Warping the TC2 Digital Jacquard Loom in Launchpad’s Fashion + Textiles Studio
This past month, Helen Weston, Creative Studio Manager, and Emily Moffet, Studio Technician, set up shop in Artscape Daniels Launchpad‘s Fashion + Textiles Studio window to prepare 15 metres of black, mercerized cotton thread to dress the TC2 Digital Jacquard Loom. The process uses a rotating warping mill to the thread.
After our members used up the white warp, studio regulars collectively decided to switch to black, 2/16’s Mercerized Cotton, giving 1980 warp threads a width of 44″. Each warp thread was knotted by hand onto the end of the white warp on the loom.
It was a spectacle for the members who frequent Artscape Daniels Launchpad’s studio space.
“Unlike industrial looms, the TC2 is designed to be operated by the creator/designer/weaver, physically throwing the shuttle back and forth and engaging at all times with cloth production,” explained Helen.
The TC2 Digital Jacquard Loom is used frequently by textile artists and weavers, but it can also be used by designers in the sampling, prototyping and product development stage.
If you are curious to learn more about the TC2 weaving process, sign up for the Introduction to the TC2 Jacquard Loom and Loom Control Software on January 10, 2020. This Creative Studio workshop will provide you with an overview of how to use the loom, best practices and health and safety. Facilitator, Helen Weston will also lead you through a discussion on the potential use of the machine by looking at a small selection of Jacquard work executed on the TC2.
Then, on January 13, 2020, facilitator and visual artist, Meghan Price will be offering a Designing for the Digital Loom Using Adobe Photoshop Creative Studio Workshop in the computer lab. The workshop, ideal for creatives with some harness weaving experience, provides an overview of using Photoshop to prepare Jacquard Weave files, with reference to the ‘Woven Pixel’ approach. Meghan will delve into weave structures, the relationship between warp and weft and the creation of tone. The Creative Studio Workshop will show you how to translate an image or pattern, reduce colours, load weave notation as pattern fills and finalizing files.
