Assignment 4 - Project 9 - Woven Structures - Stage 3 - Part One - Experimenting with Different Materials

 (DISPLAY BOARD PIECE - BOARD 5 OF 10)
This second attempt at warping was far more successful - quicker and right first time! Warping correctly gave a little over a metre of continuous warp to work with. I made individual looped heddles made from short lengths of knotted hemp (the warp was also hemp) which took a while but these will be re-usable and it was easier to maintain the tension on the warps than it was when wrapping a single thread around the heddle dowels.

For this piece I worked with a colour range of pinks, purples and greys using wools and a number of more unusual materials, plastic bubble wrap, straws, plastic, fabric and wadding.

Thoughts:
It was fun to work with a variety of materials, however, more attention is required when tensioning the weft. As I left some of the warp open, I would have to consider whether it would be necessary to fix the wefts in place in some way to prevent the wefts sliding out of place.

 I have done this by painting the wefts with dilute pva in the past so this is something I might try. The tricky part would be any textured yarns and avoiding flattening or spoiling the textural qualities in the wefts. (Perhaps focussing on fixing on the warps above and below the weft threads?).

The bubble wrap was particularly interesting and refracted the light well. This could be used successfully to add light, reflections or sparkle. Being translucent, of course, care would need to be taken with the colour of the warp. (Is there a translucent fibre that would be strong enough as a warp or are all translucent threads too stretchy?).

The straws were fun but I can't see an immediate use for these as to me they looked too much like, well, straws.

Action points

Warping is a long process and I could have tried a smaller sample on cardboard (as in the earlier exercise) to see how these materials interacted before I committed myself. This could have been a time-consuming mistake in a larger piece.

I think I should also consider whether using unusual materials such as straws really works and not include them just because they are unusual. Having the confidence to go back and re-work or remove parts of a design that doesn't work is something I should be seeking to develop. Again, more sampling would have helped as maybe a different style of weave above and between the straws might have made the design work better.

Assignment 4 - Project 9 - Woven Structures - Stages 1 and 2 - Preparation and Basic Weaving Techniques

(DISPLAY BOARD PIECE - BOARD 5 OF 10)
Warping up

First, a spot the obvious mistake question. Yes, that's right, instead of taking up warps from just one side of the warp bar, I somehow managed to pick alternate warps from either side :-(
After reading and re-reading the warping instructions and watching a number of online tutorials, I realised that I'd warped only half the required number of ends and what should have been a rolling warp of 40 ends was in fact only 20. To make up the desired 40, I was effectively weaving the two warps together.
Fortunately, there was enough movement in the warp as it was to make the first sample piece.

Selecting the yarns
For this I selected yarns, threads and other materials in a range of shades of blue.

Starting to weave
I used a hemp warp and a hemp edging, then wove in plain weave using 2 shades of a basic blue knitting yarn.

I continued with short lengths of naturally indigo and woad dyed wool, making Ghiordes Knots across the warp, using 9 4-ply threads per pair of warps. I worked 2 rows of plain weave, followed by another row of knots.

Several rows of thick wool followed by a row of 3 rows of Soumak, interspersed with 1 row of plain weave. For the Soumak, I worked 2 of the rows weaving right to left, the third row I reversed the direction of the wrapping and worked left to right. Pairing a left with a right direction created an interesting effect, rather like chain stitches.

After several more rows of wool plain weave, I wove a section using curved wefts.

After levelling the warp with several rows of plain weave, I finished the piece.

Before cutting the piece from the warp, I trimmed off the knots to give a satisfyingly dense and fluffy texture.

After cutting the piece off the warp, I knotted the ends in pairs.

Thoughts:
Setting up the warp was complicated and time-consuming (as evidenced by the fundamental error). However, once weaving was underway, it was fascinating to watch the fabric grow and it progressed relatively quickly.

This first piece was purely experimental, however, it was interesting to note that, when viewed from a distance, the fabric had a very landscape feel to it. The lower section was reminiscent of sea with foaming waves (the knots). The Soumak created a horizon line above which the tonal dark blue/brown gave the impression of hills surmounted by clouds and sky.

Action points
Although this piece was not formally planned, it's clear that it would be possible to recreate quite complex and attractive imagery using this technique. It would also be interesting to explore possibilities offered by the knotting process, perhaps making a graduated fabric varying the colours used in each knot across (or up the piece) as it progresses to achieve subtle shading.
Making the curved wefts took a little practice to persuade the pieces to fill in without gaps and also to get the tensioning right.

The hemp warp used was strong and had a certain amount of grip which made the wefts easier to push together. However, for a proper project I would need to consider carefully how to finish off the top and bottom edges. Perhaps binding with fabric? The hemp was too stiff to be readily woven in and wouldn't hold a twisted cord/plait readily. The hemp could have been softened first but this would have potentially made the warp too floppy and difficult to keep tensioned. This is something which needs further research.

Assignment 4 - Project 8 - Experimenting with Structures - What Have You Achieved?

Did you enjoy inventing constructed surfaces? Were you surprised at the results? Can you see a connection between your choice of materials and the types of structures you made; for example, regular, irregular, small or large scale? Which samples worked best - can you say why?

I did enjoy creating constructed surfaces. It was interesting to see how two different sheets of paper, for example, when interwoven, would create a much more interesting fabric and how strong images in the original images were altered once woven. What was also interesting was how the pieces looked when viewed from varying distances.

