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Warp and weft: a cooperative relationship in tapestry weaving

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Warp and weft: a cooperative relationship in tapestry weaving

In tapestry weaving, the relationship between warp and weft is an important one. How to reach a happy consensus between these two elements of your piece is not immediately obvious.

These questions might sound familiar:

What warp should I use? How do I even decide with all those numbers?
Why is my warp showing?
Why does this weft yarn look so bad woven when it is so pretty in the skein?
Why is my fabric so loose?

The warp has a big job. Warp is the ground of your piece. It is the tightly-held strings upon which your image is built. The warp is completely covered in traditional tapestry weaving, yet it is the necessary core of the structure.

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Designing for tapestry

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Designing for tapestry

There are as many ways to design for tapestry as there are tapestry weavers. Everyone has to find their own way. But over the last couple years I have employed one particular technique that I find shakes my brain loose and helps me conquer the fear that comes up when designing large pieces.

I start small. I don't have any fear at all about making something that is only a few inches square. The warp goes on quickly and whatever comes out of it, I'll have gotten in some practice and learned something about color and design.

The video below talks about this process and even shows me weaving one of these small pieces.

"Physically and metaphorically, we both weave in our ends."

"Physically and metaphorically, we both weave in our ends."

James Koehler was my mentor. I was his student and apprentice for about six years before he died unexpectedly on March 4th, 2011. 

I like to remember James on the anniversary of his death each year. And this year I think he would be pleased that I was able to celebrate his life with a mutual friend and someone who has been a mentor to me since he passed. Sarah Swett is an artist full of the joy and mystery of creation. And she takes that love of life and fiber right into her work and her writing.

Sarah wrote the forward to James' book, Woven Color. Though the imagery in their tapestry work is very different, there are many similarities in their approach to weaving. As Sarah says in her forward, they both experienced early adulthoods spent in isolation. James was a monk and Sarah worked alone in the Idaho wilderness as a forest ranger and caretaker... "experiences which forged lives of self-discipline, honed inner resources, and influenced, in one way or another, our subsequent work. Physