Use color to motivate your weaving practice!
Using colors we observe around us as subjects for our weaving or other artwork is something I find endlessly engaging. It has the power to pull even the biggest perfectionists among us away from self-criticism and dump us right into the joy of experiencing the color of almost anything.
Last week I on the blog I released a free mini-course where I talk about my sketch tapestry practice. Sketch tapestry is just my word for a practice of taking some time to observe something, make some notes about it, and then weave a simple tapestry about what I experienced.
The mini-course focuses on the colors of something. You can find the post, download your handout, and watch the videos from here: https://rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2025/5/8/practicing-color-a-free-mini-course
This week I wanted to focus on what you all are weaving. I haven’t seen a lot of finished tapestries yet, but I’m hoping many more of you will jump in and post your color weavings. Below are a few of the examples I’ve seen so far along with my own mini-course tapestry about a cactus flower.
Joanna had some observations about the shadows in her forest which she talks about below.
“For the mini course I went on a walk in my local park which is kind of like a small forest following a creek. What struck me the most on this walk was how much darker all the colors were below the trees and in the lower part of the trees. The dark shadows and the dark lower leaves, giving way to much lighter leaves on same trees higher up. Some of the leaves that were in light appeared white but just because of the light on them. And I could see the light blue sky between branches occasionally with occasional wisps of white clouds. This is what I tried to capture here.”
Joanna Bujard, warm-up weaving from the 2025 mini-course
Jacqueline Brewer wove a wonderful rendition of her garden colors with Taos Wools chica wool. I loved her impulse to limit the color palette and not worry about matching the colors too exactly.
“I wandered no farther than my back patio, where columbine and golden alexander are in bloom. I usually agonize over color matching, but in the spirit of sketch tapestry I decided to weave with my stash of Chica to limit my color options. A ball of my handspun insisted on playing - the day lilies that go with its colors will bloom next month. ”
Jacqueline’s garden
Tapestry by Jacqueline Brewer for the warm-up for Summer of Tapestry 2025.
Priya Mozes, Earth
Priya Moses wove this wonderful tapestry with the theme of Earth for the mini-course.
I’ve been working on my own color weaving for the mini-course. You can see me weaving it on May 14th’s Change the Shed. That episode also had some ideas about looms and materials to use for this sketch tapestry practice and the Summer of Tapestry course.
The thing I probably love the most about Summer of Tapestry is that everyone gets to see what others are weaving. There are great stories about what their inspiration was and often images of the inspiration and the finished weaving.
As another example, here is my warm-up in response to the free mini-course. I was at Hovenweep National Monument this month and saw a claret cactus in bloom. These blooms never fail to grab your heart, they’re so brilliant. I wanted to weave the colors. It was just a day trip with friends, so I sketched some about the cactus at home in my journal from photographs and then chose some yarns from my Weaversbazaar fine and Gist Array stashes to weave the tapestry.
The journal pages below are not finished, but there were two things that really stood out from our hike. The first was a family of ravens and one of the adults sat on top of one of the ruins and squawked at everyone coming by. We stopped to watch it for awhile and after a few minutes it flew to a next in the rocks on the other side of the canyon. I think there were three babies in there though I wished I had a spotting scope in that moment as it was still a ways for my binoculars.
The second was the claret cup cactus. The images on the right are photographs I printed and glued in the book. The watercolor swatches were where I was playing with color. I will likely add an image of the yarns I used. In some journals I’ll actually attach yarn. Then I’ll also add a photo of the finished piece which is pictured below.
Rebecca Mezoff’s wander at Hovenweep National Monument, May 2025
The goal in this practice is not to focus on making something realistic but to experience that inspiration more fully. Playing with color is a great way to do that! The white/gray lines are the spines on the cactus and then I simply wove the colors I saw and I usually don’t add more forms to these color prompts than that.
Claret cup cactus at Hovenweep
Detail of cactus
Rebecca Mezoff, Hovenweep’s claret cup cactus, May 2025
What have you woven for the free mini-course or the Summer of Tapestry warm-up about color? Please share! If you’re in the class, that is the first place to share your work and please include an image of your inspiration if you have one. If you don’t have an image, we’d love to hear the story in words! If you’d like to share your mini-course warm-up and you’re not in the class, please tag me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/rebeccamezofftapestry/) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaMezoffTapestry) and I’ll share to my stories or page! We’d love to see what you’re making and where you’re wandering. The hashtags #summeroftapestry and #changetheshed are also good ones to use.
I can’t wait to see what you’re weaving!
The first prompt of Summer of Tapestry opens May 27th. You can join the fun HERE. If you have a weaving friend, bring them along! It is fun to do this class with someone else whether they live where you do or across the world somewhere.