Accidental skylines, 2018
The making of ...
a workpiece without a predetermined plan, at least not in detail. An experiment!
Experiment
The warp on the loom is still the same as for the previous two works, "Riley on the move" and "Córdoba grid". So a woolen warp with a colour gradient from light blue to dark blue to purple to lilac, and a linen warp with a colour gradient from dark brown to beige to light green, each on a different beam. Because the tension of both warps remains sufficient, I can keep on weaving. The previous two work pieces are therefore still on the loom. That means that I have not yet seen the end result and will soon be taking of three works at once!
What I want to do in this third woven piece is to mix the two warps, weave them together, and create new patterns while weaving. Every four wefts I decide what the next piece of four wefts should look like; do I go a bit further in the same way or does something else have to happen, which threads I want "above" and which "below". This creates woven patterns in all kinds of combinations of existing and non-existing techniques.
Here the very first start of the fabric. Of course you get different colour effects from left to right due to the colour gradient of the warp.
While weaving and drawing, all kinds of blocks are created in the weaving program and in the fabric.
The colours used in the weaving program are different because with this contrast I can best see what I draw.
Accidental skylines, the title is born
Over time (weave length) the cubes start to gain depth through the alternation of weft effect and warp effect. That means that in the first case the weft is dominantly visible and in the second
case the warp. The repetitive elements slowly start evoke the image of a city silhouette, an urban skyline and the title "Accidental skylines" is born.
Create unity
After about 40 cm of weaving, the city silhouette is complete and I decide to weave several silhouettes one above the other, whereby the pattern moves one block at a time. This is to create a unity and to protect this experiment from getting chaotic. When you look at the photo below, you can see four skylines on top of each other.
The woven cloth is stretched on a wooden framework and measures 115 x 170 cm.
