silk – Page 8 – Backstrap Loom Weaving

Backstrap Weaving – Simply Silk

All I can talk about this week is that I finished THE silk piece…hooray, hooray! and that I learned more about ”hard” pressing.

I started this long project last (Bolivian) summer having brought back lots of lovely 60/2 silk from my trip away. I got home energized after having just filmed my Operating a Backstrap Loom dvd. I then filmed my Basic Warping for Backstrap Looms video in Bolivia, wove a wool band as a warm-up project (I had been away from any real weaving on my loom for about 2 months) and proceeded to launch myself into what I knew would be a long project both in terms of physical length and time.

I knew that I wanted to do some three-color pebble weave with all three colors interacting on both faces of the cloth at the same time but I also knew that it would take far too long to finish if I used that kind of structure along the whole length of the piece. So, I limited this more complex structure to just the very start of the piece. Of course, I knew that I would need to repeat it at the very end…..but that was months away!

After that initial band of three colors, I wove the rest using the same three-color pebble weave but with only two colors interacting on each face at any one time…gold and brown on one face and red and brown on the other. It is still quite time-consuming weaving this way but less so than having all three colors on both faces at the same time. The pattern theme for the piece is ”interlocking diamonds” and I enjoyed creating motifs in both pebble weave and supplementary-weft inlay to suit the theme.

The main motif in the three-color section is charted in my second book….More Adventures with Warp-faced Pick-up Patterns. Some of the other motifs in two colors are also in that book while I invented others just for this piece.

One of the best parts, as always, is feeling and seeing the transformation in the wet-finishing process. I have wet-finished a couple of 60/2 silk pieces before and was really excited to see how the silk cloth relaxed and shone as the iron lifted the moisture away. However, I was aware that the finished cloth wasn’t quite as stable as I had hoped it to be. So, I asked my online weaving contacts for suggestions and was lucky to get replies from those who have had a lot of experience working with silk and with wet-finishing in particular. Laura Fry has written a book called ”Magic in the Water” which is on the wet-finishing process and how it affects different structures and fiber.

This piece finished up with beautiful sheen but not quite as stable as I had hoped.

I learned that I should probably be a bit more vigorous in the washing part of the process…not the nervous, gentle hand-washing that I usually do. I used warm water this time instead of cool. But, one of the most important changes to be made was in the ”hard” press.

I always iron on the floor as I don’t have a board….not that I do much ironing. It is mostly about my finished woven pieces rather than clothes. Now, this is a good thing when it comes to hard pressing as I recall having read stories of people having broken their ironing boards while trying to give their cloth a good hard press. Terry told us that the combination of heat, pressure and hard surface were ”perfect for imparting smoothness to a fibrous surface”. This, we were told, also applies to the paper-making process where it is called ”calendering”. Laura had said that compressing the threads is really important as a flatter surface reflects more light.

Okay. So, how hard is ”hard”? Who knows… but when I am given instructions like this, I usually take them to extremes to the best of my physical ability. It reminds me of the time my weaving teacher in Peru told me to pull the weft really tight when weaving tubular bands. I sliced up my hand with the weft thread as I had it wrapped about my hand in order to pull it really hard.My bandaid-covered digits in the picture above show the result of having been told to grip the llama bone hard and beat firmly. With my teacher hovering and constantly reminding me to beat hard, I turned out cloth that was incredibly firm…a characteristic that is much admired by highland weavers. I was possibly gripping and beating too hard…hence the torn up hand…but I was pleased with the compliments I got from the weavers.

As for the hard pressing, I placed a thin towel on my ceramic tile floor and put as much body weight as I could manage onto the iron. It was almost like doing push-ups with only my toes remaining in contact with the floor! Sara had reminded me that the cloth should still be damp when pressing or else wrinkles will be permanent. It was quite a work-out!

