Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Plans for Inlay Weaving


Our community garden is in need of some flags. The entrance to the garden is off a busy road and the drive is just an access drive to a field. We would like to have some bright flags there to remind gardeners of the entrance, and to let other drivers know that there is a reason why people put their turn signals on at that point!


I have some BRIGHT yellow and pink-ish orange yarns that I thought would make a nice flag...the trick was figuring out how to make it look nice (as well as extremely visible!).

Swedish Weaving by Thelma M. Nye has instructions for a window blind (called "Sunsmoke" by Peter Condu) that caught my eye. The weaving is a tabby ground weave with the pattern/design thread laid in with the ground by hand.

Other references use cartoons or drawings to determine where to put the inlay and I've warped my rigid heddle loom to try it. I have the bright yellow as the background (warp & weft) with some green stripes and will try to inlay some tulips in the center. I'll use the bright pink-ish orange for the flower and two greens for the leaves. Wish me luck! This is new for me!

Here are some pictures of inlay work by others. Seeing their work gives me hope for my project!


This is a simple inlay done on a Weavette loom. It looks easy, right?
It was part of eLoomanator's Square Deal Weave-Along in 2008.










Here is one done with a "cartoon" to help create the inlay pattern. It's the Diaphanous Leaves scarf from Sally Orgren's WeaveZine article.









And this is the piece that sold me on trying this for my garden flags--Isn't this beautiful! It's by Lynette Glass. Here's the link to her website. Check out her gallery! She makes beautiful work!









And, last, but not least, LOOK! The knots at the end of my warp are visible! This is terribly terrific! How can I weave only 8" a day when the end is so near!!!!!!

Actually, my shoulder has been doing better and I have been getting 8-12" a day, but I am still being careful, and slow...and I just want to weave and weave and get this done, but I don't want to be in pain, so I'll take it slow.

1 comment:

Delighted Hands said...

The flags are a great idea-will be waiting to see how they turn out. Thanks for the weaving advice-I will try that with this towel and see if it removes those marks. I add paper to the back beam and never thought about adding it to the front-great idea. I appreciate the advice!