The Lute Players

In December, we enjoy some holiday music with Carolyn Gritzmaker's "The Lute Players ". Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Carolyn writes: "Several years ago in an antique store, I came across a couple of small pieces of old bobbin lace... They are both the same motif: a medieval man playing a lute. They've been tucked away in a drawer ever since - "saving them for good" as my mother and her mother did with things... Then I offered to give our local weavers' guild a program on polychrome satin a couple of years ago. One good way to be sure to learn a new structure is to do this and then be sure to follow through with actually learning about it and weaving enough examples to display and be able to explain it and answer questions intelligently - preferably before the program!

"When looking for patterns to weave, I came across those bobbin lace pieces. This is about one of the samples woven for the program.

"The sample was woven on a drawloom in six-shaft irregular satin in one third units (two threads per unit), on 50 pattern shafts in point return draw with the warp size 50 sewing thread in 100% mercerized cotton. The ground was threaded on six shafts in a straight draw. The sett was 60 epi...

"I used sewing thread for weft, in four colors throughout the piece: white, emerald green, salmon and brown. The colors were mixed for shading and the white was also used as background (lots of pattern shafts pulled each time for that!).

"Weaving polychrome satin in this instance was very similar to weaving taqueté, in that both the pattern and background were picked up to weave, with (usually) different pattern shafts drawn for each color in one shed, and beating after each color was thrown. Normally I wouldn't have used a separate color for the background, but I wanted the players to stand out. If I hadn't done so, the background would have been a darker and more mottled color..."

This work was done for the Double Harness Study Group. Study group notebooks are available for members from the CW library. See Complex Weavers LibraryThing. For the complete story, see Complex Weavers Journal, October 2009.

Used by permission.
This is the ninety-first item in our showcase of what members are doing.

To see the items previously showcased this year, scroll down

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Jewel Vest

In November, we showcase Sue Mansfield's "Jewel Vest". Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Sue writes: " My vest for the spring 2009 BPWG exchange uses a warp left over from Bonnie Inouye's workshop," the Big Overshot", given for the Potomac Craftsmen in April 2008. My contribution to her threading design was to make a color gradation from the center out. It was still on my loom in January 2009 for my guild's retreat. I needed to get it off the loom! I experimented with more treadlings and found this segment of the trompt-as-writ treadling which I treadled with two colors and offset of three treadles for the second color ... It's an echo treadling in two colors with 3/2/1/2 twill tie-up designed with Fiberworks PCW. I especially like the color changes which happened because of the adjacent colors. Optical blending changed them so it looked as if there were more than two weft colors. I loved the jewel-like colors in my fabric...

"The vest is reversible because both sides of the fabric looked good. In order to make it reversible I wove two lengths of inkle bands 5/8" wide with the Tencel to bind the raw edges and to hide the seam allowances."

This work was done for the Beyond Plain Weave Garments Study Group. Study group notebooks are available for members from the CW library. See Complex Weavers LibraryThing. For the complete story, see Complex Weavers Journal, October 2009.

Used by permission.
This is the ninetieth item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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Flourishing Wave

In October, we showcase Diane de Souza's "Flourishing Wave". Click on the picture to see a larger version.

She writes: " For the Appalachia Coverlet Project, I analyzed two coverlets. The frst was an orange peel variation on page 55 of Kathleen Curtis Wilson's book, Textile Art from Southern Appalachia: The Quiet Work of Women. The second was a flourishing wave version pictured on page 15... I consulted books ... There were several similar flourishing wave profle drafts. I wove samples .... The weft was 30/2 white Tencel sett at 45 epi. The pattern wefts were orange Bambu 12, white 12/2 Durene cotton, and natural 16/2 SoySilk."

This work was done for the Early American Coverlets Study Group. Study group notebooks are available for members from the CW library. See Complex Weavers LibraryThing. For the complete story, see Complex Weavers Journal, June 2009.

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-ninth item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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Color Gamp in Dukagang-twill form

In September, we showcase Gale Link's "Color Gamp in Dukagang-twill form".
Click on the picture to see a larger version. For the complete story, see Complex Weavers Journal, May 2005.

She writes: "I was testing my printer with large blocks of color and liked the effect. I used the substitution of Fiberworks to see what I might weave it in. Most of the structures needed thirty-two shafts! But the summer and winter dukagang gave me the look I wanted with only eight shafts."

This work was done for the Eight Or Less CW Study Group, which unfortunately has dissolved. Study group notebooks are available for members from the CW library. See Complex Weavers LibraryThing

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-eighth item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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Queen's Delight

In August, we showcase Linda Harbison's "Queen's Delight".
Click on the picture for the larger version. For the complete story, see Complex Weavers Journal, June 2009.

