The start of a wedge weave tapestry in the Utah desert while backpacking.
Every year I run a class I call Summer of Tapestry. It revolves around a practice I’ve had for many years of bringing a small loom with me when I’m hiking or traveling and weaving something about what I experienced or saw. I call the practice sketch tapestry because my goal is to capture something interesting about the experience, not to replicate what I saw in a realistic way.
I find that the practice of really looking at something and then weaving about it makes me pay attention instead of just rushing blindly through the experience and more generally, my life. The inspirations I’ve woven something about are things that I remember months and years later.
I’ve linked many of these sorts of tapestries on my blog over the years and you can find some of these stories under the tapestry diary category. The concept is simple. It is a way of paying attention to something in my experience that caught my eye or had some sort of meaning for me. Making a tiny piece of art about it allows me more time to sink into the experience and I find that I remember the things I wove about clearly in the future in a way I don’t remember things I just snapped a photo of.
The Far Away cabin before it burned down.
For example, I teach tapestry retreats at Colorado State University’s Mountain Campus high in the Colorado Rockies. There was a cabin there that I loved to walk to every morning called Far Away. One year when I arrived to teach my workshop, I discovered that Far Away had burned down the week before. So that week I wove a little tapestry to remember the place. It featured the yellow caution tape and the black burned timbers that were left and it was a nice way for me to remember this place before and after it burned.
Far Away after it burned.
The Far Away tapestry completed.
If you’re interested in this practice, I’ve made a free mini-course to introduce it to you. I hope you’ll spend some time relaxing with your tapestry loom this spring or summer (or fall/winter if you’re in the southern hemisphere!).
I’d love to see what you’re weaving! If you use Instagram, please tag me so I can share in your fun (@rebeccamezofftapestry). On Instagram, use hashtags #summeroftapestry and #changetheshed and mention that you’re working on the Summer of Tapestry mini-course! On Facebook, tag Rebecca Mezoff’s Tapestry Studio.
If you like this practice, please consider joining me for the full Summer of Tapestry 2025 course. The warm-up material opens May 12th and the first of four prompts opens May 27th. We’ll spend eight weeks on the four prompts, two weeks for each of them. The prompts are simply ideas for gathering information in your environment and translating them into tapestry. We’ll take into account the particular structure of tapestry weaving and the way we use yarn to create images as we play with these fun concepts. More about the full course is on my website HERE with a link to register.
The trailer for this year’s class is below or you can access it on YouTube HERE.
Each year has four completely new prompts with video explanations, bonus videos, opportunities to engage with Rebecca and the community of weavers in the class platform and in Zoom meetings and live typed get-togethers. I hope you’ll consider joining me for Summer of Tapestry 2025!
If you have taken one of the Summer of Tapestry classes in the past, let us know your experience in the comments!