At the end of a workshop in a primary school a Year 3 girl said to me "This has been the best morning of my life.". I am delighted by the enthusiasm of children for weaving (boys as much as girls). I have also had the pleasure of teaching some very enthusiastic adults.
The craft of weaving is fascinating because there are. almost endless ways that the craft can be developed .I started by weaving rugs and cushions. Recently, I have mainly woven scarves, wraps and pictures. However, I have just woven a rug for a friend and plan to weave some samples so I can weave more on commission
I use a lot of silk in my weaving and I offer a talk on "Silk - from Cocoon to scarf".
I weave scarves and wraps in silk and other luxury yarns. I dye quite a lot of the yarn so each scarf is unique
When I started weaving I enjoyed experimenting with patterns but since I started randomly dyeing my warps I have used a lot of plain weave so as not to distract from the variations in colour
Having done at course at the Devon Weavers Workshop in May 2009 on "Advance" I have gone back to experimenting with patterns. The picture below shows a scarf on the loom using the warp which I also used for sampling at the workshop. The warp is lambs-wool and having experimented with weft yarns I have decided to use silk for the weft
On
the loom
A scarf in advancing overshot on my eight shaft loom. The warp is lambswool and the weft is silk
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A twill rug on my floor loom which I wove for a friend
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A waffle weave scarf I found it so soft and warm that I decided to keep it. I have others available for sale |
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I
wove this wrap for one of my nieces' birthday. I made some ties on the silk
warp and dyed it blue. I then added some pink dye and wrapped the scarf in
cling film and heated in a water bath. I used an overshot threading so I
could weave the white bands of pattern.
The wrap
above was woven on the same warp,
I had left sections out of the blue dye bath and then dyed them
red. I used two threads of
black cashmere silk and two of navy silk for the weft. Again I did bands
of overshot but it is more subtle as I used the same yarn for the pattern
and the plain weave |
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My
first piece of weaving on my new Ashford 8 shaft loom. The warp is silk
noil dyed with indigo and brazilwood. The weft is a commercially dyed wool
and alpaca blend. It is woven on an advancing point twill threading The
scarf beside it was woven on a similar threading. The warp is silk noil
dyed with brazilwood and the weft is wool. It is very comfortable to wear |
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This
picture is based on a picture in Sue Lewington’s Scilly notes. Shortly
after leaving it at North Farm Gallery on St Martins I took the picture
below of the same view. |
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I wove these cushion covers for a neighbour.
The warp was dyed using the dip Ikat method which
I use for a lot of my scarves. It was woven on an eight shaft loom
using an advancing point twill threading. The warp is made up of 4 strands
of yarn including silk, cashmere and alpaca. The weft is silk and alpaca I have also woven a scarf on
the same warp using turquoise and purple sections |
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When I asked my eldest niece what she would like for her Birthday, She asked
how wide could I weave. I had recently been experimenting with double
weave and so I wove this blanket for her on my 4 shaft floor loom. On the
loom it was 30 in wide but it opened to 60 in, I made it about 70 in long.
There is enough left over for a cushion cover. The warp is double knitting wool and the weft is 4 strands of yarn
including silk, cashmere and alpaca. Again I ikat dyed the warp. The
stripes in the weft are more subtle. |
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have been weavings scenes using hand-spun silk and wool inlaid on linen for
several years
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Some of my scenes are for sale at North Farm Gallery in the Isles of Scilly
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I have also been weaving pictures using weft faced weave which is normally used for tapestries This
picture is based on photos from near East Hendred in Autumn 2014. The weft
includes wool dyed with indigo and dahlias
Indigo dyed yarns are also excellent for stormy seas |
Contact Angela Pawlyn 01235 833361
