Those of you who have been following me on Change the Shed on YouTube since March have seen first hand how I make decisions as I’m weaving. For me, many of my tapestry design decisions are made before I start the weaving. But often color choices aren’t really clear until the tapestry is underway. In a small piece I am unlikely to weave a sample, so I am experimenting while working on the actual tapestry.
In the December 9th episode of Change the Shed I was struggling with a value choice that I didn’t trial before I turned the camera on that morning. After briefly considering (silently) how embarrassed I was going to be when I made live “errors” to a fairly wide audience, I decided that letting it play out on camera was just fine with me.
I have excerpted those clips in the video in this post because I felt like they underlined something important. Weaving tapestry or doing anything creative involves trial and error. The practice is just that, practice. That was on full display in yesterday’s live studio feed. Of course you likely have different habits than I do. Every artist does. But some of this might look familiar to you. If you find yourself changing your mind or unweaving a lot, that isn’t a bad thing. You’re practicing. You probably don’t know what you’ll like until you try it, so let yourself experiment.
I wanted to include these clips it in today’s blog post to show those of you who don’t watch Change the Shed how it really looks when weaving. I added an additional clip of what I think is my final decision on value and I’ll show you all how it worked out on the December 16th episode of Change the Shed.
In the video, I was struggling with trying to make the values work in a semi-realistic collage-like design that included forms I wanted to be perceived as mountains. Though I tried hard to make the second hill in the image find some differentiation by starting with a light value, I couldn’t make it work with the bright greens I was working with. I was not willing to unweave that part, so I made a different choice which you’ll see in the video.
I’ll show you what I ended up with on Change the Shed next week Wednesday, December 16th at 10:30 am MT. You can find the link HERE. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel while you’re there.
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In the video you’ll see me fussing with the yarn as I’m talking about the values of the green and the gray. I’m twisting the strands together to see if the hues blend or if they remain distinct. Making finger skeins is another way I look at hue and value before putting yarn into a weaving.
The direct link to my YouTube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/rebeccamezofftapestry
One of the Cameron Peak Fire tapestry diary pieces. Rebecca Mezoff. 3 x 3 inches. Wool, cotton, 2020.
I’m guessing I’m not the only tapestry weaver who has a strong internal commentary as they work. Much of mine really is said right out loud. Do you talk yourself through decisions while weaving?