“Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel”
Neu, mewn geiriau eraill, croeso i fyd gwehyddwaith nodwydd.
Needleweaving (gwehyddwaith nodwydd) is the great, creative answer for people who want to weave (gwehyddu) but haven’t got the time, money, skill, equipment or desire to use a big, expensive loom (ffrâm wau). It’s easy to do, there’s no right or wrong way, no counting, no set stitches or pattern, it’s popular with kids, older folk and people with special needs. What’s not to love about Needleweaving? Take a look at some of the things you can create here.
Last week, I did some watercolour sketches of the gardens at Bryngarw Country Park which I intended to use as the basis for some weaving which will eventually be displayed outside as part of the Coblynnau Project which has been funded by the Arts Council of Wales. If you scroll down and look at last week’s blog, you’ll see that the sketches were very loose and informal. This was done for two reasons: firstly, as I’ve said many times, I am not a great artist but I enjoy playing with pen and paint to interpret the atmosphere of a place (as opposed to creating an image of it); secondly, because I knew that I would be using Needleweaving techniques, I wanted the freedom to make textures(gweadau) rather than shapes (siapiau).
All weaving is done in the same way; weft threads (edefion anwe) are passed under and over warp threads (edefion ystof). That’s it. Simples. On a loom, it’s possible to count and alter the number of warp threads which the weft can pass over and under so making intricate patterns. Look at these pictures of Tapestry Weaving. (Tapestri) What I wanted to do was create something more organic looking. The whole aim of the Coblynnau project was to make works of art that looked as if they had grown out on the landscape.
So the first decision was to make sure that the loom I was using wasn’t rectangular or square, made of plastic or even planed wood. What I needed was something recycled and recylable. Luckily I live near a busy road where cars often lose their hubcaps and where there’s a hub cab, there’s usually a lovely circle of heavy duty wire. Mine measures about 14″ in diameter but is rusty so I wound paper tape over the surface. If I hadn’t done that, the rough and rusty surface would have worn the wool away pretty quickly. I used a bright green (naturally dyed using onion skins and indigo), hand spun wool to cover the wire and then started criss crossing the frame. As one piece of wool ran out, I knotted it off and joined another piece of a different colour. Gradually the frame began to fill with shapes.
When I had something which looked like a crazy spider’s web, I began wrapping each of the threads in wool. This made them thicker and added texture. Where a thread was loose, I tied it to the rim or to another thread. Doing this created spaces. Leaving spaces is as important as filling space. Although I used embroidery stitches (Pwythau Brodweithio) like Buttonhole (Pwyth Twll Botwm) and weaving patterns like Soumak, I didn’t need a needle at all. It was easy to wind the wool just using my fingers. I made fringes(Rhidens), plaits (Plethau) and crocheted(crosio) chains of wool in and out of the warp threads. Like most creative Textile Art, I didn’t reach the stage where I thought “That’s finished”. I reached the stage where I thought “That’s enough”.