Cloth that flows, glows, and looks three-dimensional
Create your own beautiful gradients using any weave structure and any draft
$39
Create magic with gradients
Flowing colors, striking cloth
You’ve seen gradients that seem to shimmer from one color into the next, and you’ve wanted to weave those beautiful gradients yourself.
But your own gradients don’t come out smooth, and you wonder why.
It’s not because you lack an eye for color.
Weaving education teaches execution beautifully: how to warp, how to read a draft, how to weave a structure correctly. The design half, the why behind a color choice, is something most weavers never had the chance to learn.
Gradients are a fine place to start learning it. Every gradient comes down to three factors: smoothness, pacing, and construction. Once you can name all three, you can design the gradient you want instead of just hoping it will work.
That’s what you’ll learn – one factor at a time, on your own cloth.
Depth, flow, and glow
create beautiful visual effects
Gradients do more than shift color. They create movement in your cloth, drawing the eye smoothly from one color to the next.
Gradients can also suggest depth and curves in flat fabric, or create the illusion of glow.
Learn to create cloth with movement, depth, and rhythm. Cloth that looks luminous.
Weave gradient towels
a fun project to apply what you've learned
The Sunrise Gradient Towels aren’t just beautiful. They’re the perfect way to put your new skills into practice.
In this project (published in WEFT Magazine!), you’ll design and weave your own gradient using the methods you’ve learned in class.
Want to create a smooth, subtle flow from light to dark? Or a dramatic transition from one bold hue to another? You can design whatever gradient you please.
Ask questions, hone your design skills, and learn by doing. Post your designs in the class discussion for feedback and answers.
By the end, you’ll have a set of beautiful towels –
and the confidence that comes from solid experience.
Color Gradients
use flowing color to create smooth color transitions
You’ll learn how to:
- Design smooth, beautiful gradients in three different styles
- Construct gradients using several different methods
- Create depth and dimension in your cloth
- Make your cloth glow using shifts in color
- Design and weave your own gradient projects
Just $39
But I had given up the idea of designing my own fabrics because I was always disappointed.
In Tien and Janet's classes, a light bulb just came on in my head… Now I can design work that I love!"
What you get
- 24 written lessons with clear visuals and examples
- 6 hands-on exercises with video demos: finish with six gradients you designed yourself!
- 4- and 8-shaft towel project for you to weave
- Our Draft Editor, so you can see your gradient before you commit yarn to it
- The class discussion, where we answer your questions
Just $39
8 weeks of access from the day you join
14-day money-back guarantee
And you don’t have to buy a kit. You use what you’ve got, and you develop your own skills at your own pace and level.”
Your instructor
Tien Chiu has spent the last ten years obsessing over color: dyeing 2,500 yarn samples and weaving over a thousand swatches to work out how color behaves in cloth.
She’s taught weavers all over the world how to use color skilfully, and has a knack for making even complex topics feel approachable.
Tien’s work has been collected by museums and featured on the cover of Handwoven. But what excites her most is helping other weavers bring their own ideas to life.
Make your own beautiful gradients
Join from anywhere. Start the day you join, and work through it on your own schedule.
By the end, you’ll have the skills and confidence to design glowing, moving, deeply expressive cloth.
All for just $39
Frequently Asked Questions
We do! The Handweaving Academy is an online school dedicated to teaching design – the part that most weaving instruction leaves out.
We teach principles as well as technique – the why behind every design decision – so our members can design projects that they love.
Our members explore every aspect of weaving, including:
- color and visual design
- weave structure and drafting
- project planning.
Whether you’re looking to deepen your technical skills or gain more creative freedom, there’s something here for you.
A single membership gives you access to 60+ in-depth courses, plus live classes, webinars, and other content released every six weeks.
Nope! One membership gives you access to all 60+ classes, design tools, toolboxes, and live events – including Color Gradients. Open the class and dive in. If you have any trouble, email us at [email protected].
You don’t! The Draft Editor that you’ll use to create designs works in any browser, so the only thing you’ll need is a tablet or desktop/laptop computer. (We do recommend using a stylus for those using tablets, to make editing easier.)
The Draft Editor is easy to use. We’ll provide instructions and demos on how to use it, too.
No loom is required to take the class. The optional towel project is designed for four or eight shaft looms, but you can design and weave gradients on rigid heddle looms as well!
Nope! The towel project is entirely optional. You’ll get plenty out of the class even if you don’t weave it.
You’ll get answers! Post your question in the discussion under any lesson and we’ll get you an answer. If you get stuck on the website rather than on gradients, email us and we’ll sort it out.
No. Every lesson is there from the day you join, and you work through them on whatever schedule works best for you. There are no live sessions for this class, but you will get a recording of the lecture from a previous “live” version of the class.
You’ll have access to all materials for 8 weeks from the date you sign up.
If you join the Handweaving Academy, you’ll have access to all course materials and tools for as long as you’re a member – as well as dozens of other classes, powerful design tools, and lots of live events.
We want our students to be happy! If you’re not satisfied with the class, you can get a full refund within the first 14 days. No questions, nothing to fill out, no strings attached. Just drop us a line.
And I think that the Handweaving Academy teaches us how to put that piece of our soul into our weaving. Not to just be like everybody else, using textbook formulas, but to put ourselves into our weaving.”