Photoweaving with Samin Ahmadzadeh
How to photoweave
Materials:
- Two printed photographs
- Ruler – (ideally metal)
- Pencil
- Rubber
- Cutter
- Cutting mat
- Masking tape
Tips from Samin
Framing & Bordering
- Create a frame on the back of one of your printed papers.
- Leave a border. This will indicate up to where to cut your vertical lines and will hold the whole weaving together.
- Make sure your border isn’t smaller than 1cm.
- Use a 2cm border if this is your first time.
- Mark the spaces for vertical lines from the top and bottom line of your border.
Cutting Lines
- Cut the vertical lines by cutting in-between the border lines.
- Try to cut to the edge of the border only.
- If you cut into the border, don’t worry. You can use a masking tape to fix the border back together.
Weaving
- It’s easier to weave on a smoother surface, so put the cutting matt aside and find a smooth or soft surface.
- You can achieve different patterns when creating weavings in 2 ways:
- By changing the thickness of both horizontal and vertical strips
- By changing the style of the weave. For instance, instead of going one up and one down, why not try going two up and one down? And then the exact opposite on the line below – weaving two down and one up.
- Don’t forget to push each weave up as close as you can to the one above.
- It gets tighter as you get close to the bottom line and if you get stuck, you can cut your last line a bit thinner to easily weave it in.
Finishing
- You can place the finished piece under books or some other weight for a couple of hours. This will help it flatten and the finished piece will look much better.
Samin's own photoweaving works
