Color Lab and Deflected Double Weave Workshop - October 12- 14, 2024,
by Jana Rezucha
Thank you to the Guild for the scholarship for this workshop. I encourage others to take advantage of the scholarship opportunity.
I had heard about Natalie Drummond’s Deflected Double Weave workshop months before, but forgot all about it until about a week before the class. Of course that’s when I decided to sign up! Yes, there was quite a bit of reading to do, supplies to get, a loom to warp etc. Oh boy…maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Paula Becker convinced me to go ahead with the class and I am so glad I did.
The class was divided into two parts, the Color Lab and Deflected Double Weave.
Color Lab
The first day and a half of the class was devoted to understanding and selecting colors for our weaving. Since we were using hand-dyed variegated yarn there were lots of things to consider. Natalie explained that she usually chooses first by value, then by hue and then by reflectivity or sheen.
One of Natalie’s quotes that I loved was “The warp is your canvas.” She stressed the importance of selecting some light, medium and dark colors for the warp of your project to give your weaving “design distinction”. With the warp as our canvas we learned that the plain weave parts of our deflected design would tend to blend the warp and weft more and that the floats of the deflected parts will allow the color of the warp to show more.
We had to come to class with our loom warped, but Natalie taught us to design on the loom by replacing parts of the warp with colors chosen to make the finished project more interesting. We first looked at multiple different warp choices and sorted them by eye from lightest to darkest. We checked the value by taking a black and white photo.
We then “auditioned” each possible warp replacement against our warp and took a black and white photo to check the value contrast with the existing warp. When we were satisfied with the look, we replaced those parts of the warp.
TIP: Choose colors you might not normally choose. A class is a great time to experiment with color.
Now on to WEAVING!!
Deflected Double Weave
Deflected double weave is a weaving structure. Madelyn van der Hoogt defines deflected double weave this way: “In double weave two layers are usually woven simultaneous, a top and a bottom, while in deflected double weave warp and weft threads of each layer are interlaced. The result is one pattern that produces 2 different looks, one on each side.” Thus, deflection of groups of threads results with the alternating interlacement.
TIP: If given options in setting up for a workshop, choose the easiest one for a class where you are learning a new technique; I recommend this as it sets you up for the best possible class experience. Adult learners think we can do everything right away, but starting with the basics really helps!
I chose the easiest of the suggested patterns for the class; it was a 4-shaft deflected double weave.
At the start of this section Natalie showed lots of samples of deflected double weave. [Drool] Here’s a photo of a project that uses the border technique in a way I hadn’t seen before. This is a runner that is normally decorating Natalie’s dining table.
Natalie also demonstrated various techniques; one concept that was new to me was “shuttle diving”. The procedure is just like it sounds: you dive the shuttle down through the warp at a specific point, and bring it back up at another specific point. This was used to emphasize a part of one of the more complicated weaving patterns.
Below are a few pictures of my in-class weaving. You can see the deflection of threads in the close-up.
We also touched on wet finishing our samples and the effects of differential shrinkage. Here is my sample directly off the loom and wet finished in hot water. You can see how the elastic wool yarn shrank a lot compared to the cotton yarn.
Even though I choose the easiest pattern, we had several expert weavers in the class that choose the difficult weaves. Below is Denise Watson’s 8-shaft brocade pattern. Stunning!
Finally, here is the glory shot of all of the class’s weaving just off the loom. Everyone was a winner!
Check out Natalie’s website, https://www.nataliewoven.com/ , for more deflected double weave information and inspiration.
