Textile Art with Japonese influence – This is Alberto´s second ever weave course – and the first time he´s ever used an 8 shaft loom. Professional weaver and course teacher Anna Champeney encouraged him to go with his instinct and design this wall-piece, based on the original sampler he wove the day before in this 5-day intensive weave course for beginners and intermediate level weavers.
You might think the piece is structurally complicated. But it isn´t! The actual pattern doesn´t actually change at all from start to finish. Changes in yarn, colour and chiefly the way the weaver beats in each row of weaving lie at the heart of the design. Albert was really pleased he´d tackled this piece and is proud to hang it on the wall of his house when he gets home after the course.
Most weave courses for beginners show you how to prepare a loom and weave differnet “patterns”. But as an experienced and accomplished weaver herself, as well as a weave teacher, Anna believes in introducing beginners to the different elements behind textile design on the loom as well so they can incorporate these into their final projects in some way and personalise them, regardless of whether pupils have previous experience or not.
Weaving and classic gaming – Here´s another Japonese influence but of a completely different character. Pupil Gonzalo, intermediate level student, decided to take Pac-man, the classic video game launched in Japan in 1980, and weave it using the ancient Spanish felpa loop-weaving technique. Course leaderAnna Champeney has specialised in the technique since around 2003 and was able to introduce Gonzalo to some of the different variations and ways of weaving felpa and designing using colour.
Gonzalo then adapted the Pac-man characters, designing the weave pattern on squared paper. He now plans to work on a large-scale version later on in the year on the Louet table loom he has at home. A lot of fun!
Craft and Interior Design – Sandra brought her area of expertise as a trained interior designer to this, her first ever weave course. The chance to weave on a loom is a dream come true for Sandra and she took to weaving like a fish to water. Again, encouraged by Anna to weave a sampler piece as a basis for working on a final design, Sandra developed this cushion design using linen and natural-dyed woollen yarns.
She has combined different patterns with manual techniques to vary the density of the fabric to alternate between opaque patterned sections and plainer, more transparent sections.
The result, classic and refined, would look great in a modern flat or in a traditional cottage or manor house.
Above photo: Anna shows the group how to repair threads when they break on the loom. “If no-one breaks a thread during the course I´ll have to break one on purpose” she´d joked. But just when she thought she´d have to do so Sandra provide the opportunity. When just 5cms from the end of finishing her cushion Sandra found that in her enthusiasm to finish the piece she´d broken two edge threads – the perfect opportunity for Anna to teach the weavers´ knot.
Below photo: The threads repaired, the group encourages Sandra to finish her cushion cover
!Well done everybody!
If you´d like to learn to weave your own fabrics on one of textilesnaturales´ courses taught by experienced weaver Anna Champeney in idyllic northwest Spain contact us for more information.
Conceptual Art meets Galician folk craft in these images.
