The Weaving Diva; weaving with words & weft

My New Camera Lens

2012-01-31T10:18:00.000-08:00

Macro Shot

Wide Angle Shot

I finally finished one of my portholes on my small format tapestry and was able to try out these cool camera lenses I got for Christmas.

It fits on my I-phone and has a macro setting with a focal distance of a half an inch. What you are seeing is silk woven at 14 epi. I am always looking for a way to take good close up shots of my work. Hard to believe I can do it now with my phone!

The hardest part was opening up the warp on the back of Mirrix and getting the phone in there without my fingers showing up in the shot. As I said in an earlier post, this isn't the best loom to do circles and faces. And is problematic when taking photos of the piece in progress. With the lens attachment on the phone it was difficult to keep the hands still while holding the camera in position inside the outer warp and finding the spot on the camera to push to take the shot.

From the box the lenses came in you can see there is also a fish eye lens. All three lenses are combined into one attachment. The lens is real easy to use - just slip it over the lens of the camera and shoot. Its magnetic so it doesn't fall off. Of course, I have a cover on my I-phone so I have to take that off before using the lens attachment.

What fun. Now back to weaving.

ps here is a photo of sewing thread woven at 48 epi on my other blog...

Weaving a Circle

2012-01-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

Step One In Weaving a Circle
- weave the base -

I finally made some progress on my small tapestry for the ATA unjuried show, Pacific Portals in Long Beach.

Not much image to see, but a good example of how to weave circles.

I have finished the base of the circles. That is step one. Next, comes a more interesting part - I get to fill the negative space with my circular designs. Each circle is a porthole with a person looking out. Once the images are done I can fill around the circular portholes, add a blue line, switch to a basket weave at a wider sett and presto I'll be done - - lickety split.

A Tale of Two Tapestry Looms

2012-01-11T17:14:00.000-08:00

The tapestry I am working on the Mirrix is for Pacific Portals exhibit; ATA's unjuried small format show in Long Beach. Entry form is due by January 15th - done. Now all I have to do is weave the tapestry before March 15th. I also just finished a tapestry on my other tapestry loom which is a Shannock. So how about some thoughts on the pros and cons of each?

Warped Shannock behind naked Mirrix

So I now own both a Mirrix and a Shannock table loom. My Shannock table loom was my first tapestry loom I ever bought; liked it so much I bought a six foot model. It is and has been my workhorse since 2004. I don't think Shannock table looms are being made anymore. Just recently most in my tapestry group bought new Mirrix looms so now I also have the Zach 22". Having woven with both; I like them both. No returning either of them! But there are differences.

From a warping standpoint I prefer the Shannock. It is way faster to warp. Just wrap the warp around the top and bottom beams. No changing directions going back and forth around a bar. Tapestry is such a slow medium why add additional time to the process? With the Shannock I am up and weaving faster due to less winding time, less warp and fewer heddles.

Less warp: If I am only going to do one small format tapestry; the Shannock will use less warp. At 8 ends per inch - no big deal. At 14 ends per inch - a bigger deal but not a deal breaker. If I am going to weave more than one piece on the loom; I can pull the warp around the Mirrix and use the warp on the back of the loom for a second piece. Of course, that first tapestry must stay on the loom until the second is complete. I have never done that before; but the option is available.

The Mirrix says its maximum tapestry is 40 inches; which is quite attractive. The longest I have done on my Shannock is 24 inches and that was pretty tough.

Fewer Heddles: I have always used heddles; I find tapestry becomes excruciatingly slow without them. I only have so much patience and my lifetime limited and filled with choices...

The Shannock uses large inexpensive paperclips as heddles easily available at Staples or similar store. The loom is designed so that you attach one heddle to every other warp end.

The Mirrix uses these Texslov pieces, ordered from a weaving store in sets of 100. Of course, I could also have made them myself...but no, no, no. I bought 100 with my loom, turns out I needed more since when I ordered it I did not realize I needed a heddle for each and every warp end.. Cutting all 200 of them was a chore, but now all are cut so no more hassles there.

The heddles were easy to attach on both looms. I just had to attach twice as many on the Mirrix. The heddles on both looms work well. When weaving each provides an adequate shed. Each has a different hand motion to switch the shed; but its easy and after a couple of times; I didn't have to stop and look.

The Virgin Tapestry on my Mirrix

I am still on my first tapestry, but so far, I find weaving on the Mirrix better in three respects;

1. The paperclips heddles on the Shannock often get caught at a narrow warp; particularly if they are bent out of shape in any way. The Mirrix heddles don't do that.

2. The Mirrix feels more substantial. The difference is like the difference between driving a brand new Porsche vs. driving an old Dodge Colt. Both get you there; but the ride is way different. The Mirrix's wide feet provide excellent stability vs. the ones on the Shannock. [I should look into getting new feet for the Shannock.]

3. The most troubling aspect of the Shannock for me is the fact the side bars are not exactly perpendicular to the ground. They angle in slightly; making it harder to see if the edges are straight on a longer tapestry.

Here is the big issue for me with the Mirrix...

Weaving a Portrait on the Shannock

I weave from the back and like to check out my tapestry to see how things are going. Those back warps on the Mirrix; particularly at narrow warps provide quite a screen; making it difficult to see through. I end up spacing out the warp and peeking through.

As I have been become a more experienced weaver; I have been checking much less. There are situations where checking is important. When I weave an image; like an expression on a small face, the placement of a particular dot of color is critical; it will make or break the tapestry. When confronting one of those situations on the Shannock I would just flip the loom around and weave that dot exactly where I wanted it. That's is not an option on the Mirrix.

It will be interesting to see how I do with this new loom when I get to that point on my latest tapestry. This small tapestry has three small faces; each with a unique expression.

More later.

Designing a Flock of Plovers

2012-01-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

We have six tapestry weavers who are illustrating in tapestries a story I wrote about a sand crab. Each weaver is free to use her own style and is free to interpret the page she has selected and illustrate it in any way given a uniform palette of yarns and a few parameters to provide some unity. The results are so interesting - so varied in style and come together quite well. I wanted to take a moment and show the various stages I went through in coming up with the design for my latest tapestry.

I looked over the list of remaining pages of the story to illustrate and selected the one about plover birds, a predator of our heroine Rita, who happens to be a sand crab. In the back of my mind I had been thinking of weaving a tessellation and thought perhaps I could pull off a bird tessellation for this tapestry; I have seen them done in quilts so why not tapestry? It took me awhile to get into the swing of creating a tessellations...particularly after I had taken a look at what plover birds look like. They did not seem to tessellate well.

The best I could come up with was on the left below. The pieces are only 9 by 12 inches including the woven frame so there isn't that much room to fit a flock of plovers. I could have woven this if the sett was smaller and the yarn finer...it would have been a nice piece. But they really didn't remind me of plover birds - more like sparrows. So I decided to try a different design.

The next iteration was not a true tessellation but the birds were more weave-able at my given sett. Since the birds reminded me of chickadees and not plovers, I again went back to the drawing board. The third one were passable plover birds but the design was a bit repetitive and dull from a viewing perspective. At some point, one must cut to the chase and start to weave... For my final design, I went with the one on the right; not a true tessellation but some repetitiveness and shifiting. Once I had a design, I selected colors and off I went to weaving it up.

As of today, the tapestry looks like this - clean, crisp and simple.

But then Rita sighs deeply, her home's far away.

A hot mile through sand, a long swim in the bay.

But from here to go there, will be such a tough feat

Because lots of thoseplover birds now crave a treat.

One Plover to Bring in the New Year

2012-01-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

One plover bird for the New Year!

This is a small tapestry' 9 by 12 inches designed and woven as part of a collection of tapestries which will illustrate a story I wrote about a sand crab whose adventures take her all around the Santa Monica Bay. Six weavers in our tapestry group are working on this project. There are 20 tapestries to be woven.

This is my third tapestry in this collection; depicting a plethora of hungry plover birds on the beach north of the Santa Monica Pier using a tetrad as my primary color palette.

My color study group is studying tetrads; a color scheme I don't think I have ever intentionally used. It seems an awkward scheme which requires one of the four colors to be used far more extensively than the others in order for harmony to be achieved.

Here is a fun website where I developed my color scheme - - called the Color Scheme Designer.

Writing with Words and Weft

2011-09-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

It took awhile but I finally finished both my ocean poem tapestry banners. I think weaving poems is just wonderful. A poem is a subtle piece where each word is carefully and artfully selected; a poem told in both words and weft enhance the viewer's appreciation by giving those few words greater depth and visual beauty.

The first tapestry on the left was created during the time of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf and it speaks to the beauty and fragility of the ocean. The second was inspired by scenes of recent tsunamis where the ocean is clearly getting its revenge.

Left: Ode to the Ocean
Right: Ocean's Revenge

Not Weaving

2011-08-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

I am not weaving any tapestry at the moment...finishing several, designing one and racking my brains out on another. It's an odd place to be. I spent some time working on a plan as to what I should be working on when in order to accomplish the things I want to accomplish by when. And I am where I should be.

Our tapestry group is working on a group project consisting of a dozen and a half small tapestries which tell a story. I finished page 1 and am now designing page 7. I am scheduled to weave/finish it in September. Our group projects have lots of rules and regs to follow and this group project is no exception. There are specified yarns which must be used in at least half of the piece, a red and a blue which must be used in all pieces and sizes to the overall piece as well as the frame. Such limitations are said to provide greater unity to the combined pieces as well as spur one's creativity. All true.

The page of the story I am illustrating is an underwater scene at the sandy bottom of the Santa Monica Bay with a menacing surf perch... I'd like to achieve that impressionistic look with the colors blurry up close but clearing as one steps back. The size is 9 by 12 inches with a sett of around 6-8.

My first drawing, done on tracing paper and in crayon is on the left along with some of the stipulated palette. On my next revision, I hope to have a more menacing fish plus show more realistically the variances in light reflections under water. I think I'll try watercolors instead of wax crayons to achieve a better idea as to what the finished tapestry might look like.

View from my loom

It's not a rush...I have it laying out on a table in my studio so the yarns and the design can speak to me. On another table I have my waxed crayons as well as my soluble crayons waiting for their daily spin. And in the corner, my buddy watches.

My Tapestry Spiral in Eureka

2011-08-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of My Tapestry Spiral which is being exhibited at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka California. It is always fun to see how the curator will exhibit this piece. Each time is different. This time it was the best. A great deal of care and thought went into this presentation.

My Spiral Tapestry was woven as a tapestry, thirteen yards long and four inches wide with 182 darts of negative space. Once completed the negative space was removed by pulling the warp and closing the spaces. On one end, the original warp was braided and retained. Using this method a wonderful spiral was formed similar to tricolor fusilli pasta or a colorful spiral staircase. Technically, the shape is a helicoid; a remarkable form which packs great densities into small spaces. For shipping, My Spiral Tapestry flattens to a cylinder shape less than nine inches wide and only three inches high. Once opened however, the many yards of tapestry take on an organic and lively appearance as they fall from a helicoidal spiral into a droopy yet energetic shape uniquely its own.

Third Tapestry Banner off the Loom

2011-06-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

I finished the weaving portion of my third tapestry banner and have it hanging temporarily on the wall to straighten out a bit before I go further. It is a bit shy of 100 inches and exactly 20 inches wide. It's so tall, I need a taller ladder than my two step to raise the nail about 4-6 inches so I can have the tapestry hang without touching the floor.

This banner will have more surface design details than my others. There was a lot of tension issues in this piece most likely caused by the areas of negative space I have where the warp is exposed. I plan to add small paintings or drawings behind some of the exposed warp once the kinks are worded out of the tapestry. I will also be adding some designs in yarn or roving in some other places along with some black beads I have been dying to add to a piece.

I am also considering making the back have an interesting design on the back lining so the tapestry can hang and be viewed in two directions. I ran out of time and energy on my first banner so its viewable only in one direction. The back is simply a red backing and a label. I am still searching for the right beads for my second banner so I could add an interesting back to it too.

Looks like I will have a fun and long road to the finish on these...

Flamingo at Rest

2011-04-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Here is my tapestry flamingo checking out the backyard.

