Inspiration from a Painting

Last month's blog post featured some towels that Gus wove using Wayne Thiebaud's painting, Large Pond as inspiration. This month we have two more interpretations.  The first is a top woven and sewn by Sue H.  shown below. 

Sue added a band with fringe around the neckline and also the bottom of the back making this a short sleeved jacket.  The warp for the trim is the same as the material for the top, but the weft colors differed.  Click on the photo above for a more detailed view of painting and handwoven top.

Here is a close up. What a great garment using the painting as color and texture ideas.

The next handwoven inspiration comes from Marcy's loom.  She wove a series of towels in colors found in the painting. 

All of the towels are lovely, but my favorite color combination is in the close up below.  The structures are twill and basketweave.

By the way, Thiebaud is pronounced Tee-bo!

Weaving Inspired by a Painting

Gus is participating in a challenge through Foothill Fibers Guild in which members of the guild take some aspect of the painting "Large Pond" by Wayne Thiebaud and interpret it in a fiber project. Gus concentrated on the little checked red and blue triangle that depicts a cultivated field (see arrow) and wove a whole series of towels with each one edging closer and closer to what she saw in the picture.

Her structure of choice was Swedish lace. This particular draft was found in Marguerite Davison's book A Handweaver's Pattern Book on page 94.

Gus decided that the blue and red towels needed additional color to give them more interest, so she got out her knitting machine and knitted up white cotton in stockinette stitch. Then, she dyed the knitted blank in similar colors to the one shown above, unraveled the yarn and used it for weft. You can see that the addition of more color really brings depth and richness to the textiles.

There was only enough warp for one more towel, when Gus rethreaded her loom in a new Swedish lace pattern adapted from Mary Snyder's book Lace and Lacey Weaves.

One of Gus' towels will be on display at the Nevada County Fair this August along with other artisan interpretations of the painting. We wish Gus the very best of luck with the judges.