Anyway, I got a nice shiny polished surface and I am happy with how the web has transformed into stable cloth. Now it surprises me to see how lifeless the piece looked while it was still on the loom.

I’ll be pressing that teal bandanna again…hard… to see the difference that makes.

What’s next? More silk, I think, but on a much smaller scale. Perhaps I’ll make some silk bands for my new hat in three-color pebble weave. I’d also like to start another wool conference neck pouch like this one…

…but with a different patterning structure and a different style of tubular band. And then, there’s jewelry…three-color pebble weave wrist cuffs and neck ribbons for various pendants I have been picking up along the way. There’s always something to keep me busy at the loom!

To finish, let me show you an old photo I recently uncovered while tidying . This was taken back in 1996 before I came a backstrap weaver. It is possibly my first ever encounter with a backstrap weaver and this took place in the plaza of Cusco, Peru. I asked the weaver if she would weave for me and promised to buy the little loom I have in my hands if she would. She was more than happy to do so. A few weeks later, I met a weaver from Ayacucho who was able to teach me.

Backstrap Weaving – Connected

Connected! ”Connected Diamonds” is the pattern theme of my latest backstrap weaving. It’s not a new piece. It is the same very long silk warp that I started some time ago on which I am slowly inching along. A couple of days ago I celebrated having reached half way and stopped to figure out what I would weave in the very center.

I charted a set of six interlocked diamonds in Andean Pebble Weave. They remind me of little ballerinas with their arms linked dancing their way across the warp. Today is not the best day lighting-wise for photography and so I will wait for another time to show them to you.

Here is one version of connected diamonds in the first band of patterning right at the start of the piece. This was done using a reversible 3-color Andean Pebble Weave structure.

The motifs on the side are woven using silk supplementary weft. I used a supplementary-weft technique which has the colored weft extending far beyond the limits of the motif, hidden between the layers of warp threads while it travels to the edge of the cloth. There it exits the shed and turns to enter the next shed to create the next row of pattern.

Let me show you quickly how it works…

You get started weaving warp-faced plain-weave cloth. Then you open a shed, beat and pass the weft. Leave the shed open and drop threads to create spaces, or gaps. Your colored supplementary weft will be exposed in these spaces.

Pass the colored supplementary weft in the shed with the spaces. Open the next shed, beat and pass the main weft. Leave the shed open and drop threads according to the next row in your pattern to create spaces, or gaps. Then, pass the colored supplementary-weft. There it is in a nutshell. I have a more detailed free tutorial on this technique here.

Now, continuing with my black silk project…I finished off the section of 3-color patterned Andean Pebble Weave with weft twining. The twining nicely marks the transition from the complex 3-color weave, where 3 colors (gold, brown and red) show all at once, to plain pebble weave. In the plain pebble weave part, colors A and B (gold and brown) show on one face while colors B and C (brown and red) show on the other,Here is some progress on the piece with various versions of connected diamond motifs in pebble weave and supplementary weft.

If you look at the smaller gold motifs in supplementary weft on the right hand side of the picture you might notice a difference in their appearance to the one that sits beside the 3-color pebble weave in the first picture of my piece, above. Now they are outlined by what look like little dots. Here I used a different technique where the weft hides under just a few warp ends at the edges of the motif and then turns on the surface of the cloth to return and complete the next row of pattern. The little dots you see are the weft turns and they follow the contour of the motif.

You can see the two techniques together in this next example…

I used white supplementary weft to weave the motifs in the band of pattern across the bottom of the red sashes. You can see where the white weft exits and enters the sheds at the very edge of the cloth. Can you see the little white dots along the edge? The small flower patterns were woven using the other technique I described where the turns of the supplementary weft outline each motif. See how the little flower heads are surrounded by white dots.

For me, each technique has its charm and its place.

You can barely see the weft turns in this fine silk piece. They outline the star motifs. In this case, I didn’t want to carry the gold supplementary weft all the way to the edges of the cloth within the shed as I felt the silk piece would be too heavy with all that additional weft thread in each shed.

