Wednesday, April 14, 2010

CRACKLE IN PARALLE SHADOW WEAVE DRAFTS COMPARED

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

(Blogger has done something strange to two of the photos.  Clicking on them will displaly the images as they should be)

I have now worked out three different ways of doing this particular crackle-in-parallel-shadow weave draft.  The first is the original, the one that appeared in the last post.

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In this next one If have changed the threading by doubling the threads at the points of the crackle units, as Dorothy Smith has done in her draft.  But I retained my original treadling which was a treadling of the original threading.

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The only difference is that the figures formed by the color-and-weave effect are a little bit flattened because each threading unit now has one or two more threads in it than the original had but there are the same number of treadles.

And here is the third in which the treadling is changed as well in order to reflect the change in the threading.

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Here we have quite a different design from the original.  This is less of a maze effect and more of an overall pattern.

USING 60/2 SILK

Here is what the first and third drafts look like reduced in size to reflect more closely what they might look like woven up in 60/2 silk.

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60/2 silk is normally sett somewhere between 56 and 72 ends per inch.  The draft on the left has 72 warp ends.  On my monitor its width is slightly more than 1 inch.  So that image should give a pretty good idea of what it would look like woven.  The second draft is 1.25” so again, a good idea of what it would look like woven.

You can, by the way, also get this affect by moving away from your computer monitor and squinting…….  This is a good old-fashioned artist’s way of cutting to the chase!
At the moment, I can see two possible ways of using these drafts if I want to weave them in 60/2 silk: 
1. Use two close shades of the same color so that the overall effect is of one color, but a bit richer looking.  There are weavers who do this with pain weave warps.
2. Use 2 colors that would create an overall iridescent effect.
ANOTHER PROBLEM REVEALS ITSELF

The draft on the right, when I reduced it, surprised me, because the design breaks in half.  The left has a definite diagonal thrust to it.  But on the right side the design effect is level.  And there is a bit between the two that is just kind of messy looking.

Looking at the larger draft shows this as well.  It just didn’t hit me until I reduced its size. This does not happen in either the first or second versions.  And closer examination of both this third draft and the second draft reveals another problem. 

Looking at the third and fourth treadling blocks in the area of the third threading block shows that the two units of the threading block have different appearances.  So, while I have corrected the treadling problems, there is apparently a threading error in the third threading block from the right.  And indeed, looking more carefully  shows that the same thing is true of that third threading from the top to the bottom of the draft.

Time to take a look at the threading.



Crackle in Parallel Shadow Weave Drafts Compared”  was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 15, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

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