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How many years have we been using Mirrix looms now? For me it has been at least 15 and for some of you it has been much longer! A classic Mirrix loom is a really fancy pipe loom. These looms are sturdy and they hold as tight a tension as you want them to. They have a shedding device and you can swap out the spacing spring at the top of the loom to help you create different setts easily.
Did you know you can replace the bottom spring in an active warp when you start a new tapestry?
The good news is that you’re not doing anything wrong!
“My sheds are all messed up again! What am I doing wrong?!”
Does that sound familiar? The good news is that you’re not doing anything wrong! Shedding problems in tapestry weaving will always happen. Isn’t that a relief to know?
The other good news is that there are a handful of ways to fix shedding problems and once you understand what those are and when to use them, you can fix your shedding problems quickly and easily. Because the not as good news is, they’ll ALWAYS happen. There is no way you can plan your way out of shedding issues for an entire tapestry, so let’s just start by accepting that they will happen and that we have to know how to fix them.
In tapestry, we often want a very particular color. In the video below I talk about the example of finding a skin tone for a tiny piece of a tapestry I’m weaving on Change the Shed.* It turns out, skin tones are tricky!**
Color or sample cards can be useful for finding the colors you’re looking for in any commercial yarn. …
As tapestry weavers we have the advantage of being able to blend colors to get the hue or effect we want. I show this in a small way in the video here. It is quite astounding what can be done with weft bundling and color in terms of changing the hue you see when thin wefts are mixed together in the bundle. Of course a working knowledge of color theory can help you know what to put together to shift a hue in the direction you want to go.***
This question used to really bother me but now I love it because it gives me an opportunity to think about why I weave tapestry at all. The answer also relates to almost everything else I do for fun: knitting, drawing, birding, hiking, reading…
For me weaving my tapestry diary or sketch tapestries is all about the process. My tiny tapestry diary or sketch tapestry pieces are often just 2-4 inches and they’re too small to hang on the wall without being mounted. It is about slowing down, paying attention, and making something with my hands. I’m the same with knitting. I have piles of shawls I’ve knit because I love the process. I can’t possibly wear them all so sometimes I give them away, but the making of them is all that I really care about.
I’m enjoying the slow return of summer here in Colorado. Summer always means Summer of Tapestry for me. This online class came from my sketch tapestry practice and as I’ve been building this year’s class, I’ve been looking back at some of the pieces that meant something to me in years past.
I love this simple practice of spending some time observing, making notes, and weaving a simple, quick tapestry from what I observed. Most of these tapestries are small and the intention is that they don’t take long to make. My goal is to learn to appreciate what is around me and use the weaving to find a calm space in a chaotic world. I have to say that I’ve needed it more than ever this week.
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.
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.
