Project 8 – Stage 2, Exercise 1

Experimenting with structures

This exercise is about structure and creating a warp and a weft using a variety of different items woven together.

I started as per the course manual and cut two thick papers into strips leaving all attached at one end.  I then attempted to weave them together, and hit my first snag.

When using thick card or paper it is difficult to weave them as they hardly bend so there is a risk of creasing the paper and ruining the effect.  So, for my first sample above, I cut the orange card with the strips attached at the top (as can be seen from the photo) but the yellow strips were done individually and then each one pushed gently into place.  This system just worked more quickly and accurately for me.

For my second piece I used a thick deep red shimmery paper and a very light weight patterned Japanese washi paper.

This time I cut the strips in undulating curves but still butted them up tightly against each other.

I like the effect, the shaping is starting to get more interesting already.

On the left  I painted some medium weight Ludradur with dyes.  I like the effect but it is not waterproof.

The first piece is pink whilst for the second I mixed up a bright yellow/green.  At the same time I painted some Vliesofix with metallic paints.  Then when everything was dry I ironed the Vliesofix (Heat & Bond, Wonderweb or similar) onto the green Lutradur to get a golden variegated sheen across it.

The green Lutradur was cut into long triangles.  The pink, remaining attached to a header, was cut into strips of varying widths with spaces – again of varying widths – cut out between them.  It is quite lovely but the effect is hard to see in the photo.

Next I moved to weaving with metal shim.  I had some aluminium which I scratched with a spike to give a less smooth effect and some single sided, purple coated, aluminium.  I embossed the purple using a stylus and then rubbed away the surface on the raised areas with steel wool to get some of the silver colour to come through.  This time I wove them leaving spaces and positioned all the embossing and scratching in a vertical direction.  Not a bad result.  A very heavy feel, quite different to the previous pieces.

Next I painted the glue side of some pelmet vilene so I got the shine from the glue dots coming through.  I applied a couple of different colours.  I took a light weight red crumple-look packing paper and wove the two together leaving spaces between.

I had a bit of the yellow/green dyed Lutradur left so I cut it into strips and made beads over plastic tubing and secured them with colour coated copper wire.  I cut some light teal polyester sateen into strips and wove it through on the diagonal, threading a bead in each section as I went.

It was a fun exercise and I enjoyed trying out different materials and weights.  I see the next section is all about cords, ropes, plaits and braids and I can see how they could be used to great effect in weaving by adding dimension and interest.  I’m hoping we will progress to doing that.

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