About Designing

In my last post I mentioned that I had run across an idea for a crackle project to follow hard on this one. It is essentially a spin-off of the current design. This kind of a process is what many artists call working in a series. It is also a way of building a consistent body of work. I think of it as a kind of follow-your-nose thing. Anyway, I put a note of the new idea in my file.

When I work on a project, the act of working frequently inspires ideas for the next project. So, on my computer I keep a spot to collect those ideas. Often, by the time I am starting to weave the current project, I find myself working up the plans for the next project in greater detail, ordering the yarns, and doing the necessary dyeing, including dye sampling, By the time I finish the weaving, I have sometimes found that the next warp is ready to go on, or at least close to ready.

One of the benefits of this approach is the protection of my body. My body simply will no longer let me sit and weave all day. So having other things to do, sample dyeing, for example, keeps me busy doing different things. It may take me a long time to weave something off, as a result, but I am still being productive.

A confession: I am also thinking of starting a file on warp crackle. I am beginning to think that there are interesting possibilities for warp painting if I turn the crackle drawdown so that the threading is the treadling and the treadling the threading. I love weaving on painted warps because I am always wondering what it's going to look like up there where it is not yet woven. And I am always wondering as well when to change weft colors. I love weaving when decisions need to be made during the actual weaving. The result is that it is very hard for me to stop weaving a painted warp, not necessarily a good thing if I want to protect my body!