Reed has arrived

At last the arrival of some Norfolk reed to play with. I am going to combine it initially with pure wool from the flock of sheep at Hindolveston.

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The reed was not easy to hand hold so I have made a warp holder from a piece of polystyrene packaging. I'm using 17 reeds in differing lengths for this first weave. At this stage I am only looking at the material properties of a rigid warp material combined with a pliable weft material.

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The basic weave begun using the wool. The polystyrene holder keeps the reed rigid and makes the weaving even.

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After the initial rows using the wool I took the reeds from the warp holder as they now had enough stability to keep together as a hand held frame. At this point I decided to try other materials in the weft and started with strips of newsprint slightly twisted and then finished with raffia. The materials are natural, the colours are harmonious and are suggestive of the colours found in a reed bed.

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The piece of weaving is very flexible, I folded it in half lengthways and interlaced the reed ends to form a structure.

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