Our design journey began when I asked Matthew to chart me a maze, a labyrinth. Inspired by tiles on the floor of Chartres Cathedral, he charted an early version of this pattern. A year and dozens of patterns later, he revisits that original inspiration with an interpretation more faithful to the original.
THE ORIGINAL CHARTRES LABYRINTH IS CIRCULAR. THE SQUARE DESIGN IS NOT BASED ON THE LABYRINTH AT THE CATHEDRAL IN FRANCE.
Yes, Laurel, I know that the Chartres labyrinth is circular, as are many others of its kind.
However, shadow-weave designs only work in right angles, so it’s not possible to make a circular pattern with this level of detail using only 27 threads on warp and weft.
Although the shape is square rather than circular, an astute observer will note that the path does follow the same kind of folded twists, closer and then farther from the center as it works its way around the compass.
It’s obviously not an exact match for the original in Chartres, but that really was the inspiration I was working from as I designed this pattern!