Weave Week 2

At the beginning of this week I struggled to understand and visualise the patterns as they get more advanced, so I went back to basics, talking to others and trying to work it out. Visualising the grids as woven patterns does not come naturally to me, and although I thought I understood, I don’t, so I am going through step by step and just trying different patterns to get to grips with it.

I’m not that happy with this sample, as the colours don’t look right and don’t really correlate to my research, but through doing this I managed to understand weaving a bit better. I also experimented blending threads together and merging tones rather than doing block stripes.

These are some research drawings and collage, looking at pattern and creases on metal paint tubes, and extracting colour. I find it difficult translating my experiments into weave, as working with constructing textiles is completely new to me. I looked at diagonal shapes and exploring different shiny and metallic surfaces. I’m thinking hard about how to draw pattern that can be translated into weave. The image on the right gives me and idea of the spacing of each block and the colour scheme, whereas the other image makes me want to create more organic blocky shapes.

This is my final sample which I am really pleased with. I focused on the drawing above on the right and tried to keep the colour scheme simple. I blended two tones of orange thread together which creates a slight sheen, and used thicker yarn for the green and purple. I finally understand how to be more experimental with the pattern, as before I couldn’t get my head around how the grids translate to weave. I have found that I am pulling the threads too tight, causing the sample to curve in. There are three points in the weave where the warp is lightly raised, creating more depth, I don’t know if this is intentionally the way the loom is set up, or something to do with the tension, but none the less creates another layer to the design. For the vertical stripes, I held down the levers for half of the sequence with one colour, then half with the other. This worked way better than expected and this technique learn from another student can look really different depending on the pattern.

I have loved weaving, and all though I find it all very confusing, I would be very excited to learn it properly and do it as a specialism. I like that it is a set process, that then allows you to be hugely creative and intuitive but within a set of boundaries. To me that is more exciting then having endless ideas and limits as in stitch.