Weaving with Alternative Materials

I’m starting the new year with a new medium and process – weaving! Over the last few years, I have become more interested in textiles. I’ve been thinking of ways that I could incorporate more of it in my art somehow. I had been following the work of weaver Lucy Poskitt so when she offered a weaving workshop using textile offcuts, I jumped at the opportunity to learn.

Not only did I try my hand at weaving but I got to play around with different fabrics and materials. Every so often I would pause in my weaving to choose another strip of fabric. This process of choosing my “yarn” was much like choosing materials for collage so I felt right at home! I was pleasantly surprised at how meditative weaving could be and can see why it has become so popular.

The workshop inspired me to make bigger weaving using mostly zippers. I found a huge supply of discarded zippers from Urban Source and put together some stretcher bars to make my “loom”. This was my first go at making a loom. Add on the challenge of using zippers that don’t like to be reshaped into a weaving meant a lot of time wrangling and rearranging my weaving. At the same time, I found out about a weaving challenge to use alternative materials through the Instagram account called The Weaving Kind.  Weaver Sarah Neubert is the creator of this great online community to share weaving knowledge. The timing couldn’t have been better as it pushed me to finish my weaving project so that I could send in my January submission. It feels even more fun to follow along after making my weaving and I love what other creations people have put forward. Being a newbie to weaving, I was thrilled to find Kim Werker go through the process and ask the same questions about weaving as part of her adventure in learning something new every week! Not only that but she films herself live in the moment of learning!

My weaving is a little rough but I enjoyed the process enough to explore whether I could relate this back to my painting or assemblage somehow. Either way it’s got me wanting to weave more with alternative materials!