This is an experimental piece woven in tiny squares of color so the image up close is pixelated. It gets clearer as you step back from the tapestry. It's a couple feet high and about 10 to 11 inches wide woven with yarns entirely from my stash.

I was hoping for an impressionist look...like the Monet painting. That turned out to be much more difficult that I thought it would. With tapestry there is a high level of commitment to the color woven into the tapestry since changing the colors later is not as easy to do as with oils. With paint its easy to simply paint over the color which was not quite right with a new one. With this tapestry I discovered it would not be until perhaps 2-3 inches later that I would discover a certain color was not quite the right one...

Since its woven in tiny squares of color; four round trips around three warp ends...I can carefully remove a color that is not quite right and replace with another. So now I am in the tweaking stage; improving on the color selection in both the background and the image.

A bit more tweaking is in order... but no more for today...my flamingo needs a rest.

Dyeing Opposites

2011-04-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

I have had a cold lately and haven't been up for doing many things. I felt inspired to dye today so I quickly lept into action.

I needed some yarn for a tapestry I am creating which focuses on opposites and the ability of opposites to attract, polarize and also neutralize if and when they come together. So I selected two fun opposites on the color wheel; a bright yellow green and a wonderful plum red violet and dyed three graduated mixtures of the two.

Here are the results drying in the back yard. The fog just rolled in so it may be some time before they dry. The very light color at the far left is the yarn color I dyed. It may look grey but its a bit more tan than the photo would imply.

The colors seem perfect for what I have in mind. Hopefully, they will look as good when dry.

My Studio is Bright

2011-04-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

My studio is quite colorful with two tapestries brightening the room. I just took off Ocean's Revenge and it is resting on my loom awaiting finishing. It's companion piece Ode to the Ocean is finished and on the wall.

I must apologize for the photos and my recent silence, I just got a new computer which was fried in a recent series of power surges and it seems everything takes ten times longer and is ten times more difficult to do with this new one. I haven't had the time nor the patience to handle the process of getting an exhibit quality photo. So these will do for now.

These two tapestries each convey a poem in stylized letters; one in reaction to the Gulf oil spill last year and a second about the inevitability of the ocean's impact on our coastal shores. The first is 20 inches wide and 80 inches long. The second is shorter but will be close to the other in length once the long coiled fringe is complete. The yarns are mostly a self dyed cotton/silk blend.

Both were quite enjoyable to weave. The first my focus was on flawless execution and ensuring the blue oil oozed down through the middle of the piece. With the second I became freer using more clashing colors, a broader palette and will finish with a really fun fringe.

I have two opportunities later this year to exhibit these pieces. I think they will exhibit well together.

A Friend Came to Visit

2011-03-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

A bit of black came to visit my neutrals....everyone seemed to perk up for the occasion.

Listening

2011-03-03T07:55:00.000-08:00

I am in a color and fiber study group which researches a given topic, shares what we find, explores the concept in fiber and other mediums and then creates an exhibit quality piece.   Our current topic: neutrals.

I decided I would avoid increasing my stash with new yarns and would attempt to create a tapestry with the neutral yarns I already have.   My normal approach would be to create the design then select the yarns. This time I have the yarns and I am waiting for my yarn to speak to me about the design it would like to be.

I have put all my neutral and near neutral yarns in a basket in my studio. So far, the yarn has not had much to say.

I will keep listening....

A Good Feeling

2011-02-19T14:17:00.000-08:00

No better feeling than taking a tapestry off the loom... and letting it rest.

The piece has turned out great. The colors are wonderful. The letters right side up and heading the right direction. This banner tapestry is eighty inches long and twenty inches long. It will actually be longer since I will have some of the fringe hang from the bottom.

And best of all, I have lots of leftover warp to weave a companion piece. I have already wrote the poem for the new piece. It's called Ocean's Revenge. The cartoon is complete so all I have to do is set up the loom and get going. Perhaps next week.

Good

2011-01-30T12:10:00.000-08:00

I feel good.

Two days back at my Big Shannock and some real progress in the New Year on my Seeing Red project for Designing Weavers. I'm half way done with weaving another poem; this one about six feet longer than the first one I wove. And I am on schedule to finish with time to spare.

Life is good.

First Tapestry of the Year

2011-01-18T19:22:00.000-08:00

Just finished sewing the back of this small tapestry I wove as part of a group project for our tapestry group. It's 1/12th of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting. I am actually not sure if its positioned correctly; it may need to be shifted 90 degrees in one direction or flipped over. Whoopee! My first tapestry of the year.

Only 18 days and it has been quite a year. Finished a tapestry. Celebrated my birthday. And have three pieces hanging in my second exhibit of the year! All this with a week of nasty flu. Looks to be a fast moving year.

More Progress

2011-01-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

Here's my progress photo after the unabridged version of P.D. James' The Private Patient. The reds are fairly true in the photo but the greens are a bit off. Please don't ask me what it is; since I have no idea. There is nothing recognizable in the black and white scan I received to weave. All I know is that it's one twelfth of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting.

I must say, it was a wonderful feeling to make it to the top; at least in one spot. I figure one or two more books on tape and I will be done weaving and onto finishing. This is the point where I need to pay attention to my edges; I have a tendency to pull in at the very end in my excitement to get done.

PS. This is woven on a Shannock table loom which has gotten a bit skewed. I am thinking the leg bolts on the bottom should be below the bottom beam and not above. Once I finish this weaving I am going to swap the position and see if the piece is more stable. I took the loom apart to fit it in my suitcase when I went to Convergence...so perhaps I put it back together wrong!

Progress Shot - 13 hours and counting

2010-12-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

Here is what my small tapestry looks like after one book on tape...a book of 11 Cd's; with approximately 70 minutes per CD. I've never really tracked how long any of my tapestries actually take to weave but using books on tape seems like an easy way to do it.

So far the values are fairly close to those in my given design. The original is a tiny photograph - perhaps 2 by 3 inches without a lot of detail. Even though I was one of the two who saw the original Georgia O'Keeffe poster before it was cut up into 12 pieces; the design in my piece is meaningless to me. As I weave I have been adding colors, shading, bits of interest here and there without any context as to what my image actually is. How many times have I heard 'it's all about the image'...well here I am weaving an image totally out of context. It is somewhat of a clinical exercise; no real passion. I feel odd weaving a tapestry without that real passion inside. I normally can visualize what I am weaving - not this time. So, I just seem to be plodding away...interested in how it is coming out but without great enthusiasm. The book on tape is far more interesting that the weaving itself.

Accomplishments

2010-12-19T13:36:00.000-08:00

I read this today...100 Accomplishments in 2009...what a wonderful idea...I think I will make a list of my top 100 things I accomplished in 2010...it should help me plan my journeys for 2011.

Hopefully one of the items on my list will be to finish an 11 CD 'book on tape' which I am listening to as I weave this small 7 by 12 inch tapestry. This is where I am after four CDs...seven to go. It is rare I can actually listen to an audio book while working. I have found the constant rain this weekend to be a wonderful time to weave so I suspect before long this book on tape will be done.

Unfortunately, even though this is a small tapestry, I project it to to be a six+ audio book tapestry...so it won't be done this year.

Future Pull

2010-10-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

My memory of Santa Fe was finally framed and hung in my front studio. It's a photograph by David Brookover called Future Pull.

Pausing

2010-10-17T10:09:00.001-07:00

Here I am at a very familiar place. I've got a loom warped, the warps spaced & twined with six pics of warp woven in. The final tapestry will be twelve inches wide and 7.5 inches tall when complete.

Now is the time to commit. This is the point I always pause... and ask myself -

Do I really want to spend the time and effort to weave this piece?

Would I rather spend my time on something else?

Is the design and technique interesting enough to keep my attention to the end?

Is there something unusual, new or fascinating about the upcoming journey?

Do I have the patience to weave at 14 epi in silk singles?

Having paused and written down these questions; I am going back to tweak my design and yarn selection. It just occurred to me I can add some layers of experimentation and complexity to keep this road one less travelled and more interesting.

The Beginning

2010-10-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

My studio is finally at a stage that I can finally make some progress weaving on the Big Shannock. This upright tapestry loom has been warped and the weft dyed and ready to go for awhile. In fact I dyed the yarn back in June!

In the last week, I have woven about 18 inches or so. It's been a relaxed and wonderful weaving experience; I have even been able to listen to books on tape. Most of my other weaving is too cerebral to listen to anything; even music causes me to rip and reweave.

This tapestry is for my annual project for Designing Weavers; the theme is Seeing Red. Once complete the tapestry should be about 70 inches long and 20 inches wide. It includes a poem I wrote about the fragility of the ocean in semi-abstract block letters. It is being woven upside down and from the back. The 'T' is the only letter woven so far.

Games People Play

2010-09-19T15:51:00.001-07:00

Here is a small tapestry I just took off the loom, two inches square; woven at 14 epi with linen singles. I am going to wrap it around a small 2 inch canvas to frame it. It should be called something like Games People Play, Destiny, or Winning Isn't Everything or Damm I Can't Win ...you get the idea.

I sometimes wonder why I weave what I weave...

My First Beetle in Tapestry

2010-08-31T15:28:00.000-07:00

This is the small tapestry I wove at the ATA retreat in Santa Fe. In our workshop we were to focus on a symbol; I chose the Egyptian hieroglyphic of a scarab which is the sacred symbol of sun, renewal and rejuvenation.

Surprise, surprise it turns out the scarab is a dung beetle - one of those beetles that rolls balls of manure across the ground and fills them with
fertilized eggs from which the next generation would hatch. In the process the manure disappears. The dung beetle is the modern day recycler; without them the earth would be piled high with manure. Apparently they successfully imported dung beetles into Australia to remove cow manure- cleaning the fields, reducing disease & disease bearing insects with the added benefit of a reduction in global warming.

In my tapestry, the black ball in the lower corner is the manure which is converted to healthy growing soil represented by the green sun at the top overlooking the Nile. The ever increasing curved triangles represent the continuous renewal and rejuvenation thanks to the dung beetle.

There were two workshops at the retreat, the other instructor gave us a short lecture on making a frame for a small tapestry in order to capture and reserve some precious wall space specifically for it. As any small tapestry knows...it is difficult to compete with all the other things on the wall and in the room.

I liked her idea so I tried it out. This is my stab at what she described. The tapestry is lashed on a board which floats slightly below the top of the frame. Learnings: 1. if you are going to stain the wood - don't use wood that has been sitting around the garage for a long time - who knows what has dropped and soaked into it 2. sanding does not remove all the stuff in number 1 so the stain will never look even and nice.

Invading the Stash

2010-08-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

For our group tapestry challenge I thought I would try to use the yarns I already have...trying not to dye any new colors or buy any additional yarns. This morning I went through my stash and here is what I found.

This first grouping is all mohair or something similar....colorful, wispy, light and airy....but lacking in some value contrast. If there were some darker values; perhaps cranberry, mulberry and a zinfindel it would be a great combination. Plus, using light airy yarns would be fun; something new; fairly wide sett and little beating.

Here's the palette I have in my dyed silk. Good value contrasts...a bit more 'Van Gogh' in palette than O'Keeffe...but I could probably make it work. It could use more darker values in the reds and oranges...

Hmmm...time to stew a bit.

An Inspired Challenge

2010-08-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

I spent some time at the American Tapestry Retreat in Santa Fe this month. I and a dozen others spent three days with James Koehler while others spent their days with Lynn Curran. And along with all the wonderful galleries I visited and all the creative art work I saw, I came back inspired. One of my friends was equally inspired and we offered a challenge to our tapestry group back home based in part on each of the instructors at the retreat.

To create a quality small tapestry based on a black and white image of part of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting which we saw at the Georgia O'Keeffe museum. The exact painting was not specified so our imaginations are free to determine the palette. Once complete we will put them all together and see how they compare with the original. Since the focus is on quality and value it should work out well.

The size was specified - each to be 7.5 by 12 inches with straight edges. The starting/finishing is based on the James Koehler preferred method. [If you have been to one of his workshops you know the drill...waste weft yarn followed by twining with warp, six pics of warp, six pics of weft in the same colors as the first line of the tapestry followed with soumack in the same colors...] Pretty much everything else - color, yarn, texture, sett, warp etc. was free game.

