Experimenting with different materials.
The theme I’ve chosen for this section is the sea. I’ve picked a series of materials to depict the ocean as follows:
- smooth surface dark blues for the calmer more distant sea,
- a lighter blue/purple indicating the rising waves with the sun shining on the surface giving a more translucent appearance,
- a wide textural trim in blue and white to suggest the crest of the waves as they start to break into foam,
- white, clear and silvery textural surfaces to show the foam itself with the sun shimmering down as it crashes onto the beach.
Items from Left to right: variegated silk yarn just used to start and finish the sampler, dark blue faux leather (plastic I guess) on a woven background, blue/purple piping cord, light blue/purple wide nylon trim, white lightweight Lutradur (Vilene Crash), silver crochet yarn, bubblewrap cut into strips, silver foil, wide blue/white cotton trim, variegated tubular viscose ribbon stuffed with 2 lengths of warp thread.
This trim was an excellent find in a shop sell-out this week. It’s not normally something I would use but it seemed quite appropriate for what I had in mind. 
However it was just a bit too wide so I sewed the edges together and made a rouleau which gave me a much better effect.
As this stage the sampler doesn’t really give the impression of the sea and that is because of the placement of the colours. In this exercise I have placed the ‘foam’ colours in the centre radiating out through the lighter blues to the darker shades on the top and bottom. This is my way of seeing how the colours look together. If I had put the white, silver and clear at one end I could only have achieved one blue layout colour test, but by placing them in the middle I managed to be able to see two alternatives. 
Does that make sense?
Techniques used include plain weaving, single and double Soumak, Ghiordes knot, Egyptian knot.
My next sample piece will be developed by choosing some of the materials used here and weaving them in an order to try to show a more realistic – or maybe stylistic – view of the ocean.
TactualTextiles 
The blue is really _very_ blue!
I particularly like the bubble wrap and the movement you’ve got with the silver crochet yarn knots.
Lutradur is interesting – I wonder if it could be heat-distorted afterwards. Also it could be interesting to colour some of the warp threads, maybe with the inktense pencils, or some of the stuff you printed with – even under the bubblewrap.
I’m so excited to get to weaving!
Yes, it’s a bit blue for my taste but we’ll see how the final piece for this section comes out.
The Lutradur is so lightweight that any distressing would have it shrivel to nothing. I did consider using Tyvek but thought it was too plastic looking, harsh and solid for what I wanted.
Colouring the warp, eh? Already done it!! I dyed some blue (what a surprise) a few days ago. Great minds think alike!
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