Weaving with Wire

One thing i wanted to explore was incorporating wire into the weaves to give them structure and enable me to manipulate them once they were off the loom. A lot of my research imagery has movement and shape so i felt making my weaves more 3D would express this well.

 (Sketch book page, pen)

(yarn wrap- colour ideas)

(blackpool pleasure beach)

I tried different ways of adding wire to the weft; these two outcomes are the most successful i think. Handling and manipulating the weaves has also helped me to think about what they might become and their context.

Below is a loom-woven basket with wire warp by Jeanette Ahlgren. I am inspired by what Jeanette has done with sculptural weaving here and the way the colour and pattern has remained strong and complentary to the form. My work is on a much smaller scale than this but has similar qualities, i would like to take these into my final outcome(s).

(Artist webpage- http://mobilia-gallery.com/artists/jahlgren/)

I have also been experimenting on a homemade basic loom with a wire warp.

                                    

                        

It has quite a rough finish as the copper wire is difficult to handle but creates a more flexible weave. I used strips of plastic bag as the colours fit well with my theme and i like the self-made pattern that the stripes create. I think this technique needs a bit more refinement but would intergrate well into my project, perhaps combined with embroidery. 

Feedback and move forward

To mark the half way point of the project we had a group feedback session where we viewed each others work collectively with the tutors. It was a really good opportunity to share our experiences and ideas with one another and gain some advice from the tutors.

One of the things i was advised was to really scrutinise my visual research in order to extract the qualities that i liked in them and communicate the mood. My tutors picked up on my eclectic mix of colours and yarns in the weaves as something to develop, as well as concentrating on the composition of my work.

During the session, we also had a chance to look at one anothers work in a bit more detail and give some of our own feedback through the medium of post-it notes. I teamed up with a student who had been doing embroidery for the first few weeks so we could discuss our experiences and share different techniques with each other, i think this was beneficial for both of us as i hadn't done embroidery before and she hadn't woven. It was really inspiring to see the range of work by my peers and helped me to reflect on my own progress. I got some positive feedback from the group which is encouraging as i move on with the project.

                                   

I have now moved into working in embroidery and have been introduced to lots of new techniques. Below are some experimental samples. Some of the techniques suit my theme more than others and i will concentrate on and push these further to see what i can achieve.

 ( cornely- chain stitch)

 ( princess pleated then painted with silk dyes)

 (machine embroidery)

(ruffler foot)

Our group feedback session- unit x blog

Weaving

The first two weeks of this project i have spent weaving. It has been quite an intensive period in which to generate and resolve my ideas. Initaially i experimented with different patterns and yarns to try and figure out the direction i wanted to go in. At this stage though my weaves felt a bit muddled, there was too much going on in them and i needed to work on the composition.

I discovered designer Malhia Kent, following a talk from weave design studio Dash and Miller. I really like her eclectic mix of pattern and colour, it made me think of my own research of the different and unusual shapes in fairgrounds and i was inspired to take this approach in my work.

(Work by Mahlia Kent)

http://www.malhia.fr/html/fr/

(sketchbook page, coloured pencil)

I worked from my drawings to capture the qualities in them. I decided to weave the two sides of my warp separatly to achieve a nice contrast of design. It took a while to find a technique that worked for this. The above weave is still a bit rough, but i like the texture that the floats create and the spaces within it.

                                         

I think this weave is more successful, i built up a repeating pattern so that the piece is more composed yet still has a random feel to it. I also added sections of wire which create an open structure and will mean i can manipulate the shape of the weave. I intend to explore the possibilities of what the weaves can become once they are off the loom and ways i can develop them.

                           

For this piece i worked in a much more refined manner, changing the lifting pattern but not the colour and adding smaller floats of unusual yarns for a bit of texture. I like the subtle detail here and the way the warp comes through more. However because the design is so small it risks being unnoticed, i think it might work better on a larger scale, which i would be interested to explore through embroidery.