For me, the outlining technique works best around regular shapes with smooth sides, like triangles and diamonds. I like weaving leaves and curling vines with supplementary weft but those kind of very irregular shapes look much nicer if the weft is carried all the way to the edge of the cloth and turned there.

That’s what I did on this piece with its leaf motif. You can see the turns of the white weft along the edge of the cloth.

The regular shapes on this piece work well with the turns of the weft outlining the motifs.

Because the motifs in this piece are irregular in shape, the supplementary weft travels from edge to edge where it exits one shed ready to enter the next. You can probably just make out the dots of weft along the edge. On the small sample band on the right, I didn’t take the supplementary weft all the way to the edge. I stopped just before the edge at the beige vertical stripe and turned the weft there to camouflage the turns within the stripe.

As I said, each technique has its charm and its place. The dots of the weft turns on the edges of the cloth can sometimes look like beads and look very attractive. However, that technique tends to thicken the cloth as the supplementary weft is sandwiched, along with the main weft, within every shed.

But, there are times when that kind of bulk is exactly what I want; for example, when I am making a bookmark or a key fob with very fine cotton. I like the way the fine cotton allows me to create patterns with a lot of detail in a small space and I also like the way the supplementary weft, which is sandwiched between the warp layers, gives the cloth more substance. The band needs a bit of sturdiness to perform well as a key fob.

If I am weaving a plain-weave piece in fine silk, I don’t want to lose the luscious liquid drape of the cloth by having lots of additional weft stuffed in the sheds. I will choose, in that case, to turn my supplementary weft as close to the motif as possible. This means that I have to think carefully about designing the kind of motif that suits this technique…preferably something regular and smooth-sided.

Almost halfway and ready for the dancing diamonds. — Here I am almost halfway through this silk piece and ready for the dancing diamonds in the center.

The folds in the cloth give glimpses of different parts of the patterns. I used red here and there to tie in with the third color in the 3-color pattern at the start.

Connected! I am feeling particularly connected to weaving friends around the world this week as my new dvd starts to arrive in various parts of the USA, Canada, Thailand, Australia, England, Germany and South Africa, Thank you all so much for your support! The dvd or streamed option can be found at Taproot Video. Thank you for the encouraging comments on last week’s post.

I didn’t get to see the actual disc in its nice case as I had to return to Bolivia immediately after filming. I was able to participate in as much editing as was possible in the evenings after filming but I have not yet seen the final cut with my chapter title pictures, music and various other details added.

When I returned to Bolivia, I designed the artwork for the disc and case, took the title pictures and chose the opening, closing and transition music. I sent the artwork off for printing and the music for editing. I love the rhythm of that music! Sometimes I feel my warp is jiggling and dancing along to that rhythm as I weave plain weave….strumming, opening a shed, beating, passing weft… sometimes accompanied by the clacking of sticks. And, you will learn when you watch the video that moving your body is a big part of creating a smooth and rhythmical sequence.

Mary was sweet and sent me a picture of the dvd in its case when it arrived in her home…

I hope you will indulge me as I link to some of the comments I have been receiving. I really appreciate the efforts people have made to give me feedback.

Videographer, Rainer Romatka, had all angles covered so that you often feel like you are seeing things through my eyes…

I sat right under the tripod and was careful not to move my head forwr=ard or bump the tripod as Rainer captured the ''weaver's view''. — For one sequence, I sat right under the tripod and had to be careful not to move my head forward or bump the tripod as Rainer captured the ”weaver’s view”.

A nice close-up showing how I handle the weft for neat edges in warp-faced weaving.

Connected! I also felt connected once again to the highland weavers I visited last month as I received some sweet snail mail from them. I posted about that visit to the highlands and the time spent with the weavers here and here.

Veronica, Abi, Nelva, Maxima, Dorinda and Justina made Thank-you cards and sent them along. They are really lovely.