 Depending on the nature of the weave, in some cases (the alternating drips for example), looked nothing like the originals close up, but took on an interesting effect from a distance. The eye filled in the "gaps" created by the interwoven sheet and almost restored the original image, albeit somewhat distorted. This would be an important factor in planning any woven structure of this nature, considering and planning with the viewing distance of the observer in mind.

(Original images)

The reverse of some of the woven fabrics was surprising - often more satisfying than the "right side".
 ("Right side")

(

 ("Wrong side")

Working with other materials produced some good, strong textural effects - the contrast between the thick but supple leather and the soft, delicate viscose was exciting and has potential for future development.

I also liked the idea of deconstructing a textile, in this case the hessian, and re-constructing it into a new fabric, yet retaining its overall character. Inspiration for this came in part from the "deserted house" sample I produced in Assignment 3.

(Deserted house)

How accurate were you in matching all the colours in your postcard:
a) With paints?
b) With yarns/other material?

a) I enjoyed the colour-matching exercises and felt that the matching paints to the postcard was a success. It was interesting to see how many colour variants there are within a single image, even one that appears, prima facie, to be a monotone. There are still variations in the blue river and bridge post - not all the blues are blues at all, but some are green-blues, grey-blues, black-blues. I'm keen to continue trying this process with other media, for example, pastel crayons or acrylics.

b) Matching the yarns was harder, mainly due to limitations in my yarn collection, particularly as regards textured yarns. I could either get colour or texture right but not always both! I found working intuitively without any source image was more liberating and allowed me to explore colour and texture in a less constrained way. For a really accurate interpretation of an image I would most likely select appropriate textured yarns/fibres/fabrics in an undyed state and dye these to the colours I need. This worked quite well with the blue bridge postcard where I used my own naturally hand-dyed yarns as there were many subtle variations in the yarns from the dyeing process.

Combining yarns would also be a good way to build the desired colour. When I work with tapestry (sewing) I build up colours using a number of threads of fine crewel wool. This is a successful way of creating tonal variation without jarring colour changes. Presumably I could also combine colours and textures?

Assignment 4 - Project 8 - Stage 2 - Experimenting with Structures - Exercise 4

For this exercise I found some plastic drinking straws and formed these into a star shape.
To create the interlacing within the frame I selected some Twilley's Goldfingering and laced this around the various parts of the star shape. In order to ensure that the star didn't come apart, I was careful to wrap the thread around all the intersections and finished by lacing a small amount of a finer lurex/gold thread around each intersection, knotting and tying off then tidying up the edges.

Although this is a simple piece I feel it is quite effective. It would be interesting to perhaps add beads or sequins to the thread beforehand to give extra texturing. It might also have been possible to wrap some of the plastic straws but they were very slippery and didn't lend themselves to painting or similar additional embellishment.

Assignment 4 - Project 8 - Stage Two - Experimenting With Structures - Exercise 3

For this exercise I chose large craft pipe cleaners. I anticipated that these would offer a good, stable structure with lots of scope for manipulation. What I hadn't anticipated was how quickly the intertwining process would use up the lengths of pipe cleaner, resulting in a rather small piece. It was also quite difficult to make the ends stay in place despite the wire centres of the pipe cleaners. The fuzziness prevented a good attachment at the edges. The small amount of wire left at each end also proved problematic as it was very sharp!
 
Large pipe cleaners.

Thoughts
Not a successful piece. Not pleasant to work with and disappointing result. Taping or gluing ends was not practical as it spoiled the fuzzy nature of the pipe cleaners but the ends would not stay fastened in place. Wrapping with yarns might have been an option although it would have significantly altered the overall look of what I had planned would be a very self-contained, simple piece.

Assignment 4 - Project 8 - Stage 2 - Experimenting with Structures - Exercise 2

(DISPLAY PIECE - BRAIDS MOUNTED ON RINGS)
This exercise called for making a series of braids, exploring texture, structure, materials and composition.

I created a series of twisted cords using a hair braiding tool that I picked up at a car boot sale!

I tried differing numbers of threads in each braid to give finer and thicker cords. I used different combinations of colours of wool in the first 4 (left to right) to see how colour blending could be achieved. The fuzzy cord (3rd from right) is a wool yarn witha  loopy boucle acrylic. The thicker cords are pure wool. The thicker cords using more threads gave a really nice, rounded cord.

I experimented further by working a number of braids using finger knitting (top and middle) and French knitting (bottom). These produced almost squared braids. The finger knitted braids were open, stretchy and flexible. The French knitted braid (also called knitting Nancy, knitting dolly or cork knitting) was a much firmer braid - still quite stretchy but this could be reduced by using a stiffer yarn or twine.

I had the opportunity to try Kumihimo Japanese braiding using a traditional marudai. I made two round braids in soft cotton and one flat braid from fine, pure silk. I incorporated different pattern structures by changing the colour sequence. It was quite challenging and time-consuming but the results are very satisfying.

I also produced a number of small skeins of handspun yarn. A ply of yarn was spun from hand-dyed roving or fleece, then plied with a second ply to create a 2-ply yarn.

One of the samples was further plied with a third ply to create a crepe or 3-ply yarn. The 3-ply produced a firmer, more rounded yarn.

Using a range of different fibres with varying composition (wool, alpaca, slubs of silk, angelina) gave interesting effects in the finished yarn.

The final sample was a braided roving. This had been hand-dyed using natural dyes (madder and old fustic). The braid was a simple looped chain.