Spark your creativity this summer.
In this live multi-week workshop I encourage you to go on your own adventures and document them through small, informal tapestries.
Weaving from my surroundings has taught me to pay attention and enjoy the process of experiencing something real and making art about it. I always take a notebook and loom with me as I spend time outside in the summer.
An example of a weaving inspired by a pot sherd in Petrified Forest National Park. For more examples, see the gallery at the end of this post.
In Summer of Tapestry we focus on looking at the world differently and finding inspiration in our environment, whether that is in your home, on a trip, or in your neighborhood. It’s amazing how much your view can change by adjusting your chair a few degrees.
This course includes five creative prompts with two weeks for each of them. We’ll also have some live meet-ups and learn a lot from each other as we weave through our summer.
You’ll learn to translate what you see into little tapestries. You can weave “in the field” or you can document your adventures and do the weaving later.
The warm-up prompt opens May 12th!
I always start this class with a warm-up prompt* about color. This year’s video is all new and will open on May 12th. If you register for the class now, you’ll have time to look at the welcome information and get ready to do your first weaving on May 12th.
The first prompt opens on May 27th and we’ll have four total with two weeks for each one. The full schedule including dates for live get-togethers is in the class.
This is a really fun class to take with someone else, so get your weaving friends to take it with you! If you’re the only tapestry weaver in your circle, you’ll definitely make new friends during this course.
Below is the trailer for the course for this year. If you’re getting the blog via email, click HERE for the video on YouTube.
I have been wandering and weaving about it for a decade now and I really enjoy the fun of weaving something about my adventures. The gallery below has some more examples both from past years of Summer of Tapestry and my own personal collection. There are also blog posts that tell the stories of some of the tapestries in the category Tapestry Diary on my blog. (Look for the category list to the right on a computer or at the bottom of the page on a mobile device.)
Here is one more example, the American Dipper tapestry. I wove this for Summer of Tapestry 2023 and it was all about a marvelous little gray bird that loves the rushing creeks of Colorado. It swims underwater (the only aquatic songbird!) for food. This tapestry was larger and more complicated than most of my sketch tapestries but I loved weaving this bird’s motion and the water’s swirl. If you’ve never seen a dipper, THIS is a video I shot in a rushing Colorado stream at 10,000 feet elevation.
Rebecca Mezoff, American Dipper, 8 × 3 inches
*If you’re asking yourself what a prompt is, never fear… lots of people have asked me that. All I mean by “prompt” is an idea. I’ll give you a direction to go with your weaving and you’ll go looking for inspiration with that idea in mind.
Warm up note: This year I will again have a free mini-course which will roll out on May 8th. This is a different challenge then the new warm-up prompt right in the class that opens May 12th. Of course you’re welcome to do both of them! Last year these two things were the same. If you’ve taken Summer of Tapestry before, the free mini-course is one you’ve already seen so dive into the warm-up on May 12th. Register HERE.