Rotation 3: Weave

Weave came as a whole new experience to me and surprisingly I really enjoyed it. I felt a real sense of achievement throughout the whole 3 weeks and produced work I was exceptionally happy with.

The first week consisted of learning the different weave techniques which was quite fast paced, however I began to feel comfortable with it. I started exploring and creating quick samples that I could look back on in my technical file. Although these samples were not to the best quality where the tension wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been as well as the fact that they had no link with any kind of colour palette or visual research, they did show every weave technique I learnt which helped me to start planning and thinking about which weave patterns I could use in future samples, as well as reflecting on the kind of colour palettes that may work well. 

First Weave Samples

However, in the first week I was subjected to a straight loom and so I couldn’t fully reach the potential of many of the weave patterns as they didn’t reflect and just stayed in a straight pattern. 

Weaving on a point loom

I realised I should have explored the different looms around me rather than limiting myself to just one for a whole week. This was a point I learnt from in the weeks after. 

In the second week of weave I wanted to focus on visual research combined with colour to start creating a collection of work. Initially my focus was the collection of beetles and butterflies in the Manchester Museum I had photographed and drawn from, however in the Friday drawing day I drawn from different kinds of collections and this was the inspiration for the rest of my time in weave.

 My first sample reflected that of my drawings I did from rocks. The colour palette consisted of purples, greys and whites and so I carefully chose the various yarns to portray the colour as well as the smooth texture of the rocks. I also wanted to depict the small marks within my drawings into the weaves which I thought was going to be difficult but turned out to be less challenging and quite effective.

I also tried to portray the many shades within the drawings such as the white merging into grey. However, I did not take much care of choosing the yarns specific enough to do this how I wanted. Rather than a gradual change of tone like the drawing, there’s a sudden change in colour within the weave. This affected the quality of this particular weave.

Within the third week, I carried on reflecting my drawings into my weaves focusing on colour and texture. The drawing of the crab shells show an interesting, softer colour palette. On the other hand the texture is more rough and ridged.

  Using different techniques in smaller quantities, changing between them regularly I portrayed a rougher texture within my weave samples. Although I believe these are my better samples, I can’t help but notice the colour of the yarns are not as similar to the drawings as I had anticipated.

As I became less interested in my drawings, I focused on some photographs I had taken of my collection of bugs and butterflies. I used the bold earthly colours in the photographs to create my weaves. I didn’t only focus on the bugs themselves but the habitats surrounding them. I then went on to develop my weaves focusing on colour alone.