Unit X Blog Post One

R E S E A R C H

The beginning of Unit X has been extremely busy and the end of week three has come around very quickly. Unit X has been surprising, when we began with the speed dating task in week one, it really opened my eyes up to what the unit was about and it was both exciting and nerve racking. The self initiated collaborative task, allowed me to think about what it was that I wanted to collaborate on, as well as what I could offer to other people. I surprised myself by being able to explain (within just a few minutes) what my skills were and how they could be adapted/transferred to collaborate within another language of design.(e.g. 3D Design)

Unfortunately, it was a bit frustrating at the beginning of the unit, as being a weaver, I had to go straight onto the loom as the looms are on a strict timetable. Because of this, even though I wanted to collaborate directly with a 3D student, I knew it would be very difficult to achieve this for at least the first three weeks of Unit X. Due to the weaving weeks being so intense, it has lead to very little research and no time at all for collaboration apart from a few conversations. However, despite these small set backs, I am still looking forward to the possibility of collaborating further into the project. I have two ideas, firstly to collaborate on a project with a 3D student, and secondly to collaborate with the other weavers, as we are all in a similar position.

Due to our very tight timetable, I went to visit Tatton Park the day before the trip. I found it useful to get a feel for the place, and to do some market research in the shop. Initially, I didn't find the trip very inspiring as I usually like to take inspiration from bright colours, architecture,
, culture and urban landscapes. So in terms of inspiration; I felt slightly out of my comfort zone, but that is what Unit X is about after all. To begin sampling I selected a colour palette to enable me to design my warp. I was feeling a bit lost with choosing my colours as it was so early on in the project and I had  done so little research, and so on a whim I researched 'National Trust Colours' and I found a collaboration between the National Trust and Fired Earth; a paint company. The palette compromises 36 subtle and timeless colours, and has been inspired by revisiting the organic earth shades of the past. From these shades, I selected a few that I liked and chose to use silk as it is a natural fibre.

From Left to Right: Paint from the Fired Earth Collection.  Warp Colours. Weft colour palette. 

The key influences to my work so far have been the colour palette and some of the images I have been focusing on in order to design the patterns on my brocade. I have taken inspiration from a book by a photographer who takes close up shots of the Japanese Gardens at Tatton Park. From the photographs, I have then done some small drawings and managed to explore these drawings using Scot weave. In terms of context, I am aiming to create samples to produce something which could be sold in the National Trust shop or on the 'Handmade in Britain' website. I am passionate about hand crafting here in the UK so I think that is the direction I will go in now, and in the future where possible.

Woven interpretation of the Japanese Gardens and architecture owned by the National Trust 

Now that I have finished my time on the loom, I am going to continue with my inspiration from my samples and the Japanese garden and work collaboratively in various ways to develop these further. As mentioned above, I would like to possibly collaborate on a 3D project, and as well as this collaborate with a small group of weavers. As we have mostly used similar inspiration for the project, we are intending to look at other sources of inspiration from Japan and craft them here in Britain. The samples I have produced and the research so far, have lead me to think about craft and its importance and has made me determined to continue hand making. Due to this, we have collectively decided to learn a few new skills over the course of the unit which relate to our practice and which will enable us develop our work further. These skills will include crafts such as temari weaving, weaving off of a loom, passamenterie, tassel making and possibly japanese book binding. These skills will all come in useful in the future of my practice, as they are very hands on and may expand my knowledge of weaving and different techniques and processes.

Passamenterie corded necklace. Temari Japanese Weaving. Woven Jewellery- Possible collaboration with a 3D student 

A selection of samples

S A M P L E S  

Weaving

O N    T H E    L O O M    A T     L A S T 

It feels like it has taken me forever to get onto the loom for this project. Unfortunately I have experienced some set backs! As the project has felt quite rushed so far, it has been tricky to organise my chaotic ideas and colour pallet so quickly and this has lead me to be a bit delayed. This week I finally chose to weave a narrow fabric, around 4 inches wide. I also chose to weave using two warps to make a brocade. I was trying to design something that would allow me to try several different things as at this very early point I didn't want any ideas to be set in stone and I wanted to get as much from my warp as possible.
On Monday I began by making my cream warp using a 260's silk, which was easy enough and it only took a couple of hours to wind all 8 yards of it. However, I knew I was going to be rushed for time on the second warp as I had previously arranged to meet Ismini in London on Tuesday for the interview for my placement. When I arrived back Wednesday, the set backs began. I started to wind my black silk warp on and halfway through, the yarn ran out. I then spent the rest of the afternoon and next morning trying to source a yarn of the same thickness and very similar colour. I eventually borrowed the end of another yarn but it ran out yet again. After discussing my plans with the technician, I decided that instead of finding another yarn and wasting more time, I would swap my design around a little bit. In my first warp plan, I had chosen a larger black section and a small blue section, but as the black ran out, I swapped the colours around. After this I moved on to make the third colour of pale turquoise. When I wound yarn on the mill I noticed that it was snapping a little but it was too late to alter my plans again and so I continued. 

Threading up took me 2 days in total. I used two ends through each heddle and 4 through each for my brocade, I decided to design it this way so that my brocade patterns would show up against the background. 

Threading up my loom

Once I had threaded up, the next problem I came across was tying on. I hadn't considered this would be a problem, but because of the different thickness of yarn through each heddle, I needed to do it in tiny sections and make sure it was even. I had to weave a section, test the tension and then re do it a few times until it was flat all the way across the width of my fabric.

Above, attempting to get as much out of the blue brocade as possible, (left) but eventually gave up with the broken ends (right)

After this, samples were going smoothly, until I wove some designs using my blue brocade. The blue warp was a nightmare, it was constantly snapping and I was spending double the time fixing the ends and untangling it than actually weaving. I used all of my three colours for a couple of days, but the broken ends began to test my patience and I ended up cutting out my blue warp. After this, everything ran smoothly again and I caught up on a few samples. 

trip to ismini