For the past week or so, I have had our house all to myself. This is a very unusual state of affairs, as it is usually me that is off on a trip to teach or promote my product. However, this time it was M’s turn to climb into his car, and hit the high road.
This means that I haven’t had to cook ( winner, winner, without the chicken dinner), haven’t had to do very much around the house, haven’t, in short, had to do anything that I didn’t feel like doing, and I’ve been able to turn the house absolutely upside down, as I start working on a new on-line short course for the rigid heddle weavers!
No prizes for guessing that this one will focus on the use of colour in our weaving, with a good dollop of texture in the form of our favourite Waffle Weave, thrown in for good measure.
For some reason, many of us are intimidated by the colour concept – and I am no exception. I think that part of the reason that we step away from the use of strong colours, is that colour in weaving works differently to colour in knitting, or in crochet, or even in a craft like quilting.
This concept really struck me, when I compared a cloth that I had woven as a colour study with a crocheted blanket that had used exactly the same yarn and colour palette. The colours in the blanket retained their clarity, but the colours in the woven cloth had become softened and very much more subtle, as they blended one with another.
Most of the textiles that we weave fall under the heading of ‘balanced’ weave structures, and in a balanced weave structure we see as much warp as we do weft, and this means that through the interlacement of threads our colours blend with each other – rather as we would mix paints on a palette in order to create just the correct hue for our painting.
If we start a project, and we are not expecting this ‘blending’ to occur, we could find ourselves either pleasantly surprised, or deeply disappointed by the result.
….. and then if we add texture into the bargain, everything changes yet again.
Now bear in mind that I am not trained in any form of visual art. Probably the most formal artistic education in my life would have been painting what felt like eternal colour wheels in the school art class. I believe that the way we use colour, and the way we react to colour is a very, very personal thing indeed.
Some of us love the bright, extravagant colour combinations that make our hearts sing. Some of us, on the other hand will instinctively lean towards the quiet, earthy tones that calm our souls and instil a sense of peace.
The point is, that whichever way you tend to lean, having at least some idea of how the different hues are going to react with each other, and with our chosen structure, can go a long way to avoiding disappointment.
I can also tell you that I am learning a huge amount from this exercise – whether it is going back to my school girl roots and playing with water-colours, or whether it is at my loom, I am finding surprises all along the way.
So please, Dearest M, even though I love you to the ends of the earth, stay away for a couple more days – I need to finish this project – and tidy up ( which may take a while), and clear the bright and enticing pictures from my head before I go back to thinking about that chicken dinner!
P.S. The plan is to get the new course out by the end of October – but there will be lots more updates before then.
Happy Tuesday from a chilly, dusty and blustery Hoedspruit – the August winds have arrived bang on time!
