I've decided that in the question of whether, as a weaver, I am more interested in structure or color, I have landed firmly in the color camp. For people looking at my posts and hoping for some inspiration when it comes to textile structure, I'm sure I am a disappointment. Over the course thinking about towels to weave, I am really much more interested in figuring out new sets of colors to incorporate in towels, rather than developing newer or more intricate structures.
I used to love to weave towels in either natural or white and play around with the structures. But lately, I have been so much more excited by the possibilities of finding pleasing color combinations. So the latest set of towels is an exercise in colors.
These towel colors are derived from a second page from Better Homes & Gardens magazine. The page showed paint colors selected because they inspired the designer to think of the country of India.
I liked these colors, in principle, but it was a bit of a leap to think about them in the same textile. Fortunately, I think it worked pretty well.
These are woven using 10/2 perle cotton, sett at 24 epi and woven at around 20 ppi. The warp is threaded in an M & W pattern on 8-shafts and variously woven using a 2-2-1-1-1 tie up. Some were woven as drawn, some as an 8-shaft point and others with random point heights.
Here are detailed pictures of representations of the five weft colors. The reddish color is really a coral and not as brick-colored as it looks to me in the pictures.
I have to say that I never would have thought of weaving with these colors. I find that I am much more likely to work with the tints of colors (white added to the basic hue) than with the shades (black added to the basic hue) as these are.
I'm ready to start the search for other color inspirations that strike me.
