Not Much Studio Time

Not too much time in the studio this month since I am working on the catalog for the Pacific Portals exhibit which will be held in Long Beach in conjunction with Convergence.  The exhibit will be up for two months at the Long Beach Public Library - Main Library.  This exhibit is the American Tapestry Alliance's unjuried small format tapestry exhibit.  It's a great exhibit to see since there are tons of tapestries in one place and the wide variety of images and techniques is astonishing.

I am working on the photos of the tapestries right now which is quite fun since I get to see all 150+ tapestries up close and personal.  It is interesting to see the various ways that the tapestries have been finished on the back.  I see them when I photograph them as well as when I tweak them in photoshop as well as when I insert them into the catalog.  I figure I will have them all these memorized real soon!

Our tapestry group submitted a group entry called Pacific Portholes... here is a shot of my tapestry; not the catalog shot.  It's called Three Sisters on Vacation.  I was trying for a cartoon look of me and my two older sisters peeking out of the portfholes.

All of our tapestries are white with two blue stripes and all have portholes of course.   We were limited in size to 5 inches in one direction and between 5 to 10 in the other.   Mine is close to five by ten. The others are more square.   It's pretty lumpy tapestry since the portholes poof out. It is woven at two different setts, with the white at the top and bottom at about 8 epi woven in a basket weave technique.  The portholes are at 16 epi woven with silk singles.

It was fun experimenting with different setts in one piece.  I would have preferred a bigger piece because then greater detail in the faces would have been possible.  I wove the portals from the right to the left and each got better and better as I figured out how best to handle the different wefts. I find this always to be true; by the end of any piece with a new technique; the later parts are better than the former.   I thought about going back and redoing the ones finished earlier but thought better of it.