I have my black and white image and have been staring at it for a couple of days. Take a look. It is quite an odd shape to say the least. Where other folks images seems like landscapes mine seems a bit erotic. I see nothing that makes much sense. There are plenty of value differences...I count at least nine. So we are looking at a full value spectrum piece...nothing too subtle here. Now what colors does this piece say to you?

I decided to play a bit in Photoshop, trying different colors and effect...I've got dozens of alternatives...

I am partial to the following rendition... it reminds me a bit of Bryce Canyon and the hoodoos....

An Idea...

2010-08-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't this be a great tapestry?

Perhaps with all those red yarns I dyed...

2010-07-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ah what a dilemma...I have to chose a palette of yarns for an upcoming tapestry workshop and I have yet to create a design. I have gone back and forth for the last hour or so...and have finally decided to create a selection based on two things...one is some indigo yarn one of my friends dyed for me...and the other is a collection of color samples that I dyed awhile ago to create an entire color circle in yarn.

Good selection...good colors...good values...good possibilities....

So Happy!

2010-06-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

I spent some time, not very much time, winding my recently dyed skeins to spools for my spool rack by my Big Shannock. They are exactly the colors I was hoping for. I am excited about weaving this piece....will start after all my exhibit pieces are mailed...so many places and so much detail work.

In Search of the Right Red

2010-06-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to dyeing my yarn for my upcoming tapestry...the weatherman forecasted no 'June Gloom' for Saturday so I figured it would be a great dye day...six hours later the sun finally came out and my family of reds was all dyed.

The tapestry I will be weaving next on my Big Shannock is a poem I wrote as a kid. Similar in concept to the small piece that I am working on now but different in size, yarn, sett... I am designing this piece to be a sampler which would use a variety of reds and its closer relatives to see how they look with each other.

I need a sampler because I still want to weave that large tapestry I designed and I am in search of the 'right' palette of reds to work perfectly with the lovely dark blue violet I bought recently. I can see it my mind...just have to find it in reality. My yarn is a cotton-silk blend where each component takes the color a bit differently for a lovely mottled look. It's always a surprise to see how the color takes to the yarns.

Although the yarns are not yet dry I can see some absolutely lovely reds here...

A Poem in Tapestry

2010-06-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a small tapestry I am working on; it's about half done. It is four inches wide and will be about 10 inches long when complete. It is woven in silk singles.

When I cleaned my studio earlier this year I found a folder my Mother had kept and later gave to me. It included all sorts of writings and art work I had done when I was a kid. This tapestry is a line from a poem I wrote for a creative writing class. It still gives me the same feeling when I read it today as I felt when I wrote it long ago.

There are a few other lines from poems I wrote that I really love. I am going to weave another on my Big Shannock.

Sometimes it takes awhile

2010-05-07T10:38:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out the right frame for a small tapestry. Or at least it does for me.

I finished a tapestry for the ATA small format show back in 2008 as part of a group submission. We all were tasked with weaving a small tapestry in one hue and some metallic with a theme of palm trees. I selected 'cassette tape brown' as my hue. The entire piece was woven in cassette tape some of which I spray painted for a higher value with a bit of shimmer. I like the piece but could never figure out the right way to hang it....until yesterday.

It is in a shadow box frame, raised a bit over glass. Beneath the glass is this aqua material with flecks of the same color as the moon in the tapestry. It is almost perfect. I am a bit leery of using glass since it breaks so easily. I may switch it out with a bit of plexi which would also make it lighter and have a bit less glare. I had to take the picture off from the center to avoid most of the glare.

It looks really nice next to my Folding Space tapestry in my studio.

Mulling

2010-04-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

It is always interesting how the idea for a tapestry comes to fruition. While at the Tapestry Weavers West exhibit in Petaluma earlier this year, I saw the proportion of a tapestry that I wanted to weave. It was big; five feet high and seven feet long. It looked absolutely wonderful; perfectly proportioned on the big white wall. That proportion has been mulling around in the back of my mind along with a few other ideas and I now have this great concept for a tapestry; I can see it clearly.

However, five by seven is pretty big; I'd have to weave the tapestry sideways since my loom is only six feet wide. That raised some issues to mull over. Since I've never woven anything the entire width of my loom I decided I'd go slightly smaller, with a similar proportion, 6 by 4 1/4 feet.

I cut out paper to use as a cartoon and realized it may be smaller than my original idea but it is still massive - no table big enough at this house....will be on my knees drawing out the initial lines of the cartoon.

Speaking of massive, I wondered if the piece would be intriguing enough to keep my interest for the months it will take to weave. After more mulling, I've decided to weave a slice of my piece; a sample of sorts; about 18 inches wide and 4 1/4 high. This smaller slice of my design will allow me to get the colors right, the technique sorted out and give me more time to mull over the final design.

It is fortunate I wanted to start with a smaller slice. When I went to my warp stash - there was only enough warp of the size I needed for a slice. More mulling over whether I want 30/18 or something slightly smaller. But that mulling can wait for another day.

My loom is threaded and waiting for the final tie-up. Simply need to finish up the cartoon, dye some yarn and get weaving. I'd like to start weaving by the end of May.

Time Out

2010-03-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

Its time for Spring Cleaning of the Studio.

The Before Photo - -

With the help of my painter, I removed most everything from my studio this morning including the contents of three closets and quite a few bookcases. It is remarkable how much I can pack in one room in an organized fashion. But it is the big Spring Cleaning. It does not happen often. The census happens only once per decade so it seems does the complete Spring Cleaning of my studio. Cleaning has happened before - but this one is the complete one.

Everything is removed from its spot, every tapestry and piece of art is taken off the walls, everything removed from the bulletin boards, nothing remains on the various bookcases, even the bookcases are removed from the room. Three table looms remain on the remaining furniture. The nails, pins, hooks, etc. have been removed and the holes in the walls have been patched and tomorrow the paint arrives.

Everything will be re-evaluated before re-entering the studio with a fresh eye for the future. I anticipate full trash cans for the next several weeks. A gallery hanging system will arrive in a week so I can easily hang and change my wall hangings without putting nails in the walls.

Here is the interim photo - -

In a week or so, there will be fresh paint, a new arrangement of my work area withing the constraints of the room and a renewed vigor to get things done.

My Bridge in the Rain

2010-03-02T15:21:00.001-08:00

Here is my entry for the ATA Small Format Exhibit which will be showing in Santa Fe this July. It is called Bridge in the Rain #3.

Hopefully it looks a bit familiar. The Japanese artist Ando Hiroshige did a scene like this, Sudden Shower in a wood block print in 1857. Van Gogh later (in 1887) used it as inspiration for this Japonaiserie: The Bridge in the Rain. I followed both of them in 2010 with my interpretation in fiber of a similar scene.

My piece is five inches in diameter. Woven at 14 epi with hand dyed silk singles. It was a complex and technical piece which I would like to weave again now that I know what I need to do to improve the end result.

Tapestry in Petaluma

2010-02-23T10:14:00.000-08:00

I was delighted I was able to finally view the Tapestry Weavers West tapestry exhibit in Petaluma, California before it closed. It was a spectacular exhibit in a great venue.

Here is my niece and her two year old viewing my tapestry called Folding Space.

A Tapestry Year?

2010-01-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

Will it be a tapestry year?

Not much tapestry weaving for quite awhile. However, I did sign up for the ATA Retreat in July with James Koehler and a couple workshops at Convergence so there is tapestry in my future. Plus, one of my recent tapestries will be in an exhibit in Petaluma.

I am in the design phase of two new tapestries...one is smaller than a dinner plate. Its for ATA's Small Format Exhibit. The other is big; the biggest piece I have ever done. Both are quite exciting. But before I get beyond the design phase for these two, I need to finish framing a piece for one of the Convergence exhibits as well as clean my studios. One studio is done; one to go- plus there is the yarn dungeon which needs to be organized....

So it should be a couple of weeks before anything interesting happens in tapestry land.

Afternoon of Avoidance

2009-08-03T17:10:00.001-07:00

This was my afternoon of avoidance.

I really didn't feel like writing and I didn't feel like weaving so I made heddles for my Big Shannock. They took way longer than I expected to make and I found the process incredibly boring. I will keep that in mind next time I feel like avoiding something on my to-do list.

One of my projects...a bit far in the future...is to explore the outer reaches of my six foot Shannock tapestry loom. I have never done a piece that uses the entire weaving width - that's the concept to explore. I have several tapestry designs that might work well at that size.

I needed more heddles to stretch across the width. I only have six sets of petals so that's all the heddles I can use. Theoretically I should be able to go six feet since each heddle bar is two feet; but I figure the heddles need a bit of overlap so I may end up at 5 to 5.5 feet.

We'll see. The next time I am in a period of avoidance I will start warping the loom...

Slow Progress on Vacation

2009-07-02T08:34:00.001-07:00

Some but not a lot of progress on my giraffe tapestry while on vacation. I have posted a progress shot with it sitting on the newly designed and built petanque court.

The tapestry is still abstract...you won't 'see' the giraffe until I get more than half way through the piece. I need another 2-3 inches before I am there. As for the petanque court -a lot of progress there but it needs some more packing and drying. I figure over the next several days of 90 degree heat it should be good and hard and ready for play.

The issue slowing my tapestry progress is my back. I cannot seem to find the right chair/table combination to work well. I end up with spasms in my back after just a little bit of time. This is the issue I always have when I travel with my weaving. It's always so much better to weave at home.

I may try weaving in the kitchen standing up to see if that works. But first I think I will design a beetle.

Finishing, finishing . . . no not quite finished

2009-06-21T20:02:00.001-07:00

Here's a photo of my latest tapestry just off the loom on the carpet; prior to any finishing. And the second one is after some finishing. See any difference?

There's a five pound chihuahua on the left to give you an idea of the size... The width started out 32 inches on the loom, quickly dropped to 31 inches at the beginning of the piece and 30 inches at the end of the weaving. After finishing it is about 29 inches wide.

The second photo shows how it looks after a nice rest, tweaking of the warps, tying of the weft tails, straightening the lines in the frame, attaching twill tape & velcro & a lining, machine sewining, hand hemming, cleaning, hanging, etc.

Is it finally done?

No not quite yet...I seem to have an odd drape on this piece. I guess it has to do with the different yarns I used. The outside 'frame' is lighter and more flexible while the inside is fairly dense. It's the inside that is bulging in and out in different places with a cardboard like texture. I am hoping by having it hang with some weight all the way across the bottom of the piece the drape will straighten out.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

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Finishing up the warp

2009-06-12T16:52:00.001-07:00

I have been happily weaving on this tapestry for the last several days. I am happy with the results so far although there are a few small slits where three turns on top of each other seem to be letting in light. Pretty much everything you see in the photo was completed in the last two days. Around the design is a three inch black woven frame which isn't readily apparent in the photo.

I am glad I didn't pull off the warp to weave one of the other two designs I had come up with. This one, albeit simple is pleasant to weave. And I get to use up my favorite warp.

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Designing for a Specific Size

2009-06-03T17:04:00.000-07:00

I had some leftover warp on my large Shannock tapestry loom that I wanted to use up. Typical of a weaver - not wanting to waste anything. Waste not- want not. It is indeed a beautiful warp...I had dyed it a midnight blue and had intentionally put on more than I needed for the first piece in anticipation of doing another piece.

I have had a terrible time trying to figure out what to weave on this leftover warp. I had an entire cartoon completed along with yarn selection on the theme of Pluto. It was a tongue in cheek rendition of the object being thrown out of the 'Club of Planets'. However, it didn't quite seem right on the leftover warp.

I then designed a more realistic piece using a great photo I took of a volleyball player at the beach. I even figured out a way to insert more warp in the middle of the piece for greater detail. For some reason I could not get the design to look right given the size of the warp I had left.

Next I decided to play with optical illusions and made a great piece consisting of three shapes - those impossible shapes. I am sure you have seen them. They are the ones that look right until you realize the perspective is all wrong. I came up with what I thought was an exciting design but again couldn't make it fit right into the warp I had left over. I was so excited about this design I even contemplated removing the leftover warp and putting on new warp which would fit the design.

