Tien Chiu

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Design

I’m hot into fabric design, playing with painted warp simulations in Photoshop.  Unfortunately, the simulations are pretty crude, and I don’t think they will be true-to-life with the real thing.  I will have to dye and weave up samples to see whether it actually works, which of course burns precious time.  But I think it’s necessary.

Here are a few of the ideas I’ve been playing with:

1st simulation. Painted warp stripes against a solid background. Here the painted warp ends alternate with solid color ends in groups of 3 inside the painted warp section, producing a striped effect.
1st simulation. Painted warp stripes against a solid background. Here the painted warp ends alternate with solid color ends in groups of 3 inside the painted warp section, producing a striped effect.
2nd simulation. Painted warp stripes against a solid background. The painted warp stripes are "solid" painted warp, not alternating with the background.
2nd simulation. Painted warp stripes against a solid background. The painted warp stripes are "solid" painted warp, not alternating with the background.
3rd simulation. "Solid" painted warp stripes in bright colors alternating with painted-warp stripes in darker colors
3rd simulation. "Solid" painted warp stripes in bright colors alternating with painted-warp stripes in darker colors
And now for something completely different. Simulation 4 is the same painted warp, but with the pattern shifted slightly. I like this a lot better than the other three.
And now for something completely different. I like this a lot better than the other three.

I am not satisfied with any of these yet and will play more with colors and pattern until I arrive at something I like enough to test.

Meanwhile, here is the qiviut-scarf pattern on the loom:

cashmere scarf, in progress
cashmere scarf, in progress

This is being woven up in black cashmere the same size as the qiviut, to “test out” the pattern before I weave with the REALLY expensive stuff!  So far I have woven a bit over half the scarf, and I expect to finish it today.  It will probably take me two more days to weave up the qiviut version, which means I can get started on the samples for the Handwoven garment challenge over the weekend.

Which, of course, also means that I’d better get cracking on design!  So back to work I go.

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