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 Contacta con nosotros | Do you recognise the photo below? Even if you do know it is a close-up of fabric being woven on a loom, how much do you know about how woven fabrics are designed? Spanish-based weaver and designer Anna Champeney explains the design philosophy behind the textiles on sale in the www.textilesnaturales.com shop 
“I’ll start by saying all our designs are original – we don´t copy weaving patterns from weaving books or magazines but build our designs up from scratch. The only exception to that are our re-intepretations of Spanish folk textiles and even then we add our own unique touches. Behind all our textile designs there is a meticulous process of testing out different ideas and variables to find the optimum design. Sampling is one important part of this process and cloth finishing is also vital: just look at the photos below to see how fabrics can be transformed when they are taken of the loom and wet-finished. Hand-woven fabrics which reflect the mood of the weaver There are many many different variables which affect drape, softness and texture in hand-woven textiles. Usually weavers are drawn to this complexity and the challenge of being able to direct these variables whilst being open to surprises. Small changes in colour or the threads used can really change a fabric in a fundamental way. Amazing as it may sound, hand-woven fabrics can even subtly reflect your mood or energy levels; if you are feeling full of energy you may, unconsciously, beat the lines of yarn in tighter, if you are tired the opposite may be true, affecting the softness and drape of the fabric and even changing its width! We always keep detailed notes of what we are doing so we know how to re-create a successful fabric formula exactly if we need or want to. The weaving workshop as a textile laboratory Our designs process start with a basic idea which is then worked up on the loom to produce small fabric swatches or samples. The idea can be a photograph, a particular loom setup, or even the yarns themselves. During the design process textile studio basically becomes a laboratory for testing out new ideas, in the firm belief that this experimentation is the key for interesting, and ever better new designs. These are analysed and then other samples made or the sample is adapted and transformed into a final design.  
Above photos: Waffle weave is often used by the textile industry to weave cotton towels but we have used this classic weave to create something highly colourful and textural as this close-up shows. The first photo is the finished piece, the second photo is the same fabric but on the loom, before the fabric has been finished. Why take so long to design a textile? You can, of course, take short cuts to making hand-woven fabrics and leave out the sampling process altogether. But we don’t believe that they lead to the creation of an individual style or very accomplished work; our experience is that you rarely alight on the best idea or design formula first time around. We think that our clients are looking for distinctive work with wonderful textures and interesting designs. This is the constant challenge we have infront of us and to meet this weavers, like any other designers, need to have adequate design skills. Designing a beautiful hand-woven textile may require more skill than weaving it and the highest compliment somebody can pay to our skill is is by purchasing our work. So if you are a home-weaver don’t need to earn a living from making textiles does it matter as much? I would say that definitely it does. You need to produce beautiful work which you, your family and friends will genuinely love and use! Also, the public perception of weaving depends on home-weavers to quite a large extent, who often demonstrate and attend community-based events. So whichever way you look at it, design skills are important, for home weavers, professionals, and the reputation of the weaving community as a whole. Applying the design philosphy to teaching weaving As our weave studio is a teaching studio as well as a production studio we apply our basic philosophy of designing based on creative sampling as one we apply to our teaching as much as to the textiles we sell. So we encourage everyone, even complete beginners, to observe what they are doing on the loom to discover the design principles which lied behind beautiful hand-woven cloth. We also recognise that learning is a life-long process and that you can always improve your skills. In May, for example, we are having a 3 week break from production and teaching work in order to spend time with Gina Hedegaard, to learn Danish textile designing techniques. So don’t forget to visit the blog again in May when we’ll be writing up our experiences. Collapse fabrics inspired by classic 4-shaft weaves The textile details you see in this blog are our latest samples, woven just two days ago and inspired by an email conversation with art weaver Anne Richards (UK). We tried taking classic structures like waffle weave and point twill and combining high twist and silk yarns both in warp and weft. On the loom the cloth looks open, light and lacey, but once hot-washed becomes transformed. You won’t find any of these designs in our online shop because they are currently works in progress. But we invite you to come back to our blog in future as all our samples filter through into finished designs sooner or later!   Above photos: The first photo is a close-up of a “point twill fabric” which is normally easily recognisable for its zigzag pattern. Our sample transforms this classic fabric into something very different. The right hand photo shows the same sample in an earlier stage of its making, on the loom. Yarns and Textiles for sale: 26/2 nm linen (white) is available direct from AC Estudio Textile by the cone. 52/2 high twist yarn is available from Handweavers’ Studio in London. AC Estudio Textil textiles – here at textilesnaturales.com you can see and buy a selection of our work. For more information about our yarns and textiles click here. Spanish holiday cottage, loom hire and weaving tuition: Come with a partner, a friend, or a group of weaver friends to stay in our comfy two-bedroom rural cottage in the beautiful mountains of Galicia, north Spain. The cottage is just 30 metres from the textile studio where you can reserve the use of a loom to try out our yarns, work on your own project or book some personalised weaving tuition from beginner level upwards.
