Zoom session from Sunday October 13, 2024

You have a beautiful painted warp and if you bought it, you probably paid a lot of money for it.  How do you begin?

We had several folks who provided suggestions from their experience, notably Lanna Ray, Ann Guralnick, and Monica Barry.

You no doubt want to highlight the painted warp — there are lots of ways to do that. Lanna Ray directed us to a website that provides great advice:

https://warpandweave.com/show-off-colors-in-painted-warp/

Some suggestions:

First, consider that your weft will work as a filter. (The photos included in the warpandweave link, above, are visually instructive.). The color of the weft can be thought of as a transparent overlay on the warp colors.

Then consider whether you want that weft color to be half of what you see in the cloth.  If you weave a balanced draft with half of the weft showing on each side (like plain weave or 2/2 twill) and use the same size weft thread, then half of what you see will be that weft color mixing with the painted warp colors.

If instead you want more of the warp colors to shine through, here are some suggestions:

  • Use a denser sett for the warp – denser than you might normally use for that yarn and weave structure. Then cross it with a finer weft. You can choose a very fine weft (e.g., 20/2 cotton in a thicker grist warp) and adjust the sett and beat to achieve a sound cloth.  The weft color can nearly disappear.
  • Choose a structure that has more warp showing on one side and more weft on the other (Like an unbalanced 3/1 twill).

More thoughts on weft options whether using finer threads or not:

  • Be aware of what the value of your weft will do:
    • Black will pop the colors in your warp, but can also dull the cloth.
    • White will “bleach” the warp colors or wash them out.
    • Something in between, like grey, might be preferable but be aware of the impact of a “mid-value.” If the value of your weft is too similar to the warp colors and you want your woven structure to be apparent, you may be disappointed.  But sometimes a value midway between the contrasts in the warp can pull it all together.  It depends a lot on the structure selected.
    • Here’s how to check the value of your weft options: wind off a bit of the colors, and a bit of the warp and put them in a copy machine set to black and white.  If they look the same on the copy then they have the same value regardless of hue.  Value means where the color falls on a grey scale.
    • Another option to check value is to take a photo with your phone, go into edit mode, and choose a filter that changes the photo to black and white. Yarns with similar value will look the same on the black and white photo. Your woven structure will not be as apparent if you use warp and weft with similar values.
  • Use a weft that is a neutral color.
  • Another approach is to choose a weft that is different from any color in the warp. This can be interesting whether the weft is the same size as the warp or a finer grist.  If the weft matches one warp color too closely (or has the same value), the structure may disappear in that area and show better where there is more contrast.  But if the color is different it will show more throughout the cloth.
  • You may start with a particular color weft and find that it works well with one section of your painted warp. You get to another section of the warp and that color weft doesn’t work as well.  You can introduce a different color weft by adding in one pick of the new color. Alternate the new color in a Fibonacci sequence with the old color, gradually increasing the number of picks of the new color, separated by decreasing number of picks of the old color until you’ve transitioned to the new color.
  • You can put a border on both selvedges that is the same yarn as the weft.

Some ideas for comparing possible wefts:

  • To test your choices: Lay alternative selections of wefts on top of your painted warp braids to select your weft color. At the beginning of your weaving, test several alternative wefts, weaving for about 1” each.  (Also play with wefts at the end of your project so that you learn more about color).
  • You may want to share bits of color with friends, like at a study group, to increase options for weft consideration before buying.
  • Always reserve several warp threads from the handpainted warp to make repairs and to use in coordinating colors. You can twist these threads with weft possibilities, or wrap on a ruler to see how they look together

Ann Guralnick showed some beautiful examples of handpainted warps:

  • Doubleweave: one side in cool colors and one in warm colors where she sampled many colors as wefts.
  • Playing with structure: she used turned twill where the weft was the same grist as the painted warp.
  • Stitched doublecloth: a painted silk warp formed the stitches. She unwound the silk warp to avoid color pooling.

We discussed how to wind a handpainted skein in a way that color pooling is intentional: you can wind the warp as a loop rather than reversing on itself.  This technique is described here: https://handwovenmagazine.com/warping-with-handpainted-skeins/

Monica Barry showed some more examples of handpainted warps:

  • She described doing the loop warp method for a project from a 1792 book, Weavers Draft Book and Clothiers Assistant by John Hargrove. She used the bumburet pattern. Link for book: https://www.amazon.com/Weavers-Draft-Clothiers-Assistant-facsimiles/dp/0912296178
  • A huck lace scarf using 10/2 hand-painted cotton from Blazing Shuttles, using a 10/2 blue-green weft.
  • An 8/2 handpainted Tencel warp in Atwater-Bronson lace. She added several stripes of solid 8/2 Tencel to get a wider warp.

Terry Lorch described using handpainted sock yarn skeins as warp and a singles as weft to give the woven scarf more drape.

A question not related to handpainted warps:  If you want to highlight handspun in the weft, use a structure like overshot or summer and winter.  These use a relatively fine warp and the weft alternates a supplementary thicker weft with a thin weft (the same grist as the warp).  The thicker handpainted supplementary weft will be most apparent.

And then there’s the question of using a dummy warp and tying on your treasured handpainted warp. We look forward to that as a forthcoming Hangout topic.