Then I remembered how nice the midnight blue warp was and how I really enjoyed weaving with it. I took a deep breath and went back to the drawing board. I designed a simple piece. I designed it quickly. Nothing hard. Nothing complex. One shape. Golden proportions. Enclosed in a frame filling the leftover warp. Done.

And I have been happily weaving ever since.

What have I learned?

My designs dictate their size - not visa versa.

Neat and Tidy Soon

2009-05-28T18:01:00.001-07:00

I have not had much time to do any tapestry weaving recently; perhaps an hour or so to work on one spot on my giraffe piece. However, I am excited about what my DH is working on in the garage. It should spur me on to focus a bit more on tapestry.

When I was at CNCH a tapestry weaver had set up all her tapestry yarns on spools on a rack. She had a bobbin winder on top to easily combine yarns as she needed them. See photo.

So neat and tidy...I just love neat and tidy when it comes to my tapestry yarns. DH is sanding, priming, staining and finishing an old spool rack for me. He is staining it with a white wash so there is no yellow cast from the color of the wood. I did the same thing with my bobbins...I hate that yellow cast - it makes the yarns look a different color.

I will show off my new tapestry yarn rack when its all spruced up and all the yarn is organized. It should inspire me to work on my tapestries vs. my novel or my beetle collection or my optical illusion experiments or my ...

Two Tapestries on View

2009-05-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to see my creations hanging in two different shows over the past week.

I had a tapestry accepted into the ATA's International Small Format tapestry exhibit called Connections. I went to the opening last week at the San Jose Quilt and Textile Museum with my sister. We drove down from Sonoma with the top down. There were lots of people there, many of them artists in the show as well as other interested folks. I talked briefly about how I designed my piece based on a Fibonacci grid. It's called Over Easy. If I recall correctly four or five other artists spoke about their pieces. All in all - quite a fun day.

Yesterday, the Fiber Open II opened at CSU Channel Islands. DH and I went up to check it out. I was real interested in seeing how they exhibited my tapestry spiral. Did they lay it out over the tube I provided, or a box or from the ceiling with the 'S' hooks I provided? I gave the curators a variety of options and said it was up to them since each time the spiral is displayed it will be different.

The piece actually was hung against the wall using one of my hooks and a picture hook in the wall. They had not unwrapped the eight foot long tails when I got there since the floors had just been cleaned. The photo I took was before we unwrapped the tails so I cropped the piece for a less distracting view.

I am going up again for the opening so hopefully I can get a better shot. It looks good with the long tails piled up on the floor. For future shows, I think I may also paint the 'S' hooks white [they are now black] so they don't stand out so much on white walls.

Eccentric Weft

2009-04-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

Finally got a photo I could post of my small tapestry that I started in Jean Pierre Larochette and Yael Lurie's workshop that I took in Sonoma at the CNCH conference. We could work on anything we wanted so I decided to focus on eccentric weft or passe oblique, as he calls it.

Here is the beginning of my piece.

I am hoping for a piece that will be around 9 by 13 inches and there should not be a straight line in view. My goal is to use the technique as much as possible while retaining straight edges and minimizing the puckering. I also want to enjoy weaving the piece so I chose colors and a design which would amuse me.

I had read the many tapestry books in my collection on how the technique works. I learned a few more things to try from the workshop which were not in these books.

Jean Pierre suggested using less bulky weft when going eccentric. Since I normally use two singles when I weave at this sett, when I inserted the eccentric weft I used only one single. He also suggested never using more than 4 passes of eccentric weft before providing more structural integrity with the standard weaving techniques. He also suggested checking every once in awhile by loosening the warp and see how much puckering I am getting. If too much - take some out and try again.

I think this piece will take awhile to complete since I am focusing my most productive time in the morning to my novel and I have 10+ yards of material on my sixteen harness loom queued up with pieces to complete my beetle collection and design my piece for the yardage exhibit at Convergence next year. But you never know, I may become inspired and finish it in a week or two.

Stay tuned.

Where have my curves gone?

2009-04-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

The last three pieces I have done on my small loom have been quite angular. Here is the latest...it's an angle sampler which James Koehler recommended we do. It has a variety of different angles from a meet and separate standpoint as well as the unidirectional type. It pays to know how to create a specific angle with respect to a given sett and weft type.

The difficult part of weaving this piece was ensuring I could fit all the different angles I wanted into the space I had available. I designed as I wove along.

I feel like I have been focsuing on angles and straight lines way too much. All my designs lately in my sketch book have been angular. Where did all my curves go?

Resolved: my next tapestry will have no straight lines. Absolutely none. I will be starting it in the tapestry workshop I am taking this weekend. No blogging but I will tweet.

You can read my twapestry tweets on my other blog.

Writing like a Tapestry or an Oil Painting

2009-04-19T18:14:00.001-07:00

I think distractions are the enemy of creative people. I think creative people can create despite some distractions. Too many distractions are the death knoll to creativity. Distractions are everywhere. Some are easier to remove than others.

I am not easily distracted from my weaving. I am currently working on a couple of tapestries and several weaving projects. I am so passionate and focused about my weaving I can work around or ignore many distractions.

I am however easily distracted from writing. I have always wanted to write a novel. Isn't there a novel in everyone trying to get out? There certainly is one in me. I started 4-5 years ago doing research, developing my characters and sketching out my plot. I wrote the prologue and the first chapter and stopped. Completely stopped.

I got very busy in the last few of years from volunteering...I have been doing the monthly newsletter for the Southern California Handweavers Guild for the last three years as well as been in charge of publicity for the Association of Southern California Handweavers. Both were time consuming but fun. They did however suck a lot of the creativity out of me, consume a lot of time and were an easy distraction from writing. I also participate greatly in the guilds I belong to... I figure that if you belong...you should participate. If not, why bother being a member.

I had started the novel before all this volunteering and stopped as the volunteering consumed my creativity. I made a conscious choice this year to be more selective in my volunteering, significantly reduce the distractions and re-start my work on my novel. That was my New Years resolution to myself.

It has taken me awhile to restructure my volunteering activities. But the distractions are lessening. In the last couple of days I have started to write again and it is quite exciting. I simply love getting up in the morning and spending an hour or so on the novel before I go weave. Currently, I am re-acquainting myself with my well developed characters and re-creating the plot which is in disarray.

Today I realized I had to decide what method I want to use to get this novel written. It will 12 chapters.

Do I want to write like I weave a tapestry? With tapestry I have an overall plan - the cartoon [for me a fairly detailed cartoon] and then I weave and perfect each section before moving onto the next.

Or do I want write like I create an oil painting? In painting I have a sketch, then I paint a layer, perhaps re-paint some sections, re-paint a different section, touch up something else, move around from section to section, re-paint something again etc. until I am happy with the result.

In the tapestry method I would spend much more time on each chapter making sure all the facts are in order, characters are acting correctly and timing correct. This is like tapestry where you have to do all the planning and execution for a section at one time before moving on. After all 12 chapters are done then the final edits occurs. For a tapestry this final edit is like the tiny tweaks one might do at the end...covering an exposed warp or adding a dot of color here or there. These are little tweaks since the big issues are already resolved. Essentially each chapter get the BIG edit prior to the final edit at the end which is more like finishing the tapestry - ensuring it is ready for public viewing.

In the oil painting method, I write quickly as possible with little regard to ensuring everything is quite right. I don't have to write sequentially. I can jump from chapter to chapter and fill in spots where I have a good idea. And leave until later sections where I have an issue or question. Once all the sections chapters are written the novel gets a VERY BIG edit.

I need to decide on an approach...I am still musing while my plot is straightening out.

Workshop Design

2009-04-17T16:34:00.001-07:00

I am taking a tapestry workshop next week and as I mentioned earlier I need to arrive with a work in progress. Since my travelling loom was empty I have been trying to capture an interesting idea to keep me busy for a couple of days.

I set my mind on the eccentric weaving technique since the class I took with James Koehler focused a great deal on angles, straight lines and shapes made with angles and straight lines.

My challenge for this upcoming workshop is to create a piece with no straight lines - not one...except of course the edges.

The eccentric weaving technique results in lovely curvy lines like the waves or the wind. I have never done an entire piece using this technique. I have only used it for the occassional outlining.

My Mother used it alot and has done some lovely pieces with it. I will hunt up a photo and let you see.

What I want to do here is use the technique in all the places that it will work and end up with an interesting sense of motion in the finished piece. Having read through the literature it will only work where the angle is less than 45 degrees. Through the process I should learn how it works and when/where it will not work. And most importantly - how to maintain straight edges.

These are some of the different designs I created going free hand in Photoshop. I didn't realize Photoshop had that facility. I normally use it simply to fix my photos. It was fun playing around with the features in a different way.

The last one is the one I liked the best. But I really don't think any of these will do. They seem too much like another 'art theory' or 'workshop' piece and I'd rather not spend the time doing another one of those.

I think I will go back and find a concept which will slip into one of my current series... perhaps similar to the zebra. I did get some great photos from the zoo.

Inspired Again

2009-04-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

I have a concept for a tapestry about the planet Pluto. However I am not inspired enough about the concept to actually weave it. At least not right now. So for inspiration, I went to the LA Zoo today to take photographs for another series I have in mind. Of all the photos I took - this one is my favorite shot.

The photo has also provided me with an idea for a new tapestry that I would really like to weave. And the new idea is quite different than this prairie dog image. It will include a woman in a bikini playing volleyball on the Santa Monica beach.

It's interesting how often seeing one thing makes another just pop into my mind.

A Brick Wednesday

2009-04-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

It being a Wednesday, I tried weaving a bit on my tapestry brick wall but was uninspired. The idea of my brick wall was to only weave on Wednesdays, weave whatever comes to mind - no grand plan or design and weave as little or as much as that day's inspiration will take me. Today, I did not go far. After a brick and a half I cleaned up and covered up the tapestry for a future Wednesday.

I got an email from the instructor of a tapestry workshop I am taking in April. It's a working workshop in which you are supposed to bring a piece you are working on and work on it for several days. Hmmm, my loom is empty and there is no design in sight.

I have been thinking sometime about the eccentric tapestry technique. My mother used it all the time and was highly effective in depicting wind, waves and any type of motion. Since I learned how to do dots of color in a class with Tricia Goldberg I use the eccentric weave only occasionally - perhaps to outline an object.

I have also been thinking of doing some tessellation designs perhaps incorporating optical illusions for the yardage exhibit in Convergence 2010.

I have three inspirational books - one which is like an encyclopedia of textiles all in pictures, another shows how to create Islamic designs and another with Japanese stencils.

And I still have to explore simultaneous contrast within my color theory studies.

I think I will try to dive into all three of these things in the next several weeks and come up with a design for this small tapestry.

I see it is time to straighten the studio and get to work.

A Pulled Tapestry Helicoid

2009-03-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

My Spiral Tapestry was woven as a tapestry, thirteen yards long and four inches wide with 182 darts of negative space. Once completed the negative space was removed by pulling the warp and closing the spaces. On one end, the original warp was braided and retained.

Using this method a wonderful spiral was formed similar to tricolor fusilli pasta or a colorful spiral staircase. Technically, the shape is a helicoid; a remarkable form which packs great densities into small spaces.

For shipping, My Spiral Tapestry flattens to a cylinder shape less than nine inches wide and only three inches high. Once opened however, the many yards of tapestry take on an organic and lively appearance as they fall from a helicoidal spiral into a droopy yet energetic shape uniquely its own.

A few more photos...here.

Back into the Swing

2009-03-13T09:57:00.001-07:00

The pressure of the conference is over and I can get back into weaving. My method of getting back into the swing of things is to finish up small items that have been WIP for awhile as I plan my new pieces.

I just finished up this small tapestry which I designed to play with triangles and color. It's a pleasant piece with nice color choices and enough design elements to maintain interest. I need to figure out how to maintain the points of the triangle when they are pointing straight up - there is the tendency to mush down and not look crisp. I may be able to fix that a bit in finishing.

The piece looks quite interesting in black and white... a bit blurry but you get the idea.

I have enough warp left to do a small exercise on angles as suggested by James Koehler in the workshop I took last year. So that's next on this loom. More on that exercise later.

Uranus at the Riverside Art Museum

2009-02-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

The tapestry here, Uranus, conveys the wonder of space through the recurrence of universal forms and the use of black yarns. The design was inspired by a NASA photograph of the planet Uranus taken by Voyager 2 as well as the watercolor of the Black Widow Iris completed by Maria Sybylla Merian in 1700.

