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

Mora Valley Spinning Mill

Mora Valley Spinning Mill

I finally found someone to go to the Mora Valley Spinning Mill with me. This is, according to them, the only working mill in New Mexico at the moment. It used to be Tapetes de Lana. Their mission is to create jobs for the small community of Mora which is a beautiful town in the valles above Las Vegas, NM. So far they have been quite successful. DY agreed to make the trip up there with me in search of some good churro. Obviously I don't currently use churro in my work, but DY needs plenty of it and Mora provided. I have some hope of eventually being able to get some good tapestry yarn from them. Locally sourced wool spun by local people would be wonderful.

As you may remember from THIS POST about the Harrisville spinning mill, I am fascinated with mills. This one is practically in my back yard and until Wednesday I had never been there.

Our tour started in the store where they have some beautiful hand-dyed yarn. There was an old theater in the building that they were working on renovating and a community room that is the meeting place for the people of Mora.

The mill is definitely a mill! It is smaller than Harrisville, but some of the equipment seemed familiar. I asked the boss Joshua how he fixed the machines when they break. He just pointed to Jimmy, the genius mechanic. Mostly they can't get parts so they just make something and keep on going. That is the spirit of New Mexico all the way.

Here is the back end of their carding machine which wasn't running when we were there.

Loops of roving going into the spinner.

The all important guy who knows how to create the yarn the client wants. They will do a special mill run for you with only 20 pounds of fleece.





They have a new churro yarn. It is a thin single and well-spun. They only carry it in natural right now, but I suspect they'll be dyeing it soon. I bought a pound and hope to try dyeing it myself soon.


 
That sign to the right of the door turned out to be true. If you go to the mill to buy their yarn, you get 40% off. That was one great yarn run.

The Mexican place right down the street has good tacos if you go. And it was snowing as we left (April 30th!) and they had a roaring fire both in the mill's art gallery and in the restaurant.

If you need an inexpensive loom that needs some love but would be perfectly serviceable, the mill has a whole room of old looms, most seemed to be counterbalance, that they need to get rid of to make room for new enterprises. I'm sure they'd love for you to take one off their hands.

It was a great day out in rural New Mexico. We drove home over the Sangre de Cristos in the snow through Penasco and left a prayer at Santuario de Chimayo before heading back to Santa Fe. But that is a New Mexico story for another day.
 
Links for this post
Mora Valley Spinning Mill: http://moravalleyspinningmill.com/ 
Santuario de Chimayo: http://www.elsantuariodechimayo.us/
DY Begay: http://navajo-indian.com/

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