Weaving Iridescence

Twice in my weaving career, I've accidentally woven iridescent cloth. Both times, I chose a weft color based on a whim and ended up with magical, shimmering cloth. Bobbie Irwin, weaver and author of the aptly titled Weaving Iridescence, stumbled upon iridescence in a similar way. Her journey began, as great weaving discoveries often do, while sampling on the loom. Irwin decided to combine magenta with chartreuse, two colors she used frequently in her weaving with other colors but never together. The result was iridescent cloth and a desire to study this phenomenon, which is ultimately how this wonderful book came to be.

Although Irwin is a master of all things iridescent, even those beyond cloth, she makes few assumptions about the knowledge of the reader. The earliest chapters in her book are all about education. She explains what iridescence is and how it relates to other "-escence" words such as opalescence and luminescence. The book also explores the nature of light and color, giving the reader a good foundation of knowledge on which to stand before getting to the meat of the subject at hand.

The rest of the book is devoted to the subject of iridescence and how it works in weaving. Irwin teaches her readers the "rules" of iridescence (and how most of them can be broken) and how to choose colors, yarns, and weave structures to get this effect. She also, very interestingly, explains what iridescence isn't, giving examples of fabrics that are lustrous and often beautiful but not truly iridescent. The book ends with five projects designed to help the reader learn more about the nature of iridescence on the loom.

Such a book cannot truly be successful without good photography--and lots of it. As beautiful as iridescence is, it's also notoriously difficult to capture on film, but photographer Reed Irwin did this spectacularly. The book is full of gorgeous fabrics that seem to shimmer even on the printed page. As Irwin mentions in her "Note on Photography" at the end of the book, this is no accident--she actually delayed writing the book until photo technology was developed that could adequately capture this phenomenon. She also gives plenty of tips and tricks for any amateur iridescence photographers out there.

This book is a stunning work on a subject that has intrigued and delighted many a weaver throughout history. It is a must-have for any weaver who wants to harness the magic of iridescence.