Experiment #2 in warp painting for luminosity

Next I tried mixing painted warps again, like in the paper experiment except with smaller "pixels" using yarn, a 10/2 cotton. I divided the warp into three different sheds and painted a similar globe of light on each, again using different colorways grading from light to dark values going toward the edges.

Warp #1:

Warp #2:

Warp #3:

I did a few like this in plain weave:

And then re-sleyed the reed and did one in twill which I think came out more dramatic because I was able to make the bottom part weft-dominant (1/3 twill) and the sky warp-dominant (3/1 twill):

But then I decided I had gone too far in scaling down my pointillist "pixels".  I wanted my main piece to be more weaverly, if that's a word.  To be continued...

Experiment #1 in warp painting for luminosity

I'm part of a study group on color, and this year we have been focusing on how to achieve effects like luminescence, opalescence and iridescence in fiber. I chose to narrow my efforts toward luminescence or luminosity.

I was impressed by fiber artist Fuyuko Matsubara whose work seemed to have an effect similar to what I was after. She has a very involved process including unweaving and reweaving (!) her work, but thanks to some inspired conversation at thanksgiving (thanks, G!) I tried something simpler and I think it is working.

My first experiment was in watercolor on paper. I made two images of concentric circles going from light to darker values using two different colorways, sliced up the paper and used the strips alternately as "warp".  Here are the two "warp" images (cosmic, huh?):

 Then I wove "weft" stripes in a land/water-scape composition. Here is the "weft: image:

 And here is the woven image from the three paintings.  You have to really squint to get sort of a pointillist image to come out.

So I decided it was time to try it with yarn, to get smaller "pixels" in my image.

Sampler

Last Thanksgiving (yes, this is a very late post), we (I with my helpers G & M) made a sampler based on one of the twill stuctures in my Bliss piece.  By threading the warp ends to be spranged on a different shaft for each block, many blocks are possible so that the sprang can start and stop independently at the weaver's whim.

This sampler leads to another serendipitous convergence of ideas.

M said that this piece of sprang looked particularly like a tree (ignoring the color I suppose).  I needed a subject for an upcoming project, and I had been thinking of depicting a grating or lattice lit from behind, but I like the tree idea much better.

The sprang in this case is the diamond-shaped all-over hole pattern that is formed by alternating rows of 2/2 interlinking with rows of 1/1 interlinking.  There are less crossings, so it gives the impression of branches.


More hourglasses - off to Colorado!

It seemed as if...she tried to discover what kind of woof Old Time, that greatest and longest-established Spinner of all, would weave from the threads he had already spun into a woman.  But his factory is a secret place, his work is noiseless, and his Hands are mutes. - Charles Dickens, Hard Times

Last fall I finally finished the three-block doubleweave-and-sprang piece as originally designed, in black and white.  The hourglass motifs represent the passage of time, and its title is "His Hands are Mutes" (see Dickens quote above).

"His Hands are Mutes" and the linen piece "Involution", have both been juried into the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild's Fiber Celebration 2013.  The show will be from February 16 through April 14, 2013, at the Loveland Museum Gallery, 503 N. Lincoln Ave., Loveland, Colorado.  The museum is open Tues, Wed and Fri 10-5, Thurs 10-7, Sat 10-4 and Sun 12-4.

Bliss: My answer to the 2012 SCHG Challenge

Fall, leaves, fall; die flowers, away;

Lengthen night and shorten day;

Every leaf speaks bliss to me

Fluttering from the autumn tree.
- Emily Bronte

For our Guild's challenge for 2012, last spring we each chose a paper bag and got a card with these rules to follow:
1. use at least 50% green
2. use a twill and/or tabby weave
3. incorporate a circle
4. may be folded, bent etc. and must fit inside and be returned in the bag/sack
5. the size of the sack you choose will determine your entry size

Here's my finished project which I turned in last weekend:

I wanted to try some warp painting, using sprang to form a frame for my painting.  I untensioned the dark green warps and pushed them aside.  You can see at the bottom of the image that I should have either stopped weaving sooner before starting to paint, or else rotated my image so that it didn't overlap fabric already woven:

I used fluid acrylic paint, thinned with GAC 900 medium which is meant for fabric painting.  I found this much easier to control than when I've tried to paint with regular dye.  The finished feel of the fabric is a little stiff, but since the finished product isn't meant to be worn or touched and just stays in two dimensions, I think it works fine.  Underneath the warp I used a laminated placemat to provide a surface against which to press the brush and yarn.

After the paint dried throughly, I resumed weaving.  I really liked what the woven twill pattern was doing to the colors in my image:

As you can guess, this is why I was experimenting earlier to see if I could do sprang using weft as well as warp.  Here's the sample I was working on:

The major purpose of the sample was to see if I had the proportions right to make the four sprangwork curves form a circle.  You can see above that I didn't.  So in the final piece I expanded the middle section to make the curves longer.

One thing I learned in this project that was exciting is the relationship between the simple twills I used.  The 3/1 twill in the corners, when every 4th warp is lifted out and left unwoven, becomes a 2/1 twill.  And when every 4th weft is either omitted or left unwoven, it becomes a little 2/1 point twill.

New Life for my "Circumnavigational" Yardage

What ever became of the yardage I was cutting to pieces?
Just in case you've been wondering, the answer is...handbags:

Piles of them ! :

Look for them at the Southern California Handweavers' Guild's Weaving and Fiber Festival, Sunday November 4th, 2012 in Torrance, California.

Sprang in the Weft?

A design idea has presented itself where I want the sprang to run in the weft direction instead of the warp direction.  (Why don't I just work as usual and turn the piece 90 degrees?  Because in the same piece I want the sprang running in both these directions.)  Here is a sample I put on the loom to see if this is possible.

One thing I didn't think of before I started in on the sprang work was that since in the wefts are not under tension, the middle section started to buckle and pull in as soon as I'd done a couple rows.  So the tension on the yarns being worked had to be kept fairly loose.

To get this required ease, the wefts that have been worked in sprang were left longer than the width of the fabric.  They are hanging down off the selvedges at each side of the fabric, not visible in the photo.  These were left hanging out so that they could be pulled through the weaving on either side of the sprang, to give the ease needed as the work was progressing.  This was not easy to do as the yarns had to be pulled through 3 inches of weaving on the sides.  In fact, it had to be done one thread at a time, so it was difficult to control how much each was pulled, and hence the resulting sprang work is not as neat-looking as when worked with the warp.  But I think this will work.