Having spent three weeks in London, another huge
buzzing city, and wanting to continue trying to create fabric with a sense of
energy and movement depicting a busy lifestyle of someone constantly on the
move, I decided to move my visual inspiration on from looking at New York
buildings and taxis to London transport.
Moving on from the recognisable New York taxi cab yellow, I have taken the iconic colours of London
transport; black, white, red and blue to develop in to the next warp. Having
seen how quickly Dashing Tweeds come up with their warp ideas through the use
of Photoshop and Illustrator, I wanted to have a go at creating a lot of ideas
but in a short amount of time. I wanted to include the fluorescent green
of the destination on the London buses to add a shot
of bright colour and I did this is the form of a brocade. I dyed this colour up
in silk in the dye lab and I think the depth of colour
and glow that came from it when placed next to the other colours in my blanket warp created the energy and excitement intended.
I struggled to find yarn at a reasonable
price because I wanted wool that was strong but bright in colour. Having
visited Fairfield Yarns with no success, I ordered 50% wool 50% acrylic yarn online
and although it was strong with vibrant colours, the acrylic made the yarn
stick together in the warp, making it extremely difficult to weave with as the
tension kept changing.
Having to make the warp again but in 100% wool really took up a lot of time and money, but it was a learning curve non the less, and I now know never to buy acrylic yarn again! It was a shame that this yarn wasn’t right
for my warp as the thickness of the fabric and checks created with various twills was what I was hoping to achieve.