Eccentrically yours-

I promised my class in Cincinnati that I would do some writing about eccentric weaving. So this is for you all.

 

I am not fond of eccentric weaving for so many reasons. Which is the reason that I have written very little about it in my different books. I will occasionally use it as a very fine eccentric pass if I want the texture of the long loopy look instead of a soumack line note light edges of rose. But, for the most part I find eccentric weaving not appropriate technically and or visually to my designs. I like my designs to lie flat and be the shape that that I create with straight edges. I like to be in control. I never feel in control when I weave eccentrically. With those caveats here are my thoughts about eccentric weaving.

First a definition- Eccentric weaving and Eccentric passes are woven areas or passes that run up, over and down another shape and then back. The wefts are not perpendicular to the warp, but move at an angle to the warp, thus they are called eccentric.

It is not my favourite technique-mainly because it is rarely done well-myself definitely included. I have very few examples of things I have woven eccentrically over the last 36 years. When it's not done well it creates all sorts of tensioning problems, warp distortion, blisters, scalloped edges and wedge weave like constructs. I wish that I had taken pictures of all of the eccentric weaving problems I have seen over the years. I am now looking for examples. These are a few of the ways of using it as raised medallions, a sampler of raised blisters and scalloped edges, Raised dots, zigzag edges, hills and valleys, raised dots, to outline an eye in smaller threads with eccentric hatches, out lines a full pass and half a pass, outlining flowers with silk and gold threads in kesi, eccentric pick and pick,  outlining wings and creating longer weft overs to change texture, just to name a very few.

There are some great exceptions of weavers who do it really well-Christine Laffer, Connie Lippert, Silvia Heyden, Michael Rhodee, Shelley Socolofsky( in her last piece-Trade…) to name a few and none of these are beginning weavers. All these weavers have a web presence so Google them or got to pinterest and take a look. What they can do is totally fascinating.

 For some reason

eccentric weaving holds a fascination for beginning weavers who seem to like the idea of the long pass that goes over anything in its path. Perhaps it’s just breaking out of the pattern and feels like it’s breaking the “rules.” Interestingly enough to me I found that I had even attempted it in my very first tapestry. What they don't understands is the inherent problems it can create. An advanced weaver who can control its eccentricities can create incredible shaped tapestries and 3-d weavings or even flat wedge weaves with scalloped edges and imbricated feather like shapes, shapes can used it produce. In Coptic, Turkish, Afghani and Navajo weavings eccentric passes can be used to produce blisters, raised  medallions and scalloped edges, and changes in weft structure.

Raised medallions can be made by pulling the eccentric weave at the top and the bottom tighter,  but usually the act of beating down on the diamond shape in the middle is enough to pucker the center diamond by tightening the eccentric weaving. The Afghani medallions look flat but are actually blister and rise like small mountains in the center of the salmon pink shapes. At the bottom in the blue the dark dots with white centers are also puckered with eccentric weaving to make them rise a bit from the surface.

Wedge weave by using an eccentric line that is tighter then the base weaving can also produce a scalloped edge on a tapestry. More complete directions for doing wedge weave are in The Line and Tapestry book that I wrote

BUT, Unintentionally,

Usually beginners come to eccentric weaving unintentionally. The problems can be caused by—

A. using too little weft in the bubble over time in a given area or two much weft in another area that forces the warps closer together in another area

B. unequal tension on the warps(loose tension sinks and tighter tension rises because it doesn’t pack down as well as the area of lesser tension

C. turns that pull tighter or looser because when the weft turned around the warp it pulled the half pass it was weaving over tighter.

D. by the way the weft is packed down or beaten unevenly in different places.

E. as the fell line becomes more eccentric the weaver doesn’t correct and the problem or tries to correct it by filling in and pulling the top warps on the eccentric line together tighter because there isn’t enough weft .

The passes along the fell line sink and or rise becoming a form of eccentric weaving as they follow the uneven fell line, OR If the problem isn’t dealt with overtime the problems increase and increase creating havoc as it begins to distort. The warps becoming too close together, or too far apart, massive pull in and/or pullout that may or may not be close to where the original eccentrics are woven and you’re weaving at an angle.

