Tapestry Weaving

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Questions from the book: How tight should my warp be?

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Questions from the book: How tight should my warp be?

I am frequently asked this question by readers of my book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving, and by students in my online classes. The best way to really know how tight the warp should be is to feel the warps of experienced tapestry weavers. But if you aren’t able to come to an in-person workshop or retreat any time soon, the video and discussion below will help you figure out what the right warp tension is for you.

When I got my first Mirrix loom I was thrilled with how tight I could make the tension. The looms come with a little wrench that you can use to tighten the wing nuts beyond what you can do with just your hands. I use a cotton seine twine warp which is very strong and can take a huge amount of tension. So I’d tighten that Mirrix warp very very tight. It was far tighter than I can get the tension on my beefy rug loom.

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"Wow, I was scared but this was very easy."

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"Wow, I was scared but this was very easy."

C wrote this in response to a question about how their first warping went on a small tapestry loom. It made me think back to my first tapestry warping and how I felt exactly the same way.

I was warping a very large frame in Navajo-style from a book. The loom was given to me by my grandparents. My grandfather made it. But I was on an occupational therapy travel assignment in Seattle and my grandmother, the only person I knew who had any experience with this sort of warping, was 1300 miles away and unable to help. I managed the warping using one of Noel Bennett’s books, but it wasn’t pretty.

The Tapestry Discovery Box evolving community

The Tapestry Discovery Box evolving community

Over the last couple years I’ve been fortunate to find such a connection in Gist Yarn. This small yarn company based in Boston is all about yarn, weaving, and making connections among people. They’re operating principles include supporting diversity and sourcing their raw materials locally.

The Tapestry Discovery Box is a collaboration I’ve been working on with Gist for the last year. The first box went live in January. The boxes include Array tapestry yarn and a new course with a project from me shipped out every quarter. . . .

We’ve had so much fun in the first two boxes. Below are some of the work the participants have been creating.

The first box was about Openings. My example tapestry was of a door and window, but people interpreted the theme in many different ways. The technique we were playing with was weft bundling. I was amazed at the different color effects people got with the very same set of yarns.

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Steaming small tapestries: Questions from The Art of Tapestry Weaving

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Steaming small tapestries: Questions from The Art of Tapestry Weaving

What do you do after your tapestry comes off the loom? There are many ways to finish a tapestry, but my favorite thing to do is steam it.

The finishing chapter in my book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving, talks about using steam as the final finishing of a tapestry (see page 265). Recently, students in a couple different online classes have asked me for a video showing how I do this, and so this blog post was born..

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Retreating to the mountains for sketch tapestry... with 11 new friends

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Retreating to the mountains for sketch tapestry... with 11 new friends

I spent last week at one of my favorite places. I haven’t been to Colorado State University’s Mountain Campus since 2019 due to Covid. It was high time I went back. I do go hiking in this area outside of Fort Collins fairly often and have seen the campus from trails above many times since 2020. It felt great to move back into a cabin and teach in the lodge.

The campus is largely used by environmental and forestry students for summer study. They also have a small conference center where I hold tapestry retreats. The property is at 9,000 feet elevation surrounded by high peaks of the Mummy Range and is just a few miles as the trail goes from the border of Rocky Mountain National Park. I love spending part of each of my teaching day wandering the trails, watching moose, birds, and other creatures in the forest and river, and seeing the stars at night.

This year’s retreat was about sketch tapestry. We wove small tapestries based on things we were either experiencing on campus or some students worked from images of other places they brought along. There was frequent laughter, many discoveries, and a lot of tapestries were woven.

Sketch tapestry free mini-course!

Sketch tapestry free mini-course!

Summer is coming. I’m sure of it mostly because it is raining and not snowing here in Colorado now. I love taking whatever time I can in the summer and heading to the mountains with my notebook and a loom. I’ve been talking about my practice of sketch tapestry on this blog for many years now. I make small tapestries about something I’ve seen or experience. 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 life. The inspirations I’ve woven something about are things that I remember months and years later.

Get the free mini-course about sketch tapestry in this blog post!

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Heaven is where yarn is made.

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Heaven is where yarn is made.

I taught at Harrisville Designs last week and had a wonderful time. I wrote more about it on the blog this week (link in bio). I haven't taught that much since my book came out in late 2020 due to Covid and it is really fun to see a copy on all the student's tables as well as all over the @harrisvilledesigns retail shop.

The workshop was called Learning to See Like a Tapestry Weaver. It was a techniques class where we looked at applying the techniques we were practicing to our weaving. Of course we could have used another few weeks and perhaps in the future I’ll pick just one technique to focus on for a bit.