A tip for all who thought about at weaving with horsehair. In the new Vävmagasinet is a great Articel by our weavolution member Kerstin Fröberg about this theme.
 
I had already made some attempts, but had been frustrated by technical difficulties. Now my questions were all answered. 

 Kristina

 

Comments

ingamarie

Hi there,

I've been busy what can I say.. I too saw that article, very interesting-- and I noticed there's a class this summer at Sätergläntan in Sweden.  It's in October, and that's a hard month for me to get so far away--  here's the schedule http://www.saterglantan.se/kortakurser.php?kurs=10

Off to a collapse weave workshop this weekend. That should be fun

marie

 

msthimble

Hi Kristina, I saw the article too, but i still have questions.  Maybe you have some advice? 

I am weaving on a 10/2 cotton warp, 15 EPI, in 5 harness satin weave.  When I began my sampling, I did not bend in the ends of the horsehair on the selvedges, but I quickly discovered that the end warp threads opened up. I  next bent in the ends of the horsehair, weaving them into the cloth for a few threads, and having them exit the right side of the cloth.  then I clipped them off.  I don't like the result of that, as the clip leaves a prickly end pointing out of an otherwise very smooth surface. 

Now I am weaving in the ends of the horsehair, but having them exit the cloth on the backside of the cloth.  The result in terms of the surface is improved, but it is awkward to put tension on the weft hair when it is emerging from the wrong side of the cloth

In the photo below, you can see the clipped weft hairs that  I was complaining about on the selvedge where the cloth goes over the front beam.

My next experiment will be to try weaving the cloth face down so that I can have the weft ends exit the top (wrong) side.  I am still not satisfied with how the edges look.  When I put the project on my floor loom i i will have more harnesses, and I can make the selvedges in plain weave.  Do you think that will help? 

Also, I have been soaking the horsehair before weaving with it., but I do not know how long it should soak before using?  I have soaked it overnight and that seems good.  Definitely  an hour has not had any effect.

I also would like to know how to estimate how much horsehair to buy for a project.  The suppliers sell in 4 oz bundles, price determined by color and length of the hair.  But how many hairs are in an ounce?

Thank you for your feedback,

Gail

 

 

Kristina (not verified)

Hello Gail,
 
I've always tried it so ,that the  hair comes over  the both edges as shown in the picture

It´s not my fabric ( I found this picture in www), but it clearly shows that the warpthreads should be collected at the edge closer to ensuring the fixing.

 On Kerstins blog ( she wrote the article  at vävmagasinet you can also see an edges with horsehair  like this : http://oddweavings.blogspot.com/) I have not so many experiences with weaving horsehair to make a propper planing before . So I think best way would be to weight a fabric , so you can caculate how much hair you will need. But I would always choose a thinner yarn for the warp, to bring out the horsehair character.

I hope that helped a little. But I think a better adviser in this questions  is kerstinfroberg, she`s a weavolutionmember.

Kristina