Portable tapestry & idea

Pat, Thank you for making this list more interesting and active. I'm going to add a note here. Reading this and the blogs is helping me keep going.

Not long ago I was reading Robin Spady's blog. On it she was discussing "et tui's" or little cases. I was also interested in finding a more portable way to take weaving with me as I go places. I remembered some little bookmark looms that my husband made for me to use with our girls and their friends when they were younger. The design was from Osma Todd Galliger's book The Joy of Handweaving. I was also inspired by Sidsel Moreb's little loom that she showed us in the fall TWS workshop. I didn't want to weave bookmarks--wanted to try tapestry on this little loom. So, I made me a small et tui from a pencil box that fit this little bookmark loom and supplies. It is working so far. The sett is 8 epi. There's a small pair of scissors under the loom that you can't see. So nice to learn from others!

Rescheduling the textile exhibit at NGCSU

This was in my NGCSU e-mail today:

Due to inclement weather, the reception for New Traditions in Textiles, which opens today (January 13, 2011) at 12 p.m. at the Bob Owens Art Gallery, is being rescheduled for Thursday, February 3, 5-6 p.m.

An informative discussion will follow at 6 p.m., by the exhibition curator and NGCSU Textiles Instructor, Ms. Jo-Marie Karst.

 Please stop by the art gallery at 315 Hoag Student Center to enjoy this wonderful exhibition that demonstrates the versatility and richness of contemporary textiles created by artists from the North Georgia region.

RECEPTION POSTPONED BECAUSE OF WEATHER!

Karen Donde, who was with us at the Camp Mikell workshop in October made this very nice post at her blog about the weekend--here's the link: http://sutherlandhandweavingstudio.blogspot.com/2010/11/slow-weaving-in-north-georgia.html

Hope everyone is warm and cozy in spite of the several inches of snow that's fallen throughout the Southeast!  Good time to be weaving, isn't it!

RED ALERT ON RECEPTION MENTIONED BELOW!!  POSTPONED BECAUSE OF WEATHER!!!  I'll post new date when it's announced. :((


If you're near Dahlonega, Georgia this week (and if the weather conditions improve), please come join Pat and me at a reception for a textile exhibit, "New Traditions in Textiles" that's opening at North Georgia College & State University.  Pat and I both have pieces in the exhibit--and I think several of you may have work there, as well!

Dashing All Around!!

Welcome to the New Year! I met it with a baaaad cold--stayed in bed for first 48 hours of the year, but am feeling much better. Not even sniffling much.

Today, being my feeling-all-better day, I got a call from my niece, Ingrid--she's in an Atlanta hospital with probably sepsis infection--a life-threatening thing. So, off I drive to Atlanta for the day. She's doing much better and I think she'll be fine. BUT!! I'm supposed to get 5 pieces of new tapestries to North Georgia College and State U. in Dahlonega ready to hang by holy moly Friday. Can it happen?? I have begun building the frames, begun cutting the foam core mounts, covering them with the diaper and cloth, but only one tapestry is sewn on board ready for frame. I will get up tomorrow and work like a dervish to get the other 3 ready to sew on, work on frames, etc. BUT, I am compelled to return to Atlanta to check on Ingrid again tomorrow but get back before predicted ice storm. I'm her substitute mother since her mom died 2 years ago.

Whew. A true race to the finish!!

Other news: I have both my 60" wide Leclerc and 48" wide Fireside warped and ready to weave. Am working on a 60 square inch cartoon, 6 epi for the Leclerc; and on the Fireside I expect to weave two, if not four more of my flower series-- each about 24" high by 10 or 12 inches.

My best wishes to all of you!
Pat

Goals for the New Year with tapestry diary

Hello one and all,
I hope your new year is off to a good start.  Do you have "blank" warp on the loom ready to have wefts sing through it? I do... two of the larger looms have warps in place, in fact.  I also have started my new year's tapestry diary on a frame loom.  I've completed two years now of doing a daily tapestry diary.  Each of those was on a continuous warp.  In 2010 my out-of-town days almost equalled my in-town days so I have many empty warps as a result of that.  I've determined to weave daily this year and so a frame loom will be the thing.

Please post what you're up to!

Happy New Year to all of you (well, almost...)!

I hope everyone will have a grand 2011 with many tapestry adventures in the making.

Pat and I will be sharing with a group of six people at her studio in February, the first of what we hope will be many occasional sessions at either her or at my studio.  Our limit will most likely always be six while we are at our studios because of space considerations.  We'll post some comments following each session and hope those who take part will also post.

As we begin to share back and forth in this blog we can consider ways to do that to make it easy to read comments.  Of course, anyone can make a comment to a post and those will appear below the post itself.  But those of you who I've invited to be blog authors can also edit into a post that's been made, adding your own comments within the body of the post itself.  You can also make a new post, of course.

About editing into a post, my suggestion would be that each one who does so in the text of a post begin the comments with their name.  For instance, if I wanted to add a comment into a post, I could do it like this:

TOMMYE SAYS:
and then go on with saying whatever pearls of wisdom I was going to ramble on about...

then Pat might reply:

PAT SAYS:
Tommye's comments are interesting... and to add to that, I've found....

to which Terri might say:

TERRI SAYS:
Well, both of you have given some food for thought.  I've also found that ...

then I might reply...

