Now we start our little escapade into the world of colour and design. It is a system that I have developed after years of production work and I have seen it empower hundreds of students.

When students do this workshop in house, the first morning is spent taking a good look at sett. We started ...

Make sure you have your sketchbook out and be ready to take notes. You might also like to review Season 1 Episode 6, where I introduce you to division of space as my second step in the design process.

We go further now… you have your canvas and now you divvy up your space so you can pour other e...

Ookie Dokie Artichokies, it’s time to break open that new box of coloured pencils, aka pencil crayons in Canada. I know you have all been chomping at the bit to use them.

In this episode we start looking for sources of inspiration, how to look deeper into an image or a flower and pull as much in...

This is the first of three gamps in this workshop. Gamps are great for getting a lot of information out of one warp. Colour & Weave is pure magic. How can all these little sequences of dark and light net us so many remarkable little patterns. The patterns themselves are remarkable but the sequenc...

The inspiration for Sample #3 was a parrot. It honestly had all these colours in it, it was just breathtaking. All my early inspiration comes from some external source and eventually it morphs into something that has my fingerprint on it.

Things we will learn:
-Using Fibonacci in yet another wa...

Plaids have been identified in archaeological digs dating back 3000 years. In Scotland a plaid is a length of woollen cloth slung over the shoulder that can be used as a blanket. It is usually called a tartan but in North America we use the word plaid to describe a fabric woven in plain weave or ...

Stripes, Stripes, Stripes! Zebras Have Stripes and Everyone Loves Zebras. I love stripes… fat ones, skinny ones… fat stripes with skinny stripes on them… there’s so much to do with stripes. The stripe has an ancient textile history but hasn’t always been loved. For much of history the stripe was ...

Things you will learn:

-arranging muted versions of the primary and secondary colour wheel in a gradation from light to dark
-laying them all on a natural background
-weaving the colours solid on solid and alternating on alternating
-bringing the loud members of the family to the party to bright...

We are in for a treat this month because our wonderful friend, neighbour and Tuesday Girl….Joan Carrigan is going to share a bit of her world with us.

Joan is a full-time basket maker and basketry teacher who has lived on Salt Spring Island, BC for over 20 years. Joan studied Fine Art and Art Hi...

Things you will learn:

-the power of a black background,
-how black keeps other colours clear,
-how the balance of colour changes in twills because we see more of each colour due to the float length,
-how colour and weave patterns appear in twills when we alternate colours in the warp and weft,
...

We’ve learned so much in Season 2 with Colour & Design!

We’ve woven 7 samples filled with colours, graphics & architecture. We talked more about sett. We learned how to change our warp by taking out zingers and replacing them, opening our sett without re-beaming our warp to create different fabr...