First Ikat Yardage

PROJECT 1.7: Weaving!

Finally!  My suspicions about shifting are proving true, but my conviction that this would look great even with a lot of shifting is also holding true.  Time to weave 15 yards of ikat!

The first six inches of weaving.  

I am experimenting a bit to see how the cloth changes when I weave with a black weft versus a white weft.  I am also considering overdying some of this later.

About seven yards into the cloth.  I am very interested in how the shifting is happening.  It seems that areas that were bundled together in the dye bath are remaining together, but shifting relative to their neighboring bundles.  A few individual threads have shifted considerably within their bundles.  I'm not sure if this is from warping tension, or from winding tension.  I am looking forward to laying this whole cloth out, and examining the story it tells from start to finish...

A detail.  Those individual tiny white blips are giving me ideas for an ikat-based artwork.

PROJECT 1.6: Winding On

So I've got 25 little bundles, each over 15 yards long.  This could get messy...I think next time I'm going to do some organization before I get these over to the loom...

I've incorporated a few last minute additions of white (see the cones), and done a little shifting in the placement of some threads.  This looks like chaos, but all is calm where the first white marks are about to travel through the loom.

This bar and nail set-up is half of the pair I used to hold the warp while I tied my bundles.  Now, it's providing an anchor and some tension as I align my pattern and tie my warp to the back bar.

Untying all those little counting bundles as the warp makes its way slowly but surely through the loom.  I'm noticing shifting, but I can't tell if it's from my tension as I wind, or the lack of tension on the warp when I applied the pattern, or any number of other variables.  I can say that the shifting is happening from one 1" bundle to the next, not within the bundle, so that's a good sign for my tension in winding the warp.  Well, whatever it's doing, it is looking gorgeous.  This warp is taking me all day to wind.

Project 1.4: Unbinding

I can see through the binding materials that different amounts of dye have seeped into the resisted areas, depending upon how tightly I bound them.  The question is, how deep is the seepage?

The first parts I unwrapped were the tail ends of each section, which were bound together with a few twists of cotton.  The line they make will be my marker to align the entire 15-yard warp once it's on the loom.  Theoretically, of course.  I thought I was in love when I dropped this warp in the dyebath.  That was nothing compared to this lovely little line!

Interesting discoveries as I unwrap.  I wonder what this will become on the loom?

Working my way down the warp.

PROJECT 1.3: The Dyebath

I could tell when I put my warp into a hot water bath to scour before dyeing, that water was getting under my bundles.  But this is what I like about trying something new with no purpose in mind but to see how it goes, and what happens...there's no pressure, and I often end up making new discoveries.  So on to the dye bath!

Now this is so cool.  I think I'm going to like making ikat.  Binding took a long time (and I know that once I am making finer patterns it will take even longer), but I am already thinking it was worth it.  Falling in love.

The warp makes it out of the dye bath with resists, despite my slack binding.  There appears to be varying levels of seepage under the bindings, but that might just be the outer layer of threads.  Also, one thing I thought would happen didn't: I thought the areas between where I bound two sections close together would resist a bit, just because the threads wouldn't have much room to move around and the dye wouldn't be able to penetrate fully.  This didn't happen at all!

I can't wait to get the plastic wrap off the bound areas and see what's really underneath.

PROJECT 1.2: Binding the Warp

Well, as I suspected my little bundles have shifted up to 1/2" away from their original straight line.  No big deal, this just means that I can't rely on the tension coming off the warping board when I'm marking out a design to bind on the warp.  I'm not really sure how to lay out my warp to bind it:  I'm going to make it up as I go, I suppose.  My original thought was to lay the warp out under tension, but I don't trust myself to create even tension.  So I am going to try laying out the warp under very little tension, and we will just see what happens.  I think the design I am going for will be interesting even if it shifts a lot.

The tail ends of each 1" wide, 15 yard-long bundle.  I am going to tie all these together before the warp is dyed.  Hopefully this will be my marker to realign the warp once I tie it onto the loom.

Starting my binding pattern, binding different quantities of thread.  The smallest bundles are 1", and the largest covers 7".  And don't forget that spaced throughout the warp are those little measuring bundles around every 24 threads that I tied on the warping board.  I want to see how the line quality is effected by the different quantity of thread in the bundles.

The warp is fully bound and I have removed the boards and nails that were keeping everything under light tension.  The binding was done with plastic wrap and cotton thread, and not overly tight.  I'm wondering how much dye will get under the bound areas, and also if any unbound areas will end up resisting as well.

PROJECT 1.1: Warping

I am setting up a 25" wide warp, at 24 epi, for a total of 600 ends.  The drawing on the table is the binding pattern I have developed for this test (see the Sketchbook for a closer look.)

To check on my warping tension, I am marking bundles of 24 (1" of warp) every 65" along the length of the warp.  When I take this off the warping board, I will be able to see how much shifting occurs between the marked points.  This will also be an interesting marker once the warp is dyed and ready for weaving.

PROJECT 1: An Ambitious Introduction

I know theoretically how ikat is made.  I have seen many artists use it on a small to medium scale, or use it to create a single large pattern or image.  I am not interested in creating a single piece of ikat, but a repeat pattern on yardage...which I will then do...who knows what(!)...with.  Therefore my very first foray into warp ikat will be 15 yards long.  The goal of this first "sample" will be to discover how my tension and the amount of threads bound together will affect the consistency of a simple collection of stripes over approximately 8 repeats.  Hopefully, whatever happens, the resulting cloth will be dynamic.

TENSION.

A tension device for warping

I have an interesting relationship with this highly important weaving variable.  I'm sure all weavers do.  Since I started my small handwoven scarf business, I purchased a warping paddle, and have through trial and error been learning how to best use it.  My biggest problem has been a high variance of tension between the 6-10 warp threads I would warp together.  I would usually fix this on the loom, but when I am attempting to create an ikat pattern before the warp gets to the loom, this becomes a big concern.  My first order of business has been to create a little tension device to help regulate the warp threads as I warp.  We will see how it goes.

My warping system (it's mobile!): I use an easel to hold my warping board, and over time it has gained more and more attachments.  An old reed keeps the threads from tangling as they come off each cone, then they travel up through the warping device together, and through the paddle.  The objective is a nice, smooth bunch of threads.

Ikat Aesthetic

In graduate school I began investigating warp painting.  It intrigued me for many reasons: in weaving cloth through a painted warp, I was literally submerging my imagery into the woven structure.  Warp painting allowed me to play with my image by manipulating tension and moving individual threads within the warp, and with the quality of the edges of the image.  I soon recognized my fascination with this edge quality as being influenced by my exposure to and admiration of the ikat technique.  Looking back at my work from 2008 until now, I can trace the evolution of my edges and my growing involvement with the aesthetics of ikat fabric:

Quietly, Quietly 2008

Holding In 2009

From Here 2009

The Weaver's Bench (l), Shift (r), Thesis 2010

Details of The Weaver's Bench (l) and Shift (r)

Comfort 2010

Body Blot #1 2011