Divisional Notation and Drafting
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Germanic weavers often used a divisional notation to indicate threadings and treadlings.
Divisional drafting is a way to present treadling or threading information quickly, in a condensed graphical form, much
the way profile drafting is used as an abbreviation for a more detailed threading.
The actual number of shafts and treadles is determined by the chosen tie-up.
|
This is a typical example of divisional notation, N. 20 Threading #1 from Weber Kunst und Bild Buch, Marx Ziegler, Germany, 1677.
There are two divisions and when applied to a tie-up, each will correspond to half of the shafts and treadles.
|
Most of the drafts produced from divisional notation were tromp as writ. There are a few exceptions,
but in general the threading and treadling were the same. Tables of tie-ups and threadings were often given separately, leaving the weaver to
decide which combinations to use.
Our divisional drafting page allows weavers of any level to instantly produce drafts online from combinations of tie-ups and these divisional threadings with a few simple steps:
- A tie-up is selected from one of the drafts on your clipboard.
- A divisional threading is selected. This is used as the treadling too if the draft is tromp as writ.
- If the draft is not tromp as writ, a different divisional threading is selected to use for the treadling.
- The complete draft is shown, is available for immediate downloading, and can be saved to inspire other weavers.
- The tie-up, treadling, and threading can each be changed to see the effect on the draft.
Example: 2 Divisions, 16 Shafts, 16 Treadles, Tromp as Writ
Tie-up from The Christian Morath Pattern Book, Page 29, Figure 10, (draft #18234 on this site) 16 Shafts, 16 Treadles
|
Draft, tromp as writ, from applying the two division threading above from Ziegler to this tie-up from Morath.
|
Threading N. 20-1 from Weber Kunst und Bild Buch, Marx Ziegler, Germany, 1677. This is the same two division threading shown above.
|
|
|
Tie-ups for Divisional Drafting
The drafts produced by this method of divisional drafting will be best suited to unit weaves and some block weaves. Although few original sources
give specific instructions,
threadings in divisional notation were likely intended to be scaled when applied to various tie-ups. Good results are often obtained when
the number of shafts/treadles the tie-up is an even multiple of the number of divisions in the threading, and where the blocks are evenly sized.
For example, when working with a three division threading, block tie-ups of 12 shafts, divided into three 4-shaft/treadle groups
will create patterns without small repeat artifacts in the pattern caused by mismatches in divisions in whol blocks. These small repeats can be interesting in some patterns, but are distracting in many.
Similarly, 15-shaft tie-ups divided into three blocks of 5 will generally work well, etc.
Our page for divisional drafting currently uses equal division sizes because almost all threadings from original sources using this notation were
written this way. There are some exceptions though, and a future version of this page may include the ability to have variable division sizes.
This page currently scales any threading to any size of tie-up, and
sometimes interesting results are obtained even when the size of tie-up is not an even multiple of the number of divisions. (You can apply a three
division threading to a 16 shaft tie-up, for example.)
The actual shafts and treadles that are used when producing a drafts from a tie-up and
divisional threading run in ascending or descending sequential order, similar to twill blocks.
Here are some draft collections with tie-ups that will work well for divisional drafting. There are certainly many more
in other collections too. To select a tie-up for use with divisional drafting, just
add its draft to your clipboard.
- 16 Harness Patterns - The Fanciest Twills of All, Irene K. Wood, 1800-1976
- A German Weaver's Pattern Book, 1784 - 1810, Christian Morath, Joseph Murllman, and others, 1784-1810
- Nuzliches Weber-Bild-Buch, Johann Michael Frickinger, 1740
- Weber Kunst und Bild Buch, Marx Ziegler, 1677
- You can experiment with your own tie-ups by adding your drafts to Handweaving.net and
then placing them on your clipboard.
Example: 3 Divisions, 16 Shafts, 16 Treadles
Tie-up from Page 41, Figure 13, Posselt's Textile Journal, August 1908 (draft #53584 on this site) 16 Shafts, 16 Treadles
|
Draft, tromp as writ, from applying the three division threading from Ziegler to this tie-up from Posselt.
|
Threading N. 29-17 from Weber Kunst und Bild Buch, Marx Ziegler, Germany, 1677.
|
|
|
|
|
|