Forest Through the Trees, Part 1, Warping the Loom

"Forest through the Trees" is what I am currently working on for this first piece of my Individual Artist's Grant.  I was planning creating it well before I knew I received the grant so it will not have the 3-D vining beadwork in it, but it does incorporate 3 panels, 2 of which will integrate beadweaving.  The back panel, which is woven, is what I am working on in these photos.  This is just the set-up (I didn't get photos of the dyeing process, which is another beast in and of itself, maybe next time!)

Cartoon for the back panel which will be handwoven in double weave pick up.

I hand dyed this warp yarn in my basement for the back panel of this first piece.

This is one of the warp colors being taken off of the warp winder.

Threading the reed of the loom with the first warp, alternating for stripes.

The second warp through the reed on top of the first warp, again, alternating for strips

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View from the back of the loom, next, all 720 strings have to be threaded individually though each heddle in order. You can see why you'll be seeing less and less of me away from my studio.

I remove the back beam on my loom to thread the heddles.  It gets me just a little closer.  My back warp beam is a pain to take off, so I just wrap myself over it to get to the heddles.

Warp through the heddles. I am completely in love with the colors of this warp!

Warp strings tied to the back beam.

I know it looks like a tangled mess, this is the front of the loom with the warp ready to pull through. It actually went faster than I expected.

Pulling the warp through the reed and the heddles.

....and the front tie on!

It's so nice to just have the warp done.  Now I'm ready to start weaving.  The next blog will talk a little about double weave pick up which is the type of weave the I'm doing with this piece, and also show the header with the separated fabrics.

I'll be trying to keep track of my time the best I can, here's an approximate run down for this portion:

Dying warp: 6+ hours

Balling and Winding warp:  4+ hours

Warping loom: 13 hours

This project is brought to you by the Arts Council of Greater Lansing.

Side note: My apologies on the quality of photos as many of them will be taken from my phone for speed and convenience in posting my updates.