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Jilly Edwards is an artist working in woven tapestry from the UK. She currently maintains a studio in Bristol. I was able to interview her for my online course, Design Solutions for the Artist/Weaver, Season 2 this spring. Jilly is an inspiring artist who is keen to share her knowledge and work with the rest of the tapestry world. I spoke with her for several hours and as always when I write or talk to Jilly, I felt like I’d just had a heart to heart with the dearest of friends.
A very common struggle among newer tapestry weavers is to keep the weaving square. This is all about weft tension or how much weft is going into your tapestry at any one time. Too much weft and the piece will get wider, too little and it’ll get narrower. I find that most students have more trouble with the tapestry getting narrower as they work. The changes can be subtle! It is easy to weave a whole piece not realizing that over the course of it you’ve drawn in a half an inch or more. The only fool-proof way I’ve found to make sure this isn’t happening is to make myself measure the width of the tapestry frequently.
In my continuing series, Questions From The Book, I’m answering questions that come from readers of my newest book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving.
I have spent some time playing with a tapestry technique called pick and pick lately. This technique is a powerful one in the tapestry toolbox because it allows stripes to climb up the warp.
Weaving is the creation of cloth on a gridded structure created by the warp and weft. In tapestry, making horizontal lines in the direction of the weft traveling from side to side across the warp is easy. Making lines that travel in the same direction of the warp is more difficult.* Pick and pick is a fun technique because we get to play with creating forms and color effects in the warp-wise direction.
The video below demonstrates weaving pick and pick and I give a few tips for making things work out neatly and for catching mistakes. The two Change the Shed episodes I refer to in the video are HERE and HERE.
Tuesday was my blog-o-versary of thirteen years. Though it seems like a silly thing to celebrate, the blog was the start of where I am today. It was a wild idea I had one day and a free Blogger blog became a way to test ideas about tapestry weaving. The very first post was about a tapestry called This Time I Dance which was purchased by my partner’s ex. You never know where you’ll find a customer!
But dance I have, ever since. The blog has become a place to explore writing about tapestry weaving and a few other whacky ideas mostly having to do with fiber, though there are some live skunks and knitted chickens in there. As I started teaching tapestry weaving, it became a way to communicate with students about things I was teaching but also about things I was learning. The journey never ends and perhaps the blog never will either.
How many of us weavers grew up with Interweave? Perhaps someone else has written or will write the history of Linda Ligon’s company which she started in Loveland, Colorado in 1975. The first magazine she produced was called Interweave. Eventually that magazine became Handwoven and Interweave became the name of the company. Linda sold the company in 2005. It was sold again to F+W Media and they declared bankruptcy in 2019. Linda, along with Anne Merrow and John Bolton, formed a new company in 2019 and are now the publishers of three of the most beloved magazines, Handwoven, Spin Off, and PieceWork.*
The company, Long Thread Media, has added new components to this fiber-centered business that we have loved for so long. One of those things is a podcast. Now in Season 2, I was thrilled to be interviewed by Anne for the April 9, 2021 episode.
YouTube is what I’m talking about. Those of us who grew up before the internet existed, do marvel at the miracle of this technology. The first personal computers came around while I was in junior high but the world wide web as we know it didn’t exist in any useable fashion until I was out of college. I wrote my masters thesis using sticky notes and index cards though I used a computer for word processing.
Shortly thereafter, the world changed. And now we can teach ourselves how to fix a leaky toilet by watching YouTube videos. I love this aspect of the internet, though a plumber might prefer I couldn’t replace my toilet innards myself.*
The number of online courses I offer has expanded in recent years and it can be hard to know which one might be the best for you to start with. There are descriptions for each of these courses on my website including trailer videos, just follow the links. Below is a list of the courses I’m currently offering and then a few tips on how to choose.