Veronica with her hook pattern band almost finished. — Veronica was very pleased with her progress on the hook pattern band on the first day.

Vero and Abi drawing their Thank You cards in Dorinda's lovely garden — Vero and Abi drawing their Thank-you cards in Dorinda’s lovely garden.

Here are two of the cards posed on a couple of the beautiful woven bands made by some of the weavers I met. Maxima and I are winding a warp together in the drawing on the left and then I am shown weaving on the leaning vertical loom in the other (a blob of dark hair! against the yellow wall). Dorinda is shown drinking tea on the stoop and strolling in her garden….sweet!

I LOVE all the tones of cochineal in this band. This card is from Dorinda and Justina.

These are cards from Nelva and Maxima on more of the beautiful woven cloth.

A closer loom at those stunning natural dye colors…

Now I just need to repeat everything I have done so far on the other half of my silk piece. I can’t wait to do the wet finishing and feel it relax and ooze into supple silkiness.

I hope you enjoy the tutorial on supplementary-weft patterning. Many of you will already know it but it might be a nice reminder to give that technique a try.

I will leave you with the drawing 12-year old Nelva sent to me. What fun!. She even drew the patterns on my belt. I am holding the sample band that I wove and left for them.

Backstrap Weaving – A Highland Holiday

I am heading up to the highlands for a quick visit with Dorinda, my weaving teacher Maxima and other weavers in the co-op. It will be nice to escape the lowland heat and humidity and breathe some mountain air although the mountains are in their rainy season and so there won’t be any lack of moisture. I just hope the bus doesn’t get stuck anywhere along the way.

Dorinda with the weaving group at Huancarani - what a gorgeous area she is working in! — Dorinda with the weaving group at Huacarani – what a gorgeous area she is working in!

So I won’t be around for my Thursday night post. I thought I would give you a quick update today on the long long silk warp that I recently set up.

Here it is off the warping stakes and with coil rod installed….

Starting to make the continuous string heddles…

And now, I have the first bit of heavy-duty pick-up patterning finished. I did a reversible 3-color pebble weave pattern with motifs in supplementary weft on the side. The three colors are brown, gold and red. On this face, the gold separates the brown and red. On the other face, the brown and red end up being adjacent. This gives a much bolder look. I prefer this face which is much more delicate.

I am going to simplify the pattern for the body of this piece so I can move along much faster and then I will duplicate this 3-color pebble pattern at the other end. The 3-color pick-up is quite slow but it’s amazing how quickly I got into this new rhythm and pace. It soon started to feel quite ”normal”.

After winding the warp and then sitting at my loom to look all the way down its length, I had experienced quite a few ”What was I thinking?” moments as I contemplated the amount of time it was going to take to weave this project. But now that it is underway and I am pleased with the way it looks, I am calm and content and looking forward to planning each new section. I did some backing up when my color arrangement wasn’t coming out well and un-wove a 1/2” before getting back on track.

I’ll finish this section with some gold weft-twining before moving on.

I took a break from this to weave some small pieces in 3/2 cotton for a project which must remain under wraps for now. After having worked with the 60/2 silk thread, the 3/2 felt like thick sausages in my hands! It was lovely to be able to zoom along on those for a couple of evenings.

So, I’ll have some time away and lots of bus hours to think about what comes next. There certainly won’t be any lack of color inspiration when I get to meet up with Maxima and the other weavers and see what they have been creating lately with all their gorgeous naturally-dyed hand spun wool.