So lets think about how eccentric weaving works. In a perfect world one creates a base of valleys, hills, or an angle. One just weaves across, over and down and continues on weaving- feeling in the valleys and creating more eccentric shapes. Sounds easy! One does this and eventually strange things begin to happen-sides pull in for no apparent reason , warps begin to pull out of position or become too close together. The fell line does strange things-dips and rises no matter how hard you try to get it to weave perpendicularly to the warps and fell line. To simplify eccentric weaving can and will cause severe pull in and warp distortion. It’s what it does.   The only possible correction is to use a great deal more weft in the weft bundles then used on a normal fell line. If you’re using a 45 degree angle in your bubbles you may need to change that to 75 percent, but in the long run it still may not be enough.

It basically breaks down to cause and effect.

If you don't have enough weft in the bubble and you weave on top of a pass the weft has to pull weft from somewhere as weft is beaten down in to the valleys. It takes more weft to weave at an angled then on a straight fell line more the the normal 45 decree angle.

Visually and structurally the further the weft travels  between warps the greater the weft length on the surface of the tapestry.
Which will automatically change the look and the hand of the tapestry.  Done in fairly large areas the hand of the fabric can be a great deal softer in the eccentric areas and stiffer in the non-eccentric areas.

The eccentric area can create areas that will snag easier. The extra has to come from somewhere. If the extra weft isn't to be had it gathers up warp and fell line moving everything closer together. Perhaps, If you are experienced enuff to handle this you can control it and make it do what you want it to do and use it as a design element. If not you have a couple of major problems to deal with.
So if you like the look of eccentric lines and shapes these are the possible solutions to making it look good. ---

A. more weft in the bubble in  the passes.

B. Try not to weave eccentric lines from side to side in one pass. Break up the pass into smaller passes. This will keep the distribution of the weft from being distorted quite so much and controlling smaller areas.

C. use more bobbins that travel less distance along the eccentric fell line. It will still look like  single pass, put will have more give and be less likely to pull in at the very edges of the tapestry. Test the line by weaving a few passes on top of the eccentric pass and beat down. Watch for warp distortion and still use more weft in the bubble

D. Instead of using an over and under passes, use dot or line soumack depending on the look you want. I would still put a break in the line of soumack every couple of inches just to give the line more give. Mostly this works because the soumack looping doesn't  move up and down the weft-or at least very little and generally the soumack loop only pulls the area around each loop or warp and the stays where put. You still need to make sure to use plenty of weft, because the greater the angle between soumack loops the more weft that is needed between the two warps and wraps.

E. When all else fails twine and pull the edges out. If you’re in the middle of a piece and you don’t want to take it all out and start fresh before the problem occurred, you can sometimes weave the fell line as flat as possible by filling in. Twine all of the way across the tapestry. Pull out and tie the twining on each side and hopefully the twining will re-space the warps.(see Tapestry 101 page 97)

Short Time solutions for moving and repositioning warps as you weave eccentrically. These are also solutions that can be done slightly eccentrically and always a long a flat fell line to re-space warps.

First trick-Where ever the warps are two tight add extra weft in the bubble then in the area where the warps are too far apart don’t use a bubble. The extra weft will force the warps apart and move into the space where the warps are too far apart. Always do this sooner than later. It’s much easier to fix a problem as soon as you see it happening when it can be correct by one or two passes.

Second trick- Whenever possible Fill in sinking areas as quickly as possible with short passes so passes don’t become eccentric and pull at the edges.

3^rd trick- Twining can be your friend. You can use it to respace warp or use it to pull out the sides of weaving to where they belong. Twining is a neutral shed like soumack. It doesn’t change the over and under pattern if you weave over it. No lice to deal with later!(Lice is a play on words about those little annoying white dots that sometimes appear when warps are accidently left exposed in the weaving process.) Twining can be picked out easily when the weaving is finished.

Threading the Mirrix my way and everyone “ new and sometimes not so new”seems to want to do eccentric weaving.

The easiest, fastest, foolproof way to warp a mirrix loom.

