Complex Weavers' Showcase 2006

To see the items showcased in 2006, scroll down
To see the items showcased in 2009, click Showcase 2009
To see the items showcased in 2008,click Showcase 2008
To see the items showcased in 2007, click Showcase 2007
To see the items showcased in 2005, click Showcase 2005
To see the items showcased in 2004, click Showcase 2004
To see the items showcased in 2003, click Showcase 2003
To see the items showcased in 2002, click Showcase 2002

"Christmas Cheer" by Barbara Nelson

This month we showcase Barbara Nelson's "Christmas Cheer"

Barbara writes: "My 'Christmas Cheer' hand towels were woven as gifts this past holiday for family, friends and business associates. I was excited about this project because I put on my longest warp ever using my new sectional beam and AVL warping wheel. I wound on a 48-yard warp that was 24-inches wide and used 10/2 mercerized white cotton. I never tired of weaving these towels because I loved my 14-harness twill which used 10/2 red and green 10/2 mercerized cotton weft. This was also my first opportunity to use a temple that a friend of mine said I would love to hate. She was right. I hated how often I had to move the temple but loved the results of my even selvages."

This work won the CW award at Dallas Handweaver and Spinners Guild, "Sleight of Hand"
Dallas Public Library, Dallas, TX, April 15- May 30 2006

Used by permission.
This is the fifty-fifth item in our showcase of what members are working on.

"Lee's Surrender" by Bud Frohn

This month we showcase Bud Frohn's "Lee's Surrender"

Bud writes: "I had seen pictures of this coverlet and thought it was beautiful - and it is."
The draft is a modification of that in Marguerite Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book, by doubling the Blooming Leaf side borders. The warp yarn was 20/2 cotton, sett at 30 epi. The tabby weft was also 20/2 cotton, while the pattern weft was a 2 ply wool.

This work won the CW award at "Fibers Through Time 2006", Sponsored by Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds, Inc. March 16-19, 2006

Used by permission.
This is the fifty-fourth item in our showcase of what members are working on.

"Birds Awakening at Dawn" by Inge Dam

This month we showcase Inge Dam's knee-length coat with tablet-woven bands. This coat won the Complex Weavers Award at "Make a Grand Entrance," HGA/Convergence Fashion Show, Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 29, 2006. Click here for a detail of the cloth with the bands.

Inge writes:"...Origin of Draft for main fabric : I used Fibreworks PCW and inserted my husband's name into Namedraft. Then I converted the draft that I got using Block Substitute 'Broken Twill on Weft Twill,' and the result was the weave structure that I used.

"Origin of Draft for tablet woven bands: The weave structure was pebble weave with tablets. I designed the birds using Pattern Maker for cross stitch. Some of the birds were based on birds in 'The Unknown Tablet Weaving,' by Marijke Van Epen.

"The entry was a red and purple knee length coat with four yellow and purple tablet woven bands. The main fabric was woven in a 16-shaft original pattern and the bands were woven in pebble weave with tablets. The main fabric and the bands were woven simultaneously on my 32 shaft Louet Megado loom. The fabric warp was wound on one warp beam and the warps for the tablet bands on a second warp beam. Because the take-up of the two types of warps is different, they can't be on the same warp beam. One weft was used to weave the fabric. The fabric was hand washed, dried flat and steam pressed. The coat was made using a Vogue pattern altered to my needs. The lining was silk dyed with Procion MX dyes and I used Dupioni silk for the collar and cuffs."

"Threads used for warp for main fabric: 20/2 silk, painted with Procion MX dyes
Threads for tablet bands: 10/2 mercerized cotton Threads used for weft: 10/2 mercerized cotton, purple
Sett for main fabric: 28 epi
Sett for tablet bands: 78 epi
Reed used: 8 dent reed

Used by permission.
This is the fifty-third item in our showcase of what members are working on.

Bedford Cloth by Sue Mansfield

This month we showcase Sue Mansfield's "Bedford Cord Vest".

Sue wove this fabric for Beyond Plain Weave Garments Study Group Complex Weavers Study Group: Beyond Plain Weave Garments
Shown here is a sample of the fabric she wove for the vest.

Sue writes, "I was inspired by Mimi Smith's Bedford Cord seminar at MAFA 2005. Several of her samples used wool. I took a chance and used a slippery yarn, 8/2 tencel for the main fabric with accent stripes of variegated color silk boucle and red-violet bamboo; months before I purchased both accent yarns at the Yarn Tree in Brooklyn, NY . Since the exotic yarns were limited in length and bulkier, I had to design to accommodate that and use them just as accents. It was my original ten shaft design using Fiberworks PCW. (I calculated the length needed for the accent stripes and compared to what I had.) I didn't feel that cord stuffing was necessary, so I omitted it.