TOMMYE SAYS:
Great idea, Terri!  And, Pat... can't wait to see what you're working on in person to see how the example works.

Do you think something like this might work to keep our thoughts flowing but to also know who said what and when?  Other suggestions are of course very welcomed!

So, to end this New Year's post (in advance of the New Year)... let me leave you with a pearl of wisdom from someone else:

Three Strands in the Braid

Reach out with your Mind 

And touch the edges of each thing

            as it exists

See

The configurations

            of form and color

Bend and shape Awareness

Reach out with your Hand

And sense the depth

            of the texture of Life

The nature of warp and woof

The weaving of one way of being

            with another

Celebrate the compelxity

            of Wholeness

Reach out with you Heart

And sense

            the essence of things

Hear the throb of the Life Beat

The Universal pulse

That paces the beat of your heart

            and mine

Reach out with Mind

            and Hand

                        and Heart

And see how it is 

            that Life is One

Undivided

            by the divisions of our perceptions

Reach out with Mind alone

            or Hand alone

                        or even with a lonely Heart

And see how it is

We limit ourselves

Celebrate the joining

            of the Three-Way Path

Mind

            and Hand

                        and Heart

Weave into a full perception

Join Wholeness

            and Dimension

                        and Diversity

Into a singularity of Vision

            Let it be so... 

Paula Underwood, from Three Strands in the Braid:  A Guide for Enablers of Learning 

 

 

 

Sue Parker Wants to Know

Hi Pat,

I truly enjoyed the Camp Mikel experience.  My original intent in coming to the class was to learn enough about tapestry techniques to do the 3 samples required for HGA's COE in weaving.  But now I think I'm hooked on tapestry.

I had Bob help me put tpgether 2 copper pipe frame looms since he's kind of selfish with his tools and I do not currently have a pipe cutter.  I got the warp on OK and even make a half-way acceptible cartoon for a sampler.  I have a gracious plenty worsted yarns suitable for tapestry and began this sampler while I wait for skeins of different yarns and color cards to arrive.  One can never have too much yarn.  I have several new and some new to me tapestry books than I have been studying too.  

Now my question.  Is it important to keep the weft yarns parallel when making passes?  Most of the pictures show this but I am sure having trouble doing it.  The yarns want to cross over each other when I make the bubble in the weft and tap them into place.  I'm currently using 2 yarns in a weft bundle with a warp sett of 10 epi.

I wish it wasn't so far to come again as I would surely be there in February.  I am planning on the May workshop.  I have even postponed the breeding season so my lambs won't arrive until I get home.  I long ago gave up on winter lambs in the frozen north.  They don't seem to mind the cold but I sure do.

Thank you for all your help and guidance.

Sue Parker Bassett  

I've copied Sue's inquiry from an email she sent me with her comments and question. It feels sooo goood to have a convert!

Crossing wefts--is it ok? As usual, it depends on what you want. 

1. If you have two threads (say light gray and black) in the weft that are high contrast to one another and/or very different colors, like light yellow and dark green (this ischine, pronounced shee-nay), and would like to have a random distribution of those colors in an area, then just wind those 2 colors together and let them rip at random to give a really nice heather-like look. Two threads next to each other just seem to naturally twist around each other--depends on how they are pulled from the balls or cones.

2. If both weft threads are the same color, it doesn't matter if they cross.

3. If one thread is a light shade of a color and the other thread a bit lighter or bit deeper shade of the same color, then the random showing of the twisted shades will give the area more depth than if both weft threads are exactly the same color.

4. If you manipulate the 2 threads to stay parallel and they are contrasting colors, then you can create a look of the lighter color making a line and the darker color making a line--which you might want to do in a small area without adding 2 additional weft bobbins of one color for such a small area. Therefore, you'd have the chine surrounding 2 lines of the same contrasting colors. Is this clear as mud? This example is hard to explain--be a good thing to try.     Like this: You've got black and white threads parallel to ea other. In the first shed lay the  weft so the black is at the bottom and white at top. Change sheds, lay white at bottom and black at top. Next shed black on top, white on bottom and so on. Keep doing this and see what happens.

Personally, I'm too lazy to fool with too much weft manipulation unless it's a critical area. Hope this helps!

Pat

Thanks for the question and thanks for the answer, Pat!
It does make a visual difference if you put the wefts in parallel to each other rather than in a random (twisting here and there way).  Good to experiment with and see what you like.  The parallel way of laying in several wefts is more time consuming but if you like the effect then that time is well spent.  Several tapestry artists use that method (Marcel Marois, for instance).  Others use chine but without particular concern about the twisting of placement.  Where the multiple wefts can give a problem is when one (or more) in a bundle get out of whack in that one (or more) get ahead of the others... in other words, the weft bundle doesn't stay together and you have to constantly pull the butterfly apart or unwind the bobbin to get them all to pull off at the same rate/length.  Careful winding of not a too full bobbin helps to avoid that.  But if something gets too loose (as happens!), deal with it when it happens and save grief!


All that being said, I don't particularly watch for parallel arrangement myself... unless there's a light/light or dark/dark stacking up of the placement of weft where I don't want it to happen.  I watch how it goes into place and if there's an that stacking up I'll lift up the weft, rearrange the twist, then pack in again.
Tommye