Riveting drama... at less than a snail's pace

I am back at the loom, and it is a wonderful thing. The new online course, Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry, consumed most of my time for much of the last six months. Now that it is finished and I have put out a few other fires caused by inattention, I am ready to weave some tapestry.

I am fascinated to watch my own mind as I'm working. It takes me a few days to get back into it after a long absence. But once I'm hooked again, I'm really hooked.

Sarah Swett talks about the microdramas of tapestry weaving. I sort of knew what she meant when she said it, but paying attention to what keeps me engaged in the long, sometimes-tedious work tells me quite a lot about myself.

What is so interesting about the weaving of a large tapestry is not finishing the whole thing (that takes too long to keep me engaged), but the little things that happen moment to moment.

It sounds boring, but it isn't.
Is this butterfly going to run out before I finish that point?

Is this color going to work with the one next to it?

Oooo! Look how great that eccentric outline worked in that curve.

How am I going to shift the colors to the left by one grade without screwing up my hatching?
(Hint: often it involves a lot of splicing.)

It seems so silly, but the weaving is all about the process. And the process happens moment to moment. I am still amazed at the excitement I feel when I realize that the third dye run was worth it and the colors are perfect. Or how I can hardly wait to start a new design element and see how it is really going to look in the piece.

My progress is slower than your average snail crawls. On a great day I am rocketing ahead on the 24 inch-wide piece at about a half an inch an hour. And that is fast. A snail can move 55 yards per hour (clearly a non-metric system snail). That is 1980 inches per hour. So I suppose that means the snail is about 4000% faster than I am.

Good to know.

Rest

I am not good at it. Rest that is.
I have struggled for the last week with the need to give myself a break. But it isn't easy. Why is that? Resting should be the thing we're best at.

I finished the Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry online course and it opened October 5th. It took me about a year to make it and I can't set it aside now.

Since pushing the button that made the course live to The World, this is what my brain has been doing:
"You wanted to change that part of that video." 
"That technique would be better explained by ordering it this way." 
"Really? The orange shirt for that video?"
"You spent too much time making those yarn cards. Who wants yarn cards?"
"You did an awesome job! ... do you think people will still want to take this class online even though you teach it in workshops all the time?"  [Heck yeah!]

My brain won't stop.
So I did some spinning last week for Spinzilla. I made some lovely yarn that I am going to knit into something wearable. Today I rode my bike to yoga class. It was 80 degrees and the yellow leaves vibrated against the blue sky in that wonderful it-is-fall-in-the-Rockies way. The leaves fell in my lap as I rode home and I felt the tightness inside loosening just a little bit.

And now I'm looking for some organization. I am not a tidy person. I think more tidiness would serve me well. I like to have things where I can see them. It helps my creative process to have ALL the yarn I'm using for a large tapestry where I can see it. But this is also true with all my other projects from business accounting to color theory research to designing new work. And since my space is small, pretty soon I have to face the facts. I have to clean up.

So the rest of this week I am organizing. And when I'm not doing that, I will be weaving.
Oh the bliss of returning to the loom after far too much time at the computer.


Here is some of the the merino yarn I spun last week.


The good news today is that two of my tapestries were accepted into the juried 2015 Handweavers Guild of Boulder showcase. You can see them November 4-8 at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. (Which is actually in Longmont!) These pieces are two of my favorites and they are both for sale. So if you need a lovely tapestry for your home, this is your chance.

The fleecy possibilities

If you read my blog, you could hardly have missed my recent spinning addiction. To be honest, spinning represents fantastic possibilities for color use in tapestry. But more than that, I have learned about yarn. Spinners know about yarn. They make it. They understand sheep and staple length and crimp and grist. I am fascinated. And what makes it even better is the great possibilities spinning holds for making tapestry yarn. Yep. Making the exact yarn I want is my goal. It may take me decades to get there though.

In the pursuit of this goal, I joined a Spinzilla team. If you haven't heard of Spinzilla, it is a contest of sorts where teams compete for the most yards spun in one week. I am on Team Shuttles, the team from Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder, CO. There are some great spinners on this team and I gave up even thinking I could keep up with them at about hour 12.

This is what I thought I might spin this week...


And this is what I have spun so far...
I'm partway through the second 4 ounces of that gray on the left and I hope to finish it tonight. It is Thursday. Spinzilla ends Sunday at midnight.

I now know I am not going to be able to spin my way through that stash. Fortunately it means I'll have plenty to spin the rest of the year... when I'm not weaving.
Because it is time to get back to the loom.

Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry is ready!

