Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Turned Weft Ikat

I had always referred to my ikat technique as Easy Ikat, but it is really Turned Weft Ikat. I like the sound of that. The yarn is dyed as if I were going to use it as weft ikat, but then I use it as the warp instead. Here I am at the very beginning the 3rd panel of the Big Commission. Whereas, sometimes I have to add the pink strings, sometimes I don't. Each warp end is placed one at a time to create as controlled a pattern as I would like.
Sometimes the pink strings are necessary depending on the circumference of the skein. But what about all of that yarn you are wasting, you might ask?
My answer is: Make Art! I don't have a good picture of the finished piece framed and on the wall, but it is made up of 225 two inch square pieces of black archival matte board wrapped in left over ikat yarn. Most of the yarn is silk, but some is bamboo. I am working on a new piece made entirely of the yarn left over from the Big Commission. I will show it after I get a little more of it done.

Questions?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the art piece--at first I thought it was a quilt of little sampled pieces... which I guess might be possible, huh? I'd love to see a quilt made of ikat pieces...

Bonnie said...

Did I mention I was a virtual quilter? :)
I have been looking at my ikat sample pieces to see what I could make out of them.

Janice in GA said...

Great zeus, that "patchwork" piece knocked my eyes out! I love stuff like that.

How are the squares fastened together/fastened onto the backing?