1. Forget everything you know about using the silver accessory  bars supplied by mirrix as warping accessories to warp around. They are too big to be practical with this method of warping. So you can save them for perhaps  a very dim very future time.

(notice the size difference of mirrix silver bars, skewer and metal rod)

2. Normally this would be done before any weaving or warp is on the loom, but all my looms already had weavings started. So just pretend a bit. Set the loom up so there is at least  6 inches of all thread above the wingnuts on the sides. You won’t be able to see this 6 inches because they are inside  the copper bar tube.Measure the distance on the all thread to make sure the distance is equal on each side of the loom.  

 

 

 

3. Remove heddle  bar to be reattached at a later time.

 

 

 

4. Optional- Place blue tape either across the front of the beam or the inside of the beam marked off in .5 or 1 inch.This helps with the spacing of the warp threads as you wrap the warp and helps keep the turns perpendicular.  Either placement of the tape is correct depending on if you are using a bottom spring or no bottom spring. note blue tape on center inside beam and on outside  of beam under beginning of tapestry

5.  Tie off a warp ball  or spool of warp at one side of the loom at the bottom or top. The knot will basically hang out in the middle of the beam. Circle around the loom being careful to place each  warp in the proper slot of the spring at the top and the bottom(Bottom spring is optional. Just be careful if your not using a bottom spring not to cross the  warps as you go around the bottom beam.)  Circle the two beams of the loom continually until the allotted width is wrapped or warped. It’s really important that when doing the circular warping that you put things-Warps- side by side and don’t cross the warps. Tie off warp either at the top or bottom beam. That warp and knot also will hang out in the middle of the beam. Both of these warps on each side are not woven on. They can be used to check spacing and pull-in or pull out. (For later-The main importance  or job of these two warps is for tying on and off if you are going to weave a larger tapestry that can be pulled around the bar as you go. What this means is your not stuck with a static fell line. The fell line and the tapestry can be lowered and moved around the beam allowing you to weave a greater distance and larger pieces on a smaller loom.) Even if you don’t turn the warp around the beam since they like to hang out in the middle they can distort  or curl the edges of your weaving as they try to escape the weaving in back to being in the middle of the beam if they are woven on or in.

6. Tighten up the warp a bit on both sides to begin to tension the warp and also make it more difficult for the individual warps to move around as you finishing finish warping and placing the heddles

7. Now that you’ve warped the loom in a circular fashion, it is the time to put the heddle bar back in place.  Heddle rods that the heddles attach  should be on the top and the bottom-not in the middle.

8. Put metal bar through spring to hold warps in place on top spring and bottom spring if you have using an optional a bottom spring.

9. I like to use texsolv heddles. They are reusable and I am one of those persons who can never consistently tie square or granny knots. Texsolv heddles just saves a lot of time, energy and tears. Unless, of course you are one of Gods gifted and can always be consistent then feel free to take the time to create a jig and tie the heddles. To me the extra cost is well worth the saved time and effort of tying the heddles.

10. Heddles should be folded in half, partially encircle not completely circle the warp and both end loops should be pierced by the heddle bar.It’s nice to get the ends of the heddles close to the rod not the center Then later you don’t have to worry about those ends tangling with warp  or their being to near their brethren warps and not shedding properly.

11. Carefully, place heddles on every other warp. Double check constantly. One off and the rest are going to be off and twisting in to the wrong sheds when you try to use them. When you get to the middle be very careful about where half is. Make sure the heddles will pull at a 90 decree angle-continue until complete.

 

12.  This is where a really common error occurs and can really narrow the sheds-reducing them to nothing.  Be very careful that the rod ddoesn't go past the hole and catch  on the heddle bar brace when turned. Tighten all the end screws with the hex wrench. Note the difference in the two photos. You shouldn’t be able to see the rod end.

 

13. Do the bottom roll of heddles. Be very careful that your doing the other half of the warps and every other warp. Only one warp thread allowed per heddle. Again when you reach the middle make sure the heddles split on the half way mark at a 90 decree angle. This might be a good time to see if half way is matching up on both bars. There is a very good  reason for this.  You don’t want to create a gap in the heddles in the middle or have the heddles pulling across other heddles when you shift the shed. hat little doohickey in the middle that the rod goes through can split the wefts and warps apart creating crossed heddles between the two sets of heddles or pull them in such away to create a gap between warps as you weave.

