Optical Effects with Shadow Weave & Deflected Double Weave
Optical play is something that fascinates many people, focal lengths changing, first one area dominating and then, with the blinking of the eyes, areas swapping dominance or suddenly becoming visually three-dimensional! Shadow weave and deflected double weave are fascinating techniques in which to study these phenomena, and others. But how are the different aspects of shadow weave created? We will look at the two most widely used systems – Atwater and Powell – and dive deeper into understanding not only how to use those systems but then how you can take your shadow weave into deflected double weave to create even more wonderfully complex woven optical effects. From 4 – 24 shafts.
Woven Optical Illusions
Weavers have studied visual effects for many years. But this presentation takes the idea much further. Diving deep into the world of optical play to find the design nuggets that give the essence of the effect to translate successfully into the dimensionality of weaving, we explore illusory contours, invisible colours and shapes, interlacing effects of all shapes, sizes and weave structures, bulges, twisted cords, visual depth, skewed squares, and eye-popping images. Taken from familiar and less well-known sources, these fun effects appear in different weave structures and colour experiments, including multi-colour taqueté, Summer & Winter, Jin, Beiderwand, 4-colour double weave, deflected double weave, double weave, colour-and-weave, shadow weave, diversified plain weave, twills, plaited twills, supplementary warps and wefts.
Katharina Krönig and Stacey Harvey-Brown have been collaborating in exploring this wonderful world of illusions and visual illusions and perturbations in an ongoing book project. Both CW members, Katharina has designed textiles for industry for many years with a passion for optical intrigue and developing woven art and Stacey loves to explore diverse themes such as growth forms and optical effects, discovering the fascinating worlds and technical paths that these open up and developing artwork, books and teaching materials from her research.
