01 — Damask · Silk
Bombyx
Commission a cloth like this- Commissioned for
- Reading room of a private library, Geneva
- Structure
- Damask, 5-end satin, warp- and weft-faced
- Yarn
- Silk organzine warp, silk tram weft
- Sett
- 84 ends / cm · 60 picks / cm
- Repeat
- 32 × 60 cm · 3,600 picks
- Loom
- Electronic head, 2,688 hooks
- Woven
- 14 m in 9 weeks
A black and ivory damask of silk moths and mulberry leaves — the animal and the tree that silk comes from.
The library's owner collects early natural history. We drew Bombyx mori from an entomology plate, simplified the wing to a few hundred ends, and set it in a half-drop of mulberry leaves so the moth never lines up with itself across a wall.
The ground is warp-faced satin, the figure weft-faced. In the reading room's side light the moths turn from ivory to shadow as you walk past — the same threads, catching the light from a different face.
01 — Mise en carte
The point paper.
One square per crossing of warp and weft, a heavier rule every eight. Hover a row to read it as a card.
Pick 0000 · hooks up 000
02 — Lisage
Cut into cards.
The same rows, punched. A hole lifts a hook; a hook lifts an end. The chain is laced with linen cord and read one card per pick.
03 — Tissage
At the thread.
Hold the thread counter over the cloth to see the floats: long on the figure, tied down on the ground.
04 — Endroit, envers
Two faces.
Face and back of the same cloth. What is warp-faced on one side is weft-faced on the other.