I have been focusing on block designs for the last year. I wanted to learn more about that aspect of design. On the first day of my classes, one of my students brought in woven material for pillows in an overshot pattern, "Falling Leaves". It made me think about taking a 4 shaft overshot threading pattern and turning it into a block design, but then changing the weave structure.
It was not that easy to accomplish. I found that some weave structures have more threads to a block and become a larger design and look more like blocks, and other weave structures such as overshot, share a thread and so the design has more curvature to it. Also with different weave structures I will need to use more than 4 shafts, but I thought I would start with 4 shaft projects. My first project is Shadow Weave and I will post my projects as I explore this profile block design above. My plan is to weave with 4 shafts: Shadow weave, Crackle and then Overshot.
Shadow Weave on 4 shafts
Block A 1,2 1 is blue and 2 is white
Block B 3,4 3 is blue and 4 is white
Block C 2,1 2 is blue and 1, is white
Block D 4,3 4 is blue and 3 is white
So while 1,2 and 3,4 threading are giving you vertical lines on the tabby treadles (2&4 with 1&3), and 2,1 and 4,3 threading gives you horizontal lines. The blue lines reverse when you treadle 1&3 then 2&4.
Then when you treadle or raise shafts (1&4 then shafts 2&3) the line directions change for Block A and Block C. Likewise when treadling 2&3 then 1&4 the blue lines reverse in Block B and D. Those two treadles are swapping coloured threads on shafts 1 and 2.
*This is when a picture is worth a hundred words. So much easier to visualize.
Shadow Weave on 4 shafts
Block A 1,2 1 is blue and 2 is white
Block B 3,4 3 is blue and 4 is white
Block C 2,1 2 is blue and 1, is white
Block D 4,3 4 is blue and 3 is white
So while 1,2 and 3,4 threading are giving you vertical lines on the tabby treadles (2&4 with 1&3), and 2,1 and 4,3 threading gives you horizontal lines. The blue lines reverse when you treadle 1&3 then 2&4.
Then when you treadle or raise shafts (1&4 then shafts 2&3) the line directions change for Block A and Block C. Likewise when treadling 2&3 then 1&4 the blue lines reverse in Block B and D. Those two treadles are swapping coloured threads on shafts 1 and 2.
*This is when a picture is worth a hundred words. So much easier to visualize.
Like Shadow weave, Crackle has 4 blocks with 4 shafts. Crackle is a supplementary weave structure, with a plain weave ground. Block A is 1,2,3,2, B is 2,3,4,3, C 3,4,1,4, and D 4,1,2,1. In many ways it is similar to Summer and Winter as it is always over or under three threads and can be treadled in different ways. When you treadle Block A, Block B will look similar. When you treadle Block B, Block C will look similar and so on.