In today’s vlog episode of Taking Back Friday, I share the journey of creating the new Handwoven Colour series and getting started with the colour gamp project. And I also show the progress on my Epic Cloth project that is finally coming together!
At the start of this year, when I first began preparing the content that we would teach and film in the School of SweetGeorgia, I was entirely focused on making this “Handwoven Colour” course. For me, it was the playground to explore and discover all the ways that colour interacts in handwoven cloth and how various weave structures affect the appearance of colour. Once I started writing the content, I realized that we really need to start at the very, very beginning — including how to set up and weave on a variety of looms, from frame looms to rigid heddle looms to multishaft looms. It’s hard to have a conversation about colour in weaving when many of us were still “weave-curious” and didn’t yet have much hands-on experience yet. In fact, 65% of the members of the School of SweetGeorgia have less than one year of weaving experiences — we’re all at the starting line and I’m so honoured to have this opportunity to introduce weaving and bring new people into this craft. And so, I set about creating four weaving courses this year for the School, complete with new weaving patterns and projects…
- Essential Weaving
- Frame Loom Weaving
- Rigid Heddle Weaving
- Multishaft Weaving Basics
- also Janna Maria Vallee taught Tapestry Weaving too…
All to lead us to this point…
Handwoven Colour Gamp Shawl
Handwoven Colour Gamp Shawl
Handwoven Colour Gamp Shawl
Now, we’re really ready to embark on an exploration of colour and weaving and so I plan to navigate this as an ongoing series. Think of it like a Netflix series with a handful of episodes each season, each episode centred around a theme to explore. In this case, Handwoven Colour will start with Episode 1 which will be about weaving a colour gamp project (in this case, a colour gamp shawl using our Party of Five sets). In episode 2, we’ll further explore the idea of optical mixing and gradients. And then in episode 3, we’ll look at weaving a gradient scarf with hand-dyed sock blanks. My hope is that all three episodes (each one easily binge-worthy at about 30 minutes long) will be released before March 2020. The first episode launched this week!
In this vlog, I also talk about the Epic Cloth project that I’ve been working on all year. Finally all the pieces have fallen into place and weaving has begun. You can see the photos of my progress here:
Epic Cloth Challenge 2019 // Hand-dyed warp and handwoven cloth
Epic Cloth Challenge 2019 // Hand-dyed warp and handwoven cloth
Epic Cloth Challenge 2019 // Hand-dyed warp and handwoven cloth
Before the end of this year, I’ll have this completed and assembled. That’s the plan at least.
And be sure to join us next week for Taking Back Friday. It will be the last vlog of the decade!
