365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Thursday, November 17, 2022
The Design Process
Day 35: In weaving, as with many other art forms, the design process is not always as straightforward as could be hoped. What looks good on paper does not necessarily translate well to fiber. Colours refuse to play nicely with others, those which were expected to be dominant suddenly exhibiting recessive traits due to mutations in sett or beating. Behavioural anomalies remain hidden until after warping, when the weaver finds themselves faced with something quite unlike their original visualization. These peculiarities needn't be fatal to the point of cutting the warp off the loom unless one is working on a schedule, and quite frankly, if you're weaving to meet a schedule, you should probably take up a different hobby. One of the delights of weaving is its ability to surprise, and very little which comes off a loom can be considered a total loss. In this instance, the two-inch band currently in progress on the bonker loom bears very little resemblance to what I had in mind for the friend who requested a band for her mandolin, and the flaw lies in my interpretation of the pattern, not in the pattern itself. A slight re-thinking, another sheet of graph paper and a serious look at my fiber stash sent me back to the warping board with a different palette. The good news is that this is a short warp which I can finish up in a few days, and I already have ideas how to make use of the piece.
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