Making Process
My Studio
I have 2 looms that I do most of my weaving on
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48” Toika Eeva 16 shaft floor loom
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26” Schacht Baby Wolf 8 shaft folding floor loom
I also have 7 table looms for my students to use
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40cm and 70cm Louet Jane /Kombo 8 shaft table loom on stand
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30 and 50cm Louet Erica 4 shaft table looms on stand
48” Toika Eeva 16 shaft floor loom
Louet Jane /Kombo 8 shaft table loom on stand
26” Schacht Baby Wolf 8 shaft folding floor loom
Erica 4 shaft table looms on stand
Designing
Design time 1-4 hours (or more!)
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Selecting Yarn
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Choosing Dye Colours
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Yarn wraps to get colour proportions
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Creating threading draft (pattern)
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Calculating yarn quantities for warp and weft
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Sampling for weft colour and weave pattern
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Keeping design notes
Choosing Dye Colours
Design notes
Yarn warps to get colour proportion
Selecting yarn
Creating threading draft (pattern)
Calculating yarn quantities for warp and weft
Sampling for weft colour and weave pattern
Making the Warp
Time 1-6 hours depending on the length and number of threads.
The warps have from 256 up to 2000 threads – called warp ends.
The warps are from 90 up to 275 feet long (approx. 30-90m).
I have 2 warping mills – a hand made 2 yard warping mill for up to a 12 scarf warp of @90 feet and a Toika 4 metre warping mill for a warp for up to 40 scarves @ 275 feet.
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Winding the warp on the warping mills
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The ‘cross’ keeps the threads in order
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Chaining the warp to keep the threads from getting in a mess
Warping mill
Winding the warp on the warping mill
The ‘cross’ keeps the threads in order
Chaining the warp
Dyeing the Warp
Time 1 – 3 hours per scarf length
I use acid dyes (so called as they require vinegar to fix the colour) which give vibrant wash fast and light fast repeatable colours and are safe for the environment.
I dye the warp yarns using a number of different techniques which I select to achieve different effects and patterning. With all techniques, I steam the silk yarn to set the dye.
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Vat dyeing – the yarn is dyed all one shade by immersing the whole yarn in the dye bath. This is a good technique for lengthways stripes and also for weft yarns that cross the warp threads in weaving
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Dip Dyeing – only one section of the warp is dipped into the dye bath. This gives long lengths of a colour on the yarn
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Dip Dyeing with resist – the yarn has a resist put on it which prevents the dye attaching to that bit. The resist can be a binding or a paste or wax. The bound warp yarns are then dipped in the dye bath giving a long length of colour with the resisted sections remaining the original colour
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Overdyeing – a section of yarn that has already been dyed can be dyed again with another colour creating a new different colour, eg: a yellow dyed yarn can be overdyed with a blue giving a green colour. If a previously resist dyed yarn has the resist removed, then re-tied and then overdyed, it will give sections of yellow, blue and green – a time consuming process!
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Handpainting – the warp threads are laid out on a flat surface and literally painted with the dye colours
Warp threads laid out on a flat surface
Handpainting the warp threads
The finished dyed warp
Dressing the loom
Time – 8 – 20 hours depending on number of threads, warp length and complexity of pattern
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Spreading the warp in the raddle
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Beaming on – winding the warp onto the back beam of the loom
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Putting in the cross sticks – to make sure the threads are in the correct order
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Threading the heddles one by one – each warp end (thread) must go through an individual heddle so for 1000 warp ends, you need to thread 1000 heddles.
The heddles are attached to the shafts and there may be 4, 8 or 16 shafts on the loom. The weave pattern chosen will use a number of the shafts and the order the warp ends are threaded through the heddles on the different shafts determine the weave pattern.
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Sleying the reed – groups of threads are pulled through the dents (slots) in the reed. This determines the width of the fabric and how densely packed the threads are and therefore how firm or softly draping the fabric is.
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Lashing on to the apron rod which attaches the warp to the front cloth roller
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Tying up the treadles – this attaches a treadle to a combination of shafts and dictates which shafts rise and fall when that treadle is pressed
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Winding paper quills with weft yarn for the boat shuttles
Spreading the warp in the raddle
Threading the heddles one by one
Beaming on
Putting in the cross sticks
Sleying the reed
Lashing on to the apron
Tying up the treadles
Winding paper quills with weft yarn
Weaving – at last!
Time 2 – 6 hours per scarf/stole depending on the fineness of the thread and complexity of the weave pattern
Finishing
Time 1 – 6 hours per item depending of width on piece, fringe finish and fineness of yarn plus overnight drying
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The beginning and end of each item is hemstitched by hand on the loom which takes between 15 and 60 minutes each end depending of width and yarn thickness
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Burling – checking each piece for broken threads and ‘design features’ (skipped threads and any mistakes) and mending by hand using a magnifying glass for fine threads
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Hand wash
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Iron when wet otherwise the creases are almost impossible to get out of silk if dried without ironing
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Allow to air dry completely
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Iron again to soften and bring out the sheen and drape of the silk
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Trim fringes
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Twisted fringes take approx. 1.5 hours for a scarf and 3 hours for a stole
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Attach label