Thursday, February 27, 2014

Weaving Hale Akala

When we agree to weave a custom wrap, we work closely with our client(s) to create a wrap from a photo or painting or idea they want to see in cloth.  We have been working with a mama in Hawaii and she chose these two inspiration photos

This is a photo of the Hawaiian sunrise.  It's a favorite from our client and she wanted us to use the color scheme in this photo along with...








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This one which is from a painting she purchased while in Africa.  The first mock up expressed what Janet saw when combining the two photos. The mama indicated she wanted a graduated color scheme using yellow, pink, salmon and purple.  So, Janet did another mock up which our customer liked and we wound the warp.

Last week, I showed a short video of threading the loom with the warp our client named Hale Akala( house of the sun in Hawaiian).

This week I have a video of the first foot of weaving I have completed using a light gray weft.  Prior to beginning the weaving, I sampled 6 different weft colors including natural, black, light and dark gray.  Our customer chose the one she liked best and off we go.

The first wrap to be woven is the custom wrap which is 4.6 meters long.  I plan to weave 182 inches which will allow for take up in the weaving and shrinkage after wet finishing.  I checked my calculations by measuring the sample off the loom before and after wet finishing and found I needed to beat less firmly.  My ppi (picks per inch) were greater than my epi (ends per inch).  Plain weave structure requires an equal number of each or the web or cloth will be either weft or warp faced if you  have too few or too many picks.

Here's the video:
I'll be back with the middle marker early next week.  Back to the loom for now!

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