She writes: "Appalachian coverlets have fascinated me for many years. The chance to participate in our study group project focused on the coverlets in Textile Art from Southern Appalachia: the Quiet Work of Women was just too intriguing to pass up. The piece I analyzed was 'Queen's Delight.' The original coverlet was woven in 1905 by Sarah Caroline Umbarger Hedrick who lived from 1865 to 1948. ...This particular coverlet was somewhat unusual due to the color choices used. Instead of the traditional indigo blue or red, a bright green stripe was balanced by red stripes above and below. Blue-gray was used for the larger table sections which alternate with the red and green sections. This created a very effective and striking appearance, especially from a distance as viewed on a bed. I decided to weave my sample with yarn as close to the original colors as I could fnd... "

This work was done for the Study Group: Early American Coverlets

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-seventh item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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Nemesis

In July, we showcase Barbara Walker's "Nemesis", so-called because it nearly proved to be her undoing!
Click on the picture for the larger version.
For the complete story of her trials and tribulations, see Complex Weavers Journal, June 2009.

Barbara settled on the Theo Moorman technique. After choosing linen as the ground, she faced the problem of choosing the tie-down. She writes:"...Moorman said, 'Nylon monoflament is often suggested to me as an ideal yarn for the purpose...' Somehow I managed to blip over the rest of her sentence, ...' but the extreme difficulty in handling it seems to me to be a great disadvantage.' Monoflament! Perfect! ... I added new words to my vocabulary as I started working with the monoflament. Getting it onto its lease sticks was the first challenge. It wouldn't lie quietly, so after I separated the raddle sections, I taped the bundles to the warp beam apron rod. I gave thanks to the loom gods as I easily wound it onto its beam using the worm-gear brake. ...Tying the linen warp to the front apron rod was no problem. Then the air turned blue as I began to tie sections of monoflament to the apron rod. The knots kept slipping. Finally I resorted to a piece of masking tape for each knot... "

This was only the beginning of the challenges which Barbara had to solve. See her article on pages 48-49 of the June 2009 CWJ.

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-sixth item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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To Keep Them Sweet

In June, we showcase Michael Cook's "To Keep Them Sweet".
To see a larger version, click on the picture.
Michael shows us that complex weaving need not take place on the usual loom. This work won the Complex Weavers' Award at the 2008 Dallas Handweavers and Spinners Guild. For further details, see the February 2009 Complex Weaver's Journal or Complex Weavers 2008 CW Awards, which include a detail of the moth and the actual quote used in the ribbon.

Michael writes: " The draft for this [tablet-woven] piece is entirely original. Because of the technique, the threading is very simple, all tablets being threaded with 2 black and 2 golden threads. All the work is done following detailed charts which I designed. I created the lettering based on 14th century Textura Quadrata, and I designed the brocade pattern for the moth after an illustration in Luther Hooper's Silk, Its Production and Manufacture.

"...This ribbon celebrates the humble silk worm and the amusing lengths that seventeenth-century Englishmen went to in their efforts to raise them. The ribbon is fgured with text along its length, and at either end where it adjoins the medallion, decorated with a brocade image of a Bombyx silk moth. The ribbon is decorated with glass beads, and the ends are joined to bronze cast leaves and attached with jump rings to the medallion. "

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-fifth item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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A Beaded Purse

In May, we showcase Arlene Klotz' "Beaded Purse".
To see the larger picture, click the thumbnail.
For the full story of Arlene's challenges, see the February 2009 Complex Weaver's Journal.

Arlene writes: " [A] self-imposed guideline was that the project had to be related to 'Weaving Waves of Color', which is the theme of the May 2009 conference to be held in Spokane, Washington. It is sponsored by the Spokane Handweavers' Guild and the Association of Northwest Weaving Guilds.

"...I learned how to insert the pick for the bead placement after the pattern and before the next tabby. I found that the beads were more likely to stay in place if the sequence was: beads in place, bring beater forward, change tabby, return beater, and then throw the shuttle with the tabby weft. One wave woven and on to the next.

"The 18-inch-wide warp was a humble, natural 5/2 cotton twist from Henry's Attic, sett at 20 epi in a 10-dent reed. [The] tabby weft [is] a fine, but heavier, gold, plied weft. This was much better. More body and sparkle to the fabric... [The] good pattern weft has its own story. A year ago a friend dropped by with a present for me - two 18-cubic- inch boxes flled with embroidery floss. Most of the floss was in the primary and secondary colors of our upcoming conference. "

This work was a project for the Beads and Interlacements Study Group

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-fourth item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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A-Maze-ing II

This month we showcase Sigrid Piroch's "A-Maze-ing-II".
Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Sigrid wrote in the February 2009 CW Journal:

"At a gallery reception recently I asked myself a really selfish question: 'How can I get people to spend more time looking at my work?' The thought occurred to me that I would need to give them a reason to do so, but what and how? As I was working with images on a grid at the time, I thought that perhaps a game or puzzle would catch their attention and give them something to do, while for me it would be fun to weave. Would/could these ideas merge? At what point do we lose the 'art' of designing and give it up to lesser motives?...

