Weaving continues ..

And the other thing I've been doing is getting my loom set up. I bought it secondhand some time ago but while I was at uni I used the studio ones and I got a little scared of mine as it was a different make and design. But, my friend Aviva http://www.avivaleigh.com/, came and had a look at it, and with her help I now have a short lambswool warp ready to go. I am letting myself play while I get accustomed to the quirks and foibles of the loom. And actually, although it is a little bit wobbly on it's stand, in all other ways it is lovely to use, soft and quiet. And, it is a joy to be weaving again.

A few photos of my weave samples that I made way back in January/February this year. I am very conscious of knowing only a little about weaving at the moment. My time spent on the loom at university has allowed me to experiment with different design ideas, but I have not yet made a beautiful piece of cloth that I would exhibit or use as a finished piece. 
In these samples, I was looking first at how the colours changed as they crossed over each other. I also wanted to mimic the crumpled wings of a butterfly as it emerges from it's chrysalis, so I used two warps set at different tensions to create a seersucker effect. On top of this I hoped to create light fabric samples to suggest the notion of flight and air. 
The stripes evolved as I neared the end of the warp, I just loved the wavy lines and I was interested in how the weft yarn altered the quality of the fabric.   

Three more weave samples. The one I really like is the white one. The warp is a spun silk, quite thick.  

 

The samples are an inch to two inches wide. Each one is threaded up differently but the lifting plan is the same, a basic twill.  The warp is sand coloured Connemara linen, which is quite thin, and a little stiff before washing. The crossing threads, weft, vary, I've used spun silk, viscose and a cobalt blue Connemara linen. It is striking how different they are to each other. It's a small, simple adjustment but the capacity to tweak a design and completely, or slightly, alter the result is gratifyingly huge. And, although, as I mentioned in a previous blog, I'm a little anxious about the quality of my show work, I am pleased I have taken the time to try out this idea because I feel like my design skills are stronger for beginning this project. 

    

Some weaving

Last week I was threading up a loom. This time I want to make a crumpled cloth, preferably with ordinary yarns as high twist yarns are not cheap. I have a silk warp (32 e.p.i) on two beams so that one set of threads can be very tight and one a little baggy which hopefully will lead to a seersucker fabric. I am working on a 16 shaft harris loom.

My weaving is off the loom now, I think I have over a dozen 6 inch square samples using different yarns to inform my next weaving design. Today I plan to write up my notes on each sample and then I'll need to be brave and wash and finish them.

I began by looking at making loops and pile. Then I was observing how the colours changed and intensified as they crossed. And finally, trying out a satin, I got these rather nice stripes, which folks seem to like.

Just beginning to weave, the two warps are spun silk 2ply, both are 40 e.p.i. I'm trying out velvet and plush, all very experimental but I quite like it so far. 

A busy couple of weeks, weaving at college. My work on this warp is pretty pedestrian, definitely learning material, but not so pretty as I'd like. I t was interesting to see how different threads in the weft changed the feel of the warp  and I have begun to look at putting texture into my weave with a few short lines of crepe and some honeycomb. I'm hoping that the gold coloured linen will soften with finishing. 

                                                                

My garden continues to grow, bluebells, cow parsley, forget-me-nots, tulips. And dandelions. Even in the rain my garden gives me joy, the air smells sweet and clean, and the birdsong is liquid sound.

So, it turns out that, if you print on a lambswool warp with procion dyes with soda ash, the wool falls to pieces. Fortunately the silk warp seems to be fine and is looking fine on the loom. And David, our fab technician at NUCA, really kindly made me a new lambswool warp which I will put on the loom tomorrow.   

Back to college. This week I am weaving. But weaving is not all weaving. I made up a warp last term, before the holidays, half lambs wool, half silk bourette. And the past couple of days have been about prepping it for printing and painting on the warp. This is now done and today I am looking forward to putting it on a loom. Well, kind of looking forward to it. There is something quite relaxing and meditative about threading up a loom. But, after printing it needed washing, and now, oh boy, some tangles, and then some more tangles. So my day ahead will be combing out threads.