Crossing Paths | Sharing Warps

I’ve never warped my loom with a warp made by another person before…and it was an enlightening experience.

This is one of the hand-painted warps that I ‘won’ by Syne Mitchell of WeaveCast. So I haven’t met or even talked to Syne in person and only know her via her podcasts and emails Only through Internet technology and a shared passion for weave have our paths crossed.

Every weaver knows the many times every warp thread is handled in it’s transformation to textile. Disregarding handling at manufacture through many hands, the warping process, the dyeing process and the washing out was handled by Syne. Then I found the raddle and threading crosses marked by Syne to warp my loom, across the world from her, in a shared tradition of understanding the process. I wound the warp then threaded the heddles, handling each thread once again ready to start the weaving.

Never have I been so aware of the direct association of many human hands to make my textiles. And from here someone will wear and handle the textile until it deteriorates.

The human hands aren’t the limit to this process. Colours were chosen and mixed, structure was chosen, lives were lived, worries were negotiated. All of this goes into our woven textiles and I was so pleased that I had the opportunity to share a warp in this way.