14. And to repeat-again! Be careful where the rod begins and ends when you tighten the hex bolt. This  is where a really common error occurs and can really narrow the sheds.  Be very careful that the rod doesn’t go past the hole and catch  on the heddle brace when turned. Tighten all the end screws with the hex wrench. (see photos on 12)

 

15. Cut a weft 4 times the width of the loom or weaving area. Weave across. Open first shed and place weft in open shed. Close Shed. Change shed and weave across-Do this 3 times to partially begin to keep and space warps in place.

16. Place a small metal rod or shiska skewer(bamboo or metal) in the next shed. I clip off the pointed ends of the skewer if there are any. Also if your using metal bars use small ones no bigger then the ones that go through the springs. If  the rod is too large it’s almost impossible to get the two sheds to come together when you begin to weave and twine. These metal rods can be purchased at a machine shop and cost a dollar or two and last forever. Usually you can buy them the right length off the shelf or have them clipped for free to the right size. Bamboo shiska’s can be purchased at almost any super market for very little.  If I am more likely to turn the piece around the loom as I weave or place another in the opposite shed. One caveat if you are turning the piece around the loom make sure they will fit between the legs of the loom when turned. Beat down as tightly as possible  to the bar. There will be some spring up for about a half inch of weaving up-note center of weaving.

17. Do several more rows of weaving to help set the sheds smaller then then the rod or skewer.

Note the order of weaving a couple of rows of weaving(Blue and green), skewer, at least two passes and then the twining and knotting  to the exact size of the weaving

 

18. Cut a piece of warp 3 times the width of the weaving surface. Larks head to the second warp on each side ignoring the warp that is hanging out in the middle on each side. Twine across the rows of weaving. At exactly the width of the weaving tie a knot. Do this even if it is to wide or too small. You should know before starting how many warps there are to an an inch and how wide the piece will be. So if a piece is 10 inches wide and you are working at 10 epi you have 100 warps.

 

 

19. Now space the warps with a proper pointy tool  into the proper position. The twining and knot will keep the proper width and the warps can be manipulated into place if necessary as you space the warps.  You are less likely to need to much spacing if you use a bottom spring. My bottom springs are not glued to the mirrix frame but tied in place so I can shift them around the bar as I turn the piece.

20. If tension feels uneven or even if it doesn’t over tighten the warp tighter then you can possibly weave. Make sure you tighten the wing nuts on the side the same distance.  Please use the mirrix wrench to do this. Yeah, that funny looking flat thing that comes with the loom is an incredible wrench. Looks odd,  but nothing works better and it saves the hands and fingers… After a few hours loosen to a good tension for weaving. Check to make sure everything is square and equal.Same distance on both sides between the top and bottom  cross beams.  Remember  the warp should sound like a musical instrument and not displace when strummed. Generally the tighter the warp the easier it is to weave with fewer problems. 

21. Sew on your cartoon and weave!

Nonce Words.Nonce season. And last but not least-Nonce Art!

“The time has come to talk of many things…of cabbages and sealing wax”

"A nonce word is one coined 'for the nonce'--made up for one occasion and not likely to be encountered again. Milling around"to move around in churning confusion" with no pattern in particular.

Winter is always odd for me an almost  un real period-Things done, but not repeatable or even wanting to be repeated. A period of waiting for the reality and often much milling around. Many things get done.Many goals are accomplished, but not the ones that make one feel like one  has accomplished something or are-at least  moving towards a particular  goal.Things feel/are so disjointed My next pieces- actually two pieces of both of my Grandmothers. AND, no, it’s not seasonal light disorder thingy, because I am a true pluviophile.

Pluviophile;(n) a lover of rain; someone who finds joy and peace of mind during  rain and rain storms.

The images I want to weave are just out of reach. Milling around –waiting, elusive, a pile of images, nightmares, dreams, drawings and things, floating looking for an anchor point in the design. At this point it all seems to be in a language not my own and It’s all jabberwocky speak…It seems.

