Mirrix Press Presents
TAPESTRY/BEAD
CUFF BRACELET
BY CLAUDIA CHASE
• CHAPTER 1 •
GETTING STARTED
What you need:
-A pair of scissors
-A Mirrix Loom (preferably size 12 or larger with a shedding
device) and all that comes with one.
-A bead mat (optional)
-A ten-dent spring (if you do NOT have one we can work with
a twelve-dent spring by stretching it but we do recommend
having one). Remember having a ten-dent spring means that
there are ten dents (spaces in the warp coil) in an inch when
on the loom.
-Glue that can bond fabric to metal. These types of glue are available
through craft outlets. You will only need this for finishing your cuff.
-A tapestry/bead cuff bracelet kit (or similar materials: Yarn
(for example: silk, rayon floss, perle cotton, novelty yarns); A
spool of beading cord; beading thread, a brass cuff; a piece of
ultra suede; size 8/0 and 11/0 seed beads)
-Heddles
To make them yourself: You will need to make as many individual
heddles as there will be warps in your weaving. These heddles (as
well as the Mirrix heddles you can buy) will be reusable. The thinner
and stronger the string you use, the better. For bead weavers, cotton
quilting or beading thread works great. For tapestry weavers, cotton
crochet thread, linen warp or single-ply cotton warp works well. Nail
two finishing nails into a piece of wood three and one-eight inches
apart. You will use this little tool to tie your warps. Cut ten inch
lengths of your heddle material, one for each heddle you will make.
Tie them around the nails, using an overhand knot to secure the ends.
In order to get that knot to sit right next to the nail, slip a needle into
the knot before it is pulled tight and push the knot toward the nail.
Then tighten it. Trim off the ends of the heddles to within a quarter of
an inch of the knot.)
-A needle (or needles)
-A Phillips head screw driver IF you have wooden clips
How you want to set up your work space is up to you, but we
suggest f inding a f lat surface and organizing ever ything
y o u w i l l n e e d t o w a r p t h e l o o m a n d b e g i n we av i n g . S w i n g
out the two (or one if you are using an 8" loom) legs under
the loom and place it on a f lat surface.
M a ke s u r e y o u r l o o m i s a t a h e i g h t s o y o u h ave a b o u t 2 " o f
threaded rod showing on each side. Measure to make sure
t h e l o o m i s e v e n . We s u g g e s t i f y o u a r e u s i n g a s i z e 12 " l o o m
o r l a rge r t h a t y o u p u t y o u r we av i n g o n t h e l e f t o r r i g h t s i d e
o f t h e l o o m . Yo u w i l l n e e d s o m e k i n d o f s t r i n g t o t i e a r o u n d
the warping bar on the opposite side of where you will put
y o u r p i e c e . Yo u w i l l d o t h i s a f t e r y o u h a v e w a r p e d y o u r
l o o m . I t w i l l h e l p t o s t a b i l i z e t h e w a r p i n g b a r. T h e r e a s o n
you don't put it in the middle of the loom is, because it is
s u c h a t h i n p i e c e , i t i s d i f f i c u l t t o b a l a n c e t h e b a r. Yo u m a y
want to warp the loom on both sides and make another piece
on the other side at a later date.The tapestry/bead cuff
bracelet cuffs come with enough extra yarn to make another
piece.
For the tapestr y/bead cuff
you will warp your loom for
tapestry rather than bead
we av i n g ( t h i s m e a n s o n e
warp in each dent instead of
two). Please refer to our online
warping instr uctions for
detailed directions on
warping your loom.CLICK
HERE Yo u c a n a l s o r e f e r t o t h e
instructions that came with
your tapestry/bead cuff
b r a c e l e t k i t i f y o u h ave o n e . Yo u w i l l n e e d t o w a r p f i f t e e n
dents across for this project.
•Warping •
Following are pictures and brief explanations of how to warp for this
project (if you have never warped before you will still want to refer to the
warping instructions).
