Having successfully tied on, see previous post, I jumped in to interpret another watercolor painting as weaving. This time the subject was the 99 year old (she is now 100!) mother of a friend from a photo taken by her granddaughter during an eclipse. I was so inspired by the look of delight on her face as she watched the eclipse through protective glasses. I want to grow to be a person who can see things in new ways and delight in that discovery.
Here’s a comparison of the inspiration watercolor I painted from the photograph and the final weaving. I left the magnets in the weaving – see them in the corners? See the ragged edge of the painting? I like to reinforce the idea that the weaving is a part of a longer creative journey.
I decided to try to capture the image in black and white using the various stages of the eclipse, when seen through a pinhole camera or the little sparks of light that is filtered through leaves or grates, etc. as the method for creating the necessary levels of grey.
Here’s a close up of the face – see the little moon and sun images?
I experimented with a few different scales of the pattern and levels of grey needed to capture the watercolor. My first sample had the eclipse patterns inverted! Oops. I finally settled on a combination that developed the necessary image at a distance and retaining the eclipse images close up.
I designed the piece on Photoshop this time using custom patterns I created from looking at pinhole eclipse images (made by the little holes in a table at Village Burger) I had captured miles away from the subject during the same eclipse. I took the image into AdaCAD to adjust the aspect ratio from sampling but I really could have skipped that step.
The warp is Venne Cottolin in black and white and although I tested the design using the same yarn in the weft I ended up using bright white silk I had scored at Complex Weavers Seminars marketplace from Treenway. It was a subtle difference but the silk’s sheen, in contrast to the black cottolin, added a nice but subtle shimmer. I wove this on my TC2 in doubleweave. It is about 40 inches square.
Here’s the final piece. I have entered it into our guild’s juried exhibition. Hope I get in.
