The Making of an Lf Scarf Run:
Step 4
Did I say it was time to weave? Oops, not yet! But this part is quite fun...it is
finally time to paint the warp. Now I know we just went through all that trouble to wind the warp up nice and tight, but we have to pull it out again. So why do it at all? Because without the tugging, banging, and winding, this highly unruly warp (just look at the last image of step 3), would never agree to what it will do after we have tamed it! Now it will lie flat, and cooperate as we paint. On to warp painting!
The set-up: the loom and a flat surface (courtesy of a card table, a stool and two phonebooks, and some extra thick mat board). My "Cloudy w/a Chance" paper cartoon (that's a technical term, folks) is laid out on my jimmy-rigged table, and thick plastic is taped over it to protect: 1. the drawing from pigment, and 2. the warp from sticking to the drawing (safety first, always!). The warp threads, which were up near the front beam of the loom, are attached to a cardboard tube in their correct and evenly-spaced 27" alignment. The warp is carefully pulled over the back beam, through the loom, and across the cartoon. No threads cross each other, or curl up...perfect angels!
Time to paint. That's my special, highly tested, super secret, ratio-perfected, patent-pending pigment mixture there. And my favorite paint brush.
You are looking at one whole and fully painted "Cloudy w/a Chance" scarf here. Well, technically half...once we add weft it will be whole. When the pigment dries, I will roll the painted warp up around the cardboard tube at the bottom of the picture, pull out a new section of warp, and start painting again. If you remember, I counted out enough warp for four scarves, so I will paint this four times before I wind the warp all the way back through the loom...this time to weave.
A new section of warp...this one is painted with a lovely deep peacock blue. Notice the black-painted warp, wound up at the bottom of the image. Cool, huh?
A detail of the blue-painted warp: I've been more loose with the pigment application on this one, over-saturating the threads and allowing the color to bleed. This effect is what I really love about warp painting. Much of my inspiration comes from a process called
Ikat...I'll get to that another day though. I think I've thrown enough techni-terms and fiber-geekery around for today, don't you?
You are looking at one whole and fully painted "Cloudy w/a Chance" scarf here. Well, technically half...once we add weft it will be whole. When the pigment dries, I will roll the painted warp up around the cardboard tube at the bottom of the picture, pull out a new section of warp, and start painting again. If you remember, I counted out enough warp for four scarves, so I will paint this four times before I wind the warp all the way back through the loom...this time to weave.
Yes, there is lots of fiber-geekery in this post. I just told Alex that your personal voice is conveyed so well in your blog. I can hear you explaining it all now as my eyes glaze over. Can't wait to see finished scarf...I love the process shots almost as much as before and after makeovers.
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