Nature, with all its texture, colour, and seasonal variation, is an incredible source of visual inspiration. It’s also a unique starting point for gathering up found materials that can be incorporated into your weavings, including handwoven art. So whether you are a long-time weaver or just a beginner, you’ll find – as I did – that weaving with nature is a lot of fun and much easier than it looks.
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***A Note Before We Begin***
The following tips and mini tutorial assumes a basic knowledge of weaving. If you wish to learn the basics, no problem! Go to my Intro to Weaving blog posts (part 1 and part 2) for a more detailed overview.
WEAVING WITH NATURE: Gather Your Supplies
WEAVING TOOLS: 3 main tools needed
● Loom (the one I’m using is part of a beginner kit and can be purchased in my Etsy shop; you can also make a temporary cardboard loom that I demonstrate in this woven coasters tutorial OR your own homemade wooden loom)
● Tapestry Needle (lots available online)
● Shed Stick (I’m using one from my Etsy shop’s weaving kit; you can also use a ruler, a paint stir stick, or a long, narrow piece of stiff cardboard)
WEAVING MATERIALS: 3 main materials needed
● Warp String (I typically use 1mm cotton warp string that you can find in a variety of colours on Etsy)
● Yarn
● Natural Materials: I will be using a mix of dried florals and strips of birch bark to demonstrate. But you can also incorporate twigs and sticks, driftwood and other stiff, natural materials.
TIPS: Weaving With Nature
First, let’s discuss some things you should consider before moving onto the mini tutorial.
1/ Choosing Your ‘Nature’ Supplies
For the best experience (especially for beginners), CHOOSE MATERIALS THAT ARE LONG, REASONABLY FLAT AND RIGID.
Things like straight TWIGS or STICKS and long STRIPS OF BARK. Long, DRIED FLORALS are great, too, as long as they don’t break easily or flake off at the slightest touch (more on that later). These materials will be easier to incorporate, weave around, and will be less ‘finicky’ to keep in place. As you become comfortable, you can later experiment with smaller or bigger and shapelier materials.
Also, be sure to choose materials that have been THOROUGHLY DRIED. This will ensure your materials do not shrink over time and will retain their shape within the weaving itself.
2/ A Word or Two About Design
For an easy introduction (especially for beginners), I suggest you DISPERSE the NATURAL MATERIALS BETWEEN WOVEN ROWS OF YARN. This will create even distribution in weight and allow the yarn to ‘hold’ the natural materials together, more or less.
Along those same lines, I suggest you START AND END your piece WITH YARN (i.e., the first rows and last rows along the bottom and top of your weaving). This will make finishing your weaving a more familiar experience. Whether you choose to use overhand knots, a hemstitch, or any other method of reinforcing the top and bottom of your piece, this will be easier to do when you are working with yarn.
3/ Slow & Steady
For the best experience (especially for beginners), START SLOW.
For your first piece, you may wish to fill your piece with lots of found objects from nature, but I would suggest CHOOSING JUST A FEW NATURAL MATERIALS TO START. Remember, nature does not bend like yarn does, so any stiff materials you use may create unexpected (and unwanted) shape in the overall design.
Now, the fun part!
MINI TUTORIAL: Weaving With Nature
Start by warping your loom (i.e., setting up the foundation).
(Not sure how to ‘warp’ a loom? Learn how in my Intro to Weaving blog post).
You can use the full width of the loom, if you wish, or only a portion as I did.
To start your piece, create SEVERAL ROWS OF PLAIN (OR ‘TABBY’) WEAVE.
At minimum, I recommend approximately 8 rows of plain weave for your first ‘weaving with nature’ experiment. (In my piece below, I began with 12 rows of off-white cotton yarn, followed by 3 rows of green wool roving yarn).
(For a refresher on how to ‘plain’ weave, review part 2 of my Intro to Weaving blog post).
The FIRST NATURAL ELEMENT I included were these DRIED WILDFLOWERS.
Instead of weaving these flowers into the piece – as you would with yarn and a tapestry needle – you will be sliding them in place using a SHED STICK.
(Shed stick alternatives: a RULER, A PAINT STIR STICK, or RIGID PIECE OF CARDBOARD).
TAKING YOUR SHED STICK, WEAVE IT ACROSS just like you would with a tapestry needle, GOING OVER AND UNDER EVERY OTHER WARP STRING (i.e., using the plain or ‘tabby’ weave method).
Then, TAKING THE SHED STICK, BEGIN TILTING THE TOP EDGE UPWARDS.
Continue until the shed stick is RESTING PERPENDICULAR to your table or weaving surface.
At this point, you may let go of the shed stick. The WARP WILL HOLD IT IN PLACE.
By doing so, you’ve just CREATED A LITTLE POCKET OF SPACE WITHIN THE WARP. Here is a VIEW FROM THE SIDE.
This is what will allow you to more easily weave in any natural materials you’ve gathered.
BEGIN TO SLIDE YOUR CHOSEN MATERIAL INTO THE POCKET.
