Weaving

Photo - Peter Marsh

Weaving is basically a method of creating cloth by means of a fixed warp of threads running vertically and the interlacing of another thread at right angles (weft) over and under the warp threads.

O = warp threads

There are several ways of achieving this. For instance, tapestry weavers use small butterflies of yarn for weft which they interweave raising and lowering the warp threads manually. This is both time-consuming and very versatile, and stunning effects can be created through pictorial detailing and use of a mixture of yarns.

However, my preference is for mechanicaly controlled warp threads. This is done on a loom and threads can either be individually raised (jacquard) or raised in groups which can be arranged together or spread across the width of the warp on shafts.

The simplest mechanical loom, called the rigid heddle loom, consists of one 'shaft' but with two positions created through a slot and a hole alternating with each other.

Usually, a shaft loom consists of 2, or more commonly 4, shafts and often more which are added in increments of 4 or 8, so you can have 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 40 or 48 shaft looms.

A shaft is a simple frame with strings (heddles) of metal or synthetic suspended between the two horizontal bars of the frame. The strings have an 'eye' (like that of a needle, but larger), in the middle of each string, through which is threaded an individual warp thread.

Each shaft has a mechanism by which it can be raised and lowered which, when used in opposition to other shafts, creates a space (called the shed) through which a weft thread can be passed, thereby creating each line in a pattern.

Many patterns can be created through the different arrangements of raising and lowering the shafts. With 2 shafts, you can create plain weave - the simplest of interlacements, with one weft thread passing over the first warp thread then under the next, over the 3rd, under the 4th etc.... The next weft thread passes under the first warp thread, over the next, under the 3rd, over the 4th, etc.....

With 3 or more shafts, the permeations become much more varied.

AVL Loom

I love creating intricate patterns.

Alhambra Scarves

My training as a musician (oboe) gave me a healthy respect for the rules which bring structure to music but which allow for wonderful creativity. In many ways, music and weaving are natural bedfellows. Both have constraints - music with 12 notes in a chromatic octave, weaving with right-angled warp and weft - and rules of engagement - harmonic patterns, key and modulations in music, weave structures such as twills, and threading order - but so much creativity in how the work develops - what instruments or colours are used, what yarns, symmetry in the composition (or not), themes in blocks or linear patterns, repetition - and finally, how the piece is completed - a coda, or wet finishing. Bach was a superb theorist but also one of the masters of imaginative, quirky, humourous and emotionally charged music which he could bring out through the medium of just one instrument if he chose. He is perhaps the most obvious and direct example to relate to weaving.

My 24-shaft AVL loom basically gives me the equivalent of two chromatic octaves to play with and designs inspired by music is a theme I may explore at some point. With shaft looms however, despite the vast array of patterns you can create, you are constrained by the order in which you thread the warp through the shafts, combined with the order in which you lift the shafts to insert the weft, rather like playing chords on the piano.

Whilst I love to create designs this way, being an oboist I also want a melody line - the weaving equivalent being a flowing, linear design - with an accompaniment complete with countermelodies, subtle harmonisation and modulations (a sonata). In other words, I want to weave pictures. I can do this on the AVL but it takes a long time as I can weave the harmony (background), but any melody or countermelody has to be inlaid by hand, or put onto a secondary warp, like here in the Deep Sea Series

Corral

This is where the jacquard comes in.

Jacquard Loom

The jacquard is the equivalent to playing a sonata on the piano. Each thread is independent within a specified range ie 384 threads. Pictures can be created, but it needs a sophisticated mechanism to operate it, and, in my case, a whole new set of skills had to be learned in order to design effectively (I went to the Lisio Foundation in Florence for 2 1/2 months to study - a wonderful time and great teachers), and then to translate that design into a set of operating instructions for the loom to follow. The closest music-related system is that of the pianola - a player piano - where the operating instructions are encoded on a card roll which has holes cut out where the individual notes are to be played.

Music boxes have a similar set-up but have raised metal prongs instead of holes.

My particular loom, named Hattie, is a 1930s (we think) power jacquard loom which would have been one of many churning out interiors furnishings, or men's suitings in a mill, probably in the Scottish borders, perhaps in Galashiels (where the woollen counting system of Gala cut originates). It is a Hattersley Standard Model loom, cast in Yorkshire where it could be adapted for either dobby (multi-shaft, often power weaving) or jacquard. The jacquard attachment is a Hardaker, also from Yorkshire. It has 384 individual heddles which allows me a 6" wide design. This design is repeated 6 times across the warp width, so I can create one repeat pattern which connects across the whole 36" width, or 6 individual pictures. There is no limit to the length of the design, only to my patience in cutting cards, as the longer the design, the more cards I have to cut!

In Setpember 2005, I acquired 4 sample jacquard hand-looms with a weaving width of just 13" and different harness set-ups, which means that the same design can be woven with a different proportion on each loom - an invaluable teaching and sampling aid! I don't know the age of these babies (they are only 9' tall and are wooden-framed hand-looms) but I do know they came from Leeds University where they had originally been assembled from new in the weaving studio.

They are a fabulous piece of England's textile heritage, complete with built-in perch-stools and I am delighted to have renovated them so they can be used once more.

My AVL handloom is computer-assisted, which means I can programme my threading order and lifting plan into the computer and see an image of what I am designing. However, all the loom set-up, threading and preparation are done by hand. The AVL is a handloom, as are the baby jacquards, because I sit and physically weave, raising the shafts and inserting the weft, then beating the weft into place. The computer talks to the loom and tells it which shafts need to be lifted next. Hattie is a power loom, driven by 3 phase electricity and automatically throwing the shuttle and beating the weft according to the design punched on the cards.

I also have one Ashford 4-shaft loom which is a table loom but which has a 4-treadle conversion to turn it into a mini-floor loom for my students to learn on. I also have an Ashford 8 shaft folding table loom for people who want to weave with more than 4 shafts.

The 4-shaft table loom with treadles

Basically you can weave anything from a sheer window piece to a heavy duty rug, from a lightweight shirt fabric to a heavy overcoat, from a cushion cover to a chair throw to a blanket to a set of curtains, and from the simplest of structures to a complex network-drafted twill or double or triple cloth. Part of weaving's fascination to me are the endless variations and possibilities available, from yarns to structure to finishing. It's an illuminating and exciting exploration!