Today’s Show and Tell is a new purchase.
Newly landed from Amazon in yesterday’s post — and already destined to become a well-thumbed favourite — is Jane Patrick’s “The Weaver’s Idea Book: Creative Cloth on a Rigid Heddle Loom
New out this week, I had mine on pre-order.
- Hardcover-spiral: 240 pages
- Publisher: Interweave Press (4 Aug 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1596681756
- ISBN-13: 978-1596681750
- Dimensions: 24.1 x 24.1 x 3 cm
- RRP £19.99 Amazon price currently £16.99
Four main chapters deal with Rigid heddle techniques using a single heddle
- Plain Weave
- Finger-controlled weaves
- Pick-up techniques
- Weft and Warp-faced fabrics
A fifth chapter considers the use of an additional heddle.
NB: Jane uses a Schacht loom, which comes ready to accommodate a second heddle — but the design is closely similar to the Ashford, for which an add-on kit is available to enable a second heddle.
Details of ten projects are included, and there is a reference section at the back. Plenty of colourful illustrative photographs, of course — and good plain language used throughout. The projects range from table linens to garments. Drafts for shaft looms are included.
A quick flick through the book was enough to excite me – clearly this is the least boring of the weaving books that I have bought so far. It is not as funky as I had hoped but it does focus on my interests of colour and texture rather than allocating page after page to closely similar weaves. Jane certainly shows that the range of fabrics achievable on the humble rigid heddle loom is quite extraordinary and she has raised expectations and ambition in this beginner. Both experimentation and sampling and project documentation are encouraged. I particularly like the way that sample swatches are presented that show the differences in fabric obtained with differing warp and weft combinations.
It is a beautiful book, clearly and unfussily presented and written. Although it is accessible to the novice weaver, the author does assume some basic knowledge in the reader — and the glossary will be useful here to an absolute beginner. I think that this book will prove to be an invaluable resource and I expect it to spend only little time on the bookshelf — having it to hand on my workbench instead. Now, if only I could afford to bash out a giant order to Texere (still doing free p&p BTW), I’d be sett to go.
I feel inspired to complete my current weaving and to start on something new!