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Echo, Iridescence and Double Weave for Dummies!

UPDATED 19 SEPTEMBER:
Spent at least the last month iterating and reiterating the sections on double weave in the book (Echo and Iris) before I really got my head round it. This is a fantastic book and I would recommend it to anyone other than a beginner. Whilst the earlier chapters 'teach' the materiel clearly, I feel the double weave sections could do with more alliteration and a few extra steps in the explanations; just a little too much is assumed and left hanging on the assumption the reader will make the link, though to be fair I have done so and others might be able to do so easier and quicker than I.

The breakthrough for me with the double weave sections was working out how to quickly produce drawdowns on my software: as with the echo/iris sections, this enabled me to experiment, make the 'missing' links whilst an idea was fresh and work out my own rubrics for the techniques. Fortunately, the alternative approach given in the book for producing tie-ups in double weave fitted perfectly with WeaveIt's software (without that, producing drafts for 32 shaft double weave is VERY laborious; you 'aint going to do too many of those 'manually' before you get fed up and just plump for the first iteration of your design!).

Once grasped though, the technique with echo and iridescence really does take double weave to a level beyond anything I have seen, read or heard of before; as with the earlier sections, it's really inspirational work so looking forward to trying the first design I have produced.

In order to readily use the techniques in the book to produce and experiment with lots of design variations I now have what amounts to a 'Mike's Dummy's Guide to Echo and Iris for WeaveIt' - about a dozen step by step instruction sheets for each technique. For anyone using WeavIt they would make a useful appendix to either this book or the WeavIt manual.

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 ;-)

My Clients Shadow Weave Shawl

Finished the second of the shawls I wove using the shadow weave drawdown.

It's in a finer yarn than the first one so is lighter and more appropriate for summer use.


This one's destined for a client who saw Gail's in burgundy and grey.

34/4 Tencel in lavender and black, 200cm x 60cm
Sett 9epc woven at 10ppc

Selvages double threaded 4 heddles - 40/100 reed threaded 2,2,3,2,2

24 shaft Echo 4 Iridescence Panel Design

   

Schizophrenia revisited.
I have had a design idea for a couple of years, which I tried to work out for overshot which I called 'Schizophrenia'. I never managed to work out how to weave it satisfactorily, so I thought I would try echo weave. The original design idea was based on the fMRI brain patterns of patients which were then turned into music (sonification). I looked again at the scans and the design here is what I have come up with.
Here is the link:- 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd6GwIWiHho

Echo 4 on 24 shaft, 4 colour warp 800 ends

x18 wrap

Threading and treadling are on a 3/1 network; one treadling repeat is 1920 picks.

Hoping to use it  for  two 60cm x 150cm wall panels, and either changing the warp colour for each panel or alternatively, wrapping the lift plan to change each panel; a second evocation of its inception of 'schizophrenia'.

Wrapping x 12 does a full inversion of the colours. This is a wrap of  x18. (right) emphasising the orange and green echo's more.

This is quite a clever technique when visualised in lift plan mode as, though these are two repeats of the same threading design line, by wrapping the threading, you can merge the left hand pattern  seemlessly into the right giving the impression of just one pattern.
I have managed to do this with quite a few design lines; the key is getting the horizontal wrapping correct before doing the threading repeat - you have to get the two to overlap.

Even The Sky Isn't The Limit......or is it?

I have had this photo of the Helix Nebula taken from the Hubble telescope in my projects file for a couple of years now. 

Helix Nebula- Eye of God

When I saw the book on echo weaves and iridescence I thought this might be the route to weaving, not only this inspiring image, but to be able to interpret the many hundreds of other galaxies and nebula for which there are now images.
This technique seems ideal to reproduce the iridescent nature of the colours and the way they blend and echo. Maybe Photoshop can create the patterns and liftplans; maybe I can find a suitable threading that, when combined, produces the combination I need to replicate these amazing images - we will see; the biggest problem I can see at the moment is controlling the float lengths in the warp.

So this is going to be one of the directions for my off-loom designing and experimentation ove the next 12 months leading up to the workshop by Marian in May: Objective - maybe if I crack it, to have an exhibition next Summer on the theme of  Space.