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Every discipline has something that trips people up when they’re learning it. I've been teaching tapestry for a long time and over the years I've noticed that there are four consistent things that cause tapestry weavers the most trouble. These things are more common for new tapestry weavers, but all of us have moments from time to time when we just don't see why the weaving isn't working.
Here are the four things I see tripping people up the most:
I had a great email from Sandy Langer this week about her newest tapestries. She has taken my Weaving Tapestries on Little Looms online class and was writing me to show me what she learned. The photos were so great I asked her more questions and she said I could share them with you.
Tapestry weaving is in some sense, taking a journey up the warp. It is a process that starts at the bottom and moves upward.
Always.
(okay, almost always)
I know some of you that have watched videos, read books, and even taken courses by some of the weavers prevalent on Instagram may be confused by this. They do teach weaving in the middle of the warp and then filling in around it with a needle. I maintain that this is a poor way to construct a tapestry and I’ll go so far as to even call it wrong. (with apologies for my stubbornness)
Here are my reasons.
This time of year I start asking myself serious questions about the holidays.
Do I really want to spend half of my Thanksgiving vacation at Dallas/Fort Worth International potentially sleeping on the floor with thousands of other people who were trapped due to a freak snowstorm in New England and the resulting air traffic nightmare?
Do I really need another stack of things to take care of in my life or could Christmas money go toward helping others or purchasing experiences? (I'm no saint. Santa already told me he is bringing me a drum carder. But he needn't bring anything else. I have plenty of fleece, thanks.)
The holidays are certainly a time where I love cozy time on the couch, good food, friends and family, twinkly lights, and a mug of hot chocolate that might just have a little cake vodka in it. In my head it feels like it should be a time of love, expansion, and joy.
But in reality, the holidays are often a time of tension and of unattainable expectations from others (and ourselves if we're honest).
I think we should use making and craft as a gift to ourselves. Sure, we can make things with the expectation that the final product will be a wonderful gift for someone we love. But make the process of creating it a time for you to experience the joy of making. Have you ever experienced that state your brain enters where you lose track of time and are just enjoying the thing you're focused on? Some people call it flow. Tapestry weaving is especially well suited to creating this state. And we all need a little bit of this in our lives every day and more so during the holidays.
It has been one year since I opened my online class, Weaving Tapestry on Little Looms. The class has been enjoyed by many hundreds of people so far. My goal in creating the class was to make something fun and accessible for people who have never woven tapestry before but also provide information valuable to people who understand how weaving works.
As I look back over the last year of weaving from this class, I wanted to put together a video showcasing a small portion of it. There were far too many images for me to choose from, but this video is a start.
It is also a little Happy Holidays video from me. I feel that it is far too early in the year (though it be November 8) for a Carol-of-the-Bells kind of video, but here it is. Enjoy the beauty of the season, pick up a little loom, and make something fun. I have a holiday weave-along coming soon that will tell you just how to do that in case you're stuck.
I just got home from my last travel teaching trip for the year. It is fun to visit different places and meet new people, but there is nothing quite like home. Especially for an introvert.
I taught tapestry techniques in Las Vegas, NV and Las Cruces, NM. I was fascinated by the desert landscape and the amazing plants I saw in both places even in the city. I enjoyed hearing all the different ideas the participants had about fiber and tapestry weaving. And I'll admit that I enjoyed the warm weather (even though the people there thought it was freezing at 65 degrees).
My studio table has been covered with mounting projects for a few weeks now. I sold a handful of small-format tapestries and not all of them were mounted. I also finished a small tapestry that was a donation to Petrified Forest National Park from my artist residency last November. (Read about that HERE.)
I have been posting photos on Instagram as I worked on this but thought I'd show you the steps all in one place.