" I have learned to be careful to keep [a copy of ] the solution to the maze handy because when they go walking I've had to solve a few complicated ones myself...

"The maze was woven on a TC-1 using 20/2 BLACK silk warp and 10/2 GREEN tencel weft from a design by Dave Phillips."

Your webmistress put this up because she could not stand trying to trace a solution in the small picture in the CW Journal. See for a larger, printable version

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-third item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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Southwest Sunset Ensemble

This month we showcase Pam Crow's Southwest Sunset Ensemble, which won the CW award at the Contemporary Handweavers of Texas 2007 show in Houston, Texas, "Weave and Let Dye".
Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Pam wrote for the CW Journal:

"The draft is a tied float weave by Virginia West. I have changed the tie-up to be able to add point twill diamonds in subsequent pieces and soften the block ends for a more diamond shape.

"Fiber: 20/6 bamboo from Habu at 24 epi

"The warp painted bamboo is dyed with Sabracon F dye. The palette was chosen from an Arches National Monument brochure. The weave structure was chosen to represent the mesas from the area. The top was designed to make sure of the 12" fabric. I used the long ends of fringe for shoulder straps and trimmed the rest to hang as jewelry. I turned the fabric sideways to go around the sides and back, attaching along the sides at the front with a flat fell seam and dart angle. The scarf has one end sewn together for a one- sleeved scarf. It doesn't slip off the shoulder so easily."

See also CW Journal # 86 Color Pictures for another view.

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-second item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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Echo Scarf

Here we showcase Agnes Hauptli's CW Award-winning Echo Scarf.
Click on the picture to see a larger version.
She won the CW Award at Creative Fibre Festival, New Zealand in 2007. Agnes writes:

"This is my own draft, inspired by Alice Schlein's article in Weaver's Magazine.

"Warp is three different colors of possum/merino/silk blend set at 36 epi in a three layered parallel straight threading.

"Inspired by several articles and discussions on the WeaveTech list, I wanted to create a triple echo weave where the look of the piece becomes three-dimensional. Instead of mirroring the colour sequence in the middle, I kept it the same so that the shadow or "echo" is cast on the same side throughout the piece."

Possum is one of the fibers not much available in the United States, so it is good to see weavers from other places making use of it. Even in this photograph, the three-dimensional look of the piece is apparent. [Webmistress]

See also CW Journal # 86 Color Pictures for another view.

Used by permission.
This is the eighty-first item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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Meeting Place

In January, we showcase Kay Faulkner' "Meeting Place".
Click on the picture to see a larger version.
As an Australian, Kay is aware of the problems of her society. She writes:

"This piece, an original draft in 2/20 mercerised cotton doubled in white and black, 20epcm, uses double weave pick-up with offset layers and warp shibori in undulating twill. The centre third has the two layers overlapping with the imagery being picked up in this area. The supplementary warp threads for the shibori are threaded on four shafts in a random progression with the maximum "flat area", ie the same shaft being used before the progression being continued or reversed is 4 cm. There is no repeat for the resist pattern. Once woven the fabric was scrunched and rusted in a dyebath, dried, the shibori threads pulled up, discharged and then dyed using fibre reactive dyes.

"The weaving was inspired by our multicultural society and how each cultural identity becomes integrated within that society. At the same time, while there may be differences within those societies, there is always one common denominator: the land. For the success of that society it is important to recognise individual cultural identity, yet at the same time achieving a common ground or meeting place. Hence the use of double weave pick up, representing the integration of 2 societies. This is offset so that each layer of society can be seen. The shibori is used to represent the land, common to all.

"It is important to note that the black and white fabric is not a literal representation of the aboriginal or white race. Rather it represents two opposing cultural groups. The two colours could also be representational of the effect each culture has had on the land.

The motifs I chose to use are a dot to represent a town or community on a map and the 2 circles are recognised symbols for an aboriginal meeting place. The use of rust and synthetic (fibre reactive) dyes was deliberate, to symbolize ancient and more recent cultures. While I could have used only the two dye systems, it was essential to achieve the flow of landscape throughout, hence the need to use discharge to enable this continuity."

Used by permission.
This is the eightieth item in our showcase of what members are doing.

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