Tapestry Weaving

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The healing power of nature... and some more little tapestries

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The healing power of nature... and some more little tapestries

I have been doing some intentional wandering since I got to the park. A lot of it actually. Usually when I wander, it is with a PLAN. This park has few trails and only a handful of suggested routes they offer people who seem capable of handling them. This is fantastic for the wandering spirit. I am allowed to wander almost anywhere I want to and I am taking advantage of that.

I am a peripatetic soul. I find solace in walking. I have not been a good wanderer. I like to have a plan and a few safety backups in my pocket. This particular place has taught me a lot about letting that go. . . .

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Artist-in-residence, Petrified Forest National Park

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Artist-in-residence, Petrified Forest National Park

I am the current artist-in-residence at Petrified Forest National Park. I earned this spot, but I can’t help but feel intensely grateful for the opportunity to be here. To be able to watch the sunset and the sunrise over the Painted Desert and bask in this quiet place is such a gift.

I have used my hiking superpowers to find places that are only vaguely noted on sketched maps and in printouts you might get a ranger to give you if he or she feels you are up to the challenge of cross-country, off-trail travel in rough terrain. I have sat on the top of remote mesas and watched the sun set while sketching hoodoos and mesas.

One of the things I wanted to do while here was a sort of tapestry diary. But instead of making one larger piece that I wove a little bit of every day, I wanted to make separate pieces. So I have woven a 2 x 2 inch mini-tapestry every day here so far. It has become something I look forward to… how will I translate something I saw into fiber?

 

Suitcase of yarn

Suitcase of yarn

Any time your packing list contains the words, Suitcase of Yarn, you know you're going somewhere fun. This is not a teaching trip though. I'm headed to Arizona to be the artist-in-residence at Petrified Forest National Park for the month of November. I'm going to the desert to do some tapestry designing. I am so excited about this, I gasp a little when I think about it.

How often do most of us get the opportunity to step away from the business of art and actually focus on making it? As a tapestry weaver, I can only bring small looms with me. Even so, my plans include at least three portable looms in addition to the bag full of Hokett looms I will undoubtedly have. I have a project in mind for those little looms.

All the little weavings...

All the little weavings...

The small format samples and pieces sure pile up faster than my big pieces. I'm lucky if I get one very large piece done a year. But these little guys just multiply like rabbits. There seem to be stacks and stacks of them now. 

Last week I did this sample for the Weaving Tapestry on Little Looms online class. It was a test run for the new pipe loom as well as a demo for the new class. It is about three inches square at 8 epi.

What happens when you finish a tapestry?

What happens when you finish a tapestry?

This is Lifelines.

The story of this piece is long. Longer than perhaps it should have been. But nevertheless, finally she is released out into the world (with the nudging of a few show deadlines).

I worked on the design for this piece for quite awhile. Probably it was years of picking it up and putting it down in the way that an artist does. I did a lot of refining of it in a Joan Baxter workshop in 2014 and wove the piece in 2015.

I took it off the loom last winter and immediately rolled it up and put it away. I have trouble looking at a new tapestry when it comes off the loom. Sometimes they come off and I know what I'm going to see and it is fine. Sometimes I am not sure and it is best if I don't look too closely for awhile.

Tapestry in Taos

Tapestry in Taos

Sunday I got up late, was ramping up for another day of spinning more yarn for a tapestry project, and I got an email from my friend Conni. Her opening was that evening in Taos and I had already told her I wasn't going to make it.

It was 10:14 am. Taos is five and a half hours away in good traffic. The opening was 5-7 pm.

Weaver's Barn

Weaver's Barn

There is something very interesting about spending time at the ocean. Not that I was at the ocean last week. I wasn't. But I was in Los Angeles and San Diego teaching tapestry. I only had time for a few brief glimpses of the Pacific, but knowing it was right over there was somehow very interesting... being at the edge of the continent and all.

My second workshop was in Vista, CA at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum. I'm not sure what I expected of the place, but it certainly wasn't what I found. I was so confused when I pulled into the property that I just pulled over in disbelief. There were big hunks of metal all over the place. Many buildings with more hunks of metal (engines, trains, tractors, trucks...) peeking out of them. But it just didn't look like a place I would find any weavers.

A nice guild member rescued me and ...