NAME: Janna van Ledden
BACKSTORY: I started seeing some beautiful designs on various weaving Facebook groups, finding out they were designed and woven by Janna. I met her in person at a workshop I gave at Marian Stubentisky’s studio in 2016. She is a truly enthusiastic student who dives deeply into what she is being taught, thinks about all the different possibilities that are inherent in the techniques, and comes up with many creative ideas! Her work appeared in Marian’s book, Double with a Twist (2019) and she has now joined forces with Marian in publishing a book on her own original designs which I have eagerly pre-ordered. She has a truly inventive mind and a wonderful colour sense. I was hugely surprised to find out how little time Janna has been weaving! She is an inspiration to me and to you too, I hope. Enjoy her story.
HOW I GOT INTO WEAVING
My name is Janna van Ledden. I started weaving at the age of 57 and in 2011 I started looking for a weaving teacher and that’s how I ended up with Marian Stubenitsky. When the book “Weaving with Echo and Iris” came out, I bought the weaving program “WinWeef”. That was the beginning of my adventure to create my own designs. I learned to weave through trial and error and never gave up on achieving my goal.
I have always been very interested in “fabrics and threads”.
Since I enjoyed weaving something from home-spun yarn, I bought an 8-shaft Ashford table loom in 2010.
I really enjoy dyeing my own yarn. I also like to weave with thin yarns. I’m not really put off by lots of threads or weaving with more shafts. I don’t really care about ‘how to’, weave a certain structure, but go beyond my limits so that I discover more than many people think possible. The only criterion is that the floats must have an acceptable maximum.
Since 2019 I have been weaving on a Megado with 32 shafts from Louet, with a Magic Dobby loom with 24 shafts. Both looms have electronic controls. I also follow the course “Design on 24 shafts and more” with Marian. I am very active on Facebook and have many international contacts about / through my weaving patterns.
Janna’s book was published this week – 19th May – and you can order it here: http://weefschool.nl/boeken/janna-weeft
Images: Featured image: Double weave 24 shafts. Top: Twill with echo threading 16 shafts; Bottom: 8, 16 and 24 shafts.
NEXT TIME: Jason Collingwood