It’s Been a While

This afternoon the mail delivered a copy of the Spring issue of Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot, the magazine produced by the Handweaver's Guild of America.

It's been a while since I had an article in this magazine.  It was nice to be asked to contribute, especially when they gave me free rein about what to write about.

There are philosophies that propose that there should be no rules.  People should be free to do whatever they choose, whenever they choose.

I don't disagree.  It's just not the way I approach weaving.

When I am spending as much time as it takes (because no matter which way you slice it, any kind of handwork is 'slow cloth') I would really like to wind up with a fabric that performs it's intended function as well as I can make it do that job.

Right from the get-go, with my stated aim of earning an income by designing and creating textiles, I had to achieve a certain level of quality.  So I made a point of looking closely at different qualities of cloth, trying to work out how they wound up to become that quality of cloth, then set about trying to hit that bench mark with my own work.

I don't want to make everyone who weaves do what I do.  All I try to do is explain the principles involved, which can be ignored, and show what I do for anyone who is interested.

In the end we need to follow our passion.  Find our joy.  Feed our creative spirit, in whatever way that fulfills us.

I hope people will read the article.  I hope they take away what they need from it.

As for the textile?  I was asked to create the cloth for the local Ukrainian dance troupe.  In addition to fabric for skirts and vests, which I had made over the years, they wanted to create group clothing so that people didn't have to buy their own, but share and pass along to the next crop of dancers.  So they splashed out and got me to weave cloth for the head dresses for one dance, and sashes for another as well as more skirts (two different skirts) and the vests.

In the end I did four 10 meter long warps, dressed the Leclerc Fanny and threaded the heddles, but left the reed and beater top off the beater and essentially used the loom as a band loom.  The sashes had to be sturdy, warp faced but flexible so that they could be tied.

I used two ends of 2/8 cotton per heddle, and then a bundle of 2/8 cotton for the weft.  Using a bundle of thinner threads that were loose, not twisted together, makes for a more flexible finished cloth.

It became a challenge to get the right amount of draw in to ensure the warp faced effect, and the sashes were woven with a stick shuttle which was then used as the beater.

The sashes were wet finished and given a good hard press and the lengths turned over to the group to cut to length and finish the ends of the sashes with fringes.

For this commission, the clothing fabric had to absolutely function as required.  The cloth had to withstand regular laundry as well as the dances themselves, which are quite physical.

I have to say, I'm quite proud of the work I did for the dancers.