Details

In the most recent issue of Handwoven, I have an article about Bronson Lace

One of the things I did was to use two different colours, one in the warp, one in the weft.  They are closely related, and the difference in colour really doesn't show in the photos they included in the article, so I've posted a close up here so that people can see how the two closely related but slightly different values look.

The pale value will 'advance' while the darker value will 'recede'.  Therefore the centre block will have a somewhat three dimensional look to it - subtle, but there.  Closer, the difference is much more obvious.

This is something that weavers can do to make their textiles more visually interesting.  Rather than use exactly the same colour warp and weft, two slightly different values of the same hue can provide more depth to the cloth.

Using two - or more - hues of the same value (blues to greens, perhaps), well mixed will also make a cloth have more life to it than one with only one.

Quilters have a saying that colour gets all the credit while value does all the work.  The phrase I use is that value is more important than hue.  Which is really just a different way of saying much the same thing.

If you find the whole issue of colour confusing, you might like to sign up for Tien Chiu's new on-line colour class.

Tien has been working hard to try to help people who are not intuitive colourists understand how colour works within a woven textile, with hints and tips for how to combine colours for effective textiles.

Tien is teaching a two day workshop and seminars at our conference next year.

Currently reading Red Sister by Mark Lawrence.  First in a trilogy.  Looking forward to part 2 - Grey Sister.

Too Clever...

...for my own good?




As mentioned previously, when things are going (mostly) right, I get a chance to think.  And since I'm thinking about Bronson Lace and all the ways one can weave it, it suddenly occurred to me that, with the loom set up the way it is, I could actually weave a sample with the hearts aligned in this fashion. 

Now I couldn't do it loom controlled, completely.  Just the top and bottom rows would be loom controlled.  But I could - if I were so inclined - weave the sideways hearts in pick up, and make a cloth that had a border of hearts all the way round it.

But I won't because I'm running out of time before my editor comes. 

Nice to know that my thought really would work, though.

Lace Weaves

Huck lace 'boxes' with plain weave

Swedish Lace

Many people find lace weaves confusing, not least because there are so many different ways to write the threading/treadling draft.  When the sequence looks so very different, people can get confused about what is the 'right' way.

Well, the 'right' way is which ever sequence - threading, tie up, treadling - that will give you Huck (or Swedish, which is a derivative of Huck) interlacements.

Lace weaves consist of floats on a plain weave foundation.  You can have warp floats, weft floats or warp/weft floats.  

Bronson Lace differs from Huck/Swedish in that the foundation threads are only on one shaft with a tie down on a second shaft.  In Huck there are two shafts for the foundation threads and no tie down.  Swedish Lace has two shafts for foundation and a tie down where a unit is repeated.

Confused yet?

Can I recommend my webinar to help bring some light to the subject?  I tried searching for the webinar on their website but nothing came up so hopefully this link will work for anyone interested.

Bronson Lace and Spot Bronson

Spot Bronson in a point progression.  The weave structure will 'pivot' so do not repeat the final block when repeating the threading or treadling.

Bronson Lace.  Half of one repeat shown.  Again, do not repeat the 'pivot' blocks at the centre and end of the repeat.

I usually don't like lifting a whole lot of shafts so I tend to weave lace or spot weaves so that fewer shafts would be lifted.  Compare the above draft to this:

By weaving the cloth as mostly lace with just some plain weave, you lift a lot fewer shafts.

But that much lace might be too much for the cloth desired.

What differentiates Spot Bronson from Bronson Lace (or sometimes Atwater-Bronson) is that in order to get lace you have to have two units of the weave structure side by side both vertically and horizontally.  The lace 'hole' happens at the intersection of the four units.  If there is only one unit of Bronson surrounded on all sides by plain weave that is considered a 'spot'.

Currently reading Elemental - a collection of short stores written by a number of different authors building on Mercedes Lackey's Elemental series