"The pattern I used, Simplicity 8744, was supposed to be a one hour project, but as you probably know they leave out custom details. I hand stitched the edgestitching of the lining. ... The fusible nylon knit interfacing covers the top yoke area and all edges. I did several small samples for interfacing the fabric washed and unwashed to see which way would show off the cords the best and how it faired if unwashed, then interfaced and washed. It would have much too stiff with the entire garment interfaced. I decided to wash the yardage first, then interface. I also pieced magenta and green= green and light magenta and blue=purple iridescent silk for the lining. (These fat quarters came from the Mekong River Textiles, a vendor at MAFA.) The vest was sewn and then turned inside-out. I slip-stitched the opening shut. The vest was completed in October 2005; the uninterfaced area hasn't snagged or sagged."

10 shaft Bedford cord
Warp mixture of tencel, silk boucle, bamboo.
Weft, tencel

Used by permission.
This is the fifty-second item in our showcase of what members are working on.

Bateman Blend adaptation by Marlene Golden

This month we showcase Marlene Golden's "Bateman Blend Adaptation".

Marlene wove this fabric for Beyond Plain Weave Garments Study Group Complex Weavers Study Group: Beyond Plain Weave Garments
She writes "This is an adaption of Bateman Blend: Draft 315, sample 315-4, page 103 of Bateman Blend book.
I turned the draft and then expanded the threading so each block contains three repeats of the threading instead of the two repeats in the original.
"The fabric was hand washed and dried in the dryer. A jacket was made using a Loes Hinse pattern, Piazza Jacket.
"Warp made up of a stripe repeat of beige rayon slub, beige rayon, rust tencel, white/beige cotton/linen and blue cotton.
Weft: Blue Rayon Boucle (one shuttle weave!)
Sett/Warp: 24 e.pi sleyed 2/dent 12 dent reed "

A little birdie told us that Marlene was trying to use up her stash!
Used by permission.
This is the fifty-first item in our showcase of what members are working on.

Alchemy by Paul O'Connor

This month we showcase Paul O'Connor's "Alchemy".

One of the highlights of the recent Seminars at Hope College in Holland, MI, was the keynote address by Paul O'Connor, which was a retrospective of his work. This work is variously titled "Alchemy" (since these are the four elements of the alchemists) or "Angels and Demons" (after the Dan Brown book of the same title). Paul writes that the original design was developed by John Langdon.The design, originally done in 2004, is highlighted with beads. The design features ambigrams, which are words which read the same upside down. The right half of the picture here is the left half rotated 180°, that is, turned upside down. Notice that each word is the same. This is NOT the back side of the piece.

Used by permission.
This is the fiftieth item in our showcase of what members are working on.

Tencel Town by K C Alexander

This month we showcase K C Alexander's "Tencel Town". She writes:

I had never woven with Tencel, and thought I would use the fiber I dyed in a workshop a couple of months earlier. I had also just started exploring rep weave as a wearable fabric as opposed to the heavier wall hangings or table mats one usually sees in rep. So, I combined the two. It was an experiment that produced a nicely draping, sexy feeling fabric that I thought would look nice as a summer blouse (or, as one of the judges suggested, a summer jacket). The shiny, silky feeling of the fabric felt like something that a Hollywood star would wear hence the take-off name Tencel Town. I didn't have enough hand-dyed yarn to make the piece wide enough, so I made up the difference with purple sage. The design goals were to have a small enough pattern to fit on a small garment, but large enough to not "get lost" in the fabric. I didn't even expect the piece to be accepted into the show, never mind win a ribbon, because I wasn't sure if there was a category in which it would fit. I'm glad I entered it!

Fiber: Tencel and sewing thread
Color: Hand-dyed Indigo; Space-dyed multi purples/blues; Purple Sage
Harnesses: 8
Blocks: 4
Structure: Rep Weave
Sett/Warp: 24 epi; 24" wide x 3 yds long

This piece won the Complex Weavers' Award at the Handweavers Guild of Connecticut "Weaving at the River"
New Haven, CT, April 9-30, 2005 Used by permission.
This is the forty-ninth item in our showcase of what members are working on.

