Book and Product Reviews
Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands
by Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez 112 pages, Copyright 2007, Center for Traditional Textiles
This is a beautiful book. And I don't mean the pictures, as lovely as they are. It is a book of weavers, their stories and culture, told by one of their own. It is filled with the heart and soul of these artists. The author is a woman from a rural village who, after making her way to university and later teaching at places as reknowned as the Smithsonian, returned home to help establish cultural centers to preserve and celebrate traditional weaving techniques. This is not a how-to book, though the tools and techniques are touched on briefly. Reading it is like wandering through a series of Peruvian villages, in the company of a native guide, pausing to look over the shoulders of the weavers, and chat with them about their work. It is filled with anecdotes, quotes, songs, and even a couple of bawdy jokes. I picked up this book with little interest in Peruvian weaving, but soon became enthralled by the words of the weavers and the gorgeous photographs of their work. I was especially touched by the intergenerational nature of the book, which encompasses the role weaving plays in the lives of people in the Peruvian highlands: from newborn infants to ninety-year-old artists. Travelers, anthropology enthusiasts, lovers of good stories, and folks who like to sit and visit with other weavers will find much to enjoy in this book.
Warp With a Trapeze and Dance With Your Loom Using Live-Tensioned Weights
by Kati Reeder Meek
48 pages, Copyright 2005, Penannular Press International
It's rare that I run across a book that revolutionizes how I think about weaving. Warp With a Trapeze is such a book. At first glance, it is a humble, self-published monograph. When you start reading, however, you discover a treasure trove of creative weaving solutions. Numerous step-by-step black-and-white photos and clear instructions make the ideas—some of them quite novel—easy to understand. The principal of a weaving trapeze is to stretch the warp out under tension during beaming on, so the threads stay orderly and the tension can equilibrate over the entire warp length. Ms. Meek describes how to build or improvise a warping trapeze using readily available tools and supplies. The other main concept of the book is using live weights to maintain a consistent warp tension while weaving. This is especially important for unforgiving fibers like linen. Modern AVL looms have automatic cloth advance systems to provide a consistent tension throughout the weaving. Warp With a Trapeze shows how to get a similar consistency on any loom using a rod, some cord, and a weight. Tucked here and there among these two ideas are other gems: ergonomics for weavers, how to cut off a sample without having to retie the warp, how to use an auto-denter, and more. Even if you have no intentions to build a trapeze, this book is full of enough good advice to make it a great addition to any weaver's library.
The Handweaver's Pattern Directory
by Anne Dixon
256 pages, Copyright 2007, Interweave Press
This is an ambitious book. At first glance, it's an update of the classic reference, A Handweaver's Pattern Book by Marguerite Porter Davison, but in color. How exciting is that?
The book starts with a whirlwind overview of basic weaving information. Fifteen pages touch on tools, yarns, fibers, and color theory. At the end is a great six-page overview of finishing details, and a weaving glossary.
Between these lies the heart of the book: hundreds of weaving drafts—in color—organized by weave structure. The weaving is gorgeous, the photographs the immaculate presentation you expect from an Interweave Press publication, and the draft notation is modern and easy to read. I especially appreciated the photographic insets for each sample that show the reverse side of the cloth.
This book comprehensively covers weave structures, and even touches on specialized weaving techniques that are not covered in the Davison book, such as drafts for crammed and spaced warps.
Flipping through the book, I was mesmerized by all the different effects you could get by combining different weave structures and weft colors.
I would have to say, however, that the greatest strength of this book—its exploration of the interplay between color and structure—is also a weakness. The weft color changes made it hard to focus on the effect created by only the weave pattern and vice versa. After my initial casual exploration, when I settled down to read about a given structure in earnest, I found myself squinting at the pages, trying to gray out the colors so I could compare the samples without the distraction of color. For example: did I like the second overshot sample on page 103 best because of its pattern, or because I prefer pink to yellow?
Color and structure are both strong design elements when planning a woven fabric. I understand the desire to address both in one book. The problem I see is one of focus, if this is a pattern directory, then also varying the weft colors distracts from the core purpose of the book.
Covering both color and structure in a single book is a lot to ask of the print medium. Because there is no way to show every possible color-structure combination, any such treatment in book form will feel incomplete.
Perhaps in the future, this book will be published on an electronic reader, with hue and value scroll bars on the side to let you play with the colors of the warp and weft.
Or maybe it will come with a companion DVD of WIFs you could pull into weaving software to continue the exploration of the interplay of color and structure. Until that is possible, I will tuck a quilter's ruby beholder into the back flap, to use on those occasions I want to isolate pattern from color.
The strength of The Handweaver's Pattern Directory, is in its profusion of beautifully documented samples. I applaud Anne Dixon for the quality and quantity of samples in this book. Owning it is like having the ultimate weaver's sample book. I find myself pursuing it for design ideas and inspiration. It is a valuable addition to my weaving library.
For my go-to book on four-shaft patterns, however, I'll be still be holding onto my Marguerite Porter Davison. Like weaving itself, A Handweaver's Pattern Book is timeless.