Designing for Tapestry

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Learning design skills and having fun in the process

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Learning design skills and having fun in the process

Have you reached that point in tapestry weaving where you feel you have a decent or even excellent grasp of technical issues but you are unsure how to design your own images? This happens to almost all of us, so you’re not alone. Designing is simply a skill and it can be learned.

There is a lot of pressure in the art world. How many messages do we get telling us that you have to be born with some sort of special talent or that you have to go to art school to make “good” art? Those messages are everywhere in our culture and it is easy to let those messages keep you from creating.

The truth is that designing for tapestry or any art medium is simply a skill and that skill can be learned.

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How much of your tapestry warp is useable?

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How much of your tapestry warp is useable?

For many of us, not wasting things is important. When it comes to weaving and warp however, there will always be some warp you can’t use. How much is that?

The answer of course depends on the loom and your tolerance for easy versus not-so-easy weaving. As I discussed here on the blog a few months ago, the longer the loom is, the easier the weaving is. But it is possible to weave all the way to the end of a warp where you have no shed at all. If you’re willing to do that, you’ll get the award for most warp used.

I prefer to have some loom waste and have an easier time weaving. All forms of weaving except for four-selvedge methods involve some loom waste. The video below discusses how much extra warp you need to leave on a continuously warped loom such as the Mirrix or Arras. This concept will help you decide on loom size and warp length as you set up your next tapestry weaving.

The magic of colored yarn

The magic of colored yarn

I love yarn in a fairly fierce way. I think some of that attraction to this material has to do with the deep nature of color expressed in yarn. Wool yarn especially takes dye in a beautiful, rich way. Wool being the primary material in my tapestries means that I get to use this gratifying material in all my work.

The second season of the Design Solutions course launched this month* and the first module has information on using warm and cool contrast in design. I had a lot of fun playing with these concepts as I put the course together and one of the last things I did for the first module was weave two tiny Fringeless tapestries. One was in warm colors, one in cool colors. I just wanted to see what the same sort of design looked like when woven in warm and cool colors.

Season 2 of Design Solutions for the Artist/Weaver

Season 2 of Design Solutions for the Artist/Weaver

Last year I started an online course about designing for tapestry weaving. This is a subject that I find students frequently struggle with and there are many things about design that are particular to tapestry weaving’s techniques, tools, and materials.

We had a great deal of fun last year in Season 1. Season 2 of the course is about to start. The class is now open for registration with more information on my website here: https://rebeccamezoff.com/design-solutions-season-2

The course content opens on Monday, January 11th and you’ll want to register soon to maximize your time with Module 1’s material before registration closes the end of the month.

The video below is a short look at what you’ll see in the course.

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Reckoning with Myself: Part 2

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Reckoning with Myself: Part 2

“Reckoning with myself” is just my way of saying that I’m working on stuff. In Part 1 I was musing about space to work and a few tapestry designs I’m still working on. I still don’t have an answer about the big tapestries, but I can say that I spent a fun weekend enlarging the cartoon for one of them using my projector and a roll of paper my grandmother had labeled like this:

Reckoning with myself: Part 1

Reckoning with myself: Part 1

I know all of us feel it in some way. There is a lot of chaos around the world and certainly in the USA. I find it hard not to take that chaos on emotionally and have been struggling to find calm spaces. As you might have noticed, this summer that has taken the form of frequent short backpacking trips. But I also think I’ve finally reached the point of no return with my studio space. The chaos has overwhelmed me and brought any forward progress in weaving large art tapestries to a grinding halt. The chaos is even on full display in my Change the Shed episodes—that is how far gone I am. I have ceased caring that thousands of people have seen my disaster of a studio on YouTube for months and months.

Time to fix that. Maybe cleaning is a normal response to chaos anyway. . . .

A few weeks ago when I found myself crying on the floor clutching a badly bruised foot after tripping on the video backdrop support in a cramped space, I decided it was time to fix the problem as much as I could. Moving isn’t an option in the world of COVID and neither is renting another space, so this one will have to become more user-friendly. I’m working on that and my goodness but it feels good to move stuff around, give some of it away, sell some of it, and gain more space to work. Maybe in the end, I won’t need a bigger space after all.**

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Making tapestry designs from nature

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Making tapestry designs from nature

I have a t-shirt that says “Weaving saved my life.” I’m not sure that is actually true, however, the amazing Sarah Neubert gave it to me and when I put it on I think of her courage and work in the world of weaving and it makes me smile. What I do feel this year is that backpacking has saved my life or at least my sanity over the last couple months. I was feeling mighty anxious and a bit frantic last weekend for reasons I can not pin down, and three days in the woods made an incredible difference. Sleeping outside, watching moose through my binoculars, seeing osprey and marmots, and watching the full moon rise over my tent in the middle of the night* provided space, perspective, and calm. . . .

My backpacking kit includes a small loom and there is nothing I love more than sitting somewhere high in the mountains weaving or spinning. I’ve talked about my “tapestry diary” many times on this blog. I weave these little pieces as a way to keep myself working and processing ideas in tapestry but also as a way to remember places and events. It is quite effective actually. Spend a couple hours weaving a tiny tapestry about something and that memory comes back when I see the piece months or years later.