In this tutorial, you'll learn the basics of crackle weave which creates some of the most intricate and fascinating patterns possible with just four or eight shafts. Let's begin!
We begin with motivating the mechanics of crackle weave and where it comes from. Crackle weave is based on the three-point twill which you can see in the image on the left.
With four shafts, we can get four different kinds of three-point twills based on which consecutive group of shafts we use, i.e. 1-2-3, 2-3-4, 3-4-1, or 4-1-2. They are offset versions of each other.
Crackle weave is all about combining these different point twills together to build complexity.
Here, observe how we develop complex crackle patterns starting from combining the different point twills possible on four shafts.
In (I), we combine the four three-point twill weaves as columns side by side. The threading can be considered a basic crackle sequence. In (II), we shrink each column to just one repeat of each three-point twill. Now, the threading is a more interesting crackle sequence. We can see the point twill pattern becomes an ascending zig-zag pattern in the drawdown.
In (III), we switch from a straight draw treadling to a point twill treadling. The crackle threading and point twill treadling interact and induce interference patterns in the drawdown. This is how the signature plusses ("+") and dots ("·") of crackle weave appear.
In (IV), we use the crackle sequence in the threading as the treadling too (a.k.a. tromp as writ). The crackle patterns now get truly complex.
Hopefully that motivated your interest in learning crackle weave --- let's dive into the details now.
Crackle weave is a block substitution draft, meaning we can author crackle weave from simple building blocks --- AKA the three-point twill.
The number of blocks will be the final number of shafts required. For a four-shaft loom, you can work with up to four blocks A, B, C, and D. Their sequences are: 1-2-3-2-1, 2-3-4-3-2, 3-4-1-4-3, and 4-1-2-1-4.
Note: crackle weave is most commonly taught with four-wide blocks (e.g. 1-2-3-2, 2-3-4-3, etc.) instead of five-wide blocks. However, we find that the four-wide perspective is more difficult to understand. You can refer to Griswold's crackle weave resources for the four-wide perspective.
For an eight-shaft loom, you can work with up to eight blocks A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Their sequences are 1-2-3-2-1, 2-3-4-3-2, ..., 7-8-1-8-7, and 8-1-2-1-8.
You can see how this rule generalizes to any shaft count.
To author crackle weave with blocks, we write out sequences of blocks in a profile draft. In the left half of the image, we have a profile draft threading sequence with blocks A-B-C-B. Notice each "shaft" in the profile draft corresponds to a different block.
We draw our threading right to left per common convention.
Next for each block in the profile draft, you will want its expanded version as you can see in the right half of the image.
To finish expanding the profile draft, we simply concatenate the expanded blocks together to get our final sequence.
To reiterate, we started with a profile draft sequence of A-B-C-B. We expanded the blocks which gave us 12321-23432-34143-23432. Concatenating gives us our final sequence 12321234323414323432. This entire process is block substitution for crackle weaves.
Here, we demonstrate three more profile sequences (on the left) where we perform block substitution to get the expanded crackle sequences, respectively (on the right).
Notice for consecutive blocks like A-A, we merge the repeating number (i.e. 1-2-3-2-1-1-2-3-2-1 turns into 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1). Similarly for C-C, 3-4-1-4-3-3-4-1-4-3 turns into 3-4-1-4-3-4-1-4-3.
Furthermore for crackle drafts, the profile sequences must be "step-wise." That is, in a profile draft after A, you can stay at A, go to B, or go to D. So AABBAA is a valid but ACA is not valid. For another example, ABCDA is valid but ABDA is not valid. With four shafts, you cannot jump between A-C and B-D.
Now, lets consider the entire profile draft. Performing block substitution on both the threading and treadling of a profile draft gives us a full crackle weaving draft.
As you can see, the complex visuals of the expanded draft's drawdown generally follow the shape of the profile draft's drawdown. This way, you can plan the overall structure in a profile draft and then expand to see the final result.
Here I have a 3/1 twill tie-up which results in a warp-facing design. The profile draft tie-up is simply copied over to the final expanded draft tie-up.
