Final Weaving – Allison Traylor

My intention for my final weaving was in direct response to the sample weaving I had made previously: specifically, simplify, be balanced but not symmetrical, and make no revisions.  The sample weaving was a practice in shape and the illusion of distance. The shapes woven into the fabric existed in what I imagined to be a plane, and in this way, were separate from the background. Additionally, in the weaving I felt unsure of the color usage, especially the amount and placement of the white yarn. Feeling uneasy, I went back in and embroidered white threads about the piece to make a more unified image.

I decided that this time, with the final weaving, I would resist the temptation to revise post hoc and just let it be, no matter what became of it. This was fun and daunting since as progress is made previous work gets hidden.

I used the wool yarn that was available, and specifically, colors that I didn’t think people would miss. This meant brown. Brown isn’t a bad color or anything, but there was a lot of it, and I had a lot of space to fill. I decided to stick to a limited color scheme, within a limited range (in both hue and value), so I could focus on texture. The textures I used were achieved by tying extra yarn on to the warp, picking up or pushing down the warp, or just doing plain weave. Since I was dealing with so few methods of color, shape, and texture, I tried to keep in mind what I did previously to make decisions about what I would do next.

Since I was dealing with lots of straight, rectangular shapes, I learned a lot about tension and how that affects the shape of the final weaving. I found it super satisfying when I got the hang of keeping the edges straight and I’m satisfied that I was able to have that be a major component of the final weaving. From the critique, I learned that people were able to glean some meaning off my method which was interesting. The next thing I’d like to try is making an even wider weaving by mending two together or something similar. One thing that I might do differently is add more variations in texture over large areas. This would certainly take more time, but I think the end result could be nice.

Final Weaving:

 

Sample Weaving: