Woven Threads Project

I've started work on a piece inspired by the cushion, made of small offcuts of ribbons, that is held at Nuneaton Art gallery and Museum. Initially my idea was to weave pieces to sew together but I soon realised that I don't have enough time to do that. I developed my idea by printing onto silk designed to go in inkjet printers, this enables me to print imagery from my camera and computer straight onto fabric. I have combined prints of documents relating to the Wiberley family history, including the 1841 and 1861 cenus, and prints of photographs of my woven pieces. I have sewn small pieces (reflecting the ribbons in the Nuneaton cushion) together in a patchwork like effect. I am happy with the result so far and I intend to make this into a new cushion that combines my recent work inspired by the past with records of people who were part of the original industry and some who were related to me and my family.

I've been working hard on weaving more designs. I cut the work I've done so far off the loom on Friday. It's been washed and ironed ready for photographing. I have to send photos to Nuneaton Art Gallery for the exhibition poster. This has been harder than I expected because I've found it difficult to take pictures of a high enough quality. I've been trying to take photos today with a bit more progress until the battery on my camera ran out. So I'm waiting for the battery to recharge before trying again!

So it's been a while since my last blog because I've had a little holiday. That's all over now though and I've been working hard on the project this week. I've been weaving (with some amount of panic after realising there's not all that much time left) ribbon designs based on a page from the coventry collection. I've found it hard work, especially after being on holiday, and working with fine silks is slow progress with it taking a long time to weave a small amount. I'm also having to think about and work out how to create the lifting plans to create the patterns. The original ribbon weavers underwent a 7 year apprenticeship, and I think that I could do with something similar to create the results I would really like to. You can see some photographs of my weaving so far on the Gallery page.

Last week I got to grips with putting the new warp on the loom, you can see the photos on the gallery page. It's quite a tricky process that requires patience and concentration and can easily go wrong. I made a mistake with my calculations when threading up. I forgot that that I had altered how many ends (threads) per inch I had decided on and had to redo half of the threading. There is quite a lot of maths involved in weaving and especially in working out the design for the warp, the basic calculations aren't that difficult, but things can easily go wrong if they're not right. The warp is two inches wide and made of un-dyed silk; I intend to weave some designs for ribbons based on those from the collection at Coventry.

I had a meeting with the exhibitions officer at Nuneaton Art Gallery and Museum last Friday to discuss the project so far and possibilities for the exhibition. To prepare for the meeting I spent some time updating my sketchbook and thinking through my ideas. I always find the best way to get a new perspective on my work is to spread it all out on the floor and look at it all together, so that's what I did. It really helped me to organise what I had done so far and develop my ideas further. The meeting went really well, came away feeling really positive with lots of ideas.

I wanted to experiment a bit with the last bit of the warp, so I used some of the photographs printed on fabric in the weave. I cut the printed fabric into strips which I wove into the piece. I also used a photograph from the Nuneaton collection to inspire colours for a design idea I made using different twills. The last piece I made on the warp was very different, it incorporated strips of printed writing from the Coventry sample books, woven with plain silk in a plain weave structure. Over the top I included brown and black silk threads, which I put in by hand, almost like embroidery.

With the warp finished, I cut the work off the loom, then washed the samples. They will also need ironing and tidying up. My next task is to put the new warp on the loom. I also have a meeting on Friday at Nuneaton Art Gallery, so I need to prepare for that and sort out my ideas for the exhibition.