Yesterday
Laurie Herrick’s archives contain clippings, files, samples, notes and more – but few written details about how the various elements led her from point a to point b in her work. By creating inspiration boards using the archive materials, Curatorial Assistant Lauren Raburn constructed a visual map of cultural influences, created entirely from various pieces Herrick saved in her personal files. Inspiration boards are tools used by designers in various stages of a project as a way to organize ideas, images and information. Selected pieces that made up the collage, or inspiration board are included in this section to show how an archive can be used to reconstruct history.
Today
Tomorrow
Laurie Herrick’s archives include notes and drafts for the creation of Summer and Winter Shawl (Collection of Carol Smith Larsen). The notes, however, were written for Herrick’s personal use, and not formatted as one might find in a weaving magazine or book today. Through careful observation and analysis of the weaving, Curatorial Intern Kristin Pesola used PixeLoom software to translate Herrick’s drafts accessible formats. In addition to a PDF with notes and images of the profile, threading, treadling and tie-up drafts, a zip file for those with access to weaving software that supports the WIF format is available below. The drafts are available for anyone to download, personalize, and to then share their interpretations or variations of Herrick’s work on the Laurie Herrick Flickr Group.
Download the Purple Polychrome Weaving Draft (PDF)
Download a ZIP file of Summer and Winter Polychrome; compatible with weaving software that supports the WIF format.
Upload an image of your work based on Herrick’s profile draft to the Laurie Herrick Flickr Group.
Summer and Winter Polychrome
When a Summer and Winter structure is combined with a polychrome, or multi-weft technique, the resulting weaving can have what Herrick describes as “mysterious, different color blends” in “shadowy, subtle color variations.” By using wool in three or more weft colors, grouped in tones of dark, light and bright, Herrick produced and taught her students to create a “light, spongy fabric” with no clear right or wrong side and with surprising color mixtures and halftones.
Herrick usually designed her Summer and Winter polychrome pieces as she created them. Because her archives did not contain drafts for the specific weaving, Curatorial Intern Kristin Pesola, and weavers Ann and Jon Sinclair spent hours reviewing each block of Polychrome Purple (1975, Collection of Carol Smith Larsen), working thread by thread to interpret Herrick’s color principles and structure, in order to communicate the complexities of Herrick’s skill and use of color.
Herrick Special Features ...
• Op Art
• Inlay
• Open Warp
• Laurie Coat
• Summer and Winter on Opposites
• Summer and Winter Straight
• Summer and Winter Polychrome
Return to the Laurie Herrick exhibition page to download writings, exhibition checklist and research documents.
