Innehållsförteckning för May - June 2017 från Handwoven

You can debate whether the often large amount of time spent weaving a project develops a weaver’s patience or whether weavers are patient by nature. I’m sure I don’t know, but I do know there is a certain peace found in time at the loom, whether warping or weaving. The projects found in this issue take that peaceful feeling one step further and, in some cases, multiple steps further wiThexquisite finishing techniques. Only recently have I come to realize there are two schools of thought about finishing by hand versus machine stitching handwoven projects. BoThmethods have staunch advocates, although I imagine most weavers use a bit of each to finish their projects. This issue comes down firmly on the side of finishing by hand. It celebrates the patient and sometimes…

DECK THE ALLEY Elfreth’s Alley, the nation’s oldest residential street, began as a cart path to the Delaware River in 1702. On December 3, 2016, more than three hundred years later, the Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers (PGHW) showed up for the annual Deck the Alley holiday event. Dressed in period clothing, Debbie Cummings and her husband, Jim, spent the evening demonstrating spinning and weaving in the Baker’s House, which dates back to 1741. Approximately eight hundred visitors came through the house during the event, and carolers serenaded them. The steady stream of visitors watched and asked questions, including “Where did you learn to weave?” or “Where can I learn to weave?” to which the answer was always “PGHW.”…

Some of the world’s most beautiful fabrics come from the heart of Central Asia, the route of what we now call the Silk Road. That name was coined in the late 1800s by a Western explorer, but for millennia, caravans of luxurious goods, spices, and bright silk fabrics plied the maze of trading routes which connected the east and west extremes of Eurasia. The silks of my dreams come from the very heart of the Silk Road, in what is now Uzbekistan. These breath-taking creations are called atlas or abr-band in Central Asia, although we know them as ikat, a Malay word meaning “tie.” Abr-band means “cloud-tying,” for the slightly fuzzyedged designs that some tales say were inspired by the multicolored reflections of clouds seen in water by a weaver.…

Rodrick Owen and Terry Newhouse Flynn ATGLEN, PENNSYLVANIA: SCHIFFER. 2016, HARDCOVER, 216 PAGES. $39.00. ISBN 978-0-7643-5103-7. Andean Sling Braids is Owen’s extension of his earlier work, Braids: 250 Patterns from Japan, Peru, and Beyond (Unicorn, 2004). In that book, he “translated” the handworking techniques used to construct sling braids into more easily followed instructions for the disc and Japanese marudai (a braiding stand used in making kumihimo braids). That book, together with this new book, makes esoteric Andean braiding techniques accessible to modern hands. Andean sling braids were used as weapons, herding implements, decoration, and in antiquity, burial shrouds. Indigenous artisans continue to make the braids (literally) in the hand. An advanced technique used by Andean braiders is to incorporate a core—inactive elements in the center of the braid exchanged…

Every once in a while, I feel it’s good to step away from multiple-shaft weaving and let some complexity come from my own two hands. I enjoy sitting quietly at the loom and letting it act like a big embroidery frame. Th is scarf features Danish medallions worked in multiple rows for a fun and colorful border. The white outline around each cell makes me think of a gumdrop that’s just been bitten into. Usually the Danish medallion technique results in a rounded rectangle outline around the woven cells. Th is scarf is sleyed leaving empty dents in the reed. Th is crammed-and-spaced warp allows me to pull the medallion outline yarn a little tighter than on a regularly spaced warp and causes the medallions to become more rounded. RESOURCES…

For scarves and shawls, finishing can be a wonderful opportunity to add interest. You can make simple fringes, twist the warp ends into lovely bundles, or choose a special treatment to make your piece really stand out. For this project, I used a 4-ply yarn in which one, then two, then three plies of the first color are progressively changed to the next color until all four plies are the second color. Th is sequence is continued for a total of nine color combinations in the ball, which creates a subtle color gradation along the warp. The best part is that the color change is automatic in the yarn, so not much effort is required from the weaver to get this beautiful color fade. The warp yarn has a bit…

