That’s a wrap on the first warp. I finished my third Ada with a foot to spare on the first warp, 1200 threads in black and white cottolin.
I almost switched yarns as it was clear I was going to run out of linen. After a quick test on some 20/2 silk in just about the same colors I decided to wait for an overnight shipment from Lofty Fiber. I love those guys.
The silk was a little too fine (squishy) so the twill diagonal was too compressed and the draw in was noticeable, even on a 3/4″ sample. It was very pretty when washed on the other hand. I will probably give that yarn a try on my 2nd warp – black 18/2 mercerized cotton.
Back to the point, Ada #1 used 2 weft colors in 1/3, 2/2 and 3/1 twill over black and white warp each – 12 distinct values. I was pretty excited and amazed that it looked as good as it did but it seemed too dark and not as representative of the watercolor as I had hoped.
Here’s a refresher on the source painting – 12″ x 12″
Here’s Ada #1. The painting shows more sunlight and a better sense of transparency, especially in the image below the surface of the water.
Here’s Ada #2 using the same weft material, 14/2 Euroflax linen in Tangerine and Angelfish. I redistributed the values to create a brighter face, adjusted the darkest value to be a little less muddy and added some muted zones that used both white and a black warp threads with the weft colors. The image was closer to the painting but I lost some contrast and detail in the face. I briefly considered adding a third weft but decided to limit my variables for this study. The shift in the painting to a cooler blue in the bathing suit and goggles was very important for the painting, maybe next time for the weaving.
Here’s Ada #3 using the same weft material (and the last one as the warp ran out). I think this is much closer to the reference painting. The sense of depth is better in the below water sections and I got more definition in the face.
Which one would you choose?
Here are my take-aways:
- The linen made a really luminous weft that wet finished beautifully. It was very draw-in-resistant also.
- The black and white warp made it possible to get fairly good image definition using 2 wefts only and a simple 3 twill approach.
- Going forward I will make sure to include the color sample squares on the final draft. I wove the sample separately on Ada #1 and am not completely sure I got the weave structures applied to the color samples in exactly the same way.
- I find that it helps as a 100 pixel swatch on the bottom and the top of the draft. 100 pixels to make it easy to weave some portion of the sample and then jump to the main attraction.
- The color sample is great on the bottom as that is the first thing woven and you can double check your gradient/color results before getting to the final piece.
- Duplicating the color sample on the top makes it easy to preview the applied weave structure in AdaCAD – those little index color chips are small (do I need a bigger monitor?). The top bit is never woven – just there for the process.
- I put tabby between the color samples and the image.
I am still in love with this loom and gearing up to thread 1980 on the next warp.