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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.
I spend a lot of time on my computer. My business is all about tapestry weaving, but much of the work is done online, primarily teaching. I think I was born to be a teacher. I remember as kids my sister and I had a double-sided A-frame chalkboard and we'd play school with our friends and sometimes, I'd play with my stuffed animals if the real kids were tired of being "taught."
. . . .
The problem with spending so much time interacting with people online online is that it sets up an expectation for myself that is unrealistic. I have created a screen persona that doesn't always mesh with who the flesh-and-blood Rebecca is. In an online business, you have to use images, video, and text to sell yourself and so you strive to present a picture of who you are that isn't completely accurate. Of course I don't admit the things I really screwed up most of the time. I hope, as we all do, that people won't notice I made a mistake and they'll remember all the good work I did.
I get inspiration for my artwork from many places. You never know when the carpet you're sitting on in the middle of the night at Dallas/Fort Worth International will start you sketching something that could become a tapestry. But a very direct source of inspiration this week was Jilly Edward's new book, Joy: Yellow is the New Blue.
This is the sort of book that makes me run to my sketchbooks, paint, and yarns in excitement. It includes essays by June Hill (curator), Jessica Hemmings (Professor of Crafts & Vice Prefekt of Research, University of Gothenburg), and Jilly herself. I especially appreciated Jennifer Harris's essay near the back of the book about tapestry as a contemporary medium.
Jilly is a tapestry artistweaver from the U.K. Her book is 200 pages of inspiring photos, musings, and poetry. And it is presented in such a gorgeous way. The book is sewn (with yellow thread!) so that it lays flat and it is printed on matte paper that is perfect for her weavings.
