Initially she applied to a number of places to study — the US, England and Australia. She decided on the Ann Sutton Foundation (ASF-Weave) in Arundel, UK, and spent nine weeks exploring the technique of dévoré on hand woven cloth.

Anne told us a little about the ASF-Weave organisation. It has been going for four years and gives scholarships to three graduate students a year to help the transition of students from educational institutions to the workplace. Each Fellow gets paid a small salary. Two of the three Fellows in this second intake got good positions in the textile industry before their two years were up. Anne felt that there wasn't much sharing of knowledge with the Fellows as they considered their work confidential.

The studio has four AVL computer assisted looms and does a lot of work within the industry. When she arrived at the studio, despite being told only to bring towels, there were no accessories for the 24 shaft 20 inch AVL loom she had use of, not even shuttles. Anne found that it was a great opportunity to get away from her usual routine, to not be preoccupied with daily clutter but to have a clear head while she was working.

Anne first saw the method of dévoré in hand weaving several years ago on curtains in the home of a friend in Switzerland. The technique captured her interest, but lay dormant in her brain until last year where she saw it used again in a winning entry in a competition held by Handwoven magazine. The technique uses cloth made from a combination of synthetic, wool and plant fibre yarns, to which a solution called Fibre Etch is applied that burns out the plant fibres leaving a transparent effect.

Anne set to weaving samples to explore which yarns worked most effectively with the technique. With each sample she would weave a length, mostly plain weave, cut it off the loom, paint on the solution with a paint brush, let it dry overnight, iron, then wash it off the following day. When the dried solution is washed out of the fabric, so too are the plant fibres, quite like velvet dévoré. She found that some fibres dissolved more readily than others, and some of the samples needed quite a bit of friction in the washing process to get rid of the fibres. She also learnt in the sampling process that polyester was a good yarn to use as a supplementary warp and that fine detail in the dévoré pattern is difficult achieve.

Anne spent the first six weeks experimenting with samples which she fixed to windows around the loom she was working on for inspiration. The last two weeks were spent creating pieces. One of these pieces was a length of fabric using white cotton covered polyester which had two layers joined at various points in the weft. She then painted on the solution with the pattern on the front layer being different to the one on the back. To separate the layers she used aluminium foil and freezer paper (the type quilters use). The foil was then removed, the fabric ironed and the dissolved fibres were washed out. She found that the nice thing about the technique was that works well in scarves, wraps and wall hangings.

Anne says that the solution Fibre Etch isn't too expensive to buy, is available from Silkpaint, (although you can make it up yourself), and although she recommends using gloves, an apron and a well ventilated area, it doesn't seem to be too toxic.

Most of her samples were plain weave. Some had a fine wool warp and tencel plus rainbow coloured polyester weft, the tencel dissolved and left the rainbow polyester and wool. Anne used the high twist woollen yarn (one similar to that used in a collapse weave) to see if it would squiggle up, and the effect it might create once the solution was painted on. It did squiggle a bit, but the weft kept most of the high twist yarn in place.

She also used a cotton/wool mix yarn called Colana, which she bought from the Guild Yarn Corner a couple of years ago. When the solution was washed it left a yellow stain, which after dyeing created an interesting section where the stain had been.

Anne said, The more I weave the simpler my patterns and designs get. And she says that although dévoré isn't a new technique, it has a new use in weaving. Particularly with new yarns, there are so many possibilities!

Anne's book on collapse weave will be out next year. More information can be seen at Anne's web site: Anne Field.