The weather in Minnesota turned quickly frigid and windy. That seems like a good time to weave Frida Hansen flowers in a vase, doesn’t it? I was inspired by a photo of her design, Amoriner [Cupids]. (See more about this piece in “Frida Hansen Transparency Technique – Research in Pixels and Yarn.”)
As I wrote about in “Frida Hansen’s Wool Transparency Technique and the Search for the Perfect Warp,” I’m going to test several different warp yarns in the coming months. The first is Jaggerspun 3/3.6 wool warp.
I adapted the repeated floral motif in Cupids to a single free-standing vase, 24″ wide by 30″ tall, through my usual technique of Photoshop, tracing, studying, erasing, and sketching.
I ended up with this sketch.
Then I made it full size.
Do you see the areas under the flowers and beside the vase that would have very long open warps? Frida Hansen solved that problem by adding areas of “tracery” or of small groups of circles, to avoid overly long loose warps. That is hard to see in the photo of Cupids above, easier to see in these two photos of mine of other Frida Hansen transparencies. I’ll do something like that.
Then I began to second-guess myself seriously about whether the Jaggerspun warp would work well. My “sample” will be a piece that is 24″ by 30″. What if it didn’t work well at all? I decided to sample on my copper pipe loom, and sketched a 6″ by 7″ rose design to try.
More soon…