Scotweb's new online Tartan Designer is now live!

[Paul Henry]

I want the edges to be a bit rough, so; why not let me?

Generally speaking the small number for setting up a warp, is with 2 threads, lots of reasons for this, but the 2 threads help to maintain a solid line rather than a dashed one( I suspect as you would like). It is one of those conventions of weaving and not usually broken. A commercial weaver is less likely to entertain such a break from the custom than a smaller individual one, but nothing ventured nothing gained.

[Nick Fiddes]

I have a few questions, though, regarding the terms & conditions. First, who weaves the custom tartans? Is it "glena", or some other weaver/mill? Or is Scotweb establishing itself as a tartan weaver in its own right?

You can call it the latter. We produce special weave fabrics at a number of local mills ranging from large modern operations to smaller and indeed single-loom individual weavers who work mostly for us. Where we weave a particular order will depend on various factors such as fabric, volume, and schedules. It would be impossibly complex to describe all this to the customer, who has plenty of potentially confusing issues to cope with already! All are top quality, and we've put a lot of work into ensuring consisistent standards. So all our special weaves are simply branded Glen Affric. (And by the way, other weavers also supply fabrics under their own brand that are in reality outsourced.)

Secondly, the part about waiving legal rights until one commissions production of the tartan is giving me pause. What constitutes commission of production? Is it enough to permit others to start ordering products in the tartan, or does the designer have to personally make a purchase? And what are the implications of waiving one's legal rights? I hope I'm not interpreting this correctly, but it sounds like some unscrupulous person could poach your design if you don't immediately order it into production.

We've put a lot of thought into how to do this, fairly and realistically. We want to protect everyone's interests, including our own. And this means protecting everyone from potential abuse, as well as protecting designers' legitimate interests.

Anyone who played in the first live version of this facility will know we initially intended to prevent duplication of any design. But it became clear this would be a recipe for huge headaches. So we've moved instead to regarding the facility, including the public gallery, as a playground, with rights being established only upon weaving. This reflects the legal status quo and the Scottish Tartans Authority position, and so seems to make most sense overall.

If you're considering having a design produced and recorded, and don't want to take the (probably very minimal) risk of someone else commissioning it before you do, there's a simple solution. Don't publish it in the Gallery. This option is deselected by default, so you'd have actively to choose to share it publicly. This is what we suggest in the Information Centre (whose relevant sections will soon be linked all around the facilty).

As for our exclusivity otherwise, this is always negotiable. But we've put what is for us a massive investment into this, which we're certainly hoping for some payback on, quite apart from it being a personal labour of love (which is actually where the idea started - just reckoning it could be done much better than existed elsewhere). And we're not forcing anyone to use it of course. Our pricing is highly competitive, and we reckon that allowing for the professional design fees most people wanting their own tartan design have hitherto had to pay, and the higher minimum weaving lengths they've often met, our offer should be a much better deal in most cases.

[Nick Fiddes]

Generally speaking the small number for setting up a warp, is with 2 threads, lots of reasons for this, but the 2 threads help to maintain a solid line rather than a dashed one( I suspect as you would like). It is one of those conventions of weaving and not usually broken. A commercial weaver is less likely to entertain such a break from the custom than a smaller individual one, but nothing ventured nothing gained.

Correct. Wearing my hat as a Scottish Tartans Authority governor, I also see an educational value here in enforcing some of these limits, as it indirectly teaches a little about the complexities of weaving. As well as having a commercial side, I'm really hoping this facility will become widely used by schools etc. and it's little details like this which help to make it authentic.

It's also necessary to keep costs down to the (I think incredibly good value) levels we have. We've had to ensure our weavers aren't faced with unusually complex requests that will take them and us lots of extra time.

For this reason too, we're enforcing a six colour limit on standard designs, as some of our traditional looms can't easily cope with more (and anyway, more usually starts to look messy!). You can use more if you use the 'Pro' colour palette. But we've tried to cover ourselves there by warning that you'll probably be paying surcharges if you ask to get it woven.

[lethearen]

Looks great, Nick. Definitely the best I've seen out there thus far. The generation of the weave when you click "Enlarge" is really phenomenal. Looks like real fabric, not just a CG representation. And the ability to start from an existing tartan is smashing.

[Moon]

What a wonderful way to have something custom designed and made - I like this quite much!

Regards,

M

[Fit2BKilted]

Generally speaking the small number for setting up a warp, is with 2 threads, lots of reasons for this, but the 2 threads help to maintain a solid line rather than a dashed one( I suspect as you would like). It is one of those conventions of weaving and not usually broken. A commercial weaver is less likely to entertain such a break from the custom than a smaller individual one, but nothing ventured nothing gained.

...Although I had explored the single-thread design element (with another online tartan design product) expressly for its 'dashed line' effect, I ended up abandoning it for aesthetic reasons. BUT that was not my principal complaint with ScotWeb's Tartan Designer:

I object to not being able to set odd-numbered thread counts (other than 1), e.g., 13 threads of Bottle Green, which is 'auto-corrected' by the software to 12 What is the justification for that?

[Nick Fiddes]

I object to not being able to set odd-numbered thread counts (other than 1), e.g., 13 threads of Bottle Green, which is 'auto-corrected' by the software to 12 What is the justification for that?

I thought I'd pretty much explained. Our weavers prefer to work in pairs of threads. So this restriction helps keep costs down for everyone, whilst helping less experienced users in particular to create aesthetic and practical designs.

We'd be willing to consider an over-ride in a future release, if we feel there is sufficient call for this. But it would be with the proviso of possible surcharges for weaving. What do other people think?

Meanwhile, there is an alternative work-around in that you can always double up your thread numbers, as it is the sett pattern that defines the tartan, not the number of threads.

[Paul Henry]

Fit2BKilted I think that it best you think of it as a "design constraint" rather objecting to it as a limitiation.
But Nick really does have a fair point, most weavers wouldn't entertain an odd threadcount, I suspect they would be likely to question it ( if not double it up themselves!!)
The point about doubling up the thread count is a good one, but I know you still won't be able to get you dashed lines....