I confess it was over my
head. So, I bought two more books: Weave Classic Crackle & More by Susan Wilson and A Crackle Weave Companion
by Lucy M. Brusic. I chose these because of the way they explore crackle. They
are resource books rather than project books. I gave them a prominent place on
my weaving bookshelf, and these became my primary crackle reference books.
Would I recommend one book over the other? EDIT: No. They both have a lot to offer and between the two of them, offer a well-rounded look at what crackle is and can do. That statement is still true, but if I could only buy one book, I would recommend Weave Classic Crackle & More to start. I found it a little bit easier to read through, and it's set up better as an introduction to crackle. Lucy's book is an excellent second resource because it adds more ideas and possibilities. So, I'd still recommend both, but in that buying order.
At first, I tackled crackle with a hit-and-miss approach, choosing whatever
struck my fancy. I had some successes and some failures. I learned a lot,
but found I still couldn't wrap my head around crackle as a whole. That's
when I decided to read Susan Wilson's book from cover to cover, start to
finish. After that, I started on Lucy Brusic's book the same way. With a
little crackle weaving experience under my belt. what I read was beginning
to make sense.
The core of crackle is in the threading. That's what makes crackle, crackle.
But it can be treadled in numerous ways, each with it's own attractive
effect. Both of these books explore those ways. Does that mean there's a lot
of overlap in content? Not as much as you'd think.
The basic explanations are similar, of course. But I have to say I really
like getting the basics worded differently by the two authors. That helped
clarify the concepts, plus I gleaned some unique and helpful tidbits from
each one.
Wilson prefers classic crackle and Brusic prefers traditional
(overshot manner) crackle, although both books extensively explore other possibilities. Wilson's samples come from her own designs, while Brusic
utilizes the early crackle literature: Mary Snyder's
The Crackle Weave, Mary Meigs Atwater's Recipe Book, and
Marguerite Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book. To her credit, she
does a good job of not requiring the reader to have these books, although it
really adds a lot to have them. What I appreciate about this, is that I've
been inspired by some of the patterns in these resources, and find the
modern interpretation and application very helpful. Lucy's book is helping me understand them.
Part of the "& More" of Susan's book is 8-shaft crackle. In studying her samples, I see that 8 shafts opens up whole new design possibilities by creating
plain-weave-like blocks in addition to the pattern and background blocks of
4-shaft crackle. She also discusses turned crackle and has an extensive
section on crackle in color-and-weave. Lucy's book sticks with 4-shaft, but
she explores interesting ideas such as block arrangement and swapping treadling drafts with
different threadings. She also has more ideas on unique ways of using color
in crackle.
After reading these books, I've come up with a plan. In Susan's Weave Classic Crackle & More, she recommends making a
sampler to work through many treadling variations. My plan is to use Susan's book to work through these, while referring to both Brusic's and Snyder's works as supplementary material for each of these treadlings. Hopefully, I will end up with my own reference book, with all pertinent information plus the woven samples. That should keep me busy this winter.
