Patricia Temples Photography

Woven Photography

I learned about a new way to present photographs at an art exhibition at the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in Harrisonburg, Va a few years ago. It is woven photography. The artist that was in that show had 3D woven photographs, in which he wove small wire into the piece so that he could make a vessel that could be shaped and could stand alone. He had a very interesting piece in that show. I contacted him and he most generously gave me all kinds of information about how it is done. I learned along the way that there is no harm in sharing that information, because each photographer who uses this technique would use their own images, their own weaving patterns, and their own ideas of how to modify one image in two ways to weave them together. I have learned a lot of things since I first started doing this. Some images work better than others, there are several weaving patterns someone could use, and weaving as a left-hander makes my weavings unique to me. Here are some examples of the work I’ve done, and I hope you can see a progression in my choices of photos along the way.

Let me explain what I actually do. I print two of the same image, with or without modifications in one of the images. I also print on the back of each image a cutting template, one with 1/4″ wide horizontal cutting lines and one with 1/4″ vertical lines, then I cut the images apart. On the horizontal cut, I leave a bit uncut at the top of the image to hold the pieces together. The vertical pieces are cut one at a time, and woven into the horizontally cut image.

This was the first image I created when I started in 2018. I wove together two black and white images with a simple tabby pattern. I put it in an art show in Bath County that year and it sold, so I only have this photo now. You can see the simple in and out pattern of the weaving, alternating the starting point on each row.

A year later I made this piece, using a twill weave. In that pattern you start with one under, then two over, two under, continuing throughout the row. The next row begins with two under, two over, two under, and so forth. I used one black and white image and one color image on this corrugated metal barn photo. You can see the twill pattern quite easily because of the color differences. Because I am left-handed, the “stripes” run in a left-to-right diagonal pattern.

This was made using two 5×7 photos, one darker than the other, but both in color. Again, you can see the diagonal movement because of the twill weave. These stripes look larger because the image is smaller. I called this one Quilted Landscape because I think the stripes in the green area look like a quilt lying on the ground. This one sold about a month after I finished it.

I chose to do this image again, this time without as much difference in the saturation of color. I called the new one Storm Coming In, and it will be in the Bath County Arts Association Show this summer. I do not have a good photograph of this one because of reflections on the glass.

My next attempt was with a photograph of a bright orange maple tree in Shenandoah National Park. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. Before I completed it I showed it to a couple of friends and they both wanted to purchase it, so I will be making a second one of this image soon. It is not framed yet, and the photograph was taken with my phone as it lay on a counter. Sorry. I’ll try to put a better photo up after I get it completed. My goal will be to make changes somehow so the second one is not exactly like the first. We’ll see what I come up with. Enjoy!!