Tag Archives: Production

When My Looms Look Like This….

02 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by in Planning, Weaving Inspiration

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New Year, new month plus one, and this is the first week I’m faced with this….

End of the blanket warp

End of the blanket warp

And this…..

Baby bib warp thrums

Baby bib warp thrums

And this…..

Opphämta warp ties

Opphämta warp ties

This can be daunting if there aren’t any projects in the works, but it is also a refreshing point to be at early in the year. What could be better than facing a clean slate in the middle of winter when there’s time to ponder the possibilities?

Many years, January sits on the far side of the holidays and the winter stretches before me in a quandary of unknown directions. Not so this year. The apron warps bridged Christmas and the New Year. The dark aprons sat finished with the blue warp planned but not yet warped. In between came a baby blanket order. Both projects kept me busy in the studio throughout January.

What remains of the January projects

What remains of the January projects

So here I am, aprons and blankets neatly stacked, with that clean slate.

Some years I formally make a list of what I want to weave by when. Other years, like last year, I set out to improve my skills in one area or another.

While I was throwing the shuttle these past few weeks, my mind casually wandered around all the possibilities waiting for the drawloom on the other side of my studio. After finishing the opphämta hangings last fall, it has been patiently waiting for another warp. Maybe I should pay attention to where I’m wandering.

So at least for the next while, I’m borrowing a bit from last year’s challenges. First step is to plan out a warp for satin damask and decide whether to work with 5-shaft satin or 8-shaft satin. Then I’ll need to review how to dress the loom for single unit draw and spend some time graphing out a design or two or three.

I’m not sure just what I want to try first, but it’ll be a pleasant exploration whatever it is.

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Loose Ends, Part 2

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in Finishing

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This week has been all about loose ends again, but metaphorically this time.

Our guild’s annual Holiday Exhibition and Sale is coming up in a couple weeks and I have just one more week to finish up those last pieces I signed up to bring: finishing the last of those opphamta hanging cloths – one for each season;

Soaking "Summer"

Soaking “Summer”

fringing and washing said hanging cloths;

Twisting fringe on "Autumn"

Twisting fringe on “Autumn”

sewing on the tags specific for this sale.

Tagging pieces for our local guild's Holiday Exhibition

Tagging pieces for our local guild’s Holiday Exhibition

I move pieces around from one venue to another to keep things fresh and interesting. These have to be retagged and noted in the inventory.

Sometimes I put something in the sale that I’ve had around for a while and now its time may be right, its color trending now more than when I made it. You never know when someone will come in looking for just that color or just that piece.

All these loose ends will eventually get tied down. One by one, I check them off my list, pack the pieces in a box, and hope for the best.

One more loose end I tied up recently was my plan to set up a Facebook page. I know I am late to the game on that one, but two weeks ago I finally launched the JeanWeaves page. There I can post quickly what is coming off the loom, what is available in my Etsy shop, and share other fiber arts links as I find them, while continuing to blog here.

So check out JeanWilliams.JeanWeaves on Facebook. And if you like what you find, follow the page for future updates.

As I’m working on all these loose ends, I contemplate—what’s next on the loom? What direction to I want to head in now? Stay tuned!

The Treasure of Winter Time

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by in Damask, Weaving Inspiration

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Snowfall in the trees

Snowfall in the trees

It’s a quiet time of year. The to-do lists of the holiday season are checked off and tossed away. The company has gone home. The decorations will soon be stowed for their annual hibernation.

This is the time of year when I try to clean up the studio and record the drafts I hurriedly tossed on the pile after the warps came off the loom, weigh cones of yarn and replenish supplies for upcoming projects, ponder what I might want to explore in the coming year.

This is the time of year when I delve into something I’ve been wanting to learn but haven’t had time yet. A couple years back, I spent a few mornings with guild friends learning to tat. There was the year I attended a Fiber Retreat to hone my spinning skills.

So what will I do with the treasure of winter 2017?

Green and White Damask Runner

Green and White Damask Runner

Photography is one of those things that I know I can improve on. I spend way too much time struggling with lighting and focus, and then trying to edit the photos into my vision of what they should be. So with a little time and a different camera, I will see what I can do about that. There will be a learning curve, of course. I don’t expect stunning results right off the bat, but I’m willing to work on it.

