Rebecca Mezoff is soon launching an online class about four selvedge weaving, called Fringeless: Four Selvedge Warping, featuring Sarah Swett. I know it will be quite informative and also inspirational. I don't have an investment in this venture--just excitement to see it happen!
For those who don't know, four selvedge warping allows for a piece to be woven without ends of warp at top and bottom. Four selvedge warping is an ancient technique but the method has been revived in the past couple of decades to make it accessible to contemporary tapestry weavers.
I first learned of this way of warping from Susan Martin Maffei and I've used her method several times for small tapestries. Susan has provided a pdf with diagrams of her set up online. I wrote about my adventure with this in a 2011 blog post here at Tapestry Share. And here are a few of the eighteen or so small landscapes I did then. These are between about 2" wide x 8" high to 3" x 4":
Since then I've woven a few more with the method that Sarah shows at her blog and that she'll be describing in the online class.
Michael Rohde and Sarah Swett have made a few modifications to Susan's method; here's a link to Sarah's blog post describing the way she does it. The way of warping and weaving with the set up is not exactly like that used by Navajo weavers although with the same end result--no tails of warps to deal with.
I'm sure with this new information about the method that Sarah and Rebecca will be sharing there will be many more fringeless tapestries in the world! I know I'll be setting up my loom for a few soon.
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