Bowlor Hat by Peter Collingwood

This month we showcase Peter Collingwood's "Bowlor Hat". Peter writes:

This was first conceived as four-footed bowl but some prefer the look when it is turned over to make a strange hat, hence the name. The work began with making the bowl's feet. All the cords were constructed from goat hair (dyed by Ann Norman). Each consisted of four S-twist 2-plies twisted together to make a Z-twist 4- ply cord. As with almost all ply-splitting, the cord-making has to be done by the worker himself, using a single hook twister and then folding the result in four; or using one of the clever four-hook twisters, either hand or electrically driven...

For more information on Ply-Split Braiding and the construction of the Bowlor Hat, see Complex Weavers Journal # 79, October, 2005, page 17.
Used by permission.
This is the forty-eighth item in our showcase of what members are working on.

Kokopelli by Cynthia Broughton

This month we showcase Cynthia Broughton's "Kokopelli". Cynthia writes:

The primary object of this sample was to see if I could create a fabric with a distinct image and a fainter background image in a tied weave. The two images I wanted to display were a Kokopelli and a plaited twill I designed years ago. Color contrast, or lack of contrast were important considerations in creating the look I wanted. There were numerous problems; the first was the lack of updated software. Other images were samples on the AVL WDL since there was a leftover warp from a workshop and the final product needed more than 24 shafts. Since I was trying to create two tied weave images the first attempt used the primary image with the weft and the secondary image with a color change in the warp to reduce the number of shuttles needed. This was unsuccessful. The second attempt was to thread tie, image 1, tie, image 2 and weave with tie, image 1 tie, image 2. This was also unsuccessful. If there is too much color or value contrast between the primary and secondary images the total effect is very visually confusing. The final draft uses 4 ties in twill order giving an obvious twill line to the fabric. That order could also be changed to a broken twill eliminating the twill line, but that was not sampled. The threading was then, tie, pattern 1, pattern 2. The patterns were isolated on their own shafts. The Kokopelli was threaded on shafts five through thirty and the plaited twill, which is a two tie draft, was threaded on shafts thirty-one through forty. Threading was easy since one pattern was a straight draw and the other also simple.

Weaving with three shuttles was not much more difficult than weaving with two and any mistakes were immediately visible.. In case of doubt it was easy to see which set of shafts was lifted. One fortunate circumstance is that the pattern weft yarns chosen because of their colors were about half the size of the warp yarns and the pattern was not elongated. All in all, I am not sure the effect is worth the trouble to do again, but at least now I know it can be done. How about three images?
Loom: 30" AVL 40
Design software: Fiberworks 4.1
Weaving software: WeavePoint
Warp: 60/2 silk in 2 close colors of blue, threaded randomly
Tabby weft: 60/2 silk in blue matching one of the warp colors
Pattern weft 1 (Kokopelli): doup silk, finer than the tabby, turquoise
Pattern weft 2 (plaited twill): doup silk, finer than tabby, green
Reed: 20 dent, three per dent
PPI: about 90

For more information on tied weaves, visit Complex Weavers Study Group: Tied Weaves
Used by permission.
This is the forty-seventh item in our showcase of what members are working on.

Jeté Jardin D'Eau by Nicole Grenon

The Complex Weavers Award was given to Nicole Grenon's work in general at Association des Tisserands du Québec (ATQ) Conference St-Léonard-de-Portneuf, Québec, Canada, May 27-29, 2005. She exhibited many scarves and afghans with images in summer and winter, turned summer and winter and diversified plain weave.

We have chosen one of them, Jeté Jardin D'Eau to showcase this month.
Used by permission.
This is the forty-sixth item in our showcase of what members are working on.

The CW Award ribbons

Over the years, many expert weavers have woven and contributed streamers for the Complex Weavers Award which is given by prearrangement at juried shows. See Complex Weavers Awards Page, which has larger pictures of many of them. Some of the shows are listed at Complex Weavers Calendar of Events.

Several of the ribbons used in the last several years are shown surrounding the central medallion of the Award ribbon.
Used by permission.
This is the forty-fifth item in our showcase of what members are working on.

Stacey Harvey-Brown's work in Florence, Italy

Stacey Harvey-Brown moved an orphaned Jacquard loom into her workshop. See pictures of the move at Complex Weavers Journal # 79 Color Pictures and read all about it in Complex Weavers Journal # 79, October 2005, pages 10-13

Stacey was able to get three grants to go to the Lisio Foundation in Florence, Italy. There she learned many details about the operation and troubleshooting of a Jacquard loom. She made many samples there. "Cobwebs" is shown here
Used by permission.
This is the forty-fourth item in our showcase of what members are working on.