Some background:
A couple of years ago my local guild thought it would be nice if our national guild would present weaving ideas and/or drafts and/or complete instructions now and again.
We proposed that to the AGM, and we got very differing reactions – some thought it a great idea, others said they would never, ever "give away" their work for free. (If I tell "them", then "they" will know as much as I do – and then, where would I be?)
A year, or maybe 2, later it was decided that we should give it a try. (Now we have 26 "Månadens väv" published, all in .pdf-format. All are welcome to download and be inspired!) Me and my guild, being responisble for the idea, have taken it rather too seriously to supply drafts. (In fact, we have sent in over 30% of the drafts, having 2% of the members of Riks.)
"The usual" did happen: "oh, what a good idea – I love to see all the new weaves!" "What? Me contribute? But I’m not good enough/have only 4 shafts/only weave on a drawloom/..." (Note: nobody says, to my face, anyway, that they don't want to share.)
So I decided it was time to do something – and, in the last guild mag, I issued The Profile Draft Challenge (or click here for Swedish.)
I hope we can get at least 12 Månadens väv out of it!!!
After thinking a bit further, I decided to extend the challenge/invite to weavers from all over the world. (I may not be authorized to promise a publication as a Månadens väv, but as I am webmaster for the local pages, I can do what I want with them, right?)
To make the challenge even more open/accessible, I started a group on Weavolution, too.
So now I invite those of my readers who are neither members of Riksföreningen för handvävning nor members of Weavolution to at least read about it – and then maybe to become members of one or the other (or both!) – and join the challenge!
To get a .wif, you have to go either to the guild page(s) or to Weavolution.
4 comments:
What a great idea for a national challenge. I've just been thinking about the business of sharing drafts since someone emailed me the other day and asked for the draft of something I had woven. I really didn't want to share that draft since it was from a special piece which I had designed for an exhibition, but at the same time it wasn't especially complicated and I reckoned someone else could easily derive the same thing if they thought about it. So I directed her instead to the reference material which I had used!
I have been pondering on the reaction I had to this correspondence as it was driven by my original intention in the weaving. If I design something with the intention to publish then it is quite different from being asked to share the "secrets" of a personal piece of work. To be honest, I didn't like the feeling of someone saying "I want to copy your work" (though I am not sure she realised it was an original design), but on the other hand I was perfectly happy to explain the principles and set someone else off on the same path... So I can sympathise with those who feel awkward about it - perhaps they have had some experiences which made them uncomfortable - but it still seems like a great idea to me.
We have had several long discussions about this in the (local) guild.
If you look at most of the drafts we have on our (local) page(s), most do not have a "quality" (no yarn spec, no sett etc), just because of that. We thought inspiration was/is more important than complete recipes. (Some of our monthly contributions have yarn/sett, others have not.)
- I'm totally with you when it comes to "copy", but I like to think that I can give inspiration. Thus, ppl who ask to photo my work always get permission, but if they get out the measuring tape I say no!
Myself - if I see something I like, I look at it good and long. The next day (not until then) I make sketches - that way, only what I remember gets in the sketch. Which hopefully means my "interpretation" will get to be quite different from the "original"...
That's an interesting approach and a good exercise in committing to memory what matters to you!
Hej Kerstin! Det kommer att bli en varprips från mej med detta mönster till månadens väv.
Kram Birgitta
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