My newest adventure in online teaching is ready. I tell you that with a great sense of relief and just a little bit of angst. You see, I love making courses and I had about four million more ideas for this one. But at some point, it is enough.

Here is the brief outline of what the course contains. You can find out more on THIS page of my website. I will be shooting trailer videos in the next few weeks as well as making my website easier to navigate. In the meantime, if you have questions, please contact me! I recommend taking the entire course either in the version that I teach or the self-directed one. But if you are only interested in one or two of the sections, you can take them separately.

  • Color Theory Basics and Weft Yarn Choices: A basic introduction to color theory and a discussion of weft yarns available for tapestry.
  • Irregular Hatching: I covered this in my Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry course. I go into more depth in this course including using hatching for shading and form creation.
  • Hachure: This traditional tapestry technique was used a great deal in historic European tapestries and is still used by many people today. This class also offers tips on how to make straight lines and shallow curves smoother and how to start to minimize steps in your work.
  • Transparency Effects: This class talks about using regular hatching and weft bundling to create the illusion of transparency. Weft bundling is also an important concept for all color use in tapestry.
  • Pick and Pick: This fun technique was taught in Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry. In this class we take it farther and look at using pick and pick in shapes and for blending colors vertically.
  • Vertical Gradation: This class will show you how to make smooth color shifts up your warp. We will also talk more about using value and hue in color grading and grading with stripes and demi-duite. This is a great companion class to Transparency Effects as we continue the conversation about value and weft bundling.
You can take the course in three different ways.

(1) The complete course. This includes all six parts as well as extra bonuses and a section at the end for feedback on design and practice projects. You can ask as many questions about the course material as you'd like and I'll just keep answering! This way of taking the course is also the least expensive for the most learning. The button on the Pathwright site looks like this:

(2) Self-directed. If you are the kind of person who knows they won't need to ask me questions about the material or get feedback on your progress, this is probably the course for you. It contains all the material of the complete course without teaching from me. The button on the Pathwright site looks like this:


(3) Each of the six parts separately. If you aren't interested in certain topics, you can take any of the six parts alone. They are numbered 1-6 in the Pathwright program and the first module's button looks like this:


If you click the registration link below, it will take you to the Pathwright course site. From the catalog you can browse each of the classes and see a complete list of the videos and materials included in each module.

There are FAQs about my courses on my website HERE.
There are reviews from past and present students HERE.
And the comprehensive information sheet about this course, Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry, is HERE.

I enjoyed making this course a great deal. I am glad it is completed so I can get back to the studio. However I am sure I will soon be watching for the wonderful things those of you who join me on this tapestry exploration will create. You haven't let me down yet! (see some past student's work HERE)

The course is open for registration. It doesn't have start dates and you can take as long as you want to finish it and ask questions. What could be better? Maybe the fact that you can weave in your pajamas and none of us will even know.

Have at it!
(I'm off for a bit of spinning if you don't mind... Spinzilla started at midnight!)

One tip to help navigate the registration site. Look to the left and there is a menu. If you're looking for the Color Gradation Techniques class options, click that text and it will filter out all my other courses.

Click here to register!

Here is the trailer for the course:
As always, if you receive this blog post via email, you won't see the video here. Please visit this post on my blog HERE to see it.

Randomly on a Sunday...

I spent the evening drinking tea while sitting in my front yard slumped low in a lawn chair so the car would block the street light. Why? Supermoon eclipse. It was lovely.

If you live on the front range of Colorado, you can hardly have missed the fact that this year is the 100th anniversary of Rocky Mountain National Park. Last weekend I went against the very strict rule I have not to visit RMNP on a weekend between May and October... I was right. It was packed. But we did find a trail with few users and saw a nice herd of elk to boost. The Hokett loom came along for a little weaving fun.
Weaving in the "shadow" of Long's Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park
I received this lovely yarn from Weaving Southwest in Arroyo Seco, NM this week. I wanted to try their new tapestry singles. I was shocked at how beautiful it is. Some of you are going to jump right on this yarn. They make it in beautiful gradations, all hand-dyed. I can't wait to try this out. I really can't imagine switching the yarn I use at this point, but I do like playing with other options... just playing the field a little (plug your ears Harrisville).

