Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan #

What to Bring

Each day in class bring Scissors, Multimeter, Masking Tape, Pencil, Folder for Paper and Samples. Also have your loom (or whatever weaving accessories you need for the day)

Week 1 - Welcome #

The goals for this week are to help you gain an embodied sense of what weaving is, what a (string) heddle is and how it can help scaffold a tabby structure. We’ll also do the administrative work of getting class setup.

8/26 - Class Introduction #

In class #

Begin Assignments #

  • Due 8/28 - Read Annie Albers, On Weaving, “Weaving, Hand”, pp 20-22

8/28 - Design Philosophy & Documentation #

In class #

  • History of Weaving and Weaving Machines
  • Discussion of Sampling and Materials-Led Design
  • How to Take Good Photos
  • Review Weeklies Templates

Begin Assignments #

Week 2 - Yarn #

Our goal this week is to get to know a bit more about yarn and how it behaves. We’ll place a specific focus on conductive yarns and using a multimeter to understand their properties. The worksheet and activities will help you understand the electrical and mechanical properties of different yarns in order to understand how you can leverage those properties towards different applications.

9/2 - Labor Day, No Class #

9/4 - Lively Yarn #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Review Book Looms
  • What is Yarn? Which Yarns to Pick?
  • Wires vs. Metallic Yarns
  • Understanding Multi-meters and Resistance

Begin Assignments #

Week 3 - Warp #

The goal this week is to introduce the Loom: the apparatus used for weaving. Specifically, we’ll learn how to select a warp material, how to wind out the warp and transfer it to your Cricket Loom for weaving.

9/9 - Intro to Warping #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Loom Parts Quiz
  • Intro to Warping
  • Choose Your Warp Materials
  • Wind the Warp

9/11 - Warp #

In Class #

Begin Assignments #

Week 4 - Finishing Weaves and Connectors #

9/16 - Finishing Techniques #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Cutting off the Loom
  • Sobo Glue
  • Sewing Ends
  • Decorative Finishing Techniques

9/18 - Making Connectors #

In Class #

  • Routing and Connecting

Begin Assignments #

Week 5 - Tabby and Supplemental Wefts #

This week we’ll talk more about weaving and variations on the tabby structure. We’ll also talk about supplemental weft techniques, which can be especially useful for integrating conductive materials.

9/23 - Supplemental Wefts #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Tabby
  • Supplemental Wefts

9/25 - Winding Coils and Routing through Wovens #

  • Electromagnets
  • Winding Coils for Integration
  • Experimental Weaving Talk: TBD

Begin Assignments #

Week 6 - Color and Dye #

The goal this week is to add another dimension to our cricket loom weaving: color. We’ll focus on different color effect and dye techniques used to bring patterning and dynamism to cloth.

9/30 - Electromagnetics and Coils #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Making Flip Dots
  • Broader Applications of Electromagnetism in Cloth
  • Prep Class Looms - Beam the Warp

10/2 - Color Work and Dynamic Color #

In Class #

  • Pigments and Dyes
  • Warp Painting
  • Ikat
  • Thermochromics, Photochromics
  • Resistive Heating
  • Prep Class Looms - Thread the Heddles, Sley the Reed

Begin Assignments #

Week 7 - Drafting #

This week we’ll take the embodied understandings of weaving and electronics that we developed in the prior weeks, and discuss the additional design opportunities afforded by different kinds of looms and abstractions of weaving. We’ll also begin work on drafting, the way that we can document and share our patterns as well as translate them across looms

10/7 - Types of Looms and Drafting #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Introducing Shaft Looms.
  • Introduction To Drafting, Drawdown
  • Drafting by Hand for Harness Looms

10/9 - Twills #

In Class #

  • Introduction to Twills + Unbalanced Structures
  • Complex Twills + Undulating Twills
  • Shading
  • Weaving with a Floating Selvedge
  • AdaCAD

Begin Assignments #

Week 8 - More Shafts = More Structures #

We’ll take a look beyond basic textile structures to explore different structural possibilities of wovens as well as helpful techniques and software for weaving such structures for floor looms.

10/14 - Drafting by Cross-Section and Color Effects #

In Class #

  • Introduction to Drafting by Cross-Section
  • Double-Faced Cloth

10/16 - Decomposing Drawdown to Threading and Treadling #

In Class #

  • Understanding Layers in Weaving
  • Drafting Multi-Layer Structures

Begin Assignments #

none- keep working on Weekly 6 - Album Weave

Week 9 - Layers #

This week we begin to get into more complex structures, specifically, the ability to weave multiple layers at once.

10/21 - Layers #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Intro to Weaving with Two Layers

10/25 - Layers, Again #

In Class #

  • Thinking In Multiple Layers

Begin Assignments #

Week 10 - Shifting Gears #

The goal this week is to shift focus from isolated experiments to synthesize what we have learned and start planning a final project.

10/28 - Introducing Final Project and Surveying Contemporary Weaving #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Surveying Different Weaving Practices along four axis:
    • materials
    • ratio
    • structure
    • on the loom decisions

10/30 - Inlay and Electrodes #

In Class #

  • Learning inlay techniques
  • Customizing inlay in the context of electrodes.

Begin Assignments #

Week 11 - Materials #

The goal this week is to bring back materials into the formation of structure. Specifically, looking at materials that exhibit different forms of state change, such as elastics, shrinking, or dissolvability to see how they might bring new functionality to woven structures.

11/4 - Weaving with Elastics #

Assignments Due #

In Class #

  • Present the first set of samples produced for the final project
  • Customizing Conductive Yarn

Begin Assignments #

  • Final Samples, Set 1

11/6 - Sampling and Refining Samples #

In Class #

  • Weaving with Elastics

Week 12 - Final Check In - Sample Set 1 #

11/11 - Laura Out #

11/13 - Sample Crits #

Assignments Due #

  • Final Samples, Set 1

Week 13 - Final Check in - Sample Set 2 #

11/25 - Sample Crits / In-House Play #

11/27 - Sample Crits / In-House Play #

Assignments Due #

  • Final Samples, Set 2

In Class #

  • Experimental Weaving Talk Series: TBD

Thanksgiving Break #

Week 14 - Refine & Repeat #

12/2 - TBD #

12/4 - TBD #

Week 15 - Final Presentations #

12/9 #

Assignments Due #

In class #

  • First set of students present about their sampling process and final outcome

12/11 #

Assignments Due #

In class #

  • Second set of students present about their sampling process and final outcome

Guest Lecture Bios and Information #

This course is co-scheduled with the Experimental Weaving Talk Series. You can use the link from the talk series to learn more about each guest speaker and their work.