Intertwined

Intertwined

I cut the work off the loom today. Here are the two halves of Intertwined placed side by side. You can see the seam, which I will sew closed, but they match so well. I am very pleased. I am not sure if I will keep the circles at the bottom or not. First take, my thought is yes, but I will look at the piece in daylight with and without them and decide. This is the first time I created a larger work on my TC-1 by assembling two parts. I feel encouraged in the sense that there is no size restrictions now, and when I get the new warp on the loom (I am going to wind an end and end warp tomorrow) I will design a piece with even more components.

I don't feel so happy with the results of the weaving that incorporates the knotted warp, shown below. In the detail you can see that I have areas of warp floats, weft floats, weft-backed satin and warp satin (click on an image to see it enlarged). I liked the idea that these floats in the grid design would grow into the hanging warp and knots; but without the tension of the loom, the piece seems a bit soft to me. I will comb out the hanging warps and see if that, and time, improves my impression of it. I am not really disappointed though--I had an idea and I did it. I wasn't invested in the outcome of this weaving in the way I was with Intertwined. I really wanted that piece to turn out the way it did!

Knots

detail of Knots

I also met with Holly and Liz this morning to see how we were coming on our collaboration. Liz brought the designs she is preparing now for weft-ikat napkins, Holly brought some new plates she had done, and I had the place mats with lines cut apart and sewn. We ate fresh fruit salad and yogurt and sat and talked about the combination and how to proceed. We plan to have some finished results by the end of May.

Holly Walker (left) and Liz Billings (right)

Collaborative Place Setting