Tuesday, June 17, 2014

final project complete

It has been a most busy year for me in Falmouth. Sunday dinners, long walks, kayaking, sea shanty-ing, new friends, sea food and more than my fair share of pub visits are just a few things that have been keeping me busy. In the midst of it all I have also managed to complete my first year of Textile Design! 

For my final project, I chose to work in weave. I based my project on moss and it's fluffy, curly, tangled textures. Here's a look at some of my final samples and a few sketchbook pages as well...
 



 I made two different warps, both focusing on the same moss theme. This sample is from the second warp. I splatter painted a fine worsted wool with black ink to achieve the mottled and patchy effect. I also chose to use a high twist crepe yarn in the weft of this sample to cause puckering and distortion in the fabric. I wove this, and a couple other samples in plain weave, in order to allow the warp to stand out.



This sample is also from the second warp. Here, I used a very fine silk in the weft and a twill throughout with inlay of linen snippets.


This sample is from my first warp. I used a a block threading, which allowed me to create those large floats across the sample.


More twill with a silk crepe weft.


One of the most simple samples, but also one of my favourties; this sample is from the first, linen warp. I used white, linen weft and inserted knots of wool which I later felted to create bobbles!



Here, I wove double cloth on a point threading. The bottom layer is linen, and lays very flat after finishing. The top layer is the same high twist crepe wool that I used earler, and has twisted and pulled the fabric in some interesting ways. I also joined the two layers every so often with the coloured bits of inlay


 Simple stripes, subtly combining plain weave and a twill variation using my block threading.


 Double cloth woven on my first warp. The bottom layer is a very thick wool and the top a much thinner one. I chose this so that the top layer would not be able to beat down as much as the back. It has caused more puckering and uneven weft picks.
 
 
 
 

 I think that these waffle weave samples are my very favourite from the entire project. I just loved weaving this structure and LOVE the way that both of these came out. The top sample uses the wool crepe again. I pulled extra yarn out to the front in loops as I was weaving. In finishing, these loops have twisted up on themselves and pulled the entire sample in (which is actually what I wanted it to do!) The sample in the back uses a very fine silk in the weft, and sits perfectly flat after finishing. It drapes so beautifully as well!


...a closer look at the bottom, silk weft sample (with some inlay)


I chose to weave my third waffle sample using my warp yarn in the weft as well. This all wool sample is light, soft and bouncy. I also replaced a few warp threads with different colours, giving me vertical stripes as well as horizontal. 


Just a bit of plain weave with a stripe.




Towards the end, I got really into this 2/2 twill. It's so exciting to weave on a point draft because you can make diamonds!! This stripey sample was my favourite of the twills.

And here are just a few sketchbook pages...





 
my favourite waffles...again...
 

I had the best time working on this project and found myself becoming completely obsessed with weaving. I finished my samples so quickly that I had time to make myself this scarf as well...


...for some reason, this image is all distorted and I don't have a clue why or how on earth to fix it. Imagine something that looks like this, but is scarf shaped. There you go.


2 comments:

  1. Emily, these fabrics are *amazing*. I've been thinking of you so much lately - believe it or not, because I was weaving a scarf with your cashmere laceweight in Seastorm! I had respun it to a double weight and wove it with a self-striping wool that happened to match the Seastorm perfectly. It's easily the nicest thing I've made on my loom, so thank you for making such nice yarns before you made these nice fabrics :^)

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  2. Congrats on your final project campaign completion. yeah, your work is highly appreciated. Nice colors, beautiful ideas, and capturing the right angle. Wish you great great success in near future.

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