Tapestry Weaving, Tapestry Diary
Rebecca Mezoff
Practicing color: simplifying by focusing on ...

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.

Practicing color: simplifying by focusing on color
Tapestry Diary, Tapestry Weaving
Rebecca Mezoff
Practicing color: a free mini-course

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.

Practicing color: a free mini-course

Mardi Gras

An inch at a time...


I suspect if you're a tapestry weaver and you're reading this, you understand what I mean by "an inch at a time." Thats how it feels some days.  Today I wove all day on this piece, and I think at the end of the day I had woven quite a bit more than an inch, but not more than two.  This piece is 48 inches long (and 48 inches wide)...  I'm hoping things'll pick up a bit as I go along.  I've tried whistling as I work, ignoring the other people in the studio (that is often impossible actually as fun things are happening and I like to be involved--how can you ignore the glee of the woman next to you who just figured out how to do a smooth interlock?), and deep breathing as I work because I find that when I get anxious about my progress I mess up and going one inch back after several hours going forward is not fun and leads to much swearing and an occasional plea to various saints (and sinners--I'm not Catholic.)

This is the first piece I've done at 10 e.p.i.  Before this all tapestry I've done has been at 8 e.p.i.  That also is screwing me up.  Who knew that going from 8 epi to 10 would be such a huge switch?  But it is.  I worked for a whole day putting in waste at the beginning of this piece to get the bubbling correct so the warp was covered.  Now I'm having trouble with too much weft.  Eventually I'll get it right I suppose.  At least I hope so!

When I go back on Sunday to work on that piece, I am considering wearing these 
mardi gras beads that a co-worker gave me last week as a good luck charm.  What do you think?  I heard plenty of stories from Kelly who is from New Orleans about women taking their tops off for a good set of beads, but I didn't hear anything specifically about good luck.  Perhaps I should look forward to St. Patty's day instead.  It is likely I'd get the beads caught in the millions of weft bundles and more swearing will ensue anyway.  I'm pretty sure these beads aren't good enough to get women to take their clothes off... so they're probably not lucky either.  Perhaps I should just stick to using the beads to test visual skills in babies.  Seems safer.