Interplay

I begin by choosing the colours for the new sample. The wound balls of colours look fantastic together. Just looking at them makes me want to weave. This time however, I decide to restrict the number of colours I work with in order to focus my attention on technique and design, and choose just black and white.

I’m just going to start and see where it takes me. I have some ideas which may come to fruition but perhaps the weaving will take me in a different direction. I resolve to stick to my original plan of weaving a panel of circles, and see what happens within this structure. I might also try my hand at weaving letters and words.

I start by drawing a circle onto the warps with a permanent pen, then weaving up to its base then up one side. The result seems to be a fairly good curve which is encouraging, this being my first ever attempt at weaving a circle. It is a technical challenge to weave shapes well in a process such as tapestry weaving which is physically inclined towards horizontal and vertical elements, but this is also part of the attraction.

I like creating lines visually without them being there physically. Here, the black and white pattern gives the impression of a circle, but without using a solid outline. I very much like the idea of giving enough pictorial information in the weaving, but not spelling everything out. It then involves the viewer by allowing him or her the space to make visual connections and independent discoveries which feels so much more dynamic and interesting.