Shielagh Tacey Handwoven

I’m off to Tunisia with the amazing Rebecca Davies this week. Tunisia is famous for its carpet weaving so I’m hoping I’ll see some, perhaps like this:

(My shop will be closed until the 16th January).

I’ve just been looking at my Aunt Fran Curran’s  Hartford Artisans Weaving Center website. Here’s a photo of the weaving centre I took when I was visiting, as you can see it is a fantastic place packed full of looms.

I found this page explaining the weaving process. I thought I’d post it up for those who are interested in finding out what is involved in weaving from winding the warp to beating the weft.

I am also going to use my blog to document my own weaving process from the start to finish of a project. To start with here’s a picture of a baby wolf loom with all the parts labelled. This is the sort of loom I have although mine does not have the castle shelf.

Marguerite Porter Davison‘s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book is a must have for all weavers.

I used this book endlessly when I was learning to weave and still use it as a reference when I begin projects. I also like the fact that due to the age of the book the patterns are in black and white and so it is up to the weaver to imagine colour effects. There are similar modern books but I don’t think anything else comes close.

A Handweaver’s Pattern Book is currently out of print, but can be bought second hand from Amazon.

I’m going to see works by Steve Reich performed later today so I’ve been listening to his music this morning. It reminded me of this very apt artwork for Music for 18 Musicians which uses a weaving twill.

I was researching Glasgow weavers and found this.

The Calton Weavers were a community of handweavers established in the community of Calton, then in Lanarkshire just outside Glasgow, Scotland in the 18th century. In 1787 the weavers went on strike. Troops opened fire on the demonstrators and six weavers were killed. In the early 19th century, many of the weavers emigrated to Canada, settling in Carleton Place and other communities in eastern Ontario, where they continued their trade.

— Wikipedia