Photoshop tricks

Jyoti asked:

What version of Photoshop are you using, and is this work done using the layering tool essentially overlaying a vertical gradation with a horizontal gradation? I’m still a novice with Photoshop.

To get the detailed overlay, I first changed the color of warp and weft to white/black.  Then I took a screenshot, and pasted it into Photoshop.  I used the “Magic Wand” selection tool with the “Contiguous” check box unchecked (it’s in the top bar), and clicked on a white pixel, thus selecting all the white pixels.  I deleted them.  I then created a layer behind the old layer and put my warp color gradient there, so it showed through.  This colors all the warp pixels.

Then I went back to the original layer and used the Magic Wand tool to select all the black pixels in the drawdown.  I created my own gradient with three colors, from fuchsia to blue to turquoise (look that up in the help, it’s too complicated to go into here), and created a gradient with the selected pixels.  This resulted in what you see.

It might have been simpler to just use the second trick twice, but this method takes care of the case in which there are black pixels in the color gradient (which would mess up your rendering, since you’d be selecting those pixels with the magic wand as well).  This way the original black pixels are in a separate layer, so you can select them separately.

I’m using Photoshop CS3, legacy of my days at Adobe.  I’m considering upgrading to the newly released Creative Suite 4 – mostly so I can keep my software up to date – but am not sure I want to shell out $600 for it.  Of the Creative Suite, I only really use Photoshop, a little bit of Illustrator, and Dreamweaver…

There is another way of transferring the pattern to Photoshop, but it only works if you have Adobe Acrobat.  Print the pattern to a PDF file, then open the PDF file using photoshop.  You’ll have a mega-sized file and will have to cut and paste the individual pages together, but this way you can assemble shots of your entire piece.  I haven’t used this technique yet, just did a quick proof-of-concept to make sure it worked.  It did.

Jyoti also asked:

What method did you use to fasten your first bouts of silk warp onto your sectional beam, and where on the sectional beam do they attach?

On my sectional beam there is a thin copper rod running along the groove of the sectional beam.  I’m using a worsted-weight acrylic yarn (because the stuff is bejezus strong, flattens out nicely without creating bulges, and I had it lying around) and am attaching using a larks-head-knot on both sides – one attached to the copper rod and one attached to a knot in the warp ends.  The knot lies in the groove of the (enlarged) sectional beam, and the warp wraps on flat and smooth.

As far as I know that’s the conventional way of beaming onto a sectional beam, I’m curious if there are others.

I am now within 4 sections of finishing the beaming-on.  I’m a little frustrated that the project is taking so long – I feel like I’ve gotten virtually nothing done, and I don’t know where I’ve spent the time – but looking back through my blog, it looks like I’ve done a tremendous amount so far.  It’s just that all the parts take time, from the dyeing to the winding to the design and simulations.  This is going to be a very complex piece, so there’s no sense in lamenting that it takes longer than just slapping on a quick “recipe” warp.

My plan for the next week or two is to finish beaming, thread up the loom in the pattern I created, and then weave some quick color samples.  (To do this, I plan to use a short machine-knitted piece that Nancy Roberts was kind enough to create for me.  Easier to handpaint and then “set” the results in the oven than to do lots of tiny little skeins.)  After I’m done with the color samples, I can then dye the knitted blanks in my chosen colors and start weaving!

A long process, but I’m learning lots, and hopefully the results will be worthwhile!