Dad’s piece almost finished.Will be done by tomorrow so I can take it on my travels.
AND- I leave next week to
teach in Sedona, AZ. AND, I will get to spend a couple of days with my friend Diane Kennedy just looking at stuff, visiting and perhaps a bit of weaving. I will definitely make it over to Santa Fe for a day or so. I am returning by train. The snow should be beautiful in the Mountains. I am so ready for a break and so tired of waiting for the other shoe to fall. It’s all so tax season. Spencer works from 8AM to 9PM+ during peak times. He did remember I was alive to day. I found a huge bouquet of flowers on my door step. Doesn't get better then that on Valentines Day. The smell is incredible and best of all doesn’t smell like construction smells.

Two amazing Things-Hellebore's and Pansies- that don’t realize that they were just covered with 18-24 inches of snow and ice.
Fortunately and Sometimes unfortunately, everything(time included)else is moving on. The house is almost insulated-what can be done from the inside. We  decided after the freaking cold Nov. and Dec that it would probably be a good idea.  Of course, not  counting on a snow and ice storm that made it virtually impossible to work outside.Anything that can be insulated from inside was finished yesterday. The outside blow-in  of insulation has been started and stopped-2/3rds- because of heavy snow fall, ice and now really heavy rains-almost here. MORE! Added hours  because the snow and ice pulled off the eaves troughs.  Of course, that’s what happens when a house is built with square nails and no screws in the 1880’s. I have learned more about construction then I ever wish to know-especially antique vs. new construction. These pictures were taken before the next 8 inches fell.
It’s definitely time for a break- The first one happens next week. I will be teaching in
Sedona, AZ. After the workshop I’ll be around the area and will then visit with friends in Santa Fe and other places. My itinerary and schedule will be rather freeform and very loose.

My lecture “The life and times of me myself and I”-will be after the Verde Valley Weavers meeting on February 20, 2014.  At St. Andrews Episcopal church, located at 100 Arroyo Pinion Dr. in Sedona, AZ.  Meeting starts at 10:00 AM and should be over by 11:00.  With warping looms after  lunch, then come back to the church to warp our looms the next three days will be  My Tapestry workshop More!  starting at 9:30 AM.  If you need instructions or would like to join the class to either of these places, please call 928-639-2781.

Another break I will be taking will be teaching in Cincinnati and the class has  been opened up for registration of non-guild members.Around the last of March I will be teaching my More! workshop in Cincinnati. It’s one of my favourite classes to teach because it builds on what the student knows technically and how to use those skills and add to those skills  to create complexity and detail to their designs. That class has now been opened up to people outside the guild to register. There are only a couple of spaces left. I will also be giving a presentation called “The life and times of Me, Myself and I.” It includes a portion on my design process.

Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati Membership program lecture 10:00AM.“ME, Myself, and I (and my design process) Workshop-MORE! April 3-5, 2014 More is about taking beginning tapestry techniques, or not so beginning to the next level and discipline the technique achieve the effects you want in your design.Class covers bobbin blending, hachures, hatching, soumack, combining all of the techniques together as needed, a little design and many  other techniques and techniques that the participants would like to focus on. If your interested in taking the workshop contact-Cheryl Muckenfuss; e-mail spin.weave.cheryl@gmail.com or myself.

