Between commissions and classes and a large warp meant for practice and experimentation, I haven’t had a lot to say. As the leaves here start to turn and the weather attempts to figure out what season it should be, I’m back in my creative zone.
A friend mentioned that they are intrigued by my color selection process, and another wondered about how I go about designing a new project. I thought it would be a cool thing to take you with me as I begin a new project.
How does it start?
Usually, when I’m weaving, I’m facing a wall of color and yarn. Something will begin to catch my eye. Then I start to low key obsess over it. There was one skein of a silk/linen blend of hand painted fiber. This one had a lot of pinks in it and pastel colors. I think it got my attention because it wasn’t my normal color scheme. So I feel like it was challenging me to create with it.
I held onto it as I walked about the Studio, just admiring it in different light and with other fibers. When I felt like ready to choose other colors and materials, I sat down with my sample box.
I made several choices before I began, based on all I know about what I’ve already woven:
- I want long stripes of solid color sandwiching the hand painted yarn for a warp (that’s the threads that run the length of the fabric, the weft is what you weave back and forth)
- I want the warp to be silk since it’s the same size as the hand painted skein. This will add some shine to the finished piece
- I want the weft to be my super soft alpaca/silk. This will give the piece an airy quality.
So I start by looking at what colors I have in silk to see if there’s something inspiring there
My collection of 20/2 silk on top of the silk/linen skein.
The two bottom colors intrigue me so I isolate them.
The pink would look like I’ve picked a color directly from the skein. The coffee is a deeper shade that would as a richness of depth of color. Both would work. I’m not at the design stage yet, but even together, I can see these bringing out qualities in the inspiration skein.
Now it’s time for seeing what colors of the alpaca/silk I could use.
There really were only two pale colors that made the cut. I really don’t want dark shades or crazy contrasts for this piece. At this point I am also thinking about quantity of materials and what this piece wants to be. I’ve chosen a scarf. If I keep it to a single piece, I can maximize the use of the handmade yarn with a wider stripe. The other option is to make thinner stripes and get two scarves. I really think a bolder stripe and a true one of a kind piece is calling to me.
So here’s the color palette I’m working with for this new scarf.
I’m going to sit with this for a bit. The yarns will be gathered together so that I can look at them for a while. They sit out on my table, deliberately requiring my attention every time I pass them.
My next step is to start thinking about the pattern. That will be a whole new post!
The entire process can take days, weeks, or months. Ok, sometimes I think about it for a year. Some come together in a day. I feel like I want to get this on the loom soon, so expect updates in the next week.
Ravens Webs 
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