Rule Breaking Weaving @ The Devon Weavers Workshop

I've just returned from delivering another wonderful 3 day workshop at the Devon Weavers Workshop in Totnes.  Entitled 'Rule Breaking Weaving', participants were encouraged to consider the 'rules' of weaving, and then set about exploring ways of breaking them.  Discontinuous weft, distorted warp and weft, differential warp tensions, and loops, tufts and knots with unusual yarns were all experimented with.  We also spent some time on the final afternoon exploring finishing techniques such as devore, melting, burning and foiling to excellent effect.  The resulting samples were incredibly inspiring and give the participants much food for thought for future integration into their work. The weavers all deserve enormous praise for being incredibly bold in their experimentation, ESPECIALLY when I asked them to prepare warps in qualities new to them such as ultra fine lurex, monofilament, acrylic and polyester.  Wonderful things happen when you're outside of your comfort zone and happy to 'see what happens'.