Tablet Weaving and Ply-Splitting Books, Tools & Kits
Tablet-Woven Wire Rain Chain by Linda Hendrickson
and Hammered Brass Basin by Rebecca Melton
I was invited to participate in the 2006 collaborative exhibition at Art in the Pearl, and collaborated with metalsmith Rebecca Melton.
Rebecca and I created a piece of garden art inspired by Japanese rain chains -- Rebecca made a hammered brass basin, and I created five tablet-woven funnel cups out of brass and copper wire. The cups are suspended from wire rope that I made with my Bradshaw cordmaker. Metalsmith Greg Wilbur provided a hammered copper ladle for the basin, and people were invited to dip water from the basin and pour it into the cups.
I used the double-faced weave so one side is mostly brass and the other copper. Then by folding and shaping, I was able to get a pleasing funnel-shaped cup. I left a long wire fringe on each end of the woven part.
I purchased wire on one-pound spools, and wound a continuous warp directly from these spools by putting them on the horizontal dowels of my tensioning blocks and then up through a warping wand -- it worked great. I made the warp around vertical posts, but instead of dropping the tablets on each side as usual, I put each tablet on top of the previous one. Then when the warp was finished, I was able to transfer it to my tensioning blocks with the horizontal dowels and start weaving.
I experimented with different gauges of wire, number of tablets, and width and length of the woven section to see what works best. I used 22 gauge copper and brass with 74 tablets for the first cup. For the remaining cups, I used 24 gauge for both metals, or a combination of 22 and 24 gauge.
Tablet Weaving Gallery
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This page updated on June 28, 2013.