A one of a kind piece of handweaving is a very special gift. One designed just for the recipient is even more so! I enjoy working together with my customers to create the perfect design!
Let me say up front that it can take quite a while to finish a piece. Here are a few reasons why:
- Hand-weaving is labour intensive. Many hours of work go into each piece.
- The loom I need for your project may already have something on it that must be completed before I can start your piece.
- Coming up with the right design can sometimes take a while.
- I may need to order and receive some materials before I can begin working on your project.
- I never rush when I am weaving. I want everything to be just right.
- Weaving is joyful to me and I keep it that way by not working to a deadline.
Two kinds of woven items
Something beautiful
The point of a “Something beautiful” item is just what it sounds like – to make something that is beautiful to look at, beautiful to touch, and a pleasure to wear. We would talk about colours, fibers, patterns, and a general timeframe and if you like what we come up with then we can proceed.
Something beautiful and personal
A handwoven piece can also be designed to have personal meaning for you or the intended recipient. In this kind of piece we would choose colours and patterns that have symbolic meaning, for example…
- Some special quality that you want to honour, for example kindness or wisdom.
- Something that is meaningful to the person, for example their children, or gender identity, or something they have overcome or accomplished.
- Something related to ethnicity, for example colours taken from a national flag or tartan.
- Something related to spirituality.
- Something encouraging you want to say to or about the person.
- An event you want to commemorate.
We would start by talking about what you have in mind and how we might represent it in colours, designs, and perhaps even a few words represented in morse code. For an example of the latter, there are stripes in the scarf pictured above that encode a few words honouring a special quality of the wearer. The scarf on the right has the wearer’s name woven into it.
Pricing
Prices vary according to the details, but the following will give you a general idea, based on a typical sized scarf of roughly 12 inches by 72 inches (30cm by 180cm). I don’t calculate this to the inch, so these guidelines also apply to scarfs a little bigger or smaller.
All the yarns I use are very nice, or I wouldn’t use them! Some nice yarns are surprisingly affordable, others very expensive.
A custom scarf will be priced around $160 if I weave it with more affordable fiber like the lovely organic cotton and bamboo blend that I use quite often. A pure silk scarf will be around $220, and other materials like alpaca , merino or silk blends usually are somewhere inbetween.
A scarf including hand-spun yarn, when available, will be about $260 because spinning the yarn by hand takes many hours. The result, of course, is something extra-special! For a shawl, count on spending 50-70% more than a scarf depending on the width.
Payments
For a “Something beautiful” item, There is a 50% deposit, and the other 50% is due within 30 days of completion. You can choose not to make that final payment and I will offer the item for sale to others. I have never had this happen, but that’s what I’ve decided for if it ever does! The deposit is non-refundable.
For a “Something beautiful and personal” item I may ask for the full amount before I begin. This would happen if I don’t feel it should be offered for sale to anyone else, for example if there is a name in it.
Ordering
If you would like me to make you a one of a kind treasure, I’d love to hear from you! Use the [Send me a message] button below to contact me. I will respond by email and we can have conversation about fiber types, colours, designs, etc.
Woven by Frank 