I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

Backstrap Weaving – A Long Time Coming

Some projects take a long time to finish simply because I run out yarn and can’t add the finishing touches. Then I forget to buy the yarn and the piece gets stashed…out of sight, out of mind. This piece which I had on the loom almost 2 years ago has finally been finished. It was just a matter of buying the purple wool that I needed to weave the edging.This was an experiment to see if I could use up some Knit Picks Palette wool that I had in my stash. I wasn’t sure if it would work for warp-faced weaving with its fairly loose twist and I didn’t want to add more twist myself. I found it wove up well with some extra care and precautions and I decided to use it to weave a piece with 4 selvedges. Below, you can see the final stages where the two woven ends are meeting in the middle . Eventually I had to remove the shed rod and needle weave one of the two sheds. Then, the heddles had to go and I needle wove all the remaining sheds. I split the 2-ply yarn by mistake a few times with the needle and the back of the cloth shows evidence of that.

After finally bringing the purple wool home, I could think about the edging. I decided on the kind of tubular edging pattern that I have seen used by weavers in Chahuaytire, Peru.

I was lucky to have been able to watch a weaver at work on one of these bands and bring home an unwoven warp set up for weaving. Talk about long warps!…this one was created to edge one of the large 2-panel carrying cloths.

My wool cloth was not firm enough to support the spiraling tubular band and so I applied it as a flat edging instead. There is always the challenge of figuring how to best disguising the start and finish of the edging band and I all I could come up with was to hem a bit of left-over band and sew it over the spot where both ends meet.

And so, this 2-year old project finally sees it completion.

Other projects sit by while I wait for ideas on how best to finish them…

These 3 wall hangings in a series I call Plain Tales are off the loom but remain unfinished as I can’t decide how to finish their fringes.

And now, I have just put together a new warp that will take a long long time to finish not only because it is so long, but also because I have planned a heck of a lot of pick-up for it….3-color reversible pebble weave in 60/2 silk.

On top of that, after finishing about a 1/2” of pick-up, I decided that I prefer the reverse. That would not normally matter. Both faces of a double-faced weaving can be enjoyed. The problem is that I also plan some single-face supplementary-weft patterning and so I need to decide now which side will be the ”good” side. I could flip it over and re-position the heddles. There are lots of heddles. It’s a good thing I like making them. Or, I could simply un-weave the 1/2”.

I got rid of a table in my living room which allowed me to stretch out the warp while I got things settled. Something always gets given away when I arrive home from a trip. This time it was the dining table. More room for weaving…you can see where my priorities lie! I installed a coil rod to help keep things organized on the far side of the cross as well as help settle the plain -weave sections.While I was there, I thought I may as well install some heddles…
Then, I rolled up the far end of the warp so I could fit everything into my usual weaving spot in the bedroom. I am still not a big enough fan of circular warps to have taken that route.

At this time two years ago, I was weaving on another black fine warp. This one was in Guatemalan cotton and I used supplementary weft for the patterns. It was a project that experienced its own share of hiccups with multiple do-overs. I put a lot of strain on that poor cotton warp with all the un-weaving and weaving but it forgave me.

I am just glad that I decided to stop after only 1/2” on this current project. I hope the silk will be as forgiving if I decide to un-weave.

I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy new year. Thank you for all your support! See you in 2017.

Backstrap Weaving – From little acorns…

There is something about the process of weaving all the tiny projects I have been working on these last few weeks. While I love my large projects on which I sometimes work for weeks and weeks, it is hugely satisfying to be working on small ones and turning out something new almost every day….new colors, new materials and new textures. But there is something else about the process, and I am not sure exactly what it is, that is opening up doors and letting ideas come flooding in. I am writing and sketching them and saving them for later. Sometimes from little projects come big ideas.

The last couple of weeks have been about making jewelry…”arm jewelry”, as I like to call it. I want to wear lots of cuffs and wristlets and bangles all the way up my arm. I am not sure how practical it will be to weave with all that stuff jangling away, but we shall see.

