American Tapestry Alliance Educational Articles Link

I'm putting a link to this at the side bar to make it easier to find in the future.  But I wanted to note it here:

http://americantapestryalliance.org/Education/Edu_Articles.html

There are several informative articles at this page, including a glossary of tapestry terms, mounting solutions for finished tapestries, Archie Brennan's copper pipe loom diagrams, and more.  Check it out!

Hanging method--from Textile Museum's website

This description for hanging a textile with velcro might be of interest:

http://textilemuseum.org/care/brochures/hanging.htm

Show & Tell at the Folk School

This week of John C. Campbell Folk School classes ended yesterday with show and tell by all studio areas.  Here's the tapestry weavers' display--we were all very proud of everything accomplished--lots of hard work!

Posting to Tapestry Share blog

I wanted to mention to all who've found this blog--Tapestry Share--that it's one that I began a couple of years ago as a private one among several of my students and me.  I opened it for public viewing after about a year and have invited several other people to be authors along with me, folks who have been my students at some point or other tapestry teachers.  I welcome comments made to posts for the blog.  I'll be inviting others to be authors at some point in the future.  I hope everyone who finds their way here finds helpful and accurate information!

Teaching and learning about tapestry is very important to me.  I appreciate the wonderful teachers I've had in the past and hope to be able to share some of those skills that were so generously shared with me.  So... here's to teaching and learning!  Along those lines, I want to show the beginning of a class I'm currently teaching at John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina:

Tapestry Weaving Ergonomics from Ruth Lathlean

This is a tip for those tapestry weavers who have trouble getting low enough to see what they are weaving at the bottom of a frame on a table. I thought I would join Tapestry Share Blog and add it there but couldn't find out how to do it.


To weave low down on a frame attach it to an ironing board which can then be easily raised high so you can look carefully at the work you are doing without doing damage to your back. Likewise you can lower the ironing board to easily weave at the top of the frame and see closely what you are doing. Hope this is useful - it may be posted to the other blog by Jennifer.

New Author

Hello Tapestry Sharers

I am excited to be joining this excellent adventure. I've been weaving for 38 years, and exclusively tapestry for the past 27. If you want you can check out my blog, Tangled Web, at http://www.austintapestry.blogspot.com/. I hope to share some useful stuff, or help to add some links to stuff that's out there at other sites.

Jan Austin

PS I'm a firm believer in having lots of photos on blogs, so here's a photo of the mini-bobbins my husband helped me to design and make last week. More on that later.

Next step after warping--half-hitch at beginning

Here's another set of photos of the preparation steps I show in classes.  These are pretty much the same as I use for most of my tapestries, especially on smaller frame looms.  Larger tapestries warped on the larger, vertical looms have different warping methods than the one described in the last post.  I will write about those sooner or later in this blog.  However, the half-hitch beginning steps shown below are used on my larger tapestries, as well.

These photos show the half-hitch I use at the bottom to secure the weft of the tapestry.  The same method is used at the top of the tapestry when it's completed.  This is the being shown with a larger thread than I actually use for this so that it will be easier to see in the photo.  This beginning and ending method is one I learned from Susan Maffei and Archie Brennan in a workshop.  I use this technique to secure the start of a tapestry whether I'm going to use a hem and turn it back; turn the warp ends back and stitch them down to the back of the tapestry; or use the half-Damascus warp finishing described by Peter Collingwood in The Techniques of Rug Weaving, pages 485-486--(a method similar to what Kathe Todd-Hooker calls it braiding in her book Tapestry 101, pages 85-86).  However, I don't use this method if I'm going to stitch in every-other warp thread into the channel of its partner, then clip the extending one off.  Although I don't use that finishing method often many folks do--to be able to get that warp up into the space beside the adjacent warp the weft needs to have some give to allow for that passage... the half-hitches won't allow for that.  Collingwood calls that method of warp treatment "Swedish Tapestry Edge" and shows a clear diagram for it on page 497 in the The Techniques of Rug Weaving; an online digital version of the Peter Collingwood book is at the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics.
The link here: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books.html#C  takes you to the "C" listing where you'll scroll down the page to find Collingwood, The Techniques of Rug Weaving.  The pages showing finishing techniques are in the Part 4 PDF.

As with the warping steps shown in previous photos, please bear in mind that many people do things differently--this is just my way, learned and adapted from many others, especially from Archie Brennan and Susan Maffei.

Lay the thread the half-hitches will be made with behind the first warp of the tapestry (note: I'm leaving out the first warp on the loom... that is a visual guide to use as reference for width--it is not incorporated into the tapestry and does not get included in this end finishing.  It is included in the twining and the 1/2" of header.)

Thread crosses over the warp, going from right to left, and the long end is pulled through below it, passing from back to front, between first warp and second warp.  Pull this down snugly (hold on to the tail at the left because it will slip out since nothing is holding it until the hitches begin.)

This is done twice around the warp before moving to the next warp.

The hitching thread moves to the second warp that will be used in the weaving (remember, the very first warp end is not included in these hitches), then...

Both hitches are done, as with the first warp... here the second one is about to be pulled down snugly.

End at the opposite side, making sure to leave out the edge warp that will serve as the visual guide on this side.  

The tails of the hitching thread can be woven into the first shed to be used and tucked away to the back.  At the top of the tapestry, the same half-hitches will be used and the tails of that thread can be sewn back into the body of the tapestry for a 1/2" or so to hide it.

Finally, here's a diagram of the stages of the process... please notice that each step shown represents the same warp thread, not three separate ones.