We Are Talking Way Too Pink Here

Projects start in your head and end up in your hands.  I just finished my entry for the Marin County Fair.  It is a saddle pad, more accurately, a liner between the cushy pad and the horse that can be washed easily and kept clean and dry.  Clean in horse terms is relative.  Less that caked visible dirt is clean.  On the other hand, keeping the saddle area as clean as possible reduces any chance of abrasion injury.

At the last Tamalpais Textile Arts Guild meeting, weaver and artist Sheila O'Hara shared her body of work.  A double faced twill caught my eye.  She graciously shared the draft from a magazine article she wrote.  She used bright, really bright, colors.  "Go out in the garden., look around, see what mother nature uses, don't be afraid!"  Or something like that.  So, my lupines were in bloom, Some native roses and guava blossoms caught my eye.  I generally drift towards a more neutral palate, grey, taupe, ecru, white, black, maybe an earthy olive thrown in.  But echoing in my head was advice from friends, use color for once.  Fuchsia and lime green, what was I thinking?  Hallucinations in technicolor.

Now to the technical part.  1296 ends, that is threads in the loom before I even start weaving.  Why 1296?  because I wanted the fabric hefty, so that is 36 ends per inch x 36 inches before wash/dry shrinking it down to 31 inches.  And 1296=18x72 (72 ends per 2 inch sections of the sectional beam)=8x162 (8 ends groups in the double faced twill threading).  I graded the colors to look like three dimensional bands, with 7 color changes, off set as if the light was shining slightly off from one side.  Then every single ends had to be sleyed into one and only one heddle, 3 per dent in the reed, tensioned, and finally weaving could begin.  But what if I didn't like it after all that?  Too bad, complete the project and move on.   

So move on I did, every night throwing the shuttle and adjusting the selvage so the judge would not have to point out any technical shortcomings.  Not that I am sensitive or anything.  Cut off the loom, zigzag the hems for security, wash and dry to integrate the fibers, and take a look.  From 20 feet away, pretty cool looking.  But form up close, it literally makes you dizzy!  Designing functional fabric is harder than it looks.  On to the the next project.  Hope Princess look pretty in Pink.