I bought it because I've been working on these Tapestry Yarn Cards for the new online class (Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry which will be open for registration October 5th). Nothing like spending a day hooking yarn onto cards! A big thanks to my friend Ute for helping me.
Just to be clear, the cards don't come with the class. They can be ordered.
And I'm wrapping up the last few videos for Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry. I think it is going to be great if I do say so myself.
Teal gradation from the back--part of the Vertical Gradation module
The class goes up October 5th, fortuitously (for me) the day that Spinzilla starts. I had the good fortune of joining Team Shuttles. (They're hoping this newbie will pick up speed and make some yardage I'm sure.) I am sure this is only a small portion of the fiber we will spin that week. My only real goal is to become a better spinner, though I'd like to pass the mile mark.
Spinzilla's Team Shuttles
And lastly, I am afraid fall is here...
... and there is little time left for this.
It is always hard for me to see the end of hiking season. And by "hiking" I really mean backpacking. I'm just not a winter camper. Nope, it is day hikes and snowshoes from here until the snow melts most likely... though I'll keep my fingers crossed for a really warm spot in October which might allow me one more fling in the mountains. 

Though maybe, just maybe I could become a winter camper... I just need some new gear, right? And perhaps a snow course. And an avalanche beacon. I think I just talked myself out of it.

And then the sheep told me... spinning for tapestry (Okay, maybe it was Maggie)

I am becoming a spinner. I resisted spinning for years even though I bought a spinning wheel in 2010 to ply my tapestry singles on. I resisted because I was afraid I would get hooked and there is only so much time in a day. Tapestry is slow going and when would I have time to spin? Also, I didn't see the relationship between spinning and tapestry weaving.

Now I have to give myself a little dope slap when I remember that. I have learned so much about yarn characteristics in the last 6 months. And all of this is directly relevant to my art work which is made with, what?

Yarn.

Which comes from where?

Sheep.

Which is made into yarn how?

Spinning.

So imagine my joy upon seeing an email from Kate Larson in my inbox asking if I'd be okay with a blog post about my recent handspun tapestry project on the Interweave Spinning Daily blog.

Here it is! (Well, you have to click the link below to see it...)

http://www.spinningdaily.com/blogs/connection/archive/2015/09/23/handspun-for-tapestry-weaving.aspx




Warp it up! Monday is the day.


Tomorrow, September 14th, is another course start for me. I love those days. I have had people signing up for a few months with questions here and there. But this week is the week I really get to meet the new group of students. I am always astounded by the diversity of participants from all areas of the USA and all over the world.

This class is Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry. It is a beginning-level tapestry techniques course meant for people who have never woven anything before. But I have found that a huge percentage of my students are people who have woven a fair bit of tapestry. They just never felt comfortable with what they learned in books and didn't have the extended experience of learning from one teacher to cement the concepts. That is what this course aims to do. I present the fundamentals of weaving tapestry and then I let you ask me all the questions you want. There are videos of me teaching and accompanying handouts about each technique. There are also resources to other tapestry traditions including videos of other tapestry weavers working. But the key to the whole thing is that you get to work on the material over a long period of time at a pace that works for you. You can take as long as you want actually, though it takes most people 3-6 months to complete the course working a few hours a week.

So tomorrow at noon EST, the course content opens. The first few weeks for me tend to be all about looms and yarn choices and the struggle of warping appropriately for tapestry. The frustration of getting that first header correct is pretty universal, but everyone gets it. Eventually (and sometimes it takes two tries) everyone gets it.

If you're interested in the course, there are still openings. You can start with the All-Three-In-One version that has all the material in one large course, or you can take it in three parts. There is also a self-directed version which costs a fair bit less but doesn't come with any help from me. I will take registrations at any time, but starting with the group is a lot of fun!

More information is available on my website here: http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/online-learning/
There are reviews here: http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/reviews/
And an in-depth look at the course here: http://www.rebeccamezoff.com/warp-and-weft-learning-the-structure-of-tapestry

I revel in the challenges of teaching online. I have learned so much! Just this weekend I was emailing two different students in the UK and the Netherlands to locate weft yarn sources for them. Who knew I would be so interested in what tapestry yarns you can buy in London? (or Delft, or Bangkok, or Christchurch, or Texas for that matter?)

With gratitude for all the wonders brought to me from tapestry people all over the world,
Rebecca

Here are a few photos of past student work, both samplers and practice pieces. Enjoy!
Front and back of the same sampler.
I weave from the back but encourage you to weave the way that works best for you.
Curves and angles
Work from Part 2 of the course
I love this final practice piece.
More curves
Practice with hatching and joins. Great color work also!
I love these stripes. One could weave just stripes for the rest of your life and never grow tired I think.
Another practice piece with many different techniques.
Why yes you CAN use a floor loom for this course.
This is the countermarche loom of a student from Germany.
You'll learn how troubleshoot problems such as these waves. Other common problems are uneven warp spacing, tension issues, uneven selvedges, and difficulties keeping your butterflies in the correct sheds.

Join us!