In my last post, I showed you the beginnings of a blue set of pieces. The bangle was the latest addition…

Since then, I have added two wristlets, another bangle and a neck ”bangle” (?) (I have no idea what that thing should be called)…

I am also using the sample pieces I wove when I was planning my silk journal covers and making them into arm adornments. I used more of that lovely cochineal-dyed silk to make another bangle and wristlet with leaf-themed patterns…

The berry-colored silk pieces are on the right. One of the wide bands is decorated with leaf motifs in supplemental weft and the other has a leaf pattern I invented for the Andean Pebble Weave structure. I used a slight variation of the classic Andean ”meandering river” motif to make another leafy pattern on the narrow band and bangle.

I used a tubular band pattern that I saw woven by weavers from the community of Chahuaytire in Cusco to make a bangle in the brown set (second on the left) and an Andean Pebble Weave band to make another (far left). The pieces connect using buttons and braided loops, or snaps, or end clamps and lobster claw clasps.

I then set about making a matching silk pendant for the light blue cuff I wove some time ago. I put it together like the brown and black pendant on the right. There was lots of pick-up to be done with tiny threads of 60/2 silk but the pendant only required one pattern repeat and so I was able to finish this project fairly quickly. I love these small projects and love my backstrap loom even more as it allows me to warp and comfortably weave such tiny things with little waste.

This is the pattern I used for the neck ”bangle”. It’s one that I wove using the Andean Pebble Weave structure and I was able to set it up with multiple sets of string heddles which made the weaving relatively fast.

You can probably tell that I had a lot of fun with these little projects. One idea that came to mind while I was sitting there weaving and sewing and struggling to put together tiny split rings and other jewelry findings, was how to edge the wool panels that I wove some time ago and had put aside to finish awaiting inspiration.

I have two raw edges with which to deal on this wool project. The cloth is really lightweight and I know that it would not support a tubular band which is what I usually use to edge my sturdy warp-faced projects. Besides, I don’t think a tubular band would work in this case to cover and stabilize the raw edges.

I really liked the way the pattern that I wove for the blue neck ”bangle” looked when it was rolled into a tube and so, I came up with this idea for edging my brown panels using that same pattern. Here is the sample…

The ”star” motif is a big part of the design on the large wool panels that I wove and so I think that this pattern will be a good match for the edging. I am going to fold the band in half and sew it so that the center pattern forms a tube. The edge of my panels will then be sandwiched between the solid brown sections which will cover and protect the raw edges well. A couple of little tucks help the band bend around the corner of the blanket and I am really pleased with the way that looks.

Here is the small sample placed at the edge to give you an idea….

So, from the little jewelry projects came the big idea of how to finally finish my large wool pieces….at last! The two wool pieces have been sitting in a box for months waiting for me to come up with just the right idea for this finishing touch.

I am still lumbering along trying to improve my braiding technique. This is the Peruvian braid that I studied with Rodrick Owen at the recent BRAIDS 2016 conference. I am now trying it in fine wool. You can see the chunky wool that I used in the class. My fine piece is full of flaws and wobbles due to poor tension and a little carelessness. I blamed the cotton for my last wonky attempt thinking that it must be easier with wool. The cotton is not the problem…of course, it’s me! and my lack of experience. Try again, try again. I’ll get there. The idea is to make a wrist cuff but I won’t be wearing this one! It goes in the Reject Box.

One last thing I have been playing with is lettering in silk. I am enjoying this a lot. There are no prizes for guessing what word I am writing. After completing this sample, I might weave a band with writing which will become the strap for another conference pouch.. I will tell you more about this lettering when I have sampled a bit more. Ruth, with whom I stayed in Melbourne, gave me the idea for this. I wonder how she has been getting on with her own lettering.

My online weaving friends have been doing some amazing things and I will show you all of that next time. Bands, yardage, scarves and fobs are being created by my backstrap weaving buddies around the world.

My friend Adem, in Turkey is always up to something interesting and has been at the beach weaving on a tripod loom. Here’s a sneak preview of more to come about this in my next post…

Ah, I managed to squeeze in a few more rows of lettering before posting….It’s growing on me!

Until next time….