Tapestry Weaving
Rebecca Mezoff
Testing out the Duet tapestry beater from ...

It is no secret that I love my tapestry forks/beaters with metal tines. Many people make them with dog combs. The metal tines slide through the warp easily and if the handles are shaped well, they provide a nice snap for work on tapestries large or small.

Over the years I’ve purchased many tapestry forks from Magpie Woodworks, Thomas Creations (Threads Thru Time), and Timber and Twine. These are beautiful hand-crafted tools and every tapestry weaver should have at least one of these in their toolbox.

But I have had so many students who were unable to get one of these forks or had to wait many months just because when a tool is hand-made one at a time, it takes a long time to produce them and more people want them than can get them.

Testing out the Duet tapestry beater from Schacht

Hanging tapestries

Studio progress

Little by little this studio is coming together. There has been a lot of furniture assembly. Somehow I feel like furniture should come in one piece, and I suppose it is possible to buy it that way. But if you go with an IKEA sort of decor, you're going to be following those little pictures and putting it together yourself.
I have a collection of those little hex wrenches this furniture all comes with. I save them religiously in my red toolbox, though honestly I expect never to take any of this furniture apart. I pulled the baggie where the collection resides out of the bottom of the toolbox today. There are many of them. Maybe 20. I have no real recollection what most of them were used for. (Emily put them in the baggie. I would have just thrown them in the bottom and never been able to find the one I need... in the unlikely event that I needed one of them. Emily is smart like that.)
And with the assistance of the taller of my helpers for the day, I got these tapestries on the wall.
These two pieces have never hung side by side and I enjoy seeing them this way. On the left is Emergence V: The Center Place (45 x 45 inches). On the right is Emergence I (48 x 48 inches).
And here is the shorter of my two helpers for the day... without which I would not have gotten the yarn re-arranged on the floor, the spool rack spun, or the boxes climbed upon. Great to have a little niece in the studio!