 26/2 nm, 100/1 nm and 12/2 linens from AC Estudio Textil
SHOPPING FOR LINEN WEAVING YARNS
Here at the AC Estudio Textil in north Spain we specialise in weaving with natural linen, and as such, we have quite a selection of un-dyed yarns from a very fine 100nm through to a very natural rustic sack linen. We can send these yarns out to you by post and accept payment in euros and in pounds sterling by cheque or bank transfer (we hope to accept payment by Paypal soon). Because we use these yarns ourselves, both for our limited-edition textiles and in our weave courses and holiday tuition, we feel confident that if we like using the yarns you will too! We cannot guarantee to always have the same yarns in stock, however, to please ensure you order enough of any one yarn to complete your textile project.
Sample cards – (UK) Please send a cheque for 5.90 pounds sterling and a self-addressed A4 envelope to Anna Champeney Estudio Textil, Cristosende 78, 32765 A Teixeira, Ourense, Galicia, requesting a linen sample card which we can make up by hand and send out to you. Other countries – please contact us about payment methods. Metric count system: We use the nm or metric count system for yarns which means the higher the number the finer the yarn. The first number refers to the number of metres of yarn in 1000g of the yarn – as a singles yarn. The second number refers to the the ply – 2 signifies 2-ply and 1 refers to a singles yarn. e.g. 10/1 = 10,000 m/k. 10/2 = 5,000 m/k. Suggested warp setts: Only sampling can really confirm which is the correct warp sett for a particular project. However, as a general recommendation, a 12/2 nm yarn can be sett for plainweave at 7 ends per cm and a 26/2 nm can be sett at 11 or 12 hpc. WHITE LINEN Please note this is 1/8 white linen – which means it is a creamy white not a completely white white. Each thickness of yarn varies slightly in tone. Please ensure you order enough yarn for your weaving project as slight colour variations can occur from batch to batch.
- 39/2 white (on order)
- 26/2 white (on order
- 12/2 white
- 13/2 white
- 12/1 white
GREY LINEN
- 12/2 grey
- 12/1 grey
- 15/2 grey
NATURAL LINEN (a warm beige rather than a true grey)
- Rustic linen singles (possibly a number 4
- 6/1 natural linen
- 100/1 natural
Comments
“WOW! So beautiful and So FINE! Can´t wait to work with that! ” – comment by email from Mayumi about the 100/1 linen yarn and / “I can’t wait to plan a project … The 100NM linen reminds me of spider-silk from a cob web, it’s so fine!” – comment by email from Beth
OTHER YARNS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
 “Suave” yarn – A wonderfully soft natural grey 50% angora, 30% wool, 20% alpaca 2/9 nm available as skeins of 125g. Delicate hand-wash in cold water required for this as otherwise you run the risk of felting this yarn! With care, however, we have both mordanted and dyed this yarn successfully with natural dyes. The studio has used this as warp and weft for beautiful scarves and it can also be used in knitting. Unfortunately we cannot advise you further (we weave but we don´t knit!).
We also stock 50% silk, 50% wool 10/1 available on cones (un-dyed)
Visit AC Textile Studio in 2011 – Don´t forget that you can always come and try out the yarns and buy our hand-woven linen texiles direct from AC Textile Studio. The studio is situated in a picturesque village in Galicia, north Spain. We can book you self-catering accommodation in Casa dos Artesans holiday cottage, just a short stroll away from the studio. The cost of cottage rental varies from 61 pounds to 86 pounds per night depending on the length of the rental (minimum stay – 2 nights – cheap tariff – 2 weeks). Combine your stay with a weave retreat (we can rent you a loom) or simply relax and unwind in some stunning scenery. Please book early, however, because availability through 2011 is limited.
 The stunning scenery that surrounds Casa dos Artesans - 10 minutes walk from Casa dos Artesans
 Casa dos Artesans, surrounded by vineyards and ancient bodegas
 Weaving with linen warp at the textile studio
Lotte Dalgaard is one of Denmark’s most exciting hand-weavers, creating one-off fabrics with special pleated, crinkled, puckered effects in the weave, which are then transformed into unique and unusual high-end garments by Danish fashion designer Ann Schmidt. I was able to visit and interview Lotte in her studio in early January 2010 and in September Lotte will be running a special one-week collapse fabric weaving course at Anna Champeney Textile Studio in Galicia, Spain.