First, place the warping bar between the
two clips (turn the clips backwards and
push them in slightly to hold the warping
bar while warping. (Note: There is a
bottom spring kit on this loom, although
one is not necessary for this project. A
bottom spring kit is used to organize your
warps and is especially useful when
weaving wide bead pieces or small-scale
tapestry pieces.)
Loom with warping bar in place
Warped loom
The tapestry/bead cuff bracelet is a relatively thin
project, so we suggest warping your piece on one side of
the loom. When you are done warping, tie a piece of cord
(any string can be used) on the other side of the loom to
keep the warping bar to keep balanced. Alternatively,
you can warp another piece on the other side to weave
later.
The top of the loom, 15 warps across
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Loom with warp on it. The cord on the right side
helps balance the warping bar (which has been
pulled down lower on the loom).
Next, place the shedding device in your wooden (or
plastic) clips (turning them around so they stick
forward) and begin putting heddles on.
Heddles attach the warp threads to the shedding device, allowing
you to change sheds when you change the position of the shedding
device handle.
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The loom, warped and with heddles
on both sides of the shedding device.
The loom, ready to be woven
on with the shedding device
handle attached.
Close-up of heddles attached to shedding device
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•Weaving a Header •
Once the shedding
device is put on the
loom, all you have to do
is engage the shedding
device(the shedding
device raises half the
warps) and place your
weft between those
warps. (When you are
doing this, make sure
your weft ends face the
back of the piece, this
can be accomplished
either by wrapping
your end around so it
faces back or by
starting your weft in
the middle of the piece.)
Then, change the shed
by moving the
shedding device into
the other position (and
therefore raising the
other half of the warps)
and weave through the
raised and lowered
warps again.
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• CHAPTER 2 •
WEAVING
There are many different tapestry techniques you
can use when weaving a cuff, but if you are a
beginner you may want to just begin with straight
lines. One of the difficult things about weaving
tapestry is that there is a tendency to "pull in",
which means you pull your edges in too tight
making the edges (or "selvages") of the piece not
straight. This piece makes keeping your selvages
straight easy, both because it is thin and because the
rows of beads help space the piece.
If you haven't woven tapestry before, do some
research:
http://www.americantapestryalliance.org/
http://www.tapestrywine.blogspot.com/
http://www.canadiantapestrynetwork.com/
• Beginning to Weave •
To Start
Picture your final product: Because these cuffs seem to look awesome
no matter what, we often weave them with
no solid plan. But, some of you may want
to decide what you will weave before you
begin. You may want to decide on some
basic design elements before you begin.
For example, do you want to put in beads
in regular increments or randomly? Do
you want to have stripes? What types of
tapestry techniques so you want to use? Choose your colors (and your materials):
If you have a tapestry/bead cuff bracelet
kit purchased from us, you have a variety
of hand-dyed silk and other yarns to
choose from when making your cuff.
Before you begin weaving, take a look at
what colors you have available and try to
decide what ones you want to use. If you
do not have a kit purchased from us,
decide on what types of yarn you want to
use as well as what colors. 7
Begin weaving:
The concept of tapestry weaving in this format is very
simple. You engage the shedding device (just like you
did when weaving your header) and weave in between
the raised and lowered threads. We recommend
starting your weft threads in the middle of the piece
instead of on the edges so your ends are all facing the
back (if you don't, make sure to wrap the ends around
so they do face the back). Weave through once, change the position of the
shedding device and then weave through again.
Continue doing this. You can mix colors (two silks
together make a gorgeous pattern), mix different types
of yarn (the silk and novelty railroad yarn look great
together) or just stick with solid stripes. We will
discuss different tapestry you can use soon!
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Add Beads
Thread tied in a
loop threaded
through a needle.
