I would like to give it a go at doing some weaving of something like a butterfly or similar. Are there any draft patterns out there to use?
MAny Thanks
Paul
How many shafts do you have?
Are you willing to do pick up?
Need that info to give you a good answer.
On three or four shafts, if you are willing to do pickup, you can weave Single Two Tie and pick up the pattern. The pattern can be as intricate as you want, and the bulk of the weaving is done with loom control. The ground cloth is woven with loom control and the tie downs are woven loom control, all you have to do is pickup the pattern every other pick. You can use ANY design you want with this type of pickup.
If you do not wish to do pickup, you will need to simplify your design and will be restricted to a design that can be woven on the number of shafts you have available, as well as the number of treadles.
Weavolutionary Jerri Shankler is getting ready to give a program on this structure to our guild, (along with her participation in a WAL at Weavo last year) and I was digging up samples yesterday. The Stricker book as some nice motifs-maybe even a butterfly?
Also, these articles by Lillian Whipple for Weavezine might point you in the right direction to drafting your own images with Summer & Winter—
http://www.weavezine.com/content/summer-...
http://www.weavezine.com/content/designing-summer-and-winter-and-taqueté
http://www.weavezine.com/content/weaving...
I only have 4 shafts on my loom. I guess I'm not ready for this yet as I don't understand what it means to do pick up. I am sure if i kew what it was I would be wlling to give t a go. Maybe that's what I should try next. I've done a cople of simple patterns and was wondering where to go next. Thought pictures would be good but sounds as if I need to do pick up 1st. - unless anyone has anymore suggestions for me,
Thanks
Paul
A simple technique you could use on 2 or 4 shafts is inlay. Weave anything you like as the background fabric (it's often plain weave, but does not have to be). Draw your pattern out with fairly simple outlines (this is called a cartoon). Pin the pattern behind the cloth so you can pull it up flat against the back of the cloth to see where to place the inlay thread, but pinned far enough back so it does not interfere with beating. Weave a pick, and then with the same shed open, place your pattern pick (inlay) so that it starts and stops at lines on the cartoon. You can use as many colors as your pattern requires, and make as simple or complex a design as desired. With an open sett it may be called tranparencies. It's slow, but not horrible.
Other techniques to investigate: tapestry, Moorman Technique (a slightly different type of surface inlay), boutonne, rya/flossa, embroidery weaves, etc. Some of the new rigid heddle books have quite a bit of information on some of these (not the Moorman) and various forms of pickup, as do books from the 50s through 70s.
4 shafts isn't limiting, it just requires more creativity and understanding in some ways. Let us know how it goes!
Laurie Autio
In addition to pick-up of all the laces, fingerlaces can be used to create complex patterns by hand on any number of shafts. These include Danish medallion, Spanish lace, Brook's Bouquet, Leno/gauze, Anasazi lace, ra (a complex Japanese lace), Mexican lace, Milwaukee lace, etc. Search for Eleanor Wood on the web for some good notes on weaving the fingerlaces.
Also, look at all the good work here done by people like Laverne, Graciela, and Karina. Lots of great techniques and inspiration!
Laurie Autio
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll google them and see what happens and will let you know how I get on.
Paul
Paul, here's a collection of articles from the WeaveZine archive that can step you through some of the great suggestions in this thread. Take a look -- they're nicely illustrated and can spark your imagination, which is always a wonderful thing. (The links below will open in a new window.)
This first article shows you how to weave pictures using the inlay technique: Diaphanous Leaves. "Inlay" is just what it sounds like it might be: laying some extra weft threads in as you weave. You can make all kinds of pictures this way, even pictures that use several colours.
This second article shows you how to weave nice, regular patterns that can look like rows of flowers or people or butterflies, using a twill structure known as "Rosepath": Down the Garden Path with Rosepath. This is how you get nice patterns like the ones shown above in Sally's sampler.
The third article shows you all you need to know about the simple laces that Laurie mentioned: Weaver-Manipulated Lace Weaves. These aren't pictorial, but they're fun to do and quite beautiful.
As a final note, "Pick-up" is another term that's what you might imagine it to be: in an open weaving shed, you pick up warp threads from the bottom layer and bring them to the top for that one weft shot. Sometimes when you're weaving pick-up, you'll also drop warp threads from the top layer down to the bottom layer for that weft shot. The pattern in pick-up comes either from warp floats or weft floats, depending on the kind of cloth you're weaving (one or the other will be naturally dominant).
Are you using any weaving books to help you in your explorations? Not all books will cover pick-up patterning, but many do....
In any case, you now have lots of interesting ways to weave pictures -- and if it catches your imagination, it can lead you into even more ways of weaving pictures! Keep posting. We like to watch as people get more and more excited about weaving. :-)
Ruth
These are just the sort of thing I wanted. I have been asked to do a stole for the local church with a cross each end. Now I know I'll be able to do it,
Thanks
Paul
I wove a stole with crosses in twill using 12 shafts. I wish I would have used doubleweave instead to so there was a real separation of the colors. You should be able to do this fairly easily with pickup on a 4 shaft loom. Two blocks can be done by loom control with only the third block via pickup. I entered the sampler I made here as a project in Weavolution, but I never entered the whole stole. I'll try to get that done later today. I found a very nice web site with instructions on how to cut and sew the neck and I'll add a link to that too.
When I rea dabout wanting to weave pictures I immediatly thought drawloom. The software I have allows you to import pictures for drawloom drafting.
Paul, I got a lot out of the article by Bob Owen in the Mar/Apr 1992 issue of Handwoven, pgs 56-57, and 85-86. I thought his explanation was clear. I had a lot of fun creating my own designs after trying the technique. If you can draw it on graph paper, you can weave it. Make sure you sample to get the right proportions in your design.
Jenny in Charlevoix the Beautiful
Jennifer Moore has a couple of excellent DVDs on doubleweave and doubleweave pick. They are available from Interweave Press. A four shaft loom is used in the videos. I found them to be very informative, and took the mystery out of doubleweave (for me).
