Corrie Van Eijk Docter

Know the Weaver # 11 March-April 2016

Corrie

Van Eijk Docter Artist and TC2 owner

WEBSITE: www.digitalweaving.nl

From seeing the handloom for the first time in 1964 to getting a TC2 loom in 2015 - Corrie’s journey has been an incredible one to say the least! She often draws her inspirations from personal life, loves multi-coloured threads and is a champ in damask weaves.

I bought a small loom, joined a weaving group and the first steps were taken. Some years later, I left Europe with a spouse, a baby and a loom and headed for Cameroon. It was difficult to find good yarns there and during the seven years there, I wove only 10 meters. The handwoven weaves in Cameroon are simple, made of spindle-handspun cotton and I brought some along with me. Back in the Netherlands, While I was studying textiles for almost three years during and a little later, when I was the eighties, I was working as a educating young girls about trainee every third Saturday and creating their own fabrics, that is when I learnt more about an important aspect was the weaving techniques, dyeing knowledge of textiles. I was fascinated by textiles and when I methods and designing. saw a handloom for the first time in 1964, I could not forget it. The Next was a trip to Sweden in 1983, where I wove at Tingsryd’s opportunity to learn weaving Vävstuga. This was the real start came three years later, when I met a Danish weaving-teacher. of serious weaving.

1. Tell us how your journey as a weaver began and about the key inspirations along the way?

As a little baby and honestly until a long time after, I loved woolen blankets. I grabbed out the wool and made a bit of a fluff, put the thumb in my mouth and smelt the wool under my nose. That’s why my life is allied with soft fibers.

Milllennium

Disc

It was a pleasure for me to meet the owner, Folke Samuelsson and his wife Kerstin. They taught me so much more and inspired me all the time with coloured damask. Damask was “the” eye-opener for me as it made it possible to design weaves without the time-consuming technique of Gobelin. I used to go there each year – for twenty years. Each time I arrived in Sweden, I would hitch-hike in a truck owned by a Dutch transporter, take the ferry further and yes, it was adventurous! In 1991, I received an invitation to come as a guest student at the Statens Lærerhøgskole i Forming Oslo (SLFO) to learn computer-aided weaving. That was when the seed for digital weaving was planted. Some years later, I heard that Vibeke Vestby had similar ambitions, but at that time, it seemed a bridge to far for me.

2. Is there a particular style or technique that you would say characterizes your works? Has your artistic expression evolved over time, and if yes, please explain how?

Way back in 1967, like all the other weavers of that time, I started making simple things - materials for clothes, furniture, table-linen, towels etc. Since 1986, I have been weaving

Worship room in Rotterdam medical hospital

Poem for traditional feast of St Nicolas

Everyday festivity

damask on a combination of draw and harness and smaller harnesses. In the past 25 years, I have woven textiles for 35 churches and it has always given me a feeling of doing something necessary. The fact that I was creating something for an audience who came to worship every Sunday was much like a psychological income. Nowadays, a lot of churches are losing their member and it’s a pity for me; this source of inspiration is dry now.

In the meantime, I made damask weaves for exhibitions and myself.

The topics which inspire me for my freelance work are often personal experiences in life.

Right in the beginning, I used one-color warps, but soon I started loving multi-colored warps and wefts. Maybe that is typical for my work.

I like combining two or three colored threads to obtain the right color or create smooth transitions. As compared to other damask weavers, I weave rather rough with 10 and 16 threads per cm. After going through different experiences with settings and materials during the first years of damask weaving, I found my own characteristic quality and ever since, I do not change the ends per cm anymore. . I finally like to make a good product that I can

Europa and Zeus

Africa

World Roots

find a lover for. To save time, I knot a newcolored warp - about 3 to 5 meters - on a standard unbleached cotton warp for every new project. Themes for exhibitions and commissions force me to develop new ideas.

Both geometric and organic themes touch me.

