I have decided to set myself on a course of study within the parameters of things that I want to weave on the Mirrix. Below is a bad picture of some soumak lines.
As you can see, there are a few problems with my practice so far—all fixable in the future, but not in this weaving. I’ll start with the vertical line in the center. First of all, there should be no gaps like what you see in the picture. Second, I forgot the direction of my wrap for the soumak and got a crooked line. On the left, there are two lines of soumak, back and forth. On the right, in the center of what should have been purple, there is a row of unlocked soumak, two picks of weft, then another row of unlocked soumak going the opposite direction. Now for my favorite one—the yellow triangle. I wove the angle, then a row of soumak along the angle. Kathe calls this soumak something on the order of the fixer because it hides the unevenness of the angle. That one row of soumak looked really good, and is something that I will use again, but then I decided to fill in the whole triangle with back and forth locked soumak. That section feels thicker, but really does not look thicker. The texture of that section is different from the rest of the cloth, though.
Just ordered three metal temples from Dawn MacFall. Better price than what I have paid before. I want to build up my size collection so that I can use a temple on each end of a piece (after cutting off the loom) to help with the draw in that results from needle weaving the ends back in to the cloth. I keep working on that, hoping that at some point I will have done the needle weaving and have a perfectly aligned piece! Yeah, like that’s gonna happen!
I am also seriously considering a skein winder from Crazy Monkey. I have been asked to dye some yarn for someone, so will need to make skeins. Skein-making is a seriously time-consuming task.
Website: http://sherriwoodardcoffey.com
Are you doing your vertical soumack over interlocks? YOu can move the vertical soumack by moving any direction you wish the line to meander. I really like the texture of ground soumack that you did in your trianggle. Also, if you one the soumack to be more invisible use half of your normal weft bundle in the soumack lines.
Love to se people working on soumack! It’s one of my favourite techniques.
Will you be at COnvergeance?
kathe
Thanks for the hints, Kathe. I liked the triangle also, and will probably use that again someday. I really intended for the vertical line to be straight, but forgot my direction…but it’s a good lesson, right? Decided to leave mistakes in as a demo about the direction thing.