Workshop Design

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

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

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

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

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.