Sense of Place

Empty Spot in Time

I have spent the month of March considering 'sense of place' for my small tapestries and beetle weavings.  I never have been satisfied with how they were framed.  All small pieces need a way to preserve and protect their spot on the wall so the eyes of the viewer go to the piece and not be distracted by other things nearby. It is so easy for small pieces to just get lost and be overlooked.  I am happy to say I have had several breakthroughs on this issue.  My beetles now have a new mounting method and I have a new way to weave small tapestries that I will try out for ATA's Small Tapestry International Exhibit - Outside the Line.    More on both of these later...

Today I wanted to share how excited I am about this tapestry's new sense of place.  This tapestry is my first tapestry poem and the start of a series of works that combine both weaving and creative writing.  I have had this piece framed in several ways and never been satisfied until today.  I think this new frame is a 'keeper'.

I built the frame myself from small pieces of wood which came from an old printing press.  It was like a giant puzzle trying to figure out the best way to put the pieces together to form the frame around the tapestry.  I wanted to minimize the number of actual cuts I would have to make  and not make the frame look too uniform nor too busy.   A number of pieces of wood had numbers on their ends so if you look on the edge of the frame you can see them.  I also cut some small ends off and had the numbers show on the face of the frame.  The wood blocks play well with the colorful blocks which form the letters of a line of poetry woven in the tapestry.

Where did I come up with idea?  I found a box of the wood printing press pieces in my stash.  They had belonged to my Mother who had collected them from somewhere. She collected 'stuff' and had everything organized in labeled shoe boxes in her closet.   This box went from her stash to mine where it sat for seven years without being opened until this year.   I often find it hard to use things of my Mother's since I would rather treasure them than use them up.  But the line of the poem which I wove into this tapestry, was one I wrote when I was a kid.  My Mother has treasured my writings and had kept them.  After she passed away, I received not only her stash of yarn and art supplies but also a box filled with my writings; poems, journals, books... from throughout my life.  What a treasure!  

Framing a tapestry of a poem that my Mother treasured for a lifetime with the woodblocks from her stash seemed the natural thing to do.

A Sense of Place

I am spending lots of time finishing this month.  My to-do list is long.    I've got seven pieces completed in the last week which are now ready to hang. But I am most excited about one that isn't even on my 'to-do' list.

I am piecing together a frame for one of my favorite tapestries. I have had it framed three ways and never been satisfied. This new frame is made of small pieces of wood from an antique used printing press. There are few pieces in the same color or condition.  Many of the pieces have numbers on the ends.   I found a box of these pieces in my closet.  They came from my Mother's stash.  

Having put all the wooden pieces together to fit around the tapestry with a few cuts here and there, I am now carefully gluing the pieces together.  The shuttles, antique iron and block of wood are keeping everything straight.  Once glued, I'll need to mount it on a board and attach the tapestry.

This will probably take another week or so to finish up.  But so far so good.  The blocks of wood work nicely with the blocks of letters in the tapestry. I do believe this tapestry has finally found its sense of place.