A very good friend of mine, Alice, contacted me today. She asked a simple request, would I make an inkle trim cord for her handfasting. Of course! I feel like I have grown closer to Dan and Alice over the past year and count them both as great friends. I was honored to make an important item for them, especially with an art, weaving, that I so enjoy.
Their needs were simple, they wanted purple in it, they like color, so any highly saturated color for contrast would be great, or a variegated. Orange, red, teal would be fine. They asked for some type of pattern, just to show off the color, but nothing complicated. 1/2" or 1" would be great. My larger loom will be the length.
With that, I began thinking, really thinking. I have a short time so needed to use something I already have. It was providence that I have these colors already in my stash! I have some great soft silky bamboo, which I chose that as the fiber to symbolize sex and intimacy, in this dark orange for Alice and deep purple for Dan, with a little accent in the design and edged in white. I know white isn't bold but I wanted a real contrast in the darker colors, and plus wanted it to symbolize love and purity of marriage. I found a pattern in a book, one I have never done, plus I tweaked it a little. Here is the design that gave me inspiration (I am only using part of this design, the pink/green with navy outline, but in orange/purple with white outline:
Even though they are having the hand fasting sooner, I wanted to use the wedding date of 9-24 in my design. The design will be 24 threads wide, should be at least half an inch with that many I am hoping, might be slightly less but I thought to sacrifice width for number. That gives the 24 part. Now, for the 9, I have integrated that in the design threads. The colors of purple and orange will "overlap" by 9 threads, with a design that made me think of interlocking fingers (looks like interlocking combs), to represent hands clasped together.
Here is my work up:
Michael took some photos of me warping it, but he hasnt given them to me yet :P
The flash kinda blew out the colors on this one. All warped up and ready to weave.
I couldnt get this one in focus as well as I wanted.
5/27/11
I got it finished tonight.
Minus tassels, its 92 inches long- a little shorter than I thought it would be. It looks so small in the photo!
I'm loving it. It looks so great!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for making this for us, and putting so much thought into it.