The potential and unlimited possibilities of space are felt as orbits of golden spirals radiate outward from the planet. Space continues to expand as it pushed against the woven frame. Uranus’ many moons orbit the planet in Fibonacci patterns. The black hole in the shape of a nautilus shell subtly illustrates the difference between the golden and exponential spiral.

The space around Uranus is woven with a variety of different textured and iridescent black yarns. The yarns were chosen for their absence of color - for their 'darkness' or ‘blackness’. Black yarns which pushed to purple, red or green were avoided. The resulting yarns vary by content, texture and sheen. The piece drapes and undulates through the use of these yarns echoing the darkness and the mysteries of space.

The tapestry was woven by a textile artist who is inspired by mathematics; intrigued by tapestry and taquete techniques with a penchant for the patterns and geometric structures in nature.

Uranus

2009-02-06T09:24:00.001-08:00

My 'black tapestry' is finally done and off to the Riverside Art Museum for the exhibit starting February 14th and continuing until April 4th.

My tapestry here, Uranus, conveys the wonder of space through the recurrence of universal forms. The piece drapes and undulates through the use of varied black yarns echoing the darkness and the mysteries of space.

The design was inspired by a NASA photograph of the planet Uranus taken by Voyager 2 as well as the watercolor of the Black Widow Iris completed by Meria Sybylla Merian in 1700.

It's about five feet long and 30 inches wide. It hangs away from the way about 3 inches so it can easily drape and fold as I imagine space folded in the novel Dune.

It was hard to send this piece off to the museum. I have worked on it for so long and I wanted to enjoy it some more before saying goodbye.

Closer Look

2009-02-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

I have been working on finishing my black tapestry called Uranus. Here's a closer look of the piece. This part is the exponential spiral - the nautilus shell along with a couple of orbits with the moons of Uranus spiralling outward in a Fibonacci pattern.

I've started to experiment with how to best photograph this piece. Two issues; first it 99% black and secondly it does not lay flat against the wall - it drapes. Thus, it looks different from different angles and in different lighting.

I signed up for Daryl Lancaster's seminar on Photographing Your Work at the Color Connects Fiber Conference in March. She wanted some photos to use for discussion...some photos of this piece might make for an interesting talk.

This piece will be hanging in the Riverside Art Museum as part of the Designing Weavers Exhibit which will be up in mid February through the beginning of April.

I guess [actually hope] I will have better photos of this piece after the conference.

Resting

2009-01-29T14:21:00.001-08:00

The black tapestry came off the loom yesterday and rested horizontally overnight. I really like it...I just kept staring at it. It looks like nothing I have ever done before. And I wanted to immediately start the finishing process. Fortunately I had a meeting last night yesterday otherwise it would have been near impossible not to start tweaking it. And it would have never rested.

This morning I made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish in finishing. I started by pulling some warps to flatten out some bulges. Then the tapestry went vertical with weights.

This will help remove some of the drape in the tapestry. I want to retain a bit of the rolling motion in the tapestry since this is a depiction of outer space. To me space is not uniform and exact it has a more organic quality to it. A few rolls in the tapestry will be nice. Not my normal style but it fits the design.

Once the warp, weft and I have stopped our negotiation and the warp and weft is where they want to be as well as where I want them to be... I can move on to sewing some holes where light peeks through. Using such different sizes and types of weft made some of the joins problematic. I will have a black backing so these joins should not be too visible. But I still want them fixed.

What I really want to work on is the crescent of Uranus in blue. But it needs to wait until everything is in its place. I am going to do something special there. Hope it works!

More later.

Progress on Uranus

2009-01-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

The thing about big tapestries...is that they are big.

Here's a progress shot from the back of my tapestry. It should be 32 inches wide and about six feet long when complete. I have been focusing on this black tapestry for the last month or so. At this point, there is no more peeking at the front. You can see the cartoon in yellow behind the warp.

You can judge how far I am by looking at the entire cartoon - - in this earlier post. I figure I have finished about 60% of the entire piece with about 40% to go. From a difficulty standpoint, I think I have about 85% finished with only 15% to go. I figure I should be done weaving quite soon.

I have finished the planet, more than a dozen moons as well as some intricate portions on the nautilus shell.I find that there is always that one 'special' part of every tapestry that I weave. That's the part that seems to take forever to finish. I am always wishing it would hurry up and get over with. It's always complex. It's always messy. And there are never any short cuts. I just have to focus, not procrastinate and plow through it.

I had this 'brilliant' idea of using some of the shapes that I saw in a watercolor by Maria Sibylla Merian. She did a botanical watercolor of a black iris, also known as the black widow. The portrait had the most magnificent vein structure. I decided I just had to have some of those shapes in this black tapestry. Black tapestry - black iris - black space. - black veins ... you get the idea. What had started as a fairly simple idea became quite complex. It turned into that 'special' part of the tapestry I dread.

I celebrated today when I completed that 'special' part.

The thing about big tapestries is that they are big. The 'special' parts are big too.

Tapestry in Black

2008-12-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

I have made some progress on my tapestry in black called Uranus and its 23 Moons.

On the left is the beginning of the nautilus shell. And one of the orbits of Uranus is starting on the right. The piece will be 72 inches tall...so there is quite a ways to go.

I am quite amazed at how different the piece looks in different lights. In some it looks completely black. In others the light picks up the shimmer in some of the yarns and there appears to be a whole variety of shades of black.

The nautilus shell has been a bear to weave given the blackness of all the yarns and multiple bobbins I need to use. One yarn is silk noil and the other is a satiny type yarn. They are completely different as to feel, sett and character.

I was happy to be able to advance the warp today. That means tomorrow, I get to start working on the planet itself. The planet will be largely black with only a crescent of color. Judy plied some yarns together for me, a wool and a mohair. She did it a number of different ways so it will be interesting to see which works out the best.

Or perhaps I will use something entirely different. The texture and color must be just right as well as the weaving must be perfect. The light peeking around the planet will be the focal point to draw the viewer into the piece. The nuances in black should keep them there for quite awhile.

I am extremely pleased with what is happening so far. If this keeps up it will be an exceptional tapestry.

Starting to Pull - Layer One

2008-12-13T06:45:00.000-08:00

I have started to pull my tapestry spiral. Here is how it looks at the first layer...fourteen more to go.

Golden Rectangles & Color Triads

2008-12-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

Things have started to calm down. It always seems the time between September 15 and December 15th are the busiest for me.

This year the focus seemed to be on tapestries; largely finishing tapestries. My definition of 'finishing' starts when the tapestry is taken off the loom and is completed when I can hang it on a wall...assuming it hangs. Off the top of my head I think I have recently finished eight tapestries. All have been assigned to various exhibits I would like to be in over the next six months.

This is one of my tapestries I designed and wove in the James Koehler workshop I took in Colorado last summer. The focus was on golden rectangles and complementary triads. We could design and weave anything we wanted.

I use golden rectangles in my designs but I am not exactly a fan of golden rectangles. I find them too narrow on the short side to be pleasing. I prefer the size of the boxed frame in the photo to the size of the tapestry itself.

I am also not a fan of complementary triads. I find them harsh. Particularly when they are at such a saturated state as in the yarns I created for the workshop. It was difficult selecting the colors as well as weaving with the colors. To make it 'interesting' to weave I decided to avoid slits at all the edges so I did the entire piece in hachures and interlocks. It was interesting for about an inch. Then it was a 'death march' to weave.

So obviously with all these things against it, this tapestry is not one of my favorites. However, with the extended lines added upon finishing and the grey background, I surprisingly do like the end result and it currently has a prominent spot in my studio.

It is always good for me to push myself outside my comfort zone...pushing my color selections beyond what I would normally use...using designs which are not my favorites...and weaving in new ways. I try to do this on every tapestry I do. It makes my body of work grow in different ways than I expected and keeps me balanced.

Fortunately, I normally enjoy the time creating tapestries on my looms. It is a rare tapestry that is the 'death march' like this one. I think I will just blame it on the high altitude in Colorado. I weave best at sea level.

Spiral Tapestry Off the Loom

2008-12-11T21:47:00.001-08:00

I started weaving this tapestry piece back in late August and I just finished weaving my last triangle section today.

Hard to believe that there is actually 13+ yards all rolled up! You can see the cardboard darts I put into each section...there are close to 200 of them. Quite a bit of weaving there.

I think this took more time to weave than anything I've done before. I timed how long it took to do one section - 12 minutes is my best time...196 sections...2,352 minutes...that means 39+ hours for the entire piece...of course I usually only wove 2 sections per day. But today I did 14.

My next stage of this project is to remove the cardboard triangles and pull the warp into what should be a wonderfully colorful spiral. I just have to figure out how to psych up to do all that pulling!

The Second Brim

2008-11-16T07:28:00.000-08:00

It's taken about a month with some steady weaving over the last week to finish my contribution to our collaborative tapestry hat. This is for the Celebrate Color! Fashion Show at the Color Connects fiber conference in Riverside March 2009.

This is my hat brim. There are actually two brims for the hat - an inside and outside brim. I did one...my collaborator did the other. We haven't figured out whose will be inside and whose will be outside. Who knows perhaps the hat will be reversible. Both are woven in dyed silk and cotton since both of us are allergic to wool. My brim has three hummingbirds going for the nectar in the red and orange flowers. The other brim has an entire flock of colorful birds - weaver birds undoubtedly.

Those yellow strings on my brim will be snipped and hopefully will look like delicate stamens. I may put some beads on the ends too. It's bit tough to see since one must look through the warp. I haven't taken the piece off the loom yet. I need to consider how to finish off the edges before I allow all those warp ends to be loose and run away.

This was fairly tough to weave. You may think it was the doughnut shape that made it difficult to weave - but not really. The worst part was the tension. It had to be the worst tension I have ever woven on - extremely uneven. If I had had an empty loom of the appropriate size I would have started over with a new warp. But no empty loom so I persevered with this one. It will be interesting to see how it looks after finishing.

Ahhh...now that this hurdle is completed, I feel a productive week coming up...

A Tapestry Hat

2008-10-26T17:31:00.001-07:00

I am working on a joint project to create a tapestry hat for the Fashion Show at the Color Connects conference taking place in Riverside in March 2009. We need to have it completed by January 15th the point at which the entry forms are due along with a picture of the piece.

Here are the pieces we need to make...actually we need to make two brims...one for each side of the hat so the wearer can flip the brim towards the top. This is a big floppy hat - the brim measures 22 inches across so it is not inconsequential to weave. It is also...obviously...curved.

We want to have a bird theme and focus on the conference colors. My friend dyed the cotton weft and has woven her side of the brim with a flock of parrots. I am starting to weave my side of the brim with three hummingbirds getting nectar from some colorful flowers.

Here is how far I got on day one of weaving - -

I have just started the first hummingbird. I am hoping to have green be the primary hue in the hat along with a white background. The first hummingbird is green with some bright orange. I think it will have a stain glass flavor since I am avoiding shading, not worrying where the light is coming from and there are large blocks on a single color. The colors are saturated and selected to pop when next to each other.

We needed a loom that was somewhat portable and had at least 22 inches weaving width. We borrowed the one in the photo. It met our basic requirements but it's fairly difficult to weave on since if I make the tension as tight as I would like for optimal tapestry weaving - it is near impossible to move the bars that hold the mulitude of string heddles. Plus, I need to be careful not to let the heddles slide off the bar when I change sheds. There are lots of heddles...let's see 10 epi and warped 24 inches wide... 240 string heddles - all hand made. And its a pain to put them back on...I have already had to do it once.

It's also tough to see how things are going, in the photo as well as when weaving, since I am weaving from the back and the other woven brim is one the back side of the loom. That was another nice thing about the loom...we were able to put enough warp on to handle both brims that we are weaving. We only had to warp it once.

When I weave from the back, I normally check the front every 10 minutes or so to see how things look and then consider whether I should modify something. With this tapestry I will just have to go with the force - no peeking & no pondering. My goal is to complete my part of the weaving in November. Looks quite doable.

