Oiseabhal Woven Wrap
The Oiseabhal woven wrap kit is a design for a rigid heddle loom of minimum heddle width of 60cm (24in). This design is not hand knitted and a rigid heddle loom of appropriate width is essential to make this weaving design.Finished (fulled) MeasurementsWidth 46cm (18in).Length 150cm (59in).Length of tassels finished and trimmed 28cm (11in).Total finished length inc. tassels 206cm (81in). This kit includes a colour-printed pattern card with instructions for weaving and finishing the Oiseabhal Wrap along with the seven colours of Alice Starmore 2 Ply Hebridean yarn required.
The instructions in the pattern card assume that you know how to set up a warp and work a plain weave on a rigid heddle loom. For beginners, a step-by-step video online access tutorial showing all the techniques in setting up, warping, weaving and making tassels on a rigid heddle loom can be purchased along with this patterncard kit.
The design is created with seven colours divided in to two distinct groups – one related group of three colours; and another related group of four colours. This is an exciting design which focuses on the interplay of colour and tone. You can get very creative with your own colours choices, and I have listed the colours in their groups of three and four that I used for the wraps in the photographs so that you can either choose one of these or study the groups and the story below for guidance in formulating your own choice. The group of 3 is titled as A and the group of 4 is titled as B.
Click here for a digital shadecard of all Hebridean 2 Ply colours.
The four examples shown here are created using the following palettes:
The Gabbro (Blue) Oiseabhal WrapA1– Mara; A2 – Shearwater; A3 – Summertide.B1 – Golden Plover; B2 – Corncrake; B3 – Driftwood; B4 – Pebble Beach.The Dolerite (Dark) Oiseabhal WrapA1–Kelpie; A2 – Limpet; A3 – Selkie.B1 – Red Deer B2 – Mountain Hare; B3 –Corncrake; B4 – Sea Ivory.The Feldspar (Red) Oiseabhal WrapA1– Kelpie; A2 – Limpet; A3 – Selkie.B1 – Tormentil; B2 – Red Deer; B3 – Red Rattle; B4 – Sea Anemone.The Granite (Grey) Oiseabhal WrapA1–Machair; A2 – Sea Ivory; A3 – Pebble Beach.B1 – Sundew; B2 – Mountain Hare; B3 – Corncrake; B4 – Spindrift.
£82.00 – £97.00
The Oiseabhal Wrap
The design for Oiseabhal was inspired by a rare and privileged sea voyage around the island of Hirta. Living and working on the island allowed me to explore the topography in detail and this involved many excursions to the edges of its towering cliffs. The aspects that were largely hidden were the faces of the cliffs themselves, and so a trip around Hirta and Soay by sea was the perfect opportunity to get a close look at their monumental forms, starting from Village Bay and travelling round Dùn, then along the western edge to Soay, before turning east along the shadow of the immense sea cliffs of Conachair and Oiseabhal before circling back into the bay.This unforgettable voyage was filled with wonder, not least in terms of the geological formations revealed on every cliff face. Stripes of feldspar, olivine and pegmatite undulated through the gabbro, dolerite and granite cliffs, whilst subtle gradations of colour from the metamorphic elements formed beautiful tonal patches. By the time I reached the cliffs of Oiseabhal my mind was busy working out ways to express those amazing stripes and tonal changes in a piece of weaving. The Oiseabhal Wraps are the results and they show just a few of the endless possibilities of playing with the format I set out for the weaving. Making your own colour choices can become a great adventure.To demonstrate an example of the possibilities, just compare the results of the colours I chose for the Dolerite and Feldspar wraps. You will see that I used the same colours for four out of the total of seven in the wrap, yet the finished results are very different. This weaving design is a wonderful way to play with colour contrasts and subtle tones, all in one simple but spectacular piece.
Alice
