Random Acts of Color

Last weekend at a conference in Scranton, Pennsylvania, I taught a 2 1/2-day workshop titled "Three Fabrics, One Warp: Weaving with 60/2 Silk." The idea was to take the fear out of weaving with such a fine yarn -- and to learn how to weave three very different fabrics with one very colorful warp.

In the photo above, you see the first fabric we worked on: a 3/1 and 1/3 twill on 8 shafts, in a balanced weave sett at 48 ends per inch. Students had already warped their looms with warps that I had handpainted, alternating in black and multi-colored stripes. The weft yarns for the balanced-weave fabric were also 60/2 silk in an array of colors.

Here's another beautiful twill fabric woven by one student.


At the top of the photo you see a crinkle-woven sample -- this from the same warp. It was the second fabric we were weaving in the course. On the second day, students wove a 4-treadle twill using a 52/2 overtwist wool weft. (The weft was purchased from the Handweavers Studio a…

In my recent web ramblings, I came across a TED talk by fiber artist Janet Echelman, who is the keynote speaker this weekend at the Surface Design Association conference in San Antonio.

Her work is exhilirating! I had to share the video. Her topic is "Taking Imagination Seriously."


For more on Echelman, here's her website: http://www.echelman.com