12 Hue Color Wheel

2008-10-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

I needed some dyed yarn - 'primaries & secondaries' for an upcoming workshop.

I had originally planned to match the colors in the Munsell 10 hue wheel but in the end decided to go with the more common 12 hue color wheel.

I attempted to match the colors in the hue wheel in the Art of Color by Itten with those in my 10% graduation exercise.

Matching the colors reminded me of an argument I had with my chemistry teacher in high school. We mixed some chemicals and were to write down what color the liquid turned. The teacher and I argued as to whether it was yellow or green. I found it odd we could not agree as to what we saw.

Color is perplexing in so many ways.

My First Color Wheel

2008-09-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a workshop in October where I will need some tapestry yarn...' bring the primaries and some secondaries'. I thought a bit...which primaries...and which secondaries? The definitions vary all over the place. I thought a bit more and decided I would simply dye some yarn to match the ten colors on the Munsell Color Wheel. I've never dyed a color wheel before...sounded like fun. Plus, I rarely mix primaries to get the secondaries when dyeing so why not experiment.

One of my friends loaned me a pamphlet called Colour Samples for Fabric Dyeing by Susan Rex. It had most everything I needed to pull off this project.

There are a couple fabric dye triangles in the back. I used the 4% DOS dye triangle to match the best I could the color chips from my Munsell Color Wheel. The chips were generally more saturated than the dyed fabric so it was not obvious which fabric matched some of the chips. You can see the fabric samples and the chips in the photo.

I then realized this wasn't going to work too well anyway since when I dye silk with fiber reactive dyes the colors tend to shift during the dyeing process. So, I decided to do some graduated dyeing in 10% increments on small samples. I am going to create the outside of the dye triangle with my own silk yarn. In this way, I can pick the best match of my own dyed yarn samples with the Munsell color chips and dye those colors in larger amounts.

For tapestries I use one of two yarns, a silk cotton blend or 100% silk. The latter I like to use on my small Shannock and that's the loom I am bring to my workshop. Since it is 100% silk, I have some options on how to dye.

As you can see in the photo, this silk yarn is a grayish blue. I know from past experience its tough to get a good yellow with this yarn since it will push green. But I do enjoy the cast I get on the dyed colors from this yarn. I decided to do two dye triangles...one with the grayish blue yarn as is and one with the grey color stripped out. It's a bone colored yarn once the color is removed. It's not white, so the end results may be skewed. But by doing this I will have a good idea what colors I can realistically achieve.

I also had to decide which DOS -depth of shade I should go for. The Munsell Color Wheel uses the maximum chroma so the darker the better. I did a test on the turquoise primary to see what a variety of DOS's would look like. I've never tested how saturated I could make a yarn. I tested .1% to 8%. Once they are dry I can see how saturated it can get...while wet I don't see much difference after about 4%. It's good to see the turquoise took...we had some problems in the past with the dye...another reason to test.

It is real hot and dry today...not like the last two days where the fog stayed around all day and I had to wear a vest to keep warm.

It is a great day to dye so I spent half the day dyeing little samples of yarn. How many...let's see...a tad less than 40. Here they are drying- quite bright and cheerful.

And yes...there does seem to be a bit of yellow there.

The Shortest Route

2008-09-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a series I call Deja Vu which exemplifies the many approaches and paths one can follow through life. Here is a photo of one of the pieces. It is called The Shortest Route. I have completed two other in the series and I think I have another two in mind to complete the set. I had originally thought three would be the number. But the ideas keep popping up in my brain.

They are all done in hand dyed silk with dyed warp. I have been exploring negative space and exposed warp through out this series. In the next several weeks I intend to have these three 'framed' and ready for show. I have completed the one with the slanted warp. It actually was not hard to weave and once framed perhaps a photo will appear.

I won't be able to start any new ones until perhaps November. I am going to take a Color and Design workshop with James Koehler which should keep my brain focused in other directions...at least for awhile.

Collaboration

2008-09-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

I spent the day working on a collaborative tapestry that my tapestry group is working on. The piece is for the Harmonies Exhibit for the Color Connects Conference in Riverside March 6-9th 2009. The Harmonies Exhibit is an unjuried exhibit that focuses on collaboration. Our tapestry group is currently working on two pieces.

In the past our group has done a number of collaborative pieces. In the past our collaborative pieces have been individual pieces based on a common theme. Once we did a snake and cut the cartoon into into individual pieces. Other times we have a theme and certain constraints and we each weave our own tapestry. Once we did a 4 by 6 inch piece with the theme of Vintage TVs.

This time we are all working on the same tapestry; one person at a time. I am the 5th of potentially nine people to work on this piece. The inspiration for the piece was a photo of a poppy field. There is no cartoon. The colors are the conference colors for Color Connects. Basically, you weave whatever you want with whatever yarn you'd like until you feel you have woven enough. Then you pass it on to the next person.

I got this tapestry at our last meeting. Today I worked on the mountains and sky. I wanted to get the piece up to the bottom of the frame. Done.

Much of the yarn in the piece is wool and I can feel my palms burning. Fortunately I found some non wool yarn to weave the mountains with. Unfortunately, I couldn'' find any non-wool yarn which matches the colors in the frame. But it's done...it will be interesting to see how folks finish off this piece.

I wasn't sure using the conference color would provide enough value contrast but it seems based on the second photo there is enough. The black and white photo however does quickly point out there is no focal point in this piece. It might be possible to fix that with a flock of birds or a sun or moon in the unwoven part. Time will tell how it all weaves up by the remaining four tapsters.

Out of the Box

2008-08-02T10:38:00.001-07:00

I finally got my small 7 by 7 inch tapestry off my Baby Shannock this week after what seemed like a very long time.

I just checked and saw that I had dyed the warp back in May. This piece is one of a series of three small tapestries which should encourage the viewer to ponder the type of choices they make through life. Given the many visitors and progress I have made on my other projects the time frame seems quite good.

The piece is not yet 'photo ready'. But I do have a photo of the second tapestry of the series which I have warped with the navy blue warp.

As you can see...a bit of that 'out of the box' thinking...actually 'out of the box' warping...

A Reflection

2008-07-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

Remember the old saying -

there is a novel in everyone

waiting to be written.

I believe there is a corollary - whether a painting, tapestry, sculpture or some other creation,

there is a composition in black, in every artist

waiting to be created.

I have started both...may I finish both in my lifetime.

Black

2008-07-23T19:23:00.001-07:00

Two different yarns...two different blacks...two different epis...two different values...more to come...

What fun!

Section 1 - Observations

2008-07-22T17:02:00.000-07:00

I just finished what I have labelled section 1 on my Study in Black tapestry. Here is a photo of the back. The light is better in the back when it comes to viewing photos of this piece.

Observation 1: It sure seems to have taken a long time to finish such a seemingly small area with such a seemingly easy technique with seemingly few yarn changes.

This part represents the 'empty' part of space in my piece. It is about 150 square inches - a bit larger than a square foot. I feel like I have been weaving for months. I find this a bit frustrating...I understand why complex situations take a long time to weave...but this does not quite fit under the umbrella of 'complex'. Ok...there is some complexity, there is interlocking along the frame, multiple strands in the weft and the chenille issue. But still, there are only two different wefts and a multiple expanse of one color...

Observation 2: The 6 epi sett seems to suck in the warp.

The frame is doubled yarn while the space is triple chenille. I have already used a couple of balls of yarn on the frame and about 2/3rds of a cone of chenille. I figure if I can finish the empty space on the bottom with one cone of chenille, I will reserve the other cone for the top and all will work out well. I've got lots of the yarn for the frame...

Observation 3: Chenille does indeed have a 'side' or a nap.

Earlier this year, Deborah Jarchow gave a lecture on chenille to one of the Guilds I belong to. She mentioned that this type of yarn has a definite side and one must be extremely careful when weaving with it to ensure you don't end up with two very different looks in the resulting yardage. I noted this in the back of my mind and thought that if were also true on tapestry weaving it might be useful in this piece I am now working on.

I am now convinced. It does matter which way the yarn is woven and/or which way it is rolled of the cone. And it is not apparent you have done it wrong unless you have woven an inch or so. At one point, I had to re-wind my entire bobbin in order for the look to remain the same. I had initially thought since I was taking three strands of chenille and weaving with them together this issue would not occur. Not true. It happens. It makes a big difference.

Thank goodness I was using the chenille in an area where I did not have to use lots of bobbins of chenille...it would have been a nightmare to ensure everything was going the right way in order to have a uniform look.

Now that I know it happens I can consider using it in section 3 to provide a distinction between the two empty spaces.

Observation 4: Black weft and dark warp? Not a problem.

People always say it is hard to weave on dark warp. But so far I have not found it difficult to weave black yarn on my dark blue warp. I must admit, I only weave on this piece in the morning when the sun is out. It might be an issue if I wove when it was darker since the light is bad in the north studio. But is would be an issue on white warp too.

The Many Values of Black

2008-07-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

I have started to weave my Study in Black. I am hoping to convey the emptiness of space through the use of the color black as well as its beauty and wonder through the recurrence of universal shapes and forms.

This photo illustrates the different values of black. Value is perhaps not exactly the right word...perhaps notes of black or scales of black would be more appropriate. I am still creating my palette of blacks for this piece. I have all the yarns purchased, balled and organized. Now I am working them into a scale of blacks by their appearance under a bright light.

The yarns were chosen for their absence of color - for their 'darkness'. I have avoided black yarns which pushed to purple, red or green. So no dyeing by me for this project. The resulting yarns vary most by content, texture and sheen. In the end the yarns will be lined up from the lightest to the darkest - in 'value' order. Thus, I will be weaving as normal picking up the right amount of contrast from the yarns to yield the right look.

I have chosen the lighter black for the frame to provide a feeling of stability as well as comfort to those viewers, and potential purchasers who feel art should be framed if on the wall. My husband also is happy since he will not need to create a frame for this piece... although he did just buy this really cool Mitre saw along with a ten inch 80 point blade.

I am reserving a variety of the darker blacks to convey the darkness and mystery of space. And somehow the feeling of potential and possibilities of space needs to come across through the selection of blacks.

From a weaving standpoint, I must admit this is the boring part. Just straight across with no yarn changes. The only issue is whether the tapestry is level. Things will get much more interesting once I hit the curves. You can see some of them where I dotted the dark warp with white paint.

More later...

Designing Weavers Side Show

2008-07-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

The Designing Weavers SideShow Exhibit at ArtCenter Manatee in Bradenton Florida was quite nice. It's always a surprise to see how a collection of pieces of different artists in different mediums will be put together and hung. I think the Center did a fabulous job. The overall theme was the circus since John Ringling had his home nearby which had been converted into an art and circus museum.

I submitted two pieces, one was my Behind the Scenes tapestry of a lonely zebra grazing at the circus. The other submission was my fiber slap bracelets.

Here are some photos of the exhibit.

A Day with James Koehler

2008-06-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to take a one day workshop with James Koehler on hachures, hatching and other color gradation techniques. It was insightful.

Here is my tiny workshop piece. I had to take it off my loom since I had a different tapestry class the next day.

You will notice that it is done in wool. Yes, I popped lots of allergy pills and washed my hands everytime I wound new bobbins. And I survived weaving with wool for a day. I thought it is not often one gets the opportunity to weave with James Koehler and the hand dyed wool that he brought was beautiful.

In the photo, starting from the bottom are progressive hachures some with the turn on the upper warp and some on the lower warp, then hatching using uniform shapes with three colors and ending up with vertical hatching. Doesn't seem like a lot but quite useful.

He suggests starting a weaving with 1) waste, then 2) twining with the warp, 3) six pics of warp followed by 4) six pics of weft then 5) finishing with soumak with the bumps on the front of the weaving. He finishes his weaving in the same way - but in reverse. This allows him to machine sew the Velcro and twill tape to the weaving and just whip stitch the hem. It sounds like it will yield a much smoother and thinner hem than what I do. I will try something like that on my next weaving.

His mantra is that art is all about the image. If the technique is not perfect then the image will suffer. And a potential viewer will not become a buyer if he/she notices the technique since buyers are buying the image. I tend to believe this due to the appeal of my Behind the Scenes tapestry of a zebra butt.

