LAST SAMPLING: MORE OVERSHOT TREADLING

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

There are two differences between the sampling at the bottom of the photo and the sampling at the top.

1. The order of the pattern blocks is different

2. Instead of the red-orange 120/2 binders in the bottom sampling, I have alternated that red-orange with turquoise 120/2 for the binder shots in the top sample.

It is the second change that makes the most astounding difference between the two samples.

I cannot fathom, however, why the turquoise binder shots look navy blue rather than turquoise. The photo to the left shows the color of the turquoise silk. If I get my nose right up to the fabric, those shots do begin to look turquoise, but they still appear much darker than the yarn appears on the bobbin.

I am taking part in a very small email discussion group on a color phenomenon called simultaneous contrast. This happens when you look at something such as a very strong turquoise for say 15 seconds. Then you look at a white space next to it and you see its complement---red-orange.

In practice, this concept rarely exists in a vacuum which makes talking about it extraordinarily difficult.

I normally feel very much at ease with color—choosing colors, using colors. But reading about simultaneous contrast and listening to what others have to say about it has greatly heightened my awareness of how colors affect one another. And it has made me aware of how little of this is intuitive for me. Taking part in this group and then seeing something like this happen in my own weaving that I cannot explain is making me realize that I need to be thinking more about color and not just relying on my own intuition.

BINDERS, NOT TABBIES

An apology. I have been referring to the non-pattern shots as tabby shots. That is really incorrect terminology for this structure has no tabby and so no tabby shots are possible. What these really need to be called are binders or binder threads. Their function, however, is the same as the tabbies in structures such as overshot and Summer & Winter: they create a stable fabric. I knew I was using an incorrect term but for neither love nor money could I come up with the right one. Now I have it.

VALUE OF THIS SAMPLING

None of this is particularly lovely as it stands. Where the value lies is in the possibilities of doing this kind of thing but with other colors. Using, for example, several grays and browns in this fashion could produce an interesting surface to lay pattern wefts such as lime greens on, but the background surface would be much more subtle than is the case here.

POSTSCRIPT

What appear as blues and reds in the weft shots separating the two samplings and in the weft shots ending the last sampling are simply throws, in straight twill order, of the 120/2 binder wefts with no pattern weft. In the bit separating the two samples, I have alternated 1x1 red-orange and blue green, beginning first with the one and then with the other. In the final treadling, I have changed colors at will.

Related Post: Treadled as Overshot

“Last Sampling: More Overshot Treadling” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on August 3, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.