The Maze

I have finished the maze portion of my little tapestry for our group project.


It was particularly gruelling to weave since each warp end of each shed had to be exactly the 'right' color or the error was quite obvious. It was somewhat like painting by numbers...where each shed/warp end had its own particular color. This was not a weaving where I could could go to that 'weaving zen place' for long periods of time ... no..no... this was an intense exercise in focusing.


But I do like the result.



For the last part of the weaving I am going to have the grid deconstruct - to shoot into many pieces and a Hershey's Kiss should magically appear. Now that I think about it, this sounds harder than the maze to weave since I am not quite sure how to make that happen...I guess that makes it the fun part.

Another thing I will have to think about is how to hang this piece. There is a huge amount of ends on the back behind the maze but little behind the bottom part. It's really really thick. Thicker than I have ever had on a weaving - particularly this size. Ah something to think about.

Dots & Desserts continued

I worked on my Dots & Desserts project, In Search of a Kiss, at our tapestry group last Friday. I finished the solid gray part with the dotted path.

This week I spent a couple hours on Tuesday and maybe four hours yesterday working on the maze. And this is all I have...in fact there is a small error in the second row so I will be ripping that row out and starting over.

Let's see, the furthest I have gotten is four rows of the maze. At that point, I didn't like the height of the rows and felt it would look much better if they were wider. Of course, I had ripped out the second row, at least two times and the third row at least four times...

The maze is a quite a challenge to weave. The maze is designed with twenty seven columns each consisting of three warps. If and when there is a dot, it must be close to the middle of the row as well in the middle of the column. Sounds quite logical...in taquete it would be a breeze. On a tapestry loom. weaving back to front, upside down and with bobbins is entirely a different matter!

My DH has suggested this is a perfect project to take on vacation. Hardly need to bring any supplies, since all I do, is weave a bit then rip out the same section, weave a bit, rip a bit...etc.

Dots and Desserts

I helped warped two looms this weekend. They were not my own looms and this inspired me to start working on my projects.

One thing I did was warp my Baby Shannock so I can start working on my tapestry for our group project. Our tapestry group is working on a group project called Dots and Desserts. We are to weave a tapestry which is 8 by 8, 8 by 4 or 4 by 8 inches with at least a quarter of it being grey. The theme is desserts and we need to incorporate in a visible and obvious way dots - - the tapestry technique of dots.

I have several ideas for the piece but am moving forward on the one with the 4 by 8 maze on a 8 by 8 background. The cartoon is complete and sewn on the hem.

For this weaving I am trying lots of new things. I am using a new warp - some Finnish cotton warp I got from Shannock for my big loom. I am weaving from the back. I am using bobbins. And I am trying a 10 epi sett with four threads as inspired from the tapestry workshop I took many moons ago.

The twining and the hem is already complete along with two rows of single soumak. I just couldn't figure out how to get the ridge on the soumak weaving from the back so I simply turned the loom around and wove on the side I wanted the ridge on and then turned it back. I have even inserted my first dot!

I am also using my new bobbins that I just bought. I didn't like the unfinished look and feel of them so I am staining them with a water based white wash and putting on a semi gloss finish. I tested the white wash stain and finish on three bobbins. I like the result - seem much cleaner that the unfinished ones. I think two coats of the semi-gloss is in order.