First Place (2-peat) -Yardage at Convergence 2026
Again I took the bait for an extension in the deadlines for Convergence Yardage competition. In 2024 I took the extension week to design and make a polychrome summer and winter design on my Megado of sunflowers and went on to win.
This time, I took that time to design and weave another polychrome summer and winter design on my TC2, this time double width with a wrapping design that, when off the loom and cut apart, is 84″ wide.
Oddly enough I had warped my TC2 loom with the same cobalt blue 30/2 Euroflax linen I used in 2024. The design was an image of water, murky, wavy and reflective. Looking back at the photo dates, I worked on the design for a day, wove a sample and was finished in 6 days, start to finish. I need to stop doing that or, at least, stop thinking I can (or should) do that.
I used Photoshop to modify the image and break it down into the 3 colors I would use to weave – blue ground cloth, moss green shadows and white highlights. Then to break it up into the source images I would need to convert it to a draft.
Then on to AdaCAD to set up the weave. I decided to weave it as a tube so that it would comply with the Convergence rules limiting the width to 45″ My cloth will be 84″ when one side is cut, the design will span the entire width. To make it work I made the seed drafts for the polychrome summer and winter. The top was one image, the bottom was another image. The drafts were applied to the images and then the bottom draft was inverted and then interleaved with the top to create the weavable file. Here is a screenshot of the design:
I had a lot of trouble with the loom – 1 column of modules was not consistently (and unpredictably) getting the right heddles lifted. Over several days and a lot of help from Digital Norway I finally got the piece woven. There will be a hard effort to get the layers separated when I finally do cut it apart but that will be for another day. I serged the ends and washed it in the washer then rolled it with my massive rolling pin to flatten the threads to lock them in place. This is the best I can do for mangling. I sewed the hem and hanging pocket by hand. My husband and son helped me hang it, damp, on the front of the house at dusk to get the submission photos in on time. Whew.
Here are a few process shots.
The entries were incredible this year and I was stunned to win. The juror was Mary Zicafoos – an amazing artist I was fortunate to meet and learn from a few years ago in her Ikat workshop at the Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild.
The fabric is on its way back after the show – all 10 pounds of it. I will be separating the layers and making something from it… still thinking about what that will be – Mary thought a couch… 🙂