,

Inspiration from deep desert colors: A week in northern New Mexico

,
Inspiration from deep desert colors: A week in northern New Mexico

Earlier this month I had the good fortune of spending five days in Arroyo Seco and Arroyo Hondo. These are villages just north of Taos, New Mexico. Arroyo Seco is home to Taos Wools and I was teaching a three-day workshop on color gradation for them.

I made a video of the trip which includes more images from the workshop as well as some scenery and thoughts from my drive home through El Rito and Abiquiu, NM. I took a hike up Chimney Rock at Ghost Ranch intending to do some drawing at the top, but it was snowing! Check out the video for the whole adventure.

The farmer and her wife

The farmer and her wife

I have had so many students over the years who made me laugh with their tapestry ideas. Gayle Weikert was one of the best. She was one of my very first tapestry students in 2014 and over the last 11 years, she has been a part of my life in those glancing ways that adds a spark to your week and reminds you that life is worth living.

Gayle’s tapestries were very often hilarious. They were all to my knowledge, quite small. She loved to make puns and jokes about all sorts of things. For example the title of the tapestry below is Try Again.

Practice More: A red Sharpie and 28 days

Practice More: A red Sharpie and 28 days

The first day of February, the author Austin Kleon posted a simple downloadable PDF on his Substack newsletter. I downloaded it because I thought, maybe this is simple enough for me to follow. The idea is to take the thing you want to get better at and do a little bit of it every day. February is the shortest month and also 28 days makes a nice 7 x 4 grid. I thought I’d try it and the fact that I was trying to finish the rocks tapestry didn’t hurt my motivation.

As Kleon’s poster says, you just practice every day and when you do, you put an X in the box. No rules about how long you have to practice or what practice even means. Just do it.

Marking Time. Tommye Scanlin's newest book.

Marking Time. Tommye Scanlin's newest book.

The image at the top of this blog post is a snapshot from an interview I did with Tommye Scanlin when we were both residents at Lillian E. Smith Center in Georgia. Tommye encouraged me to apply for that residency among others and I was fortunate not only to be able to spend two weeks in the Georgia woods one April but to find that Tommye herself was at a short residency during part of that time. Tommye’s fierce love of making art and her incredible skill at inspiring and teaching others to do so as well is one of the things I admire most about her. I did the interview as part of my Design Solutions for the Artist Weaver, Season 1 online course and you can watch it there.

The quote above is one that I think about frequently. One of Tommye’s considerable talents is inspiring students to make art. One of her most frequent comments is this one: Weave every darn day. You get better with practice and my own work and teaching have experienced this wisdom from Tommye over and over again.

Tommye has been a friend and mentor to me for many years. She is a dedicated artist now working mostly in tapestry. She is also an author and a committed educator. This review is about her third book.

, ,

Getting started in tapestry weaving: looms, tools, and yarn!

, ,
Getting started in tapestry weaving: looms, tools, and yarn!

Tapestry weaving can seem like a pursuit that requires A LOT. A lot of equipment, materials, and knowledge.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Weaving tapestry can be quite simple and your materials and equipment do not have to be complicated. If you want to learn tapestry weaving, below are some suggestions for how to get started. There are also many resources for people already deep into the tapestry experience, but this post is mostly for people who are pretty new to tapestry weaving.