 Lotte Dalgaard in her textile studio near Roskilde in Denmark
Lotte Dalgaard and her architect husband, Flemming, live in a cosy Danish farmhouse to the west of Copenhagen, not far from Roskilde, famous for its Jazz Festival and Viking Museum. When I visited her Denmark was in the grip of one of the coldest spells of weather for many years, with daytime sub-zero temperatures into double figures. The farmhouse was a magical sight in the snow, and it was there, in a converted farm building, that Lotte has her spacious and light weave studio, overlooking the Danish countryside with its open fields and wide skies. Lotte’s textiles are the result of over 10 years experimentation with the new generation of yarns being developed by the textile industry, ranging from light-reflective and paper yarns to very fine overtwisted wools and metallic yarns, monofilament yarns and special shrinking yarns. The very fact that Lotte has access to these kinds of yarns in Denmark is due to the fact that she, along with other hand-weavers and the Design School in Copenhagen, set up a Yarn Purchasing Association. Collaborative ventures, co-operatives and exhibiting groups are very normal in Denmark – in many different crafts – and the Purchasing Association is a clear example of how everybody benefits from this approach. Committee members of the Association who work at the Design School attend some of the international yarn fairs in Europe and buy new yarns which are beyond the reach of individual makers because of the huge minimum quantities specified by the yarn companies. The Association makes the yarns available to individual makers, usually professionals, who can buy in smaller quantities. Anyone can become a member of the Association upon paying a membership fee, and in the UK, a number of the yarns are now sold by the Handweavers’ Studio in London. Lotte was amongst the first people to have access to these exciting new yarns in Denmark and quickly began to realise their potential for creating unusually-textured fabrics. In fact, it is true to say that access to these yarns transformed her way of working, and she now focuses almost exclusively on these textiles. When Lotte met Ann Schmidt, the original and very individual Copenhagen fashion designer (you could say fashion artist), it was the perfect recipe for a collaboration. Ann’s approach to fashion design – with a clear emphasis on creating architectural clothing designs on the mannekin, by folding cloth and forming it, rather than by simply pattern cutting was perfect for Lotte’s handwoven textiles. The results are one-off pieces which are textile garments at their most poetic. They are extremely beautiful, eye-catching, extremely individual, and at the same time beautifully wearable; Lotte gave me a midnight blue-black pleated dress to try on and you really feel quite different when you put it on as the fabric and its unusual form invites you to move in a different way.
 one-of-a-kind dress by Lotte Dalgaard and Ann Schmidt
The garments display some of the simplicity and elegant understatement of Japanese textiles – which have always been a strong influence in Ann Schmidt’s work. Nevertheless, this simplicity is deceptive because it is the result of a long meditative process, exploring the different possibilities of forming the fabric on the mannekin. I was able to visit Ann’s Studio the day that Lotte took in a new piece of fabric which I had watched her finish the night before. Ann’s mannekin was draped with a new piece of cloth, with double-weave and huge floats. This is destined to be the next one-of-a-kind garment. I really enjoyed talking with Lotte about textiles, because I recognise and know the passion and excitement she has in exploring the different materials and really getting to know their properties and how to handle them. She is a weaver´s weaver, very expert in her knowledge of her subject, and very close to her materials. And yet she has been able to “take-off” and, thanks to her collaboration with Ann Schmidt, is able to make quite remarkable woven objects. A few years ago Lotte was encouraged by British weaver Ann Richards to write down all the knowledge she had acquired. The result was Magical Materials, a book about collapse weave published by Fiber Feber. An English translation by Ann Richards brings the Danish publication within the reach of an English-speaking audience and you can read the review I wrote in the Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (winter 2009). Books like this are so important for hand-weaving generally in Europe as they help to raise standards, encourage innovation, and, in this case, try out new yarns. The textile industry has undergone massive changes in the last 50 years, and unless hand-weavers can access the same new innovative yarns to experiment with, they will fall behind. As a hand-weaver today I have to ask myself Why Make Hand-made Textiles? In the work of Lotte Dalgaard and her collaboration with Ann Schmidt I find an answer.
Further Information:
 innovative textured textiles - handwoven by lotte dalgaard  
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Pago seguro
 NUEVO Octubre 2023 Curso presencial setmanal de teixits de baix lliç (Girona)!Un curso nou, setmanal (3h) a Sant Gregori, Girona, amb l'Anna Champeney. Trimensual, plaças limitadas).
Octobre 2023. Ven a aprender a diseñar y realizar tejidos en telar de bajo lizo a mano. Docente: Anna Champeney, profesional desde 2004, con marca textil propia, experta en tejido de bajo lizo, docente en la Escola Massana, Barcelona.
 Haga clic aquí para informarte |
