Vessels

Back in February I wove a bunch of doubleweave vessels based on the instructions from VAV magazine Nr. 3 2023. I was using corriedale yarn from Anna Gratton instead of the yarn used in the magazine so had to experiment a bit to get the results I wanted. The basic method is to weave a tube, using different yarns and weave structures (plain weave and extended plain weave), which will give you the variations in the diameter of the vessel. Once off the loom you then gather the bottom up to make a base, tidy up the edges however you like and give it a hot wash in the washing machine until it’s felted to your liking. Once you remove it from the washing machine, you have to shape your rather sad looking tube and then leave it to dry.

So when I put on my first warp to further explore what I had been doing at the workshop with Stacey Harvey-Brown I decided to try make some more vessels but this time using 4 warp layers to weave a double layer tube, with the inner tube having a wool warp and the outer tube a cotton warp. The wefts were a mixture of cotton, paper, and wool. Once off the loom I gathered the bottom of the tube and then wet finished it by hand in hot soapy water until I was happy with the results. The shapes and textures of the vessels are caused by the differential shrinkage between the inner and outer tubes, different weft yarns and when and how the inner and outer layers are connected,. I particularly liked the effect the paper yarn produced when used in the weft, you can see that in the upper edges of the vessels.