AVL's First Jacquard Class a Success

Chico, July 8, 2003 -- AVL's first-ever Jacquard Class was a rousing success. Renowned designer and contract weaver, Patrice George, flew in from New York City to teach an enthusiastic class of five in Chico the weekend of June 27.

The highlight of the class was the first use of AVL's not-for-resale PORTABLE JACQUARD LOOM, known affectionately around these parts as "Marge" (due to the loom's uncanny resemblance to Marge Simpson).

The loom and instruction were well received by both the students and the many visitors who streamed through AVL's offices during the class' three days.

See below for a rough idea of what was covered, plus photos of the class and, of course, "Marge".

Thursday: Introduction to jacquard looms and fabric construction types

Choosing appropriate images for jacquard weaving:

Please bring your own ideas on disc or paper. But I will also have a lot of images you may use, so don't worry about the need to become a Picasso overnight :-).
Hint, your image must be reduced to 336 pixels wide before weaving, so look for images that do not have a lot of fine detail for now...
Editing your chosen image in PhotoShop:

how to use the PhotoShop tools for textile design preparation.
scanning and cleaning up an image with jacquard weaving in mind. Import edited design to ArahWeave for weave assignment.
Weave trial sample 1.
Friday: Discuss the relationship of graphic design to weave choice

single layer constructions
automatic shading features of ArahWeave
supplementary weft constructions
brocades
spot accents (tissue picks)
bi-pick constructions
double cloths
tied back floats, 2 fill colors
tri-pick constructions
maximum color effect on a single colored warp
Choose appropriate design and create two versions of it: one using a single-layer weave set and one using a bi-pick weave set.