Using beads is what makes the tapestry/bead cuff
bracelet unique. The beads are actually woven into
the cuff on whatever you are using for weft. The first step to doing this is to take a piece of
beading thread (as you know, we use C-Lon thread)
and tie a loop of it onto a needle. You will then put
your weft thread (let's say you having been weaving
with yellow silk, you will put that piece of silk
through the loop you made with the beading thread
and then put 14 size 8.0 beads on the needle,
moving them over the loop and onto the silk (or
whatever your weft thread is, make sure it is thin
enough to put the beads on it.)
The beads on
the yellow silk.
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Next, (making sure you remembered to change sheds) place the beads
on the silk between the spaces in the warp threads. They should fit
exactly (this is why it is important to have the ten dent spring...
spacing matters a lot when you are using beads in tapestry). Then,
continue weaving with the same thread.
Keep experimenting mixing fibers and adding beads.
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Tapestry Techniques
Definitions
1. Selvages: The four sides of your
piece.
2. Warp interlock: When the two
ends of weft meet at a warp
thread and wrap around that
thread before changing
direction. Tapestry Techniques
If you're interested in better explanations of
tapestry techniques or want to learn tapestry, we
suggest you purchase a book. Kathe ToddHooker's book, "Tapestry 101" and "Tapestry
Weaving" by Kirsten Glasbrook are both great
books for beginners with lots of detail and easyto-follow instructions.
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Tapestry techniques we're trying today: Pick and
Pick, Wavy Lines, Hatching.
A Short Explanation of Pick and Pick
and Wavy Lines
Both of these techniques require that you alternate the weaving of two
different color threads. In pick and pick, you alternate them one after
another. In other words, thread one, thread two, thread one, thread
two, etc.. Wavy line technique requires that you weave thread one
twice, thread two twice, thread one twice, thread two twice. Pick and
pick produces vertical stripes, whereas wavy lines produces the effect
of wavy lines. These two have in common the necessity to deal with
the selvages in a slightly unusual manner. You will have to manage
these two threads in a way that will guarantee the selvage thread has
enough weft around it.In the first case, depending on the position of
your threads you will have to wrap one of your weft threads around
the selvage thread in order to guarantee complete coverage.
In the second case, the top thread will pull the second thread and by
doing so the top thread will cover the selvage thread twice. These
techniques take some time to master but are well worth the effort. If
you're feeling intimidated, it is by no means necessary to use these
techniques in your cuff but we do suggest you try the hatching
technique (described last) at the very least.
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Pick and Pick
First line of yellow.
In our example, we've used
magenta and a golden yellow to
begin our pick and pick.
We alternate the colors thereby
creating vertical stripes. In other
words, weave the yellow thread
once, and then the magenta thread
once (making sure to change
sheds every time you weave a new
thread) then the yellow, then the
magenta, etc...
Follow the pictures for a visual of
what we did:
Second line of magenta
(refer back to learn how
to deal with your edges).
Remember to change
your shed every time you
bring a thread across.
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To continue with this design, but to add something extra, we
stopped the magenta in the middle of the piece and started a purple
thread at that place, thereby replacing the magenta with the purple.
This allows us to continue the design but with a different color
scheme. You could theoretically keep replacing threads as they run
out with new ones for the entire bracelet and allow that to be your
design. One way to approach this would be continue with the
yellow thread and only replace the other ones. That would give you
the most interesting effect. This kit may not include enough of any
one shade of one color to do that, but we wanted to give you an idea
of future design possibilities. We switched to using green after the
purple thread as an example of this.
Notice the
beautiful vertical s
tripes emerging.
Changing the
color to purple.
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Wa v y L i n e s
The first pass through with
green.
Wavy lines are very similar to pick and pick
but instead of making one pass with a color,
you make two passes creating what looks like
wavy lines. Here, we started with two passes weaving with
green, then two with yellow, then two with
green, etc... Follow the pictures to see what we did:
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Hatching
This technique also involves two threads but
the left thread will stay on the left and the
right thread will stay on the right. In a full
scale tapestry this is a great way to blend two
colors together to create shading. This
technique also involves warp interlock
because when the two ends meet at a warp
thread they each wrap around it before
changing direction.
