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Once a year I have a sale on all* my online classes. This sale starts today. Because so many of you live in other countries in different time zones, you’ll find that the codes below are good through Friday, December 5th. If you have been wanting an online class or two or three, this is the week to purchase those.
I’m off to Taos to teach another retreat soon. I know, I know, I just came back from teaching in Taos. The spinning for tapestry retreat with Jillian Moreno was an added workshop this year because the venue had an opening in October. So though I just made that trek two weeks ago, I’m off for another round.
This retreat is an alumni retreat about design. It is one full of people that come back every year and it has become a wonderful place to share our triumphs or struggles over the year with tapestry and life.
I have been weaving on the Schacht Arras tapestry loom for several years now. They have released a stand and treadle assembly for the loom which I have been using for most of a year now and I really love it.
The treadles don’t work without the stand so you do have to purchase both the stand and the treadle assembly to make the whole thing work. The treadles are manual meaning that they work with a pulley system and don’t need to be plugged in. They glide easily and are very quiet.
I have been unable to get to any tapestry shows in the last few years for various reasons. But I am an avid collector of catalogs because I find it a great source of inspiration for my own work and I love to see what other people are doing in tapestry. The catalogs below are recent acquisitions.
Catalogs are definitely not the perfect representation of a piece of art, but I find them very useful for getting ideas, celebrating artists I do know, and learning about artists I didn’t know about. I have quite a collection and I find that when I’m stuck for ideas for whatever reason, going back through old catalogs is really helpful!
I hope this brief review of these catalogs is inspiring enough for you to get your own copy and perhaps start your own catalog collection!
There are only a few things that I’d say regularly frustrate new tapestry weavers and one of them is the final knot on the warping bar of a continuously warped tapestry loom. If that last knot doesn’t hold tightly, then your edge selvedge will be loose which affects your weaving. Using a double half-hitch knot allows you to adjust the tension on that last warp with a knot that will hold.
What does that mean? A continuous warp is one which wraps around the outside of a tensioned frame loom. Some common examples of this type of loom are the Schacht Arras and most Mirrix looms. These looms use a warping bar. The bar gives you a place to tie the beginning and ending warp securely as well as a rigid structure to help you turn the tapestry around the loom without distorting it. This type of loom can produce a tapestry that is longer than the loom is high.
I had another Bluebird dye day this week, quite literally. I’ve been taking some dye classes from Laurie Hall of Bluebird Dye Gardens. The day was beautiful with blue skies and there were bluebirds all around her studio!
Before going back for more shibori and resist dyeing, I had to mordant more fiber. I had to order some supplies from MAIWA and by the time it all came together, it was the day before the dye day. So much for having time to do some shibori stitching before getting there! But I was able to get the fabric mordanted and felt quite happy that I did it successfully.
