More weaving from Wendy Weiss

I wrote yesterday about Wendy Weiss, a fiber artists whose show is on display at the Patio Gallery in Louisville through March 29.  I always love to attend gallery talks with artists, because you never know what you might learn, and this time was no exception.

What I learned from Weiss, who likes to dye her materials with plants from her own garden, is that nylon monofilament (aka fishing line) loves to be dyed!  It's a manmade fiber that was engineered to replace silk, and thus was given many of its qualities, including its affinity for acid dyes.  Weiss likes to use the fishing line as a weft.

You can see this most clearly by inspecting the selvages of her flat pieces.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that Weiss violates the classic rule that a perfectly firm selvage is the mark of the master weaver.  Instead, she lets her selvages loop out into space, making an airy edge that shows off the dyed nylon and casts jaunty little shadows on the wall behind.