In the past I have done some lace making and used the lace making cushion to make some of the braids as it was a comfortable height to work at and I was able to stabilise the threads with pins making it easier to work the braids.
Below are hand twisted ropes using knitting wool, knitting ribbon that has been threaded with wool and torn fabric with metal rings at intervals. The plaits are made from torn sari fabric. Silk tops have been machined into a braid with strips of fabric attached at interval. The braid on the far right is old tights twisted and machined with cotton machine embroidery thread. This makes a nice substantial braid that twists and can be manipulated easily. I like this braid and made some more which I then machined together in a round using variegated machine embroidery thread and made a small bowl to which I added beads around the edge. The bowl is tiny 8cms across and 3cms deep but it is I think a successful way of using the machined braid and is big enough to hold small beads. I like this because it is a finished item made out of a sample braid.
Below are I think my most successful attempts at making braids, plaits and cords. I used a variety of materials including wire, knitting wool and torn fabric. I crocheted lengths of knitting wool and used a half hitch knot to cover the wool using gimp. I did a half hitch knot in gimp over a covered wire core. Fabric strips were plaited with knitting wool. Knitting wool was used as a core for a fabric with a half hitch knot worked over it very loosely. This is one of my favourites and can be seen in the middle of the photograph below (the fabric is pink and yellow with copper coloured knitting wool. I like it because I was beginning to feel was working more experimetally and freely as I did this piece. I also like the hand twisted rope third from left which is made using knitting wool and a fancy knitting wool. The fancy knitting wool has threads stricking out from it and makes this braid very textured and tactile. This is why I like it. I also like the bright colours of the red and mustard with the pieces of coloured fabric sticking out at intervals. This is a change for me to use brighter colours as I tend to use more muted ones and I feel is a step forward for me. I attribute this to doing the colour analysis exercises and I am now looking at colour schemes that I can put together from source material to make my sample pieces. Again a step forward I think.
I also made a machined braid by machining knitting wool with a cotton machine embroidery thread using a zig zag stitch. I then plaited this. It is fifth from the left in the photograph. Again this was a different use of colour for me and I like it. I like the strong rust machine thread against the mustard and pale turquoise knitting yarn. A combination I would not have thought of before.
I really enjoyed this exercise and felt this was because I could just let my imagination go with regard to materials and types of braids I made.
I saw on a blog how to use up left over fabric strips and make fabric hand twisted ropes with them. I had some fabric strips left over from making quilts. I hand twisted them into fabric ropes. This was actually quite addictive and I could have gone further and started to cut up yards of new fabric just to make the cords. I thought this was a bit much and stopped when I had used a good batch of my leftover pieces. I like the torn edges on the twists and the way the colours appeared as the pieces of fabric were picked up at random. I am beginning to realise that I like texture and it is starting to feature more in my work.
R Lee (2010) three-dimensional textiles with coils, loops knots and nets Batsford
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