The yellow and blue thread
heading toward each other.
The way hatching works: The two threads will
come meet each other at any place within the
tapestry you would like. The threads must be
woven toward each other. They will then wrap
around a common warp thread and head
away from each other in the next shed. These
two colors will dovetail into each other. A lot of
other techniques can spring from this one
including adding additional colors. For now
and for such a small piece we suggest you
keep it simple and just use two colors.
Wrap the two threads
around the common warp,
change sheds and head in
opposite directions.
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A visual of the threads
wrapping around a common
warp.
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Remember that these techniques can
take some time to master.
Play around! Have fun!
You can see here how the
dovetailing is beginning to
reveal itself!
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Finishing Techniques
Remember:
Weave your tapestry until the
inner section (excluding header
and footer) is seven inches. Yes,
this is a tad more length than
you need. However, whenever we
have gotten impatient and
skimped on length, we have
found our pieces are just a tiny
bit short, making finishing a
nightmare. So, better longer
than shorter and better safe than
sorry because there is nothing
worse weaving wise to create a
beautiful piece that cannot be
finished because it's too short. 20
Cut your piece off the loom. Cut as near to the bar as possible. This is
most important for the bottom warps as you need them to be at least
four inches in length in order to easily tie overhand knots.
Begin on one side of the piece by tying
the first part of a half hitch knot.
Weight one end of piece with something heavy. You can
use bricks, books . . . whatever is handy. This allows you
to tie the knots on the other end.
Pull half-hitch knot until it is flush
with weaving.
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Tighten knot with needle
inserted. Push needle toward
weaving. This will tighten the
knot but not allow it to tighten
before you've reached the
weaving.
Make an overhand knot.
Tie all knots on that side. Since
you have an odd number of warps
you will need to make one of the
knots three warps: one warp tied
to two warps.
Trim knots so they are about
a quarter inches plus long.
Insert a needle in knot.
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Trim tails on back of weaving so that they
are about half an inch long.
Fold over end of piece to back of piece
and sew with a whip stitch.
Size piece to metal cuff to
decide hem placement.
Size piece again to determine
second hem.
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Glue ultra suede to inside of cuff. We use E6000 but
any glue that bonds fabric to metal is fine. You will
be sewing the two lawyers together (the ultra suede
and the tapestry) so this bond is not one that
permanently holds the fabric to the cuff, but one that
holds it in place while you sew up the edges.
Trim the edges of the ultra suede
so that you have about an eighth
an inch on all sides. Don't worry if
this is not perfect. When you sew
the edges to the weaving all errors
will be covered up. Do not over
trim. Err on the wide of too much,
not too little, fabric. While you are
sewing you can trim a little more
if need be. As in every case with
this piece, more is better. Less can
cause huge problems.
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Put glue on back of weaving. Push the strands of yarn
inward and try to calm them down with the glue. This
makes glueing this piece to the cuff much easier because
those stray ends will not be poking out all over the place .
Glue tapestry to cuff.
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Start at a corner of the cuff. Pull your thread
through the back of the tapestry to the front.
Then start whip stitching the ultra-sued and
tapestry together.
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Once you are finished sewing the two edges together you can add your
beads! Bury the end of a new thread inside the cuff. Pick up three beads.
Whip stitch around the edge of the tapestry and the ultra-suede. Continue
around the whole piece until finished. You can add more than three beads if
you like. The goal is to cover the stitching and to make the piece looked
finished and beautiful. However you get there is your own personal and
lovely touch.
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The Finished Cuff
L e t Yo u r I m a g i n a t i o n Run Wild!
There are endless variations of these
cuffs... experiment and have fun!
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Credits
• By Claudia Chase &
Elena Zuyok of
Mirrix Looms •
© Mirrix Tapestry & Bead Looms 2012
www.mirrixlooms.com
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