In this case, I’m using DRIED WILDFLOWERS. I began by sliding THE STEM END into the POCKET from the left side and TOWARDS THE RIGHT (see below).
Then, take a SECOND STEM and slide it FROM THE RIGHT SIDE with the STEM TIP SLIDING TOWARD THE LEFT.
To let your flowers shine through, let the floral bits HANG PAST THE EDGES OF THE WARP an inch or so. Then NUDGE THEM DOWN towards the woven rows below.
Once you are happy with the placement, TILT THE SHED STICK BACK DOWN so that it sits FLAT AGAINST THE WARP.
Then, SLIDE IT back out across the warp.
NOTE: These florals were more fragile than expected. The buds SHED A LOT, especially as I continued weaving. I’ll share MY ‘FIX’ for this issue, later.
Next Steps:
1/ add more woven rows of yarn (I added approx. 8 rows of grey yarn), 2/ followed by more dried flowers, 3/ followed by 3 rows of citrus green roving wool yarn.
Here are some SNAPS FROM THE PROCESS:
1/ Weaving rows of yarn above the dried florals:
2/ Followed by more dried flowers and 3/ more rows of yarn above that:
Next Step:
Adding a STRIP OF BIRCH BARK.
RIP THE BARK to the width you desire, making sure it is long enough to cover the width of your weaving.
As you did before, take your SHED STICK AND WEAVE ACROSS THE WARP, create a POCKET OF SPACE, and slide in the STRIP OF BIRCH BARK.
Tilt the SHED STICK down, laying it flat against the warp, and PULL IT OUT.
Because of the jagged edge of the bark, you will have an uneven space to weave rows of yarn, both under the bark, and above it. Feel free to leave some empty space in your warp, but for this tutorial, I will show you how to FILL IN THE GAPS.
Start by SLIDING THE BARK UP GENTLY, leaving ample space to weave.
Then, add some woven rows FOLLOWING THE SHAPE OF THE BARK. This will allow you to FILL IN ANY GAPS. In my weaving experiment, I wove 1.5 rows, following the general shape of the bark along it’s bottom edge, after which I SLID THE BARK DOWN TO MEET THOSE ROWS.
I then wove above the bark, using the same idea by following the shape of the top edge of the bark to FILL IN THE GAP ACROSS THE WARP. I wove 2 partial rows of yarn to achieve this.
Next, I ADDED 2 bunches of DRIED & PRESERVED BABY’S BREATH FLOWERS.
Just as before, taking the shed stick, I wove it across the warp and created a pocket of space.
I then SLIPPED ONE BUNCH OF FLOWERS FROM THE LEFT SIDE OF THE WARP and a SECOND BUNCH FROM THE RIGHT SIDE, making sure that the STEMS WERE POINTED TOWARDS THE MIDDLE.
As before, I tilted the shed stick back down and slid it out.
I then PUSHED the dried flowers down USING MY FINGERS.
FOR THE REST OF THIS DESIGN, I repeated the process by using the SAME MATERIALS and SAME METHODS.
Here are SOME SNAPS from that PROCESS:
ONCE YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR PIECE, secure the top and bottom edge of your weaving as you normally would. (One of my favourite finishing methods is the hemstitch which I detail in this tutorial –> Finishing Your Weaving with a Hemstitch).
FIXING UP THOSE WILDFLOWERS:
Before removing the weaving from the loom, I realized just how FRAGILE THOSE WILDFLOWERS ALONG THE BOTTOM WERE! You can see that the flowers are already starting to flake off while I was still weaving (see below):
Here is how I addressed that:
While the weaving was still on the loom, I ADDED 1 more SHORT STEM along ONE SIDE (ABOUT 3-4 INCHES) and 1 more STEM ALONG THE OTHER (ABOUT 3-4 INCHES). I GENTLY INSERTED THEM into the piece (no easy task!), making sure to insert them between 3 or 4 warp strings.
Here is a CLOSE-UP OF THOSE STEMS ALREADY INSERTED – on the LEFT SIDE:
And on the RIGHT SIDE (I managed to get the stem through a couple of warp strings):
NOT IDEAL, nor recommended, but as an experiment, it worked out to be a good learning experience 🙂
ONCE YOU ARE DONE, remove your weaving from the loom, secure the bottom with whatever method you prefer (overhand knots or hemstitch), secure the top the same way, and then slip your driftwood OR other dowel through the loops.
(If you are new to weaving and/or need a refresher on finishing touches, including removing your weaving, refer back to my Intro to Weaving, part 2, as well as my 2 Quick Ways to Hang a Weaving).
CONGRATS! You’ve just embarked upon the WONDERFUL WORLD OF WEAVING WITH NATURE.
I’ve been sampling this method of weaving lately, sharing my NATURE WEAVING EXPERIMENTS on my Instagram Stories @LoomAndFibre, and absolutely loving it!
I hope today’s post has you inspired to try weaving with nature – or at least this gentle introduction to it – a try.
Happy Weaving 🙂
Want to delve into the wider world of weaving, but don’t know where to start? Check out my “WEAVING BASICS”, an introductory level video-based weaving course for absolute beginners.
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