Today was a research day—not very picturesque. I’ll be dying some of the handspun I wove grey this weekend, but its unclear what shade of grey to choose, so I’m comparing possible dyebaths of tannins, iron and pomegranate. Typically, I’ve used pomegranete greys, which are a silvery-green grey. Lovely, but I’m thinking about a warmer blue-grey and that means some experimentation this weekend.
I realized yesterday that I haven’t mentioned much about how to work with color in weaving. In painting, you have the opportunity to mix colors to achieve a shade and apply layers of colors. In weaving, color is the result of how our eyes perceive shades created when one color of thread sit near another. Below is a photo of the two blankets that were woven just before the one I’m working on now. These blankets are fraternal “triplets,” all born from the same tan-colored warp. The blanket I’m currently weaving reads as a warm white color. Below you see the effect of weaving on this warp with a tan weft yarn and a peach weft yarn.
Below is a closeup of the blanket currently being woven. These blankets are made with a balanced weave, meaning that the viewer sees an equal amount of weft and warp and perceives a shade that is the result of seeing an equal amount of each color. There is not a lot of contrast between weft and warp in these three blankets. The brown blanket on the left is woven with weft a shade darker than the warp. The peach colored one is woven with weft and warp of slightly different hues but the same value and the current weaving displays what happens when the warm, tan color of our black walnut warp is desaturated by adding a white weft thread. For reference, the color of the black walnut warp is the same shade as the peachy-tan color you see below the two butterflies of indigo yarn below.
Color blending takes practice. Many weavers start out by weaving a gamp—an experiment that interlaces a spectrum of colors, to understand how the perception of colors next to one another differs from the mixing or layering of pigments. Through experimentation and practice, I’ve learned that I am not a fan of high contrast warp/weft combinations. The receiving blanket below shows what happens when you play with high contrast shades. There are chestnut brown and white stripes in the warp, a dark brown (almost black) weft and a white supplemental weft. This is a really different look than the blankets above. I’ve actually never finished this one, even though I put a ton of work into it. I find the background a little too jarring and distracting. It reminds me of the handwoven dishtowels I saw for sale at craft fairs growing up. I might still change my mind and fall in love with with this blanket, maybe finish it someday—just hasn’t happened yet!
