Course Work - a valuable resource.

I have reorganised my weaving room and book shelves.  I thought that I would start to prune my weaving stock.  Two shelves are filled with the course work that I did for my BTEC in Art and Design (Handloom Textile Design ) in 2001. 

I looked at the first set and realised that here was a resource I had forgotten about. 

Here is one display board

 

This is the second display board.

These boards were part of my first project  based around architecture in Bradford. We had to sketch buildings as a basis for designing cloth for various purposes. 

I made a folder of my sketches and designs for various types of cloth. 

The old Prudential buildings is a wonderful source of pattern and texture. 

The pattern on the brickwork was very intricate and I made a carpet sample.

Here is a second carpet sample

This sample could be used on a room divider screen.

This is a sample of decorative twill. 

There are three folders to accompany these boards: an Index of development samples, and Index of record sheets and Reference weaves.

 I had not examined these files for some time and I found that there were some interesting textured samples.

I had been intending to throw away all this material but the samples and records of the weaves is invaluable. Here is a group of five sample weaves from the collection. I am amazed at how much work I completed for this course. 

 In fact  I chose one pattern to weave some placements. This sample is in 6/2 cotton with a weft of 3/2 cotton.  It has a pleasing texture and I think would be thick enough for placemats. It is woven on 8 shafts in two blocks.  

Here is a close up showing the vertical twill structure. 

The ridged effect is created by the two vertical rows of plain weave which separate the two blocks vertical 4/1 twill. I have coloured some of the plain weave on the drawdown to show the dividing lines between the blocks of vertical twill. 

I will post a picture of the weaving of these mats in due course. They will be woven in blue cotton with a white plain weave dividing strip. 

Susan J Foulkes April 2022