Manually expanding profile drafts can be extremely tedious and error-prone, especially for larger drafts. Using weaving software like Bower which have automatic block substitution capabilities is one of the best ways to efficiently create crackle weaves.
The expanded crackle weave drafts in this tutorial were all created in Bower.
Here I have a 2/2 twill tie-up which results in a balanced design, and the crackle pattern really shines here.
Crackle traditionally uses twill tie-ups but they are just a starting point. Experiment with different tie-ups to see what effects they may have. Weaving software like Bower is immensely helpful since it can automatically compute your drawdown, and you can thus experiment live.
You can also try different treadlings when drafting crackle weave. On the left we used a standard summer and winter treadling pattern. Here, our treadling blocks are A=1-3-2-3, B=1-4-2-4, C=1-5-2-5, and D=1-6-2-6.
On the right, we used an extended point twill treadling pattern 1-1-2-2-3-3-4-4-3-3-2-2. Different treadling patterns will create different interference patterns with the crackle threading.
Nevertheless, using crackle treadlings with crackle threadings results in the most dramatic, complex effects in your cloth.
With crackle weave, concatenation of the blocks can also take on a second, more compact form. For two blocks A (1-2-3-2-1) and B (2-3-4-3-2), we previously learned to concatenate them to get 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-4-3-2.
However, we can see that we can "merge" them together by removing the middle 2-1-2 to get 1-2-3-2-3-4-3. Crackle sequences are valid as long as the sequence moves up or down by one shaft every time.
More formally, take the first number in the second block (e.g. for B that would be 2). Search for the last occurrence of that number in the first block (e.g. for A that would be 1-2-3-*2*-1). Then trim from the last occurrence onwards (e.g. 1-2-3) and concatenate with the second block (e.g. 1-2-3 with 2-3-4-3-2).
Here, we demonstrate three more profile drafts (on the left) where we perform the compact version of crackle block substitution to get the full crackle sequences, respectively (on the right).
You can mix and match the two ways of concatenating the crackle blocks to get interesting designs.
Earlier we stated that profile sequences cannot jump between A-C and B-D on four shafts. We now introduce a concept called *incidentals* which can turn "invalid" sequences like ACBD into valid ones on block expansion.
Notice on the top half of the image, if we substitute our blocks like before, there are discontinuous gaps in the crackle sequence. This is not allowed in crackle weave.
For blocks that are skipped, we insert the first number of that block. This is an incidental. So for a profile sequence A-C, normally we have 1-2-3-2-1 and 3-4-1-4-3. Since we skipped block B, we insert its first number (2) between the two expanded blocks. This results in 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-4-1-4-3. Incidentals give us a continuous crackle sequence again.
Here, we demonstrate three more profile drafts (on the left) with gaps and we perform crackle block substitution with incidentals to get the full crackle sequences, respectively (on the right).
We've included an 8-shaft example which exploits incidentals to get longer point twill runs (i.e. beyond three-point twills). Longer point twill runs create larger patterns in the drawdown.
Finally, we want to share example drafts that combine everything covered in this tutorial to show you the possibilities of crackle weave.
On the left we have a crackle draft in eight shafts. You can notice the periodic "highs" and "lows" in both the threading and treadling sequences that alternate and cancel out to create a checkerboard pattern.
On the right we have a crackle draft in six shafts. You can use color gradients to highlight the phasing structure of crackle weave for mesmerizing results.
Here, we present a complex profile draft which can result in truly stunning crackle weaves. The two different advancing twills in the profile threading and treadling creates half-tone chevrons that cascade down the profile drawdown.
Using block expansion with crackle weave renders the halftones with the signature crackle plus and dot shapes. So many possibilities!
Again, performing crackle block substitution with such a complex profile draft can be very difficult.
We used Bower's profile draft and block substitution feature to perform this automatically with a single click!
Finally, we can use a crackle draft as a profile draft in itself and block substitute a different weave structure, such as multishaft overshot as shown in the tutorial image. This can often cause your shaft count to explode but results in crazy stunning designs.
Congratulations on learning crackle weave in tutorial! Good luck with your new-found knowledge and try it out in Bower!