Water Scarf #4 - The Quick Change Artist

This latest water scarf is demonstrating an interesting phenomenon, which I've mentioned before but never managed to photograph effectively. When viewed from different angles, some cloth has very different appearances.

From the side, with the warp running right to left, what you see is mostly the warp colors (light and dark blue) but the only design line in the threading that is obvious is the advancing networked points, which are threaded in light blue. The large networked curve that is threaded in dark blue is pretty inconspicuous. The color of the weft (medium-light emerald green, in this case), which at 100/2 is half the grist of the warp of 50/2, doesn't stand out, although the small advancing offset points of the treadling are clearly visible.



Looking straight down the warp, what you see is mostly the weft, plus the shape of the large networked curve in the threading and the advancing offset points in the treadling. I'm guessing that the issue I mentioned several posts back about how the relative value of the weft compared to the two warps seems to bring out the design line threaded in the warp color that is most different from the weft in value. But only from some angles!



From a diagonal position, all three colors show up about equally. So does the networked curve in the threading, along with the advancing offset points of the treadling. The advancing networked points in the threading are visible, but very subtle.



The only thing I changed was the placement of the camera, and consequently the attached flash, which was on for all three shots. The overhead halogen lamp didn't move, the pictures were all taken within a space of 2 minutes, and it was dark outside so the ambient lighting from outside didn't have any variable effect. I didn't modify anything in Photoshop except to crop each image so the cloth filled the frame as much as possible.

I know that digital cameras have quirky color sensors, which sometimes see hues very different from what I see. However in this case, the camera is capturing exactly what I see as I walk around the loom. This cloth really wants to play a tromp l'oeil trick on the viewer!