For this workshop we were also asked to weave using mixed media.
I love weaving, I think it’s really fun and I love the different combinations and techniques you can do to make something unique.
For this task I decided to experiment a while lot of different materials and techniques I’m unfamiliar with. It was very fun and exciting, I spent way too much time on this one.
The orange I used here is a little bit off from the orange I had in my mood board, I didn’t have any other orange so I hope that’s okay.
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First weave!
For my first weave I wanted to make something simple using an alternative material.
I did have yarn at home, but I also had strips of felt in the colours from my mood board. So I made a very simple weave using that.
I started off with making a board that could hold the thread for me to weave with. and from there I stated building the weave bottom to top!
I don’t have much to say about this one since it’s a type of weave I’ve done before, it was very easy as well because it’s size and it’s simplicity.
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My second weave!
My second weave is not very impressing and the images are not extremely flattering. I see this piece more of a test weave to try this technique out I saw to give my pieces a second type of weave. I’m only familiar with the most common type of weave. With this one I started weaving from the middle.
I had a lot of fun making this one, I wish I did save it so I could take a better picture because it looks very nice.
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Third and Fourth weave!
So the third and the fourth weave is a Christmas decoration we made in Scandinavia every year. We are taught how to make them when we’re young. I got the idea to make them when I was out shopping with my friend and we went to the danish store Søstrene Grene, where they sold these Christmas hearts. I thought it was a waste of money because you can just make them yourself, and it hit me. These are not regular decorations here.
The felt heart!
I started off by folding the fabric in half making this shape. Making sure the pieces were equally as big.
I did a mistake here, making them too short. I didn’t use a template or did any calculations for this what so ever. So it doesn’t look ideal.
Here is the finished piece! It doesn’t look ideal but I’m very happy with it. I have never done it with that many square, since you usually go with 3×3 instead of 6×6.
The paper heart!
Same as the felt heart I had two equal pieces, and for this one, I didn’t make any measurements either. So it turned out quite chubby, but cute!
I started off the same with the paper ones as I did for the felt one, but I have 3 flaps instead of 6, which made the paper one much easier.
Here is the finished paper one! He was quite chubby but I’m happy with it.
Paper is not as easy to work with when you do these weaved hearts. Since the material is not as flexible as felt.
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The fifth weave!
This was the most complicated one I made, since I made it extremely dense. I used the same weaving technique I used on the first one I made. So I cut out holes for me to thread the base thread, I also my my own weaving needle out of cardboard and tape, and had to make around 4 of them since they broke one me over and over again during that evening.
Here is me almost halfway done! When I took this picture 3 hours had already passed, since I made it so extremely dense.
Here it is finished on the board! But now it was time to take it off!
A closeup to show how dense it was.
Here is the finished piece! Whenever it was done on the board it took it off and tightened the thread I weaved it on so it became solid.
I’m very happy with how this one turned out! I made it look like a fabric and I think that’s very impressive.
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The sixth weave!
For the sixth one I wanted to do a mix between the first and the second one. My friend inspired me to make something different, so I decided to make pixel art of a bee!
The images are not the most flattering ones since the bee was very fragile. But I hope that’s fine.
I started off taping the base colours down to my cutting mat as a base. So I would be given stability creating this weaving art.
I tried this idea several times with different weaving techniques but all it gave me was disappointment.
I realized after weaving the top of the bee that I forgot the wings, so I flipped my home made canvas and just built it downwards and up.
Here is the finished product of the bee I weaved. I’m very happy how it turned out since it was my first time weaving something that is supposed to be something rather than a pattern.
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The seventh weave!
For this weave I wanted to experiment with several different types of fabrics and yarns. I had some leftover denim from the denim challenge that I ripped up and weaved with. I used the basic weave technique for this one and tied the ends of the fabric into the yarn I used as the base.
I fell in love weaving with scrap materials from older clothes like denim. The chaotic pattern it got and how well it flowed with the other materials made me want to continue, but I ran out of materials sadly.
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The Eight and final weave!
For the eight and final weave I used a back pocket that was leftover from the denim challenge and the seams from the trousers that I had no use for. What I did was that I did horizontal cuts on the pocket and cut the seams into strips and weaved them into the strips in the pocket.
When I cut out strips in the pocket.
Here is the finished product of the seams weaved into the back pocket of the denim piece I had left.
I really enjoyed this one as well, because it was very unusual but I loved how it turned out. I would love to have back pockets like this on my denim since it looks so unique and nice.
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Overall, I had a lot of fun doing this project. I went outside of my comfort zone and found new techniques that I fell in love with. Having to use media I haven’t previously used was also very interesting, since it taught me to expand and use material I’m not used and comfortable with.