I had a wonderful time in Taos last week. The three-day Tapestry in Taos workshop focused on using churro yarn hand-dyed by Taos Wools to depict something about our environment there. I had a committed group of students and we enjoyed being near the center of town at Revolt Gallery.

Taos Wools Festival Tapestry Workshop with Rebecca Mezoff 2023 — Taos Wools Festival 2023 tapestry workshop participants L to R: Nick, Melissa, Adriana, Janis, Lynn, Mary, Vivian, Ryan, Eva, and Rebecca in front

Driving into Taos the night before the workshop, it was raining hard and then the rainbow pictured at the top of the post appeared over Taos Pueblo. It seemed a good omen for the week since we were weaving about the Taos area.

The first day always starts with introductions and some presentation from me but then we were ready to warp and start weaving our Taos creations. There is something special about weaving with local churro hand-dyed yarn especially when we were creating images about the Taos area in particular. This yarn is all hand-dyed by Joe Barry of Taos Wools. This is the chica weight and we were using two strands of it at 8 epi. That allowed for some color blending if needed.

A huge selection of Taos Wools chica churro yarns ready for the workshop.

Taos Wools churro tapestry yarn color choices — Eva was choosing colors for her design on the porch where the light was good. So many beautiful colors to choose from!

The class warmed up quickly, decided on their designs, and started weaving. We were working in a community room owned by Revolt Gallery. We didn’t fire up the disco ball, but perhaps we should have!

Nick dove right into his design about an adobe church. And Adriana started a tapestry about the Taos tree (if you know you know) which she finished the second day and then wove a second tapestry as well.

Deep in the thick of it on the second day, everyone continues to weave. Sharon finished her lovely landscape and Adriana also finished the Taos tree.

Day three went by quickly and at the end of it we had a bunch of tapestries either finished or well on their way to being so.

Adriana Conant Taos Wools Workshop tapestries — Adriana Conant’s Taos tree and chili ristra tapestries were finished by the end of day 3.

Ryan Bledsoe’s tapestry inspired by a statue she saw at a museum in Santa Fe

Tapestry in Taos workshop weavings — Eva Gray, Melissa Haskill, and Mary Townsley tapestries from the workshop.

Taos Wools workshop with Rebecca Mezoff student work — So much wonderful work went on during the week! Tapestries L to R are by Vivian Perry, Janis Schiller, Lynn Nordt, Eva Gray, Melissa Haskill. Front row Nick Oprandy, Adriana Conant, Ryan Bledsoe, and Mary Townsley.

There was a beautiful show at Revolt Gallery during the lead-up to the festival called Three Weavers. This title and idea came from the wonderful book, Three Weavers by Joan Potter Loveless.

On the last day we all went up to Arroyo Seco to see the new Taos Wools retail store, gallery, and classroom. A quick stop at Taos Cow was needed before shopping the yarn!

Tapestry weavers eating Taos Cow ice cream — Rebecca, Ryan, Melissa, and Janis enjoying some Taos Cow ice cream in Arroyo Seco. Mine was piñon caramel which seemed appropriate for piñon season in New Mexico! Janis didn’t have her cone yet and Melissa’s was clearly in danger.

And a visit to Joe Barry’s new retail shop, Taos Wools. He has yarn and looms for sale (including Mirrix Saffron and Chloe looms), a gallery and gathering space, and a classroom with Rio Grande walking looms.

Taos Wools in Arroyo Seco, NM just north of Taos.

I caught Joe and Melissa trying to stuff all her yarn into one small bag… When your husband says just get one bag of yarn, it is a good thing yarn squishes! As always, Joe was happy to help!