Blog
I have been enchanted by the tapestry of Sarah Swett for a long time now. And if you've ever met Sarah, you'll have to agree with me that she is pretty enchanting herself.
I was able to go see her new show at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum in La Conner, Washington last week. This is most likely the last time she'll be exhibiting her Rough Copy series all together and absolutely it is a sight not to be missed.
Today is the third anniversary of my signature online tapestry course, Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry. The launching of this course was my first step away from my career as a healthcare provider. Sure I had been working as a tapestry teacher and artist for many years prior, but I always paid the bills with my therapist income. Three years ago I took the plunge when I pushed PUBLISH on this course and though it has at times been uncertain, I have never regretted taking the leap.
At the end of my time at Hambidge I was able to take a day to visit Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Tommye Scanlin and Bhakti Ziek are two amazing masters of fiber art. Tommye is a tapestry artist and has been a big inspiration and mentor for me over the last half-decade. Bhakti has also become a mentor in a wide variety of ways. She is the master of jacquard weaving but also has a vast knowledge of weaving and weave structures.
The two of them are teaching an 8-week concentration in textiles at Penland. They have 12 motivated students who are working on everything from tapestry to complicated weave structures to overshot to indigo dyeing. I was quite impressed by the variety of projects these students are working on.
My first blog post was April 20, 2008. Somehow it has been nine years of blogging. My first post was about a tapestry called This Time I Dance which was purchased by a friend of a friend.
The blog has evolved a lot over the last nine years. It has absolutely been the driver for my career as a fiber arts educator and I am so grateful to all of my faithful readers. Some of you have been around for that entire nine years--and I don't just mean my parents! (but thanks for reading Mom and Dad).
(Hint: Read full post for discount code for Little Looms online course!)
I love long-distance hiking fiercely and unapologetically.
I love long-distance hiking (backpacking to many of you) with the same engrossing focus that I love tapestry weaving. I think both activities bring my brain to a similar place where worry falls away and creativity slowly spins out bit by bit. Something happens and I find myself completely invested in the activity, just waiting to see what comes next. When I'm weaving, there is this little voice that is always wondering, what will happen here? What will this color do? What if I move this sequence over by one warp? And though that sounds completely boring, in the moment I am absolutely engaged.
After finishing the big design at Hambidge, I moved on to some small weaving projects. Of course I wasn't able to bring a big loom to this residency, so I worked on my galvanized pipe loom, a Mirrix, and a Hokett loom.
One of the things I wanted to work out was how to do a four-selvedge weaving that was shaped. Of course you can use a home-made pin loom to do this, but I don't like weaving that way as you don't have a shed. I wanted to use the method that I learned from Sarah Swett using a jig.
