Woven Print

Woven Print - Depict Fascinations, 2013

The making of ...

"Woven Print", a combination of two fascinations and a wordplay in Dutch.

In Dutch, the work is called "Weefdruk", which is a fusion of "weven" = weaving and "zeefdruk" = screenprint.

"Depict Fascinations" was the theme of the National Weaving Day and the associated exhibition and contest in november 2013, organised by the Dutch Weaving Association "Weefnetwerk".

I made "Woven Print" especially for this contest.

Fascination for ...

the city, urban environment, buildings, architecture, architectural styles
New York, skylines, skyscrapers
shapes, repetition, lines, depth, structure and materials

... and fascination for

Andy Warhol, screenprints, his Marilyns, Mao's and flowers
composition, repetition, colour and colour combinations

The Verizon Building

In April 2011 I took pictures of a lot of buildings during a holiday in New York and for me the Verizon Building stood out.

Why? Because the Art Deco façade with the stepped gable has a strong visual depth effect strengthened by the details applied with light paint.

Screenprints by Andy Warhol

I am fascinated by the screenprints of Andy Warhol

because of his characteristic contrast-rich use of colour, with not only bright colours, but also pastels and greys. Because each seperate set of colours gives the composition a different look and feel.

And because of the shifting effect; he does not stay "within the lines" with his colours.

Buildings, Riley in Metz 2012, handwoven, weaving

First drawings

During the same holiday in New York, I painted these impressions with the idea of weaving the one on the right later.

Wrapping for colour choice

To work approximately with the same contrast as Andy, but with yarn from my own stock, I started wrapping with Rauma Prydvevgarn, 2-thread wool.
From the 42 wraps I made I selected six for weaving.

The colours are not all that bright, but with enough light-dark contrast. And there are six sets of three colours instead of four colour sets.

In each set there is a colour which only occurs once per wrap. That colour will be used for a small accent, a contrast just as in the Verizon Building.

Back to painting

Now I used this six sets of colours to elaborate the design further. Again by painting.

with white, no contrast — white frame, no contrast

Choice for weaving technique

Only now I arrived at the choice for possible weaving techniques; shadow weave, deflected double weave, twill or Summer & Winter weave.

And how many details of the painted designs can be realised?

shadow weave on 5 shafts, double thread in warp and weft

shadow weave on 4 shafts, double thread in warp and weft

twill weave, 1/3 twill versus 3/1 twill, on 8 shafts

The end result, "Woven Print", a handwoven screenprint. Woven in wool, double weave in 1/2 versus 2/1 twill. The six variations in the design are almost identical, but executed in different colour sets.

And although everything I had in mind is in it and I am quit fond of the details, I don't like the overall end result!

I think it is because of the white frames around the outline and between the six parts.

And the dimensions, 57 cm x 120 cm (height x width); skyscrapers are high and this artpiece is wider than high.

I do believe in the design and I think it can be executed better than I have done now ...

Depict Fascinations

I have exhibited "Woven Print" at the 2013 National Weaving Day and also participated in the competition but there were much better entries!