3 Tell us about the works that have been most important to you?

Some of the works that I would never give away are those which have to do with my family stories, about memories from my youth and from Africa, where we lived for a few years and also the handwritten poems or quotes from diaries - all translated into weaves.

This way, I try to keep them alive for many more years in the future. When I look at them all together, I think - this is my life, a kind of biography.

On the Road

It was there that I wove on a computer-aided loom for the first time. From that time, I try to follow weave programs and choose what suits me. A simple photo program and ProWeave are good tools to design classic damask for handlooms and I believe that it is really a time-saving way to make nice designs and draw prints. By using new techniques, weavers can preserve this culture heritage for the future. Young people are growing up with all kind of digital tools and the first thing that they think is: how can I do it with my digital tool, whatever it may be. Mostly, I use new materials like metals or polyester only for samples, the only exception being a 23-meter long work with the name ‘direction’ that I made by using a colored ribbon in polyester.

4. How do you see weaving being influenced by new technology and materials?

New technology is important for everyone, not only for me. In 1987, I won a trip to Finland and the opportunity to participate in a Varpapuu (Finnish Loom) workshop– this was the prize for a handwoven outfit that I had made.

Traditional house in Vallée Étroite (Picture from a family holiday)

Direction

Wadden Sea

Our life is as short as a the blossom of a flower

Cotton and linen lose their color over time, I feel that wool is better. Polyester is more fast-dyed.

Tencel is an attractive material; it’s easy to dye and on my list to weave with.

5. You recently acquired a TC2 loom – could you share your experience working on it?

Last year, on November 9, I became the owner of a TC2. Until now, I have finished a 13- meter warp and a second warp is ready on the beam.

Since then, I have woven several pieces, just to become familiar with the loom. I feel like a novice in weaving; like I am making a new start and finding out new qualities. But that’s fine, because last year I felt that I had come to a dead-lock in my life. The churches did not ask for my help anymore as an experienced weaver for worship. My mother became 100-years-old and suddenly, I realized what the future was going to be. I needed a new step to enjoy my weaving life. And then, there was this TC2 training workshop being organized in Tilburg at the same time as ETN 2015 in Leiden.

I saw the information about the workshop too late in the brochure, but I could be the eleventh participant, thanks to Vibeke’s intervention. This workshop was a second eyeopener.

To work on the TC2 is very easy and it is possible to weave for hours without a stop. I see the TCweavers in a standing position, though I prefer to sit on a high tabouret and use a 4-cm high support under my foot just before the pedal.

This way, my feet are constantly in rest and just a tiny move on the electric pedal is enough to change the shed. I have no problems anymore with cords, treadles, turning the beams on and off during weaving. Shoulders and hips are saved for other pleasures.

I can continue weaving for years on the TC2.

To prepare new files, I have to continue my study of the Woven Pixel*. It is great that Bhakti Ziek and Alice Schlein wrote it all for us and shared their knowledge in this way. * www.handweaving.net/document-detail/8419

Africa

6. What are the projects that you are currently working on?

of digital pictures to give me inspiration for new projects.

In the coming year, the project for me is to become familiar with the loom and at the same time, I offer other weavers to do tryouts and workshops if they want. For me, being familiar with the loom means making different warps and samples and that can give nice weaves too. I also have another project in mind - to weave photographed antique laces as a kind of honor to the women of yesteryears.

I’m dreaming of organizing a week-long workshop and inviting one of the famous TC artists as a teacher and I am so impressed with what they make. It was in 2014 that I rediscovered the growing branch of digital weaving when Bhakti Ziek brought her woven pieces to an exhibition in Waalre (the Netherlands). I could not understand these in the first minute, and that made me curious.

I have already woven samples and I’m happily surprised with the outcomes. I like to weave stories and I have a huge mountain

If I can bring together weavers who are ready for a new adventure, I am willing to do that. Please feel free to contact me.