Change the Shed

Winter Trees weave along

Winter Trees weave along

To celebrate winter and offer a fun project we can all weave together on Change the Shed, I’m doing a Winter Trees weave along. If you’d like a different subject for your holiday-themed weaving, feel free to choose something else. I’ll add some photos of past winter projects I’ve done below.

I’ll be weaving a couple different tree projects on Change the Shed on November 13 and 27, 2024 and December 13 and 18, 2024. Join me for those free live broadcasts. If you have questions about the project, you can ask them in the comments for this blog post or during the live broadcast. I’ll answer them all on Change the Shed.

I have woven little trees in the past and there are photos below. I’ve also woven other winter and holiday-themed tiny tapestries and if one of those looks like fun to you, feel free to copy it! I don’t yet have a woven example of this year’s trees because I’m weaving them live, but if you watch the episode today, you’ll have a good idea of a direction to take your own weaving.

What is it like to run your own tapestry education business? A recorded Change the Shed episode

What is it like to run your own tapestry education business? A recorded Change the Shed episode

Before I left for my teaching trip in Vermont and New Hampshire, I recorded a short Change the Shed episode to air on June 12, 2024. I wanted to address some of the questions I’ve been asked mostly about my business in recent months. The questions range from how big my team is (you might be surprised) to what I do with tiny tapestries. I suspect that person was wondering the bigger question, what good is tapestry really? And that quickly morphs into why do we even make art? I promise I don’t get into that in the video, but I definitely do in some of the online classes. It is a short episode at about 15 minutes.

Crowdsourcing a tapestry design while celebrating four years of Change the Shed

Crowdsourcing a tapestry design while celebrating four years of Change the Shed

I've always felt fairly private about my tapestry designs as I'm working on them. Since my apprenticeship ended 14 years ago, I rarely ask anyone for feedback on my designs unless it is a commission. Designs are fragile little beings that can be crushed by other people so easily and they need time for me to be sure enough about them to let others see them.* It is both a protective instinct that makes me guard my ideas to give them space to grow and also a fear of being criticized. No one wants their beautiful butterfly of an idea crushed by a careless comment from another human.

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It's for the birds!

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It's for the birds!

I have had two bird tapestries on the go for months now. Those of you who took Summer of Tapestry 2023* will recognize them and will also raise your eyebrows at the fact that they are not yet finished even though the live version of the class wrapped last month.

Yesterday on Change the Shed I cut off five four small tapestries from a variety of looms. I had planned on five, but the last one was not done. I wove on it some at the end of the broadcast, and you know what? Then I sat down and finished the thing and cut it off too.

This particular weaving is frenetic and WAY too busy for my taste. But it has been so fun to weave and it does fit well in the sketch tapestry spirit that the Summer of Tapestry class follows. It was woven for the process. I took photos of birds that came to my backyard feeder last spring and then I matched their colors and wove a bit about each bird. I enjoyed the time thinking about each of the birds and attempting to match their colors. The joy is in the process.

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Begin with the end in mind. Header and finishing choices in tapestry weaving

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Begin with the end in mind. Header and finishing choices in tapestry weaving

Have you heard the saying, start with the end in mind? It definitely applies to tapestry weaving when you’re making decisions at the beginning of a tapestry. There are many things to decide and the equipment and materials you currently have might make some of them for you.

For example, the loom you choose might dictate how you can display your work. If you have only very short looms*, you may not be able to finish your tapestry with a braided edge because you don’t have enough extra warp to allow that. A longer loom might allow you to use that finishing technique.

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Woven doodles and finishing work

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Woven doodles and finishing work

Sometimes a little doodle on the loom is all you need to find your weaving momentum again. I had completely forgotten about this little tapestry until last night. I have a very large pile of small and large tapestries that need finishing work. I hate to say it, but that pile has been growing since 2020. I know because virtually all the tapestries I wove on Change the Shed over the last three years are on that pile.

Last night when I was feeling weary and just wanted to relax on the couch and watch TV, I decided it was the day to tackle that pile. Instead of knitting while watching, I would finish those tapestries. And indeed I did the finishing on two small ones in an hour. One of the ones on the top of the pile was this little guy.

100 episodes of Change the Shed: a video romp through three years of tapestry weaving

100 episodes of Change the Shed: a video romp through three years of tapestry weaving

I started doing my live YouTube broadcast, Change the Shed, in March of 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic locked us all down. Almost three years later, I’m still doing it. A few things I learned/remembered as I looked back over all those episodes:

  • The things that will make me cry in front of unknown numbers of people are (1) racism and (2) wildfire.

  • You sometimes always learn technology under pressure.

  • My live videos got a lot clearer once the city installed fiber optic.

  • Green screen is a bad choice for a weaving program.