This simple rag rug with a striped warp is the backdrop for a fancy triple-fringe treatment: Damascus edge, V-shaped braids, and finally, 3-strand braids. In his article “Are You All Finished?” on page 18, Tom describes his planning and his process in detail with accompanying pictures. The triple finish is time-consuming, but the end result is spectacular and can easily be transferred to other types of projects. RESOURCES Collingwood, Peter. Rug Weaving Techniques: Beyond the Basics. Loveland, Colorado: Interweave, 1990, pp. 149–152. (Out of print: available for free download at www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/ weaving/books/cp_rug2_2.pdf.) McEneely, Naomi. Interweave’s Compendium of Finishing Techniques. Loveland, Colorado: Interweave, 2003, pp. 44–45. 1 Wind 285 warp threads 2½ yd long, following the color sequence in the warp color order, Figure 1. Use your preferred method to warp…

A donation to the Weaving Indiana Guild inspired me to weave this sampler. A family was clearing out their mother’s and grandmother’s things and donated all weaving-related items to my guild. Their donation included samples done by members of a guild that is no longer active in the Indianapolis area. One sampler in particular, woven in white linen with multiple hand-manipulated lace structures, attracted me. Although my sampler does not include all the pick-up lace designs in the original donated sampler, it does include additional hemstitching variations. My intent was to create a sampler of techniques that I could use to finish a variety of items. I used two different but closely related colors in the warp to make it easier to see the two layers when I was picking…

A friend of mine recently asked me how things were going with my new job as editor of Handwoven. My response: “I’m so glad I jumped.” I am glad. To be honest, when I was first asked if I was interested in applying for the job of editor, my initial reaction was “I don’t think so.” Then as I talked about it more with my family, I started to warm up to the idea and, to my surprise, I realized that I really wanted the job. When I look back, my path to this position had a fairly straight trajectory. It began more than twenty years ago when I was a student at the Guilford Art Center in Connecticut where I learned to weave with the assistance of Linda Edwards…

The Whidbey Weavers Guild (WWG) has ten study and interest groups, allowing the participants to improve on a skill set while gathering in a more intimate setting. WWG benefits from these groups when the participants come to Show and Tell and guild meetings and share what they have learned. Among the study and interest groups are the South Whidbey Spinners, a group without a leader or rules that sits in a circle and concentrates on helping one another with spinning issues. Another group, the Sampler’s Study Group, meets monthly to report on their progress and share their work. The group’s study topics have included twills, lace, doubleweave, supplementary warps, and mixed fiber with structure. As one member said, “We are better weavers because of the inspiration provided by the group,…

Before we married, I warned Ron that I had two weaknesses – books and fabric. He married me anyway. After teaching elementary school for seven years, I was happy to stay home and be a housewife and mother. Early in our marriage, we visited my husband’s family where we admired and brought home a handmade loom. It wasn’t long before the lure of more shafts drew me in and we purchased an 8-shaft Baby Wolf. Weaving was tucked into the small spaces of time between children and activities. Then on my 40th birthday my husband surprised me with a Schacht Matchless, confirming my warnings and affirming his support. When I was 46, I found myself pregnant with our sixth child, a beautiful daughter who was born with Down syndrome. As…

There are two things I want to share regarding this scarf. The first thing is something I always stress when I’m teaching: the value of sampling. Sampling provides opportunities to explore weave structure and color interaction, determine optimum sett, and test other aspects of a concept before committing to the project. Th is scarf is a good example of why I’m an enthusiastic fan of sampling. I had (I thought!) an interesting idea for a scarf, but I’d only woven about 3 inches of the sample when I realized it was not going to work on the loom the way I saw it in my mind. Having answered that question, I asked myself, “Okay, what other ideas can I explore on this warp?” There’s freedom in knowing that a sample…

