Lichen to Loom: A Naturally Dyed Shawl
When Megan Bourne approached me to collaborate on a special shawl for her own collection, I said yes immediately. What followed was almost a year of work, from our first conversation through to the finished piece.
We settled on tussah silk for the base. This is also known as wild silk which has a softer, more matte lustre than cultivated silk, but still with that characteristic sheen. Megan dyed the yarn herself, using a lichen vat she'd spent months developing from lichen gathered on her own property, working through several samples to land on exactly the shades she wanted.
For the weave structure, we looked at a lot of options before Megan chose a 16-shaft draft from Janna Weaves. From there, I warped 730 threads and wove the cloth, with Megan coming in to weave a few picks herself so she could be part of that stage too. We finished it together, twisting the fringe by hand.
Below are some photos from along the way! The lichen and dye materials, the cloth coming together on the loom, and the finished scarf itself.
Measuring and winding the warp threads onto the loom
Threading each thread through the heddles across 16 shafts in a specific pattern sequence.
Throwing the shuttle, which carries the weft threads, across a sequence of sheds created by raising different combinations of shafts in a specific sequence. Hand hem stiching on the loom.
Cloth, freshly cut from the loom and not yet "finished". Finishing involved soaking, pressing and twisting the fringe.
The Finished Shawl.
The finished Shawl.
Samples, lichen, fermented lichen and a little of the resulting dye used alongside the finished shawl.
The finished shawl.