Improvisational Weavings – Jasmine Lee

From my pile of found materials, I decided to choose three different kinds of looms. I ended up using a square box lid, a toilet paper tube, and a pringles can lid. For my warp, I ended up using white thread because my objects were pretty small in size. For my weft, I used found yarn, plastic string, polyester thread, and embroidery floss. I also attempted to use wire, but found that it kept bending undesirably because it had been curled into a spool for so long.

Materials: toilet paper tube, yellow and blue polyester thread, white cotton thread, tape

Intended Effects/Challenges: I wanted to have a grid of different colors overlaying each other, but it was extremely hard to keep the threads in place and perpendicular form each other.

Surprises: The smooth polyester thread refused to stay in place so I had to constantly keep pushing the weft down. When I let it stay loose and cut back on the tension, it created nice repetitive curving patterns.

Materials: pringles can lid, embroidery floss, white cotton thread

Intended Effects/Challenges: I had the idea of poking holes in the lid so the warp threads would stay where they were supposed to go. I had the intention of creating a mandala-like weaving.

Surprises: The embroidery floss piled up on each other as I wove and had thickness to it. I ended up with a thick weaving with a soft texture than the 2d pattern I expected.

Materials: box lid, yarn, plastic string, white cotton thread

Intended Effects/Challenges: The white thread was hard to keep in place, so spacings had to be fixed at the end (when the weaving was more stable). I intended to create a plaid pattern, but as the spaces become tighter, it became harder and harder to insert the weft.

Surprises: The colors worked together better than I expected.