Adventures in Artful Pin Loom Weaving — Thread and Paint

I wasn’t sure if I should post this here or on my AIPLW blog, but opted for here. AIPLW is more for strict pin loom weaving activities. Nevertheless, I certainly could have started there and ended up here which would probably be a waste of time, so . . .

I’m working on a collage (which is remarkable since I generally have difficulty with collage) and I needed some mesh for a bird cote.

This is a sneak peak at an effects-manipulated part of the collage. You’ll have to wait for the real thing . . .

I considered cheesecloth, a rubber stamp of cheesecloth, and window screen mesh, but none were suitable. Somewhere in The Stash I have some mesh fabric, but from what I remember, it would be iffy and who wants to go on a fabric stash search?

SOLUTION: Weave a square with very fine thread!

6″ square woven with white polyester thread

I thought about using gray thread, but didn’t want to chance it being the wrong shade. And very fine thread would need to fixed in some way to keep the woven piece from losing its structure so, since this is mixed media, I think I found a good solution.

Golden Acrylics—possibly the best!

I remembered this Micaceous Iron Oxide paint I have. It’s dark gray and has a bit of texture to it. It’s not too sparkly, but might have a glint or two. It would add a little weight and color to the thread, and I think it will look great in the collage. I used glazing medium to give it a thinner consistency and to lighten the weight of the paint a bit.

PROCESS:

First, LEAVE THE FINISHED PIECE ON THE LOOM.

Put painter’s tape on the inside of all the pins to protect them from paint.

Use the least sticky tape you can find so it won’t leave residue on the pins

I cut some cardboard and foam core to 5 3/8 inches square to fit inside my loom, under the woven piece. I needed a few layers to support the weavie and lift it slightly up from the surface of the loom.

Make sure the woven piece doesn’t touch the loom frame to avoid getting paint on the frame

I recommend preparing some paper (about 5 3/8″ square) in advance for taking prints from your painted weaving.

This paper fits inside the pins and is used to take a print from the painted mesh

Mix the paint and glazing medium. Use a wide brush (mine was 1″) and apply the paint lightly over the surface of the weaving. It was relatively easy to avoid the edges closest to the pins.

The square after painting

When finished painting, lift the loom off the supports. At this point you might want to take some prints from your support and/or the piece of weaving (still on the loom). I got some good prints.

Upper Left: the painted support
Lower Left: print taken from the support
Right: prints taken from the woven square—above and underneath

I have a small brayer which came in handy when taking the prints from the piece still on the loom.

A brayer lets you get more pressure for a better print than just rubbing with your hands

When finished taking prints, remove the tape, rearrange the woven thread with a fork, if necessary, and leave the square on the loom while it dries. Glaze medium slows the drying process.

It took about a half hour to dry (thanks to hot summer in arid Utah). I inched the threads carefully, carefully to the tips of the pins before finally removing the square from the loom. (BTW, there were little bits of paint on the frame, but they were easy to scrape off—the sooner, the better.) It’s delicate, but the mesh is fixed in place; the square is stiff. The results may not be stunning to look at yet, but I tried the mesh on in front of the birds and it’s the exact effect I wanted. The 6-inch square is enough to cover all sides of the coop.

Love the little globby bits. Looks like bird wire that’s been out in the weather.

Now, to finish that collage . . .

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. . . aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, many hours later (including overnight glue drying time), voila!

I think about freedom and safety a lot.
My dog and the neighbor’s pigeon cote.