one has sold

i've been craving liquorice allsorts lately

joyce said...

I'll venture a bit of an explanation. Bidder is Fancy. She makes cookies, and then sells them at the office that BB also works at. She donates the money to docs without borders. This is the ripple effect of which BB speaks- Bobita inspired Joyce who inspired Fancy and Lettuce...

Meanwhile, BB is messing with FAncy's mind. She knows that she'll be away from her computer, but hoping to snag letty's woven. She decides to leave multiple comments so that when Fancy gets back to a computer, it'll make her panic that a bunch of people have bidded on the bag!

AFter all that, Fancy comes back and outbids.... HERSELF!

Funny girls, those. Here's the thing on the ripple effect though- BB is one of the major contributers to my own inspirations.

None of us are much good without the other, are we?

Anonymous said...

I can't beleive that this gorgeous bag escaped from me on the ONE day I didn't check! ACK!

A lurker,
Phoebe

joyce said...

don't know if you'll be back here, Phoebe- but THANKS FOR THE WAVE!