On the web More detailed instructions for the macramé fringe, including directions for tying square knots, are available for download at interweave.com. Weaving is oft en a solitary pursuit… but it can be fun to create a “progressive” project. Just like a progressive dinner has successive courses prepared and eaten at the residences of different hosts, a progressive weaving project has successive steps assigned to different people. An ikat Mexican rebozo (shawl) inspired the weaving along with Anita’s vision for the fringe. When challenged to design “faux ikat” with 4 shaft s, I looked to colorand- weave effects—and chose a favorite resource, Margaret B. Winderknecht’s Color-And-Weave II. Dreaming of spring, I selected natural white, blue, and green. The next step was passing off the yarn and draft to Charlotte, who…

I was inspired to experiment with this yarn because I was impressed by the problems being addressed by Thread in Haiti and Honduras. It is a for-profit company addressing social issues around trash and poverty through an empowering recycling program. I will admit that the weaving snob in me was a bit prejudiced against using a polyester yarn. However, I was so drawn to the cause that I took the plunge. The samples and pieces I wove all have a lovely matte finish and a soft bloom. After wet-finishing, the items appear brighter. There was little shrinkage, and I did not have a single broken warp thread throughout the entire weaving process. I did have some weakness with the right floating selvedge for the snowflake twill scarf and the Atwater-Bronson…

Small-Great Objects Anni and Josef Albers in the Americas YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT; FEBRUARY 3 – JUNE 18, 2017 Anni and Josef Albers, two of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, avidly collected ancient artworks of Latin America between 1935 and 1967. This exhibition looks at how that collection influenced their teaching and aesthetic sense. The couple first became interested in pre-Hispanic textiles and ceramics while still living in Germany, before they were forced to flee by the rise of the Nazi Party. Not long after coming to America in 1933, they made their first of many trips to Latin America with Theodore Dreier, the head of Black Mountain College, and his wife. On these trips, they purchased many objects for their collection, adding them…

Diana Marks ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO: UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO. 2016, SOFT COVER, 254 PAGES, $50.00. ISBN 978-0-8263- 5706-9. Molas are traditional blouses made by the Kuna people of Panama. The garments have intricate decorative patterns made by stitching together layers of fabric using appliqué techniques. Molas have been recognized and collected by textile enthusiasts for years for the variety and beauty of the patterns. Like so many textile traditions, they arose out of a meeting and mixing of cultures, and this fascinating and well-researched book traces their origins and evolution from the eighteenth century to today’s vibrant contemporary designs. Before the coming of European colonials, like many indigenous Central American peoples, the Kuna didn’t wear blouses. But as early as the eighteenth century, Western traders began to bring cloth, beads,…

Recently I was wondering when humans started using beads. Luckily in this day and age, just a few clicks on my keyboard told me the answer. Archaelogists have determined that humans started using beads approximately 72,000 years ago. Since that time, beads have been used in trade, as hair ornaments, as jewelry, and embedded into fabric. I decided to use beads in my knitting about five years ago when my daughter was planning her wedding. For the occasion, I knitted a wool dress with over 4,000 beads incorporated into the fabric. Although the wedding was to take place in Phoenix, Arizona, in April, I was hoping that the weather would not be too warm. The week before the wedding, the temperatures were in the 90s but fortunately for me, on…

Weaving metaphors abound, but one that resonates with me is “the unbroken thread.” For me, it describes my connection to weavers who have gone before. After thousands of years of wefts crossing warps across cultures and continents, it is hard to imagine that there are any undiscovered interlacements or techniques. But every era, culture, and weaver brings their own knowledge, sense of color, materials, and designs to weaving, thereby creating a very deep and rich repository for modern weavers to draw from. Textiles depicted in drawings, photographs, and books are aweinspiring, but holding and touching a piece of handwoven fabric that was woven by a long-departed weaver is almost magical. I imagine them sitting at the loom, building their fabric pick by pick, manipulating the threads. What were they thinking…