He believes most weavers do not spend enough time perfecting technique nor designing the 'best' composition for their pieces. More on composition later since I also took a 90 minute seminar on composition which made the entire trip to Tampa worthwhile. I am still assimilating what he said in that short time.

It was a bit scary sitting in his workshop and realizing the amount of work I will need to do to get my technique to the level which he was describing. But doesn't everyone need a challenge. He discussed what I should do...and so...I guess it's just up to me to sit out and get to it.

Time to make a plan...

Tapestry Sampler

2008-06-18T19:47:00.001-07:00

Here is the tapestry sampler I just took off my baby Shannock. I would have done more but I need to take the loom to Tampa for two workshops.

This piece is real cool. Lots of negative space...lots of double half hitches. I think the final tapestry will come out quite intellectually and visually interesting.

Off to smell the tulips...

Cartoon

2008-06-16T11:09:00.001-07:00

I think I am almost done with the basic cartoon for my Study in Black.

After several more hours of tinkering and a lot of erasing, here is my cartoon as it stands today. I worked out the cartoon in actual size, 32 inches by 72 inches.

Then when I was finally satisfied, I took a photo and played around with it on the computer. In the end, I flipped it both horizontally and vertically for the final view and saved it in a gray scale.

To get a better idea what it might look like in black, I inverted the photo in Photoshop Elements which interestingly yielded green lines and a red Uranus. I am satisfied.

Now I just need to go back and make a few small tweaks on the actual cartoon erasing a small line here and there and that's that.

Next on my to-do list:

- figure out the shadows and values for the nautilus shell
- find the 'right' yarn in the vendor hall at Convergence for the Uranus and perhaps for the orbits of its moons
- figure out whether I want to weave front to back or back to front. I've started the frame at the bottom but I still could go either way.

And, of course, I can finish up weaving the bottom of the frame and move up into space.

Composition Review

2008-06-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

My tapestry, A Study in Black, is obviously made of black yarn. I am taking the position, a correct one I hope, that what makes a good composition good is the same regardless of whether the tapestry is all black or a multitude of colors. I have been struggling with my cartoon, since I want to be as happy with the cartoon as I would be if I was weaving it in a color.

So here is my list of things I need to consider - -

BALANCE: Is the piece dynamically balanced? Once I think it is, I need to take a photo and view it on the computer. Invert it. Rotate it. Does it still seem balanced? Still like it?

MOVEMENT: Does the design move my eyes where I want them to go? Vary shape, value, size, color, direction, line and/or texture accordingly. Is the focal point in the right place? Is the focal area large enough? Ensure there is more detail/intensity in the focal area than in others.

VISUAL INTEREST: Don't be boring & don't be lazy - elements, yarns, values, shapes and textures can be repeated but with variety. When in doubt use the golden ratio.

PERSPECTIVE: Is there a vanishing point? Is the perspective correct? Can it be a better design with a different perspective? Where is the light coming from and are the shadows in the correct spots?

VALUE IS ALWAYS KEY: What value requirements are there in this piece and how will I achieve them with my palette of black yarns with different shimmers and textures. Even with black yarn there will be values...

INTEGRITY OF PLANE: Is there integrity of plane? Are the planes each speaking in its own dialect yet still understandable by the others?

SOMETHING FOR VIEWER: Are I going for an emotional impact? Has it been achieved? Is there a little surprise somewhere for the viewer?

SANITY WHILE WEAVING: Are there any spots too difficult to weave - can I modify the design to improve the weaving process?

Now that I have my list...I can go back to tweaking my cartoon.

A Black Cartoon

2008-06-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

I have been going back and forth on my cartoon for my Study in Black tapestry. I was perfectly happy with the small drawing I had. But when I enlarged it to size, it looked too busy. I then expanded the piece, making it less busy but it doesn't make me as happy as my small drawing. So I have been playing around with the cartoon.

To make some real progress, I re-warped the loom to improve the tension and have started to weave the basket weave frame which will encircle the piece. It is quite pleasant to weave even with black yarn and midnight blue warp. The bright white wall behind the loom helps a lot. The basket weave looks like it will make a nice frame.

The piece is 32 inches across. Initially, I had planned the piece to be about six feet long...32 by 72 had a nice ring to it. It may be bigger depending upon the final cartoon.

Now I have been wondering whether I have enough yarn.

I have been collecting black yarn for quite awhile. All sorts - cotton, silk, boucle, tensel, alpaca, chenille, rayon, mohair, ribbon, plastic, string... even a bit of wool. It looks like a lot but since I am weaving a 6 epi I will have to double and triple some of the yarns when I weave with them.

I guess I will need to weave a couple of feet to know whether there is enough.

Variations on a Maze

2008-06-01T10:25:00.001-07:00

Done! I have my two maze tapestries framed and ready to mail.

It took awhile to figure out how best to hang them. I opted for a simple black board with a plain edges painted in chalkboard black. It's a nice black in that it doesn't shine and doesn't reflect back the lights from a flash. I attached the tapestries with wire through the hem of the tapestry and into holes made in the back board.

The first one is in Search of a Kiss completed last June and the second Anegada Memories which I finished in February of this year.

Brick 2 & 3

2008-05-31T19:38:00.000-07:00

I got out my other camera with the macro feature and took these shots of my bricks.

The first one in emerald green and Havana brown is your basic tapestry weave...the tabby. The painted yarn yields a nice mottled look. It reminds me of something but I just can't put my finger on it at the moment. Perhaps lizard skin.

I painted the yarn with Procion since the yarn is a blend of cotton and silk. I am weaving with two pieces of yarn and the 5 epi warp seems to suck up the weft. I should try out three pieces and see how it works. The cotton warp is a bit sticky so I have to make sure I push the weft in otherwise I have warp showing where it should not be showing. Not much more I can say about this one.

The second one is basket weave...under two warps then over two warps. Basically it is the same as above just wider. And it seems to have a much more unique texture and feel.

I have woven with double yarns - a cotton silk blend dyed with Rit brown. I like the wider columns in that it provides an interesting texture. But it does cause an issue at the top where the exposed warp will start. Due to the under two/over two pattern the warps are not spaced out evenly and will make the exposed warp look odd. Perhaps odd is good. What I did here to alleviate the issue was to simply switch to regular tapestry tabby at the top for one round trip pass. I would like to experiment with alternating colors with this pattern as well as moving from basket weave to regular tabby to create a varying texture. It may result in something interesting.

More later...

PS. I have put things in blue to remind me what I might like to explore on this coming or a future Wednesday.

Friends are Ready to Fly

2008-05-31T16:58:00.001-07:00

I like the new frames I made for My Menagerie of Indigo Friends. They are small, light and not imposing. It has been difficult to find the 'right' frames for these pieces.

They are made of palm fronds that I found which walking in the morning plus some waxed linen from Royalwood. I had a board the size of each tapestry to construct the frame around using wet palm fronds. Making the frame did not take long....the rest of the finishing took much longer.

I sewed on some blue material on the back so no weft or warp ends will hang out the sides. I then sewed the tapestry onto the frame with invisible thread. The last thing I did was tie some waxed linen across the back to act as a wire for hanging purposes.

After finishing these four tapestries...my fingers are all sewed out. But these four are ready to be mailed to Florida for their exhibit.

You can see the others on my website... although I am having a problem loading the bear. Perhaps by the time you get there I will have loaded the framed bear. If not, you can see the difference in resolution between my old and new camera.

Framing with Fronds

2008-05-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial Day weekend I finally started to make some frames for my four Indigo Friends. I finished these four small tapestries last year I believe and have never figured out how to frame them. They are going to be in the Manatee Gallery in Bradenton Florida, starting June 12 to July 5th so a deadline quickly came upon me.

When I took Don Weeke's gourd decorating class I came up with the idea of making frames out of palm fronds. On a couple of walks, I picked up some palm fronds which had fallen from the trees and they have been sitting in the garage for several months waiting to be made into frames. Well, this weekend was the time.

I wanted a light airy frame which wouldn't stand out too much but would be different than the typical framing for small tapestries.

Here is what they look like.

I think these frames may work. The robin egg waxed linen which I used to tie the palm fronds in place works nicely with the blues in the pieces. My other option was to use an off white which I thought would have too much of a contrast.

I have not yet connected the tapestries to the frames since I have to finish the backs so the strings aren't hanging out all over. Plus I need to put my label and a write-up about the piece. Sure takes me a long time for finishing...

Value Considerations

2008-05-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

The weft and warp that I dyed and dried has a nice value contrast which should make the final tapestry pop nicely.

I am hoping for a piece that will draw you in from afar and keep you interested when up close. I know it would work on a big piece. This may, however, be difficult to achieve due to the small format involved but it should be fun to try.

Connections - The Beginning

2008-05-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

I had just about given up on the idea of submitting a piece to the ATA's new tapestry exhibition Connections 2009, an international juried small tapestry exhibition. I was not inspired...

Here's what the ATA says about the exhibit - -

ATA invites all tapestry artists to expand their horizons by shrinking dimensions, to connect technique and concept in a body of new and intimate work. As wall sized tapestries command a wall, these pieces, individually and collectively, will catch the eye, invite us in, and connect us as we share the unexpected. Because the goal is not merely to rescale large work, but to explore the boundaries of size, the exhibition will challenge preconceived ideas of tapestry, unfolding the potential of small scale work as it explores the personal and the universal.

It sounded a bit interesting but I thought I would rather work on my planet series on the Big Shannock. And I had a piece already warped and hem woven on my baby Shannock. But I drove a lot this weekend...I probably put on more miles on the car this weekend than over the past six months.

And Friday while driving I had a brillant idea for a small tapestry

By Saturday morning I was on the computer working out the concept. It's technical...

By Sunday, it had morphed into a series of three pieces...and gotten smaller.

On Monday, I removed all the hem from my Baby Shannock and re-spaced the warp to 14 epi. and have started a little sample piece. My, my, I am actually doing a bit of a sample and have learned several things already. I rarely do a sample...if I do it is an entire tapestry. I haven't decided yet how much I will sample...I need to take the Baby Shannock to Convergence in June. So the question is, could I finish one of the pieces by then...if so sampling will stop quite soon.

And just today...I have actually dyed the warp and weft for the pieces. Here are my results. I just noticed the colors are a bit similar to the Behind the Scenes piece that will show at the Manatee Art Center June & July. I haven't posted a final picture of my zebra since I thought I should wait until it was showing in the Gallery first.

I do like that red. It is my current favorite color.

The weft is silk..I have two kinds; each took the colors a bit differently. One has a sheen the other doesn't. The 'better black' pushed blue and came out quite differently on all three pieces. I haven't yet decided whether this will be an issue or not.

The warp is 12/6 cotton. I am quite happy with 2 of the 3 warp colors. I may re-dye the reddish brown to make it a bit more red...but it may be OK. Obviously, if I am worrying about the warp color some of it must show somehow...

yes...but more later.

Not so Golden Seashell Spirals

2008-03-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

I learned something this weekend...

I learned that if you are trying to draw that spiral in the nautical seashell you cannot do it by using the golden proportions. I am designing a tapestry with a nautical sea shell overlapping a golden spiral which spirals into a planet. I always thought the spiral in that shell was a golden spiral but turns out it is a logarithmic spiral. It does make a difference when trying to draw it.

I must have done four or five drawings of the spiral with my ruler and compass. I figured it was coming out poorly since I was not exact enough. When using a pencil with a ruler & compass the results are subject to error - sometimes significant. That was something I learned in my Coastal Navigation classes. If you want a good chance to get where you want to go don't be sloppy with the plotting pencil. This weekend, no matter how careful I was, my drawing always turned out poorly - the spiral would never spiral in enough.

Now I know I need to draw the seashell spiral logarithmically in order for it to spiral enough to look like a shell. If you can see the difference between the two spirals and learn more check out this article by John Sharp called Spirals and the Golden Section.

I will post a photo of my design when I finish the cartoon. It will be 32 wide - the loom is already warped. Not quite sure how long it will be - probably about 4 feet. But perhaps longer...

What's on my Baby Shannock?

2008-03-04T16:29:00.000-08:00

On my small shannock I am weaving an image of a photo I took from the Syndey zoo.

It's upside down since that is the way I am weaving it - this allows my brain to stop analyzing every little thing and allows me to weave more smoothly. In addition, I am weaving from the back - another way to avoid tinkering too much.

