Dye, meet thread. And my elbow. And my left cheek. Oh, boy. Painting threads with my chosen dye color mixtures, I will follow the pattern laid out underneath my warp to transfer an image that started out as a small sketch, grew to a full-scale cartoon, and will end as a soft and supple textile with a life of its own. This process will happen six times as I complete one image, let it dry, pull out more warp, and start again.
Hi, I am a fiber art student at Colorado State University. I am wondering if you can answer a question I have about your process. I usually cold batch my warp in a bag which works great for abstract but not so good for a precise design. How do you process after painting the warp?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sima
Hi Sima, thanks for your question. I let my warp dry as it is on the loom, and once all my painting is done I just take it off and rinse it (forever and ever). The key is keeping the threads in their proper place the entire time, which is why I do my painting on the loom, actually pulling the whole warp through the loom then weaving a header (which becomes my cross the second time the warp goes onto the loom). Even with careful attention to tension as I pull the warp back out and paint it, I cannot avoid a fair amount of shifting. This is with a 16 yard warp, though, so if you are doing smaller warps you may have better luck the whole way through your warp. Good luck to you!
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