I'm fairly new to warp-faced weaving but  have been doing a lot lately.  I have done a lot of brocade, supplementary weft or what ever you want to call it so I thought I'd combine the two.

 

Not so easy, the weft-faced cloth is so dense that most any extra heft from the supplemental warp distorts the web, even just passing through from the face to the back.

 

First I tried a supplemental weft that goes in the shed then floats on the surface.  This makes a raised area and you can see the color of the weft even when it is in the shed.

;supp. weft in pick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I tried just floats and turns on the surface, and that did work well.  With and without tie downs.   I find this technique only makes bold blocks of color. Limiting.  

 

 

So maybe I should do away with the ground weft and just put two colors in each pick, technically weft substitution not brocade but I'm just looking for something that works here.

 

 

First I tried two stands of embroidery floss ( if you think emb. floss has 6 stands, then this is 12) at the bottom.  This does NOT cover the ground.   Nor do the 4 strands up higher.    Then I tried some hot pink acrylic knittting worsted and olive sock yarn.  The acrylic works well!  Esthetically acrylic is a hard pill to swallow so I tried some hand-dyed alpaca/merino knitting worsted. Not quite as good but maybe acceptable.

 

What have you found that works for brocading these densly woven warp-faced webs?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Fri, 07/23/2010 - 01:11

bolivian warmi

I use a 24wpi mercerized crochet cotton for ground and doubled strands of embroidery floss for the supp weft. This works fine for me. You need to find the right ground warp/weft to supp weft ratio and this means experimenting. In Guatemala we did patterning with floats turning on the surface- a completely different weight of ground warp/weft and patterning weft. It is a matter of finding the right mix adding more or fewer strands of the supp weft until you get it right. The Guatemalans figured this out a long time ago and stick with the one mix.

 

Fri, 07/23/2010 - 14:44

Karren K. Brito

Thanks, Laverne.  This is a new #10,crochet cotton from DMC, (Cebelia Crochet Cotton, 3 ply 100% combed cotton,double mercerized for a smooth and silky finish).  This is a beautiful, sensual thread, 38wpi and I only have white and ecru.  Unfortunately white does not cover the color like black does.  So after your words I tried thinner brocading threads and colors closer to white.

2nd brocade samples

From the bottom up:

Weft subtitution with hand-dyed knitting worsted,raffia, single strand embroidery floss.  The brocading with strand in the shed with coral perle silk, a golden flat papery silk from Habu and a barely spun tussah silk, one stand then two. I am very excited about the doubled tussah silk. Still elevated but less so because of the thinner thread, and since the color is nearer white it doesn't show as much when buried.