What Does "Complex" Mean to You?
Some members offered their thoughts:
- As I said at the CW open meeting at Convergence[2002], if you work on more than two shafts, Complex Weavers has something to offer you and you have something to offer CW. - Marjie Thompson
- CW is not for "harnesses", it is for people who are intrigued with the question "What if...?" - Nadine Purcell
- Challenge - Laurie Autio
- "Complex" is anything you don't understand. Join Complex Weavers and you'll soon understand a lot about weave structures! - Paul O'Connor
- One of my interpretations of Complex Weaving is that complex interlacements can be done even on two shaft looms and certainly on four. Complex doesn't stand for or mean more than four shafts or computer looms. One doesn't need computers to design although they make work a lot easier. It's ones brain, heart, and hands that do the creating. The challenge is to make whatever tools we use do whatever designs and projects we want and to use those tools in an optimum manner to be creative. - Ladella Williams
- Complex Weavers is as simple or complex as you want to make it for yourself. It's anything beyond plain weave. - Lillian Whipple
- Complex Weavers seek
to satisfy the curiosity of a special kind
of weaver, and it does not matter how many or how few harnesses the
weaver uses. The special kind of weaver
- Wants to understand weaving structures.
- Wants to manipulate structures to get a desired result.
- Wants to play with structures to see what new and interesting results will appear.
- I think Jo Anne's description is very snappy just as it is. I think the words about "does not matter how many or how few harnesses..." are very apt. Note: many of the study groups involve no shafts at all! - Shirley Berlin
- ...Discovery, support and sharing... - Su Butler
- Complex Weavers is not necessarily about "complex" weaving. Rather, it offers members the ability to further study specific weaving topics at their own pace in a non-competitive and supportive environment through the study groups. Because many members have more than 4 shafts, study group members have the ability to ask questions and explore structure and patterning that require more shafts and receive answers based on other's actual experience however many shafts are involved. - Nancy M McKenna
- Inspiration, satisfaction, and exhilaration - Anita Bell
- Complex weaving is about the ongoing pursuit of considering the infinite possibilities when crossing two threads. It transcends the number of shafts on a loom or the spectrum of hues on a color wheel since it is only our imagination that limits a weaver. - Robyn Spady
- ...it only takes that "first step" of getting involved with CW, that one finds a wealth of information, friendly resources and unlimited opportunities to learn, regardless of the equipment one has available to use. I have purposely stayed with 8 or fewer shafts and find great satisfaction in achieving a cloth that at first look, one might have said no way that's only 4 shafts. As said by others, CW helps to keep alive the "What If...train of thought."... - Leslie Killeen
- ...Curiosity. And new friends. - Judie Eatough
- I have only one tool that is essential when I do complex weaving. It isn't one of my looms, my computer drafting program, or even my graph paper; it's my brain. I've re-discovered the wheel with great delight a number of times. I've had plenty of failures, both from going too far, and not going far enough. No matter the outcome, when I have learned something in the process, pushed my limits, or put something together in a new (to me at least!) way, then I have been richly rewarded. Complex Weavers offers me the chance to share that journey, and I am grateful. - Laurie Autio
- "Complex. The word can be scary. Many weavers shy away from weaving when associated with this word. Why? In weaving, complex does not have to be defined as difficult. I consider complexity better defined as a degree of depth as opposed to a degree of difficulty." - Su Butler, Understanding Rayon Chenille. Butlerdidit! Press, Woodstock, IL (2002); p 73.
For more information, see Complex Weavers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Update: April 14, 2010