5 Sep 2017

Put together

8

I am very pleased with how this piece has turned out. It combines two of this summer’s new skills: painting a warp chain with inks made from natural dyes and using a supplementary warp to weave turned summer and winter.

The ground warp and weft are undyed baby alpaca, and the pattern warp is a 50/50 blend of BFL and silk. The pattern itself is part of my play with randomness: every row displays one roll of a die.

 

 

Things I am pleased about include: the colours and the sheen of the supplentary warp against the ground cloth; that I managed the tension of the pattern warp and the packing on the cloth beam, so that the finished article is a rectangle; and that I only had a couple of skips to repair on the back when I took it off the loom (I wove it with the majority of the pattern warp on the back).

The only thing that I am not delighted with is the quality of my selvedges. They looked lovely on the loom but are a bit erratic in the finished state, which suggests to me that my weft tension was also a bit erratic. Not very surprising perhaps, given my focus on other things, but I’d like to do better! And of course, I haven’t yet added freeform to the mix.

“Put together” was posted by Cally on 5 Sept 2017 at https://callybooker.co.uk

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8 Responses

  1. Sara
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    So lovely! Love your design as well as the color and weave!

    • Cally
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      Thank you, Sara!

  2. theresa milstead
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    Incredible and all the other synonyms listed in the Thesaurus with incredible.

  3. Catherine Freeland
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    I’m impressed with your new experiments. Is the painted warp partly due to your experience earlier this year dyeing with M.Garcia?

    The Highland Guild have been twice now to the alpaca farm near Elgin – it’s called Mossend Farm- and it’s become a bit of a fixture. We get to spin with newly shorn fibre, from named creatures, then in the afternoon some invited locals and the public are invited to try their hand at fibrey things, and we usually can’t resist buying more to spin later.
    I’m going to try weaving a scarf, hopefully before the year is out, with yarn I’ve spun myself, and dyed, but without the technical wizardry of turned drafts or that. Most of the dyeing with plants around give yellows and greens so I’ve just ordered some brazilwood for something more punchy. Thanks for sharing all, and for letting us in on what displeases you as well as the satisfaction!

  4. Neki Rivera
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    it will fill with sun scottish winters.