Weaverly

Orchids is Finished

The title makes me think of the ads for Hitchcock's film The Birds – "The Birds is Coming."

"Orchids" is indeed finished; however, I'm not entirely happy with it. When I cut it off the loom I noticed for the first time that huge green thingy in the background. I thought it was foliage. I wish I had seen it in my original design. Now it looks vaguely threatening, or at least scatological. "Orchids" is now a candidate for the collage bin.

Regardless, I'd like to show you a scan of the fabric, which is executed in samitum with four pattern wefts. The warp is an oddity - it is set up for lampas, with black 20/2 tencel for ground warp and peach 60/2 silk for pattern, but as used here, the peach warps are buried and only the black warps show on the face - or so I thought. It is obvious from the scan that the silk shows just enough to add some "peachiness" to the fabric. The wefts are 20/2 cotton.

Big Lampas

You asked for it–– lampas writ large. First is a scan of a lampas fabric roughly lifesize. Warp is in the ratio of 2 to 1, ground to pattern. Ground warp is 20/2 tencel, black, and pattern warp is 60/2 silk, peach. Warp sett 60 epi. There are two pattern wefts, both handspun wool singles, one in warm colors, the other cool. The ground weft is 20/2 tencel, same as ground warp. Weft rotation is ground, pattern 1, pattern 2, repeat. Ground structure is 2/2 broken twill, pattern structure is 5-end satin.

Here is a small portion of the above fabric, scanned at 2400 dpi. It is approximately 33 times lifesize. Click on the thumbnail to see the full image. This fabric is suitable for upholstery.

Deflected Warps

Thanks for all the comments on the scanned fabric. Frida made a good suggestion - show the fabric lifesize for comparison. Here is a sample with deflected warps (this is all shaft control, no leno). The first picture is approximately lifesize, and the second one is magnified 22x. Click on the the second image to see it full size.

Construction Work

This past Saturday evening downtown.

Weather overcast but that makes the colors super-saturated. I took this photo on the fly, just as we were about to leave, and it was the best one of the bunch. The strong horizontals and verticals appeal to me, but the bonus here is the wealth of detail that I might be able to use in a future piece. These are three possibilities:

On another topic - I've just received a notice of Laura Foster Nicholson's new blog, with pictures of her latest handwoven tapestries. This work is a response to her rural environment after years in Chicago. Take a look!

Doors Again

Another way to look at cloth on the loom is from beneath the breast beam, but I warn you - it's a good idea to have a friendly hand available to rescue you from this ungainly position! This narrow bamboo scarf, in progress, is based on the Doors design for 24 shafts described in my March 13 entry. I adapted it for 40 shafts, and when it is released from tension and washed, it should crinkle up in furrows. But in this picture you can clearly see the carpentry origins of the original image. The structure is broken 4-end twill on a point twill threading, 32 epi.

Big

This is an experiment. Photographing cloth is one thing, but scanning it is a whole 'nother animal. It seems that my scanner will achieve resolutions high enough to bring my computer to its knees, but if I keep things within reason, like scanning at 1600 dpi, I get usable images. I just love looking at fabric at these higher resolutions. Every individual fiber is there, and plain old plain weave becomes monumental. These little swatches are from a scarf woven entirely of handspun singles: wool, silk, and tencel. The sett is 15 epi. Let me know if this sort of thing appeals to you, and I will post more of them. Wait until you see lampas magnified 22 times!

(As usual, click on image thumbnails to see full size.)

Another Jacquard Class at AVL

Just announced - another class on jacquard design using Photoshop® and the new Jacq3G will be held at AVL Looms in Chico, CA, October 27-30, 2008. Class will be taught by Alice Schlein with support from Lucinda Grisham. For more information or to register, go to the AVL website and click on Workshops. Here's a look at the jacquard class held this past February:

The Smile Effect

The smile effect - that's when the fell of your weaving curves up at the edges in a "smile," usually because the tension on your selvedge threads is too loose. That's what immediately came to mind when I found this dilapidated outbuilding on a country road near Woodruff, South Carolina.

But when I downloaded the picture to my computer, I saw opportunities for dobby design in the strong contrasts of the carpentry. With a design for a straight threading on a 24-shaft loom in mind, I selected an area of 24x28 pixels (see green rectangle),

then copied it to a new file, thresholded it, and applied 8-end satins to the black and white areas, as described in The Woven Pixel (see sidebar). This became the liftplan. Below are shown the three 24x48 files and a finished drawdown with several repeats.

Birthday Present

There's another weaver in this house. He loves to weave, but doesn't care to warp and has no interest in weave design. I, on the other hand, love to design new projects and warp the loom, and I frequently become bored with the weaving after the first shuttle is thrown. It's a wonderful relationship. This year for his birthday I gave him this:

It's a new warp, ready for his loom as soon as he finishes weaving off his current warp. There are four chains here, wound four ends at a time from a mixture of earth-toned cottons and tencel. The ends will be threaded hit-or-miss from within each group of four for a subtle random striped effect, and the threading will be some sort of 8-shaft twill. You can never have too many dishtowels.

Design is Everywhere

Here's another image from our visit to Musgrove Mill, this one a work of art by insects just beneath the bark of a fallen tree. It's about three times life size. Enjoy.

My interest in the photograph as jumping-off place for jacquard design has led me to a fascinating collection of photos from friend and fellow South Carolinian Ellen Kochansky. I thought you’d be interested in seeing these. Yes, design is everywhere. For more information about the multi-talented Ellen, an artist whose narrative textile work includes discarded and overlooked materials in unexpected ways, go here.