While teaching in Taos in November I finally finished the Icelandic Windows tapestry. Since I am back in Taos teaching another retreat, I thought it was time to post something about it!
Some of you saw me weaving this on Change the Shed HERE, HERE, and HERE. This is one of the tapestries I wove after my artist residency in Iceland in April of last year.
Rebecca Mezoff, Icelandic Windows, 2.5 x 8 inches, Icelandic wool, cotton
Materials
The tapestry was woven with a singles yarn made from lamb fleece by the Gilhagi Farm mini-mill in the northeastern part of Iceland. The other tapestries I wove as part of this residency were woven with handspun. For this one I wanted to try this singles yarn from the mini-mill in part to remember the wonderful visit there. And of course the yarn is gorgeous. These are all natural colors except for the rusty oranges which were handspun from some roving I had with me.
Various yarns from the Gilhagi farm mini-mill in Iceland. I used the Lamb singles yarn for this tapestry.
Rebecca Mezoff, Icelandic Windows, 2.5 x 8 inches, Icelandic wool, cotton
The Design
The imagery came from a few different buildings and their windows that I saw in rural parts of northern Iceland. On our first excursion we saw this building with tall vertical windows in Skagaströnd.
Building in Skagaströnd, Iceland. I used this image along with others for a tapestry design.
A few weeks later we visited the Kálfshamarsvík lighthouse at the northern tip of the Skagaströnd peninsula. Another bank of small vertical windows caught my eye along with broken discolored glass still in the frames.
Kálfshamarsvík lighthouse, Iceland
Kálfshamarsvík lighthouse windows
I wanted to use the shapes of some of these windows along with the rusty color to weave a memory of these parts of the trips. Iceland is full of buildings with interesting windows and I could probably weave ten more tapestries on this subject.
Capturing the essence of something
Often when I teach I’m asking students to explore what is essential about a design they’re thinking about. If they’re inspired by a place or a photo, what is it that has interested them? When weaving especially at small sizes and coarser setts, it isn’t possible to include a lot of detail. How can we use color and form in simple ways to capture the essence of something without attempting to weave THE thing.
This is one of the things I am exploring in my own practice right now and I’ll be looking at it with the students at the Taos tapestry retreat in the coming week.
What are you most attracted to when it comes to design inspiration? Is it color that grabs you first? A shape? The way something in the scene is repeating? Figuring that out can help you simplify your designs until they are perfect for tapestry weaving.