JASMINE BUTCHER

[jasminebutchertextiles]

[jasminebutchertextiles]

FINAL SMOCKED SAMPLES

[jasminebutchertextiles]

WEAVING WITH WIRE

[jasminebutchertextiles]

WEAVING WITH NYLON MONOFILAMENT

[jasminebutchertextiles]

WEAVE #2

This sample has not been as successful as I was hoping. The design was meant to create a series of triangles but has not come out how I hoped. I think they are too small and not visible enough. I am not sure whether the nylon will reflect the light as much as my last sample due to it being covered up a huge amount but I will have to wait and see when it is off the loom.

For my next sample I think I would like to try and weave with my nylon monofilament and see what the result is. I do not think I will be able to create a very detailed pattern but I want to focus more on the idea of reflection for my next weave rather than anything else. This is want I want the focus of my weaves to be and I feel like I lost this today.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

WEAVE #1

I was not sure on this pattern at all when I started but I wanted to keep with it and see where it would take me. The pattern is weft faced and I think this is what I was not liking. I did not like that the fishing wire was being covered up so much but after seeing the underneath side the pattern is very different. After winding it on and seeing how the light shines through it has also made me more excited. I am hoping when I take my weave off I will be able to take some interesting photographs with light being the focal point.

Through this reflection I am hoping this will show links to my crystal and light research with the geometric shapes on the weave linking to my drawings. It is hard to find a balance between the two but I am hoping the colours and the light will show my thought process if not.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

TRYING OUT DIFFERENT PATTERNS

NYLON IS NOT MY FRIEND. I have not enjoyed weaving so far at all. My idea is not panning out how I have hoped. The nylon is making the weave patterns come out manipulated. The first pattern on here is a simple plain weave but the cotton bends on the nylon and does not create a close pattern due to the different thickness and qualities to them. I have also tried to weave with wire which does not work as it repels on the fishing wire section and simply will not stay. I am trying to stay positive but am finding it very hard at the moment. I think I will choose a pattern and stick with it for my next weave and see how it turns out on a bigger sample.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

THE FINAL SET UP

Due to me having different epi for my cotton and nylon my threading up of the beater has to be different. When on the cotton I had to thread 2 strands through each hole and on my nylon do a pattern of 2, 1, 2, 1 2 and repeat this for those sections. The nylon was a real struggle in the beater as I could barely see it due to the transparency but after a lot of time got there in the end. I had to secure it onto my weave through a lot of knots and tape as due to the nature of the nylon it cannot hold knots very well it simply undoes. I am finally ready to start weaving!

[jasminebutchertextiles]

THREADING UP

I decided on my threading plan today and began threading this up on my loom. It was all going well until I began threading up my nylon monofilament. I realised that I had mixed up my colours. My blue nylon was where my grey nylon should be and vice versa. I decided to carry on as I am already running out of time and need to start weaving as soon as possible. I hope that once this is all complete I am happy with the outcome, I will have to wait and see.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

BACK STICKS / SPREADER / SETTING UP MY TWO BEAMS

Due to my cotton yarn and nylon monofilament being different materials and thicknesses they will need different tensions in my warp. This meant they needed to be on different back sticks and spreaders so they can be tensioned accordingly. This meant twice as much work but will hopefully be worth it in the long run.

My cotton warp went on first and this was the part that was time consuming. The yarn was tangled and this took some time to sort however when finished the nylon pulled through easy. I now need to think about my threading up plan and what patterns I would like to create. I can either have my nylon on separate heddles or do a mixture, depends on the balance I want,. However I do know that I want to create diamond, triangle, geometric patterns,

[jasminebutchertextiles]

DYEING NYLON MONOFILAMENT

I warped up 2 separate nylon warps and then went onto dye them. They cannot be hanked so this was they only way to do it. I managed to make up for the time lost on dyeing my yarn as my nylon  was a much quicker process. I used nylon dye to achieve the colours I made and this meant there were only limited colours available as there is not a huge selection. Due to this I decided to stick with my warp colour theme so the nylon would not look too out of place but due to the nature of the material bring a bit of oomph to my warp.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

WARPING COTTON YARN

My cotton yarn had to be warped up separately to my monofilament due to this needing to be hanked up separately and then dyed as it cannot be coned. The warping took a little extra time as there had to be a lot more ties than usual. Due to me having the monofilament in my warp I had to separate the warp into 3 separate sections so it could be slotted in at a later stage. I still had to keep my half inch separators all the way across but made 3 different cross ties.

During my warping I decided I was not as pleased with my purple yarn as what I first thought. I wish I had made it a little darker in colour as all my yarn is of the same tone. Hopefully my monofilament can add a bit more zing to my warp.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

DYEING COTTON YARN

Colour testing earlier in the day proved a success as I was able to mix up the colours I was aiming for which were grey, blue and purple. However this proved challenging when coming to dye my hanks as I had used the incorrect dye: procion instead of dyrect dye. I did not realise this during my colour testing as the dye was taking to the cotton yarn. My technician said using this dye on a larger amount would not give me the same colour outcome. This set me back a lot as I had to spend further time colour testing and getting the right shades. I did manage to get the colours I was hoping to achieve though and the extra time was worth it.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

HANKING

I have chosen cotton to sit alongside my nylon monofilament in my warp. I wanted to choose a yarn that would be durable and not break easy. I want to be able to experiment with wire through my weft so decided that wool was too fragile and cotton would be the best way to go. I have 3 separate hanks which will be used in my 4m warp.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

WEAVE #5

On the loom I did not like this sample at all but decided to stick with it as wanted all my samples to be of a similar size and I am so glad I did. On the back of the sample floats have been created and my plan is to tie these floats together to create a pleated/smocked effect. I am not sure whether this will work or not but this is something I can experiment with.

My plan is to use these weaves as my final fashion samples and it is a shame I did not get to weave one more however my plan is to submit a digital design for my final sample to show what it would have looked like. I plan to start smocking my samples in the next couple of days and hopefully they will work out how I have planned.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

WEAVES #3 and #4

Due to my previous diamond sample not being as successful I designed a new diamond pattern and this one was much more successful! Its created a stripes effect and two different sized diamonds. Due to the neatness and boldness of this pattern I will probably leave this sample as it is as I think it is strong by itself. If I do decide to smock it this will only be on part of the sample so I can see what it would like. The sample to the right did not come out as planned but has still managed to create a diamond and triangle pattern, just not as bold as the previous one.

[jasminebutchertextiles]

WEAVES #1 and #2

I wanted to create a pattern that I could link to my smocking patterns and for this first sample I have focused on the idea of diamonds on the sample to the left as this is something that can be achieved on the looms quite easy. However the diamonds did not come out as big as what I thought they would. On the pattern I designed I thought they would be much larger so this is something I would like to develop on for another sample and make one larger. The sample to the right does not show the pattern as clear but up close has a slight arrow effect. Due to the pattern not showing very well this sample will be more effective after it is smocked.

The only issue with using wool is that the yarn breaks much easier and in the sample you can see where some of the yarns have snapped in the warp making a line across my sample. However when smocked or pleated this will not be seen which is very handy.