February 2021 Newsletter Archive - Honeycomb Weave!

Dear Friends,

Happy Spring to you all! This past month (February), I have been learning the techniques of the honeycomb weaving pattern on my borrowed weaving loom, thanks to the wonderful Learning to Weave book by Deborah Chandler. I was pleasantly surprised that this can be achieved on a 4-shaft weaving loom (in my case, I am using the Dorothy LeClerc table loom). It is so interesting to experiment with!

Although it is called a "honeycomb" weave, the result is more of an elegant wave-y, ripple-y pattern. Bubbles of fiber form between alternating sets of plain or tabby weave, and the size depends on how many lines of weft you weave in between and how densely packed they are. It is incredible how many different variations you can get just by altering color, yarn weight, density, texture, attitude, etc. etc. ;)

I have submitted the following Charcoal Honeycomb weaving to be considered at a local art exhibition at Place des Arts in Coquitlam. Woven with white cotton, a desaturated green wool (that appears charcoal grey when woven with white), and a chenille white fluffly yarn to form the outlines of the honeycomb bubbles.

And the following framed weaving is now available on my Etsy store for sale, with proceeds to be donated to The Charitree Foundation! It started out as a sampler for me to test out the pattern before committing to the project above. But I ended up loving the poetry and frequency of colors in my experimentation, and decided to turn it into a self-contained piece of art :)

It is mounted on a thrifted vintage wooden frame with lovely natural wood grain and pink / peach tints. I have a sizable collection of these wooden frames that I bought ambitiously from a lady on Facebook Marketplace, with plans to fill them all up with weavings and handmade art. I try to source as many thrifted second-hand or recycled art materials and supplies as I can, including the backing of the wooden frames and packaging materials for when I mail out orders.

Next, I would love to explore the sister pattern to the honeycomb weaving pattern - the waffle!

Warm wishes,

Shreyasi