Selindefabric as skin, light, sun moon and stars, weavegeek2 Comments

Cocoons and Artifacts

Selindefabric as skin, light, sun moon and stars, weavegeek2 Comments

A little experimentation - I’ve woven a four-harness overshot version of the Sun Moon and Stars pattern in very fine linen and silk yarns from Habu yarns, both with stainless steel cores. The middle swaths of all of these little guys have had the linen exterior of the weft chemically burned off, leaving only stainless weft and silk warp (only cellulose fibers burn off, not protein).  Click on the pictures to see the detail of how some of the half-tone areas remained behind despite burnout.

I'm calling them "artifacts"...

 

The sculptural properties of this weave and yarn combination are phenomenal.  The overshot and tabby provide much more structure and density than straight plain weave. Before I wove these three guys, I tried one with 100% linen and stainless steel.  The warp broke a bit and was frustrating but it resulted in a piece that allowed full burn-off of both warp and weft wherever I applied it.  I ended up with this:

 

It sat around for a few weeks as I wove the artifacts.  I would go back to it and try things - burning out words and cutting into it, even burning the cut edges with a lighter flame. Then one day I started twisting it into forms.  This is what I got:

 

I kinda love these a lot. Making another one. Frustrating linen warp be damned. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.