Saturday, January 21, 2012

Weaving Rugs: starting the exploration

Rug Number One: Still on the loom.
I have started the year off with weaving two rugs. These two rugs have started an interest in exploring weaving rugs. My goal over the next few months is to design and plan to weave some rugs of my own design. I will also need to reorganize my temporary studio and set up my loom.

The first rug was woven with selvage ends from upholstery. Using this material for the weft created very interesting textures and colours.

Close up of the weft on Rug Number One.






Rug Number Two was created on the same warp as Rug Number One. The warp is 100% cotton and a lovely sage green. Rug Number Two is made of rag weft that I created from dress shirts.

This rug was woven in a Rosepath weave.

Rug Number Two

These two rugs aren't the first of my rug exploration. Last year I wove a rug with white, pink and orange wool on a grey cotton warp. I love this rug and hope to weave more rugs with wool. My past rug explorations also explored different techniques such as hooked, locker, knit and more. My braided rag rug class in 2011 at the Galt Museum  was a success and I brought numerous samples of different techniques in creating rugs.

Woolen Rug