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~ Jean Williams, Handweaver

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Monthly Archives: March 2015

Placemats, Anyone?

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by jeanweaves in Placemats

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Placemats, Textiles, Weaving

Cotton Placemats in Cream and Blue

Cotton Placemats in Cream and Blue

“So what handwovens do you need right now? What can I weave for you?”

“Well, we could always use more placemats.”

So went a recent conversation I had with a local shop owner. Placemats.

I used to weave a lot of those but over the years, I’ve shifted to towels, scarves, and other linens. I’ve woven note cards, runners, napkins, even some rugs.  But not many placemats.

When I got married, placemats were a popular bridal shower and wedding gift. Placemats are all-purpose. Like tablecloths, you can leave them on the table between meals as an accent. During meals, they protect the table without covering it up completely. And placemats are easy to launder. If you remove a handwoven cotton placemat from the dryer while it’s still slightly damp, you can simple smooth out the wrinkles and let it finish drying flat. Voila!

Classic '40's Tablecloth

Classic ’40’s Tablecloth

Back when my Mom got married, tablecloths were the gift of choice. Every bride needed tablecloths for every day, for formal use, for covering the table between meals. Remember those all-purpose printed tablecloths from the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, the ones with flowers around the edges and a center motif? There were tablecloths for every season and they brightened the table, made a meal special and just added a nice touch to the room between meals. Over time, decorating trends and tastes changed and placemats replaced tablecloths in many kitchens and dining rooms.

I have a pie cupboard full of table linens — both tablecloths and placemats (more than I actually use, but that’s another story.) The tablecloths came to me from my mother and my mother-in-law and some I received as wedding gifts. I do use them, just not every day.

Placemats and tablecloths for all occasions

Placemats and tablecloths for all occasions

But every day, there are placemats on our table. I have a few favorite sets and some seasonal ones. Some are super easy to care for, others are a little more challenging (like the fake straw ones I received many years ago and still am not quite sure how best to clean them – therefore they don’t get used). There are rag placemats that were made by a women’s cooperative in Latin America, there are fine cotton placemats. There are samples of designs I’ve sold and leftovers from the ends of warps.

I like the old tablecloths from the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. I like the flowers and the sense of style they gave a humble kitchen. There are many still out there in estate sales and flea markets.

But I like my placemats too. So I guess I’ll make some more placemats and as I’m weaving, I’ll imagine how they’ll brighten someone else’s kitchen table.

The Evolution of an Idea

12 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by jeanweaves in Coverlets, Doubleweave, Weaving Inspiration

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Coverlets, creative inspiration, Doubleweave, Early American Weaving, Weaving

Block Doubleweave, Second Warp

Block Doubleweave, Second Warp

Every project starts somewhere, inspired by some need, some desire for color, a picture in a book or magazine, a piece in a store window. My Mom tells the story of her grandmother seeing a crocheted doily in a shop window during the Depression, studying it, and then going home to recreate it. Inspiration!

Weaving drafts give the directions that tell the weaver what to do. Drafts consist of four elements:

  1. the threading: the order the threads are arranged
  2. the treadling: which treadle to press when
  3. the tie-up: how those treadles are connected to the shafts
  4. the draw-down: what the pattern will look like with all of the above

    Doubleweave Draft

    Doubleweave Draft

The inspiration for my block doubleweave goes back to a class at Madelyn Van der Hoogt’s Weavers School when it was still in Missouri. I pulled out my class notes and studied the draft. The blocks – the areas where the colors change – form a pine tree and snowball design, but what if I changed the order of those blocks? How would the overall design change?

The easiest way to change a pattern is to treadle it differently, so I played around with the order of those blocks. Weaving the blocks in the same order as they are threaded, “as drawn in,” produces rings in the corners with ovals and diamonds in the center, like the green placemats. But I’m not a production weaver, so after weaving a couple placemats in this design, I started to ponder how to change it yet again without rethreading.

Doubleweave Designs Evolving

Doubleweave Designs Evolving

Again, I looked at the block order. What if I treadled just one set of blocks over and over? How about treadling them in point order – back and forth, one repeat of each? There are so many possibilities. I have the second pattern on the loom now in a natural pattern against a deep wine background, and a third set will tie on after it in yet different colors. Three different designs with one threading, just by changing the block order!

This is the evolution of design.

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