Same runner, different camera

Same runner, different camera

Then there’s damask. I do love the sheen of satin damask, but so far, I’ve only tried 5-thread satin damask and only at a very narrow range of setts. What about 6- or 8-thread satin? What about varying the sett? If the tie-downs in the satin are spaced wider, would the fabric have more sheen or just be sleazy? I have some warp on the big loom that waits for sampling.

Our guild presents a challenge each year as a way to push our creativity. This year, we visited a local museum and are to translate inspiration into fiber. Some years ago we had a museum challenge and I wove fabric in the colors of an iridescent vase on display. This year I’m considering something with varying blocks to imitate drape since several of the paintings showed lovely fabrics on the subjects. We’ll see how far I get with that!

Now is the time to explore, before spring comes with a garden to plant, before we travel to see kids and grandkids, before I buckle down to more production in preparation for the fall. Now time is a treasure not to be wasted.

How to you spend your winter treasure?

The Finish Line

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in creating, Weaving Inspiration

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I’ve noticed a trend in how winter unfolds in my studio. Through the course of the summer and fall, one warp after another dresses each loom and the hemming basket always has something in it. There’s always another project in the planning stages. November stands out on the calendar as a finish line of sorts; items have to be finished by then to be ready for holiday sales.

Kitchen Towel in Cotton and Linen

Kitchen Towel in Cotton and Linen

In the past, when I had an outside job, any items I wanted to put in our guild’s holiday sale had to be made over summer when I had shortened hours. If they weren’t finished by September, they weren’t going to be in the show. Now that I’m just in the studio, I can weave into October for that event, but I also have other venues to cover. Stocking up is the order of the season. I have to have enough inventory finished to get through the holidays.

However, by the third week of November, the pace changes.  The finish line approaches. The towels are hemmed. The scarves are fringed. The runners and napkins are pressed. And I have to admit that the unfinished items – and there are always some of those! – will have to wait patiently for another week. It’s at this point that my mind shifts to home and hearth.

Working at home gives the impression to most people that the line is blurred between home life and studio life, and to a certain degree that’s true. But in order to keep growing as a weaver, I have to discipline my time. My studio is “the office.” I go to the studio in the morning and work until lunch. I return in the afternoons and continue with whatever I was working on in the morning. With the occasional “let the dog in, let the dog out, let the dog in…”

By December, while I do spend time in the studio, I’m also making cookies, creating gifts, and planning menus. As I write, soup is simmering on the stove and bread is rising. In another week, grandkids will be running down the halls and pulling out the old toys.

I’m already pondering what will go on the looms in the coming year, what weave structure I want to learn more about, what market trends are emerging. Winter is a good time for reviewing the past year and looking forward to the next. More on that next time. For now, the holidays are just around the corner and there are things to be finished.

May your holidays be filled with grace, peace, and good times!

Production Weaving

26 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by in Planning, Weaving Inspiration

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There are some weaving terms that may mean different things to different people. I think “production weaving” falls into that category.

My Weaving Goal

My Weaving Goal

Sometimes production weaving means putting on long warps to maximize weaving versus set-up time. The longer the warp, the more you can weave before you have to rethread the loom. Other times, it means weaving A LOT of one type of thing. I have come to understand production weaving as weaving with an eye toward time and cost efficiency.

I have friends who put on long warps for towels and then challenge themselves to weave every towel differently. They change the treadling. They change the weft color. They change something in each towel so that they are all related, but different. That takes some planning, but once you get going, it’s exciting to see the warp growing like a flower bed of multi-colored zinnias. And when that warp comes off the loom, it’s fun to see how all the towels work together.

Related but different towels

Related but different towels

My mother once suggested that I weave one item in several different color choices like commercial stores offer. In a way, that’s what those long warps do. They produce several different towels, but all related. However, the difference between the handwoven and the commercial towels is the weaver has the freedom to make small changes in increments, whereas textile factories set up each loom to do one thing and one thing only. Small changes cannot be made without significant effort.

Sometimes I will weave related items as sets. I intentionally combine four different but related napkins in a set. Once I wove a long warp all of different napkins and sold them individually so people could choose what they liked. Some liked this freedom. Others wanted sets of identical items.

I am working on training myself to economize on my time: longer warps, tying on when I can instead of rethreading from scratch for every warp, weaving items in batches. But in the quest to become more efficient in my production, I don’t want to sacrifice the artistry that makes handweaving stand out over commercial fabric.

When you shop, do you like to see a set that has identical members, or do you like variety in your “sets”? Tell me what attracts you.