THE SILKY WEAVE

I have been radio silent for more than a year, maybe? Lots of changes in my life, first health (all dealt with, and almost recovered), then a trip to Japan for 5 weeks to study Japanese, and finally, last fall, coming back to my office work.

But I do weave in between all of that, and I want to share a project that I loved weaving, even though technically it was one of the most challenging.

Let me introduce a “Dance in the moonlight”, a one-of-a-kind commission, with the hand-painted silk warp that turned into a baby wrap and a shawl.

So, first, this is the inspiration.  Surely you know that painting 🙂

I prefer not to wind the warp chains, but for what my client and I had in mind, that was the only way (usually I am all for warp on bobbins).

Here is the warp, threaded and ready to be wound on the back beam.

So, that’s how the warp looks.  After the loom is all set up, the weaving begins.

The weft is hand-painted Supima cotton, and the pattern is advancing twill on 14 shafts.  I reserved 2 shafts for plain weave selvages.

I think I mentioned it before in this blog, but I never see the full fabric when I weave.  I only focus on the last 5 cm that I am weaving, to check the errors, and even the weaving space is just 40 cm of the fabric.  So, after unrolling and washing, the drying is really the first time when I see the full fabric length.

All dried, pressed and ready for photo shot.  I do think it came out very nicely.

A close-up.  The bottom is the Supima weft, and the top – silk/ alpaca blend weft.

Middle markers on the baby wrap.  I think they are a nice match to the name of the wrap, “Dance in the moonlight”, and both of them were picked by my client.  And I love her choices.

Traditional roll of the baby wrap.  Despite the fabric being slightly on a thicker side, the GSM is just 330.

The second piece commissioned was a shawl.  Woven with a different variation of an advancing twill, and with a bit darker weft, it shows the warp beautifully.

And it is definitely thinner than the baby wrap.

Finally, both pieces together.