One more thing- before
I get to
the tapestry techie stuff!
I love Tapestry history. One of things that rarely happens is for someone to write on historical technique or tools or there usage.
This is a very interesting article on the history of bobbins and how they are used. The Cover was borrowed from an outline of one of my tapestry. The article is well illustrated with many historical examples and less historical pictures of my using bobbins on my tapestry And He…I was extremely pleased to be able to supply a bit of information on contemporary usage  of bobbins. It’s a fascinating article and the research that MS. Nutz  has done to produce the article make it well worth reading. IF your interested in reading the article and having trouble finding it let me know and we can work. Something out.  
(There will eventually be a url to the article, but it’s beyond my capabilities. So Pat graciously agreed to help me figure it out tomorrow.)
Handling slits. Decisions that can really be tough in Tapestry.
Consideration What am I willing to tolerate? How do I want to handle a slit-toothed, stair-stepped or smooth?The handling or weaving is the easy part, but design wise there are a lot of choices one needs to make-especially when weaving small format small scale work.On a large format tapestry viewers stand far enough away from the tapestry that your brain will perseverate and basically see what it thinks it should see. In the case of slits the toothing that runs between the two joinneed sides of the slit will be seen as a smooth line simply blending one tooth into another because your brain is insistent on seeing what it wishes to see in redundant repetitious things. Trouble is with small format’'/small scale work people just stand to close to examine the work. This may or may not be a thing that is related to optical blending- The reason a chene will blend into one colour instead of many. This is one of those things that drives me bonkers.  Traditionally when you wanted to get rid of long slits the design was turned sideways so that major slits would not happen, but most would fall between or along the fell line or verge. Well-maybe in a perfect world, but it never seems to happen with my designs major slits run both directions in almost all of my tapestries. So, it usually breaks down to which direction to I prefer to work the design and how can I manipulate it to my advantage- Note the dark toothed line used as an outline in the dragons head. Or the pulled slits to create shadows and textures in the eagles.
IPossible traditional reason for sewing slits on the other hand the top bar shows another reason you might not want to stitch, but perhaps as likely just a weaves choice. Not the toothing on the top bolt and the unsewn edge on the bottom bolt. Note single line of sewn wrap on eagles bill and the toothed joins where the yellow and red come together on the neck.
There are a lot of things you can do with slits. They can be overlapped. Silvia Hayden's works has great examples of that or they can be pulled. I dislike sewing slits because they always seem to eventually show or work their way to the surface even though I have some very good ways to sew slits.


So Why is this on my mind? I always have a critique of my finished weaving and things that I might have, could have, or should have done better. Basically, about  deciding if I like what I did or will I change my approach on the next piece.
On my Dad’s piece I had 3 major areas of slits or not having slits and lots of areas where I need to determine how to to treat the edge of a slit as a structural design element.
So the determining factors in the direction that I wove this tapestry were  the trestle itself and the feather quills.-Which direction would any stair stepping be less noticeable. And, of Course the uprights on the truck cab-but less so.

Should I weave this way-or this way?




Things to be aware of when weaving long slits-
1. first and foremost for me is the toothing and stair-stepping.  IT determines whether I sew,which joins I use and the detail of the techniques used around the slit.-Laced edge pulled edge, overlapped edge, fine line between slits(sewn with a contrasting colour for fine line or left open to create a shadow, toothed joins or which joins to use.
2. Long slits can distort and stretch the warp with over use. The buckle is caused by the stretching and when it stretches one can get more passes in a given area that won’t shrink back as the stretching lessens over time.  This use can make the slit longer then the area around it. So it buckles the tapestry in the area between two slits.
3.Occasionally the slit edges will roll along the edge of the slit. When ever possible make the edge of the slit on a valley thread.
Not always possible.  And/or change the direction the weft is traveling every .5 inches or less depending on the warp sett. It’s just a pigtail loop to the the other side, pigtail and take off weaving in the opposite direction.
4. The turns even when weaving way above the normal fell line should be exactly half of the distance between the two warps.So that they won’t distort the line of the slit . 
5. Measure the width constantly and correct as soon as possible- if a problem is starting.. In long slitted areas. It’s very easy to begin to use too big of a bubble or not a enough bubble. Watch that the fell line doesn’t curve up or down. Both indications of too little or two much weft. Remember the old seam gauges with the sliding metal mark thingy. Works wonderful to measure areas and the movable edge doesn’t slide so you don’t have to constantly try and remember how wide or  something was suppose  to be.
http://members.peak.org/~spark/ArcheologicalReviewArticle.html6 In very long slits that are sewn as you weave Stabilize the slits by basting.
7 Needles can be left hanging while weaving and picked up as needed by tying a small knot around the needles eye.
8. Watch the colour you sew the slit with. in time there is always a small amount of movement of the weft up and down the warps. Choice neutrals and usually not white. Sew when ever possible like to like. Never pierce a warp thinking it will stabilize the slit.

Well, you have finally
reached the end of another one
of my blogs. Chene and I are off to read a book.