The photo is black and white...the actual tapestry is not. I will post in color when it is completely done. It's a study in values and perceptions. Must an orange be orange?

The piece will be 14 by 18 inches and is done at 12 epi using double wefts of silk. The small sett implies a lot of work for a little coverage. But it is going well. I am about half done and should finish by the end of the month.

A Tapestry in Alpine Blue Silk

2008-02-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

Here is my second tapestry on a common theme...palms in the moonlight of Santa Monica Bay. Completed in one hue, alpine blue, along with its values and shades along with a bit of metallic. This piece was done without touching my beater...I needed to lose that beating habit before I start working again on my Circus piece.

This too was an experimental piece. I wanted to play around with sett. This piece has a sett of 6 epi except in four places where I used 12 epi. It was fun to slip in several squares of 12 epi to see how it would work.

The first square I wove did not stand out. It simply blended into the 6 epi on each side. The second square I tried to incorporate a bit of a sandy beach into the piece. The third square was a square of my selected hue - alpine blue. Since I dyed silk...the alpine blue is probably not the blue you would expect. It does remind me of the water in Anegada. The darker alpine blues mixed with silver metallic look more like the water in Santa Monica Bay in the evening.

This was a pleasant piece to weave. Nice colors. Nice feeling yarn. Silk beats cassette tape any day. And the beating habit melted away...

Cassette Tape Tapestry

2008-02-06T16:03:00.001-08:00

Here is a tapestry I recently finished, Santa Monica Bay at Civil Twilight. I like how the moonlight simmers in the sky and reflects in the ocean.

This was an experimental piece. The tapestry was woven with cassette tape. The palette is somewhat subdued due to the inherent nature of the 'yarn'. I used about three cassette tapes to weave the piece using singles. The stuff goes a long way. I also pounded the cassette tape flat. To acheive the shimmering sky, I lightly spray painted the cassette tape brown with a chrome white paint.

The sett was about 12 epi and the final piece is about 7.5 inch square.

This is one of those pieces which grabs you from afar and draws you in. The metallic moon is stunning. It is done with some metallic thread. When you get close you start to notice the details; the twisting of the trunk, the painted cassette tape in the sky and the undulating warps.

It was quite difficult to weave...I have never pounded a piece as strongly as this with my beater. To break the habit of excessive beating I wove a second piece in which I never picked up the beater. Check out my next entry.

Another Beginning

2007-11-18T18:32:00.001-08:00

I am starting a new tapestry on the Big Shannock. I like to get the loom warped while I contemplate the design. I probably won't start working on the piece until next year.

I am thinking this tapestry will be a rendition of the planet Uranus. I am currently contemplating a piece about 32 inches wide and perhaps five or six feet long. 99% of the piece will be woven with all black yarn. I have been collecting black yarn for the last couple of months. I may have just enough to weave the waves of space which I see in my mind.

To keep my sanity while weaving this other project [thirteen feet of yardage woven with sewing thread] ...I wound off and dyed my tapestry warp a lovely violet-black. Given I will be using a large variety of black yarns of different materials, sizes and shapes I am sure there will be some warp showing here and there. This color choice seems like a far better color than white to peek out from my black weft yarn.

I will be tying this dyed warp onto the leftover warp from my prior piece. I have never done it on this loom, but I have done it on others so I assume it will work. I have wound off more warp than necessary just in case I think the dark warp might work well on the tiger piece I am envisioning next on the queue.

Harvest Moon - First Sighting

2007-11-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

It's Resting

2007-11-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

My latest tapestry is off the loom and resting. It is 32 1/4 inches square with only 1/8th of an inch pull in on the sides. I seem to have much improved edges by weaving from the back. From the photo, you can see I have some finishing to do...some ends to clip...some slits to sew...a hem to fix...and some thought as to how hang this piece.

Once hanging, I will post the front of the weaving.

Ahhh...the end is in sight!

2007-11-05T16:08:00.000-08:00

Ah, I finally like my mountain dunes. I ended up over-dying some green yarn to tone it down in a number of shades. I also added a few curves on the dunes that mimic the curve of the moon and things are looking up. I am going to finish weaving the bottom of the dunes to square up the piece and take it off to see how it looks. It's tough when half the piece is all rolled up on the bottom bar of the loom. I can't tell how tall the mountains should be. I'd like the moon to dominate and be imposing in this piece. Time will tell.

Here a mountain there a mountain...

2007-10-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

These mountain dunes have been quite a dilemma.

My original thought was to have blended color dunes using the darker colors that I used in the moon. Unfortunately, the result, as seen in the first photo makes your eye go to the mountain vs the moon which is the focal point. It is even more apparent when standing and viewing the entire piece. So, I ripped that out...

My next thought was to keep with the original colors in my first concept but get rid of the detail and go with large sections of saturated color. This too did not get my approval. You can see the results in the second photo. It looks like a comic book...not a bad thing...just not what I had envisioned. I really do want the moon to be the focal point.

I think the issue is that the yarns I am trying to use have values which are too dark. The darkest draws the eye toward the dunes vs. toward the moon. I initially thought these colors would make the moon pop. The blue surrounding the moon makes the moon pop. The dunes are competing for the viewers eyes. I would like them to set back and just be there to provide context. You can see the value contrast in the black and white photo I took.

I now am going to rip this stuff out and try sand colors. Eeek...making the sand dunes actually the color of sand dunes...what is my world coming to. I will try adding a bit of those saturated colors from the moon here and there. Check back in a couple of days and see how the latest version looks.

And I thought the mountains would be the easy part!

Moon on Saturday Morning

2007-10-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

Whew! The harvest moon is complete but for a dot here or there to be added later. The colors worked well together and contrast nicely with the blue sky. Now its time to take on the mountains...or actually the dunes of Death Valley...at night but lit by the harvest moon. I have the colors and the yarns...just no firm idea on what it should look like. I need to wait for the vision to appear in my brain...then back to weaving.

ps I flipped the photo so the outlines of the dunes were more obvious. Yes, I seem to always weave upside down and backwards.

A Blue Weekend

2007-10-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

See the blue sky? It's all new...every little piece of blue.

As I was weaving the next six inches of the moon, I was stewing about the aura I had woven around the moon. I had done a uniform hatching with two values of a blue, the name of the blue escapes me at the moment. I kept weaving however. Weaving and stewing. Weaving and stewing. My DH will tell you I really don't care for stew. I don't have a picture of where I was when I finally stopped stewing but I remember the time.

Let's see, I think I stopped stewing Saturday morning when around 3:30 am I decided to take some of the sky out...first I was going to take only about four inches out -right to the one spot I found particularly offensive...but within thirty minutes every little piece of blue yarn was out and I could start with a fresh palette. Today I replaced it all with a new aura. This one had a formula based hatching but with less uniformity than the first one.

I like this aura better than the previous one. Here's a close up of the new and improved aura...

My Mother Loved Van Gogh

2007-10-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

It may have taken awhile to get the frame just right...but I finally have my challenge tapestry ready for preview for tomorrow's meeting. Nothing like a looming deadline to finish up the details.

My challenge was to be inspired by 1) a Van Gogh painting, see postcard bottom right and 2) the year of my birth. This is a portrait of my Mother at a time when she was still weaving. She loved Van Gogh and had lots of Van Gogh prints around the house when I was growing up so it is fitting she is shown in Van Gogh colors. I also wanted to incorporate a maze like structure to include a little bit of me into the piece.

I enjoyed weaving the portrait even though certain parts were excruciatingly difficult. I may do another portrait someday but definitely without the maze border. It is interesting how a face can come together with just a few lines here and there. No need to put in every detail...the brain fills in the empty spaces with what is missing.

I self dyed the silk yarn; some in solids and others a variegated hand painted technique. With silk it is always a challenge to get the colors desired but here they worked out quite nicely. I wove with three strands at a time so I was able to achieve a lot of subtle and no so subtle color changes in the final piece.

I enjoy looking at the piece...

The Waxing Moon

2007-10-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have been back from vacation in Molokai for one week and my moon has progressed from here to here:

I forgot what a joy it is to weave on a wide sett with thick yarn and a relaxing design. The moon design is such that each and every dot of color does not have to be in a specific shed for it to come together correctly. Hence the weaving goes smoothly and is a pleasant break from the smaller more detailed pieces I have been working on.

I think this piece has been waiting on the loom since late Spring for some inspiration or a deadline. Both have arrived. I am hoping to finish this by the end of the month along with three other pieces in the final finishing stages.

The one downside, if it is a downside to weaving this piece, is that I seem to have to re-fill my bobbins about every half hour or so. The bobbins are the eight inch gobelein ones with a three inch section for the yarn. Since I am doubling the yarn...there is not that much yarn on each bobbin. And I must say, this piece seems to suck up the yarn. I think I should have enough yarn to finish the moon...fingers crossed. The dunes are in different colors - rich, deep blues, greens and purples which I also hope there is enough of....

As I said, this is quite a different weaving experience than the smaller pieces I have been working on where the placement of each dot of color makes or breaks the design of the piece. For example, on In Search of a Kiss each and every dot through the maze and the exploding dots at the exit of the maze were carefully placed, studied and often re-placed in a better spot before moving forward to the next one.

I am trying for a watercolor look to the piece with colors blending into each other and seemingly to wash over themselves. So far...so good.

Back to weaving...

Finishing

2007-09-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

I had a productive morning, finishing the warping of my table loom as well as sewing on the backing for my latest tapestry. The tapestry is done, off the loom, rested for a week and is now being blocked in the backyard. A picture of the finished work should be up at the end of the week.

It's an odd piece to block since there are lots of ends around the maze but not much in the center where the portrait is. The photo shows how I ended up applying the pressure. I am hoping I can flatten the ends on the back so it will fit within the half inch rabbet of the frame. Then it should hang OK on the wall.

I had originally thought an antique gold frame would be best. Most Van Goghs I have seen in museums are in gold frames. Blick was having a great sale on frames so I bought one. In the end, the gold didn't look right with the tapestry so I have painted the frame a reddish brown. It blends nicely with the maze around the portrait on the tapestry and increases the size of the piece. I also have some acrylic paint in two colors similar to the browns in the maze. I may paint the frame to give it a bit more depth and texture.

Hopefully, by Wednesday I will be able to put it all together and see how it looks framed and on the wall. I do like the tapestry...it is worth the wait.

From the Front or the Back

2007-08-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

I am having a tough time weaving the face of my mother in this latest tapestry. A face is a difficult thing to weave since each part individually looks odd...but together they form something quite nice. You have to trust your cartoon when weaving the individual shadings of the face. They look odd but in the end they should turn out fine.

The other issue is color. I am weaving a face which is essentially a line drawing portrait on a sea foam colored paper. Let me tell you, there is nothing like seeing your mother staring back at you all in green!

I also could have simply used one shade of sea foam through out - just like a colored piece of paper. But no...I wanted to have the gradations in the color similar to the back ground in the Van Gogh painting that is the inspiration for this piece.

The real issues began to emerge with the neck. I wove the neck four or five times. It is now acceptable. It took awhile to get the right shades of sea foam to use in the various spots. I finally decided on four shades of sea foam for the various shadings in the neck and face. And created a shading cartoon to remind me what to use where.

The next issue was the lips. I couldn't get the lips right weaving from the back. I tried several times and wogged it out [the weaving rendition of frogging] each time. I finally decided I would have to do it from the front so I could actually see the lips being formed. After a couple of wogs the lips were acceptable with the caveat I would add some teeth detail with a needle later when I could see the complete face.

Next I moved up the face with the cheeks and nose. I was weaving from the front and realized I was not doing the shading correctly since I was looking a my shading cartoon but it was in reverse to the face from the front. So, I then had to re-create the cartoon, making a mirror image of it. That took a bit of time but once completed I was off again.

I did notice the weaving from the front was not as 'nice' as the weaving from the back. And it is near impossible to do a good dot without turning the loom around and doing it from the back. So now, when I can I am weaving from the back...and when I have to get the design absolutely right and I can't do it from the back - I do it from the front. This means I have a cartoon attached to both sides of the tapestry and raise it up to see the detail before inserting the weft.

Check out the photo -