A blog about art, adventure, and life!: Creative Light Weaving

I've had the pleasure of viewing for a couple of years a beautiful weaving that is hung in the art therapy clinic at the college I work at. If I remember I will take a pic and share. I've been unhappy with the lighting in my office all academic year and only recently after seeing the wall weaving again did light bulbs go off in my head. I decided to try making my own weaving but more thin and transparent. The thought process was that I could make two and drape them under the ugly fluorescent lights in my office which would hopefully block some of the strong fluorescent lights. While I have a large window and three lamps if you live in Rochester, NY you will realize why this is sometimes not enough light during the 5-6 months out of the year that it is dark and gloomy.

I basically had no idea what I was doing and other than glancing at the wall hanging I didn't do any research. What I did was find some great broken sticks in my backyard, bring them inside, put them on the floor and found some twine. I proceeded to tie the twine from one stick to the other at the distance apart I desired and about 1" from each other down the sticks.

Then I took scrap yarn (the funkier the better), cut up wool sweaters, scrap fabric, and felting wool and weaved them in from one side of the twine to the other. *Hint start first row weaving under, next row weaving from the top, next row under, then top, etc... the entire time until you finish the length of your weaving. I did not do this for the first 25% of the weaving and wished I had. It stays together better and looks more dynamic. When finished with the weaving portion I then tied glass beads throughout and small little sticks I took from an old wreath. Total time took about 3 to 3.5 hours. I thought it looked good but wasn't sure if it would work.

In the end I had facilities help to replace the fluorescent bulbs with a warmer bulb and then put the weaving up. I decided to only to one weaving as two might be to much. Right now I have clients and co-workers who immediately notice it, love it and walk closer to observe and look at it. I think the color combo I used looks warm, inviting and wonderful. I'm pretty pleased with the results and it fits in with my eclectic artsy style office. Ironically for once this was something I didn't find on Pinterest but everyone keeps asking me if I got the idea from Pinterest!