Whilst twiddling my thumbs (or twiddling my thrums morelike...) awaiting the arrival of my new loom, I have been experimenting with 8 shaft multilayer weaving on the Leclerc Voyageur folding table loom. Four layers of plain weave cloth woven directly on top of each other, with 2 shafts per layer. The cloth is sett at 4 times the usual balanced cloth sett to make 4 balanced cloth layers. By changing the lift sequence each single colour cloth can have any position within the layers-top, top middle, bottom middle and lower layer. The layers can be woven separately, with a fold at either or both selvedges, as a single cloth 4 times the width of the loom, as a tube within a tube and so on. The cloth can also be woven as a densely warp-faced single cloth or as two slightly warp-faced layers with any combination of the 4 colours in each layer. By using pick up, warp ends from any layer can be brought to the top or lower layer to show on the surface.....and so on....
The photos show the four layers of separate cloth and the sideview shows how changing the position of different layers can create interesting three-dimensional cloths with pockets, tubes, folds etc. Great fun! When I get my 16 shaft loom, I will be able to develop this technique further by having more than one threading block in each layer, having up to 8 layers in one cloth, making a cloth 8 times the width of the loom......mind-boggling possibilities!
Very interesting post, thanks for sharing
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