24 Shaft Echo 4 Iridescence - The Finished Panel and a Serene Model

We do have a Buddhist retreat nearby so maybe they would like some!

Interesting now its finished; things I was expecting and others that are surprising.

I was expecting the iridescent effect to be light and directionally dependent, which it is, but was surprised that it's effect really comes alive when the fabric drapes naturally - making it great for a garment but less effective as a screen or wall hanging. As usual, the photo really doesn't show the sheen and glow but it does at least show the blending of the colours.

The close up shows it better and the extreme close photo shows the interlacement detail.
The background colour is black, so it has a very high contrast with lots in the blue and purple spectrum but, in real life, the yellow is the real standout colour which makes it glow.

The vertical stripes are a distinct feature of echo on more than 8 shafts; the point at which the blocky appearance of the weave gives way to stripes. However, I really think the colours need to be threaded 1/1 in the reed to ensure perfect separation, otherwise there is a second effect coming into play adding to the vertical stripes; one that was not part of the design.

There is much to be learned from this first piece

24 shaft Echo 4 Iridescence Panel - Progress

These are the true colours.

Well, iridescence really does look, well, iridescent.....it works!
This is my own 24 shaft design using one of Marian's twill tie-ups giving maximum 6 end floats with my threading/lift plan. The lift plan is a single, undulating non-repeating line over 2460 picks which I wrapped until I got the colour balance I liked.
I made a few changes from the draw-down I designed and blogged earlier in the week based on my 2 year old 'Schizophrenia' design idea; made to accommodate the colours I eventually chose and the much finer Ne 20/2 cotton - it's now 608 ends and 48cm wide.

Colours are Flame Red, Deep Yellow, Pistachio Green and Cyan - warped in that order at 13epcm. Weft is Black 34/4 Tencel.

I have sampled other wefts and only very, very dark, low value colours really work with these weft colours. So the other two panels will use a Deep Nay Blue and Grey/Burgundy.

In close.

The close up shows how the range of colour variations appear across the boundaries of the shape.
The weft is packing at 15epcm. I was worried the sett was going to leave it too weft faced. However, though the overall effect is slightly darker due to more black weft than if it were balanced, the effect is actually enhanced as there is more contrast overall between the areas.

This yarn could be sett at 15-16epcm for this mix of twills, but with more of the prime colours visible, I think the contrast might diminish.

The structure is great and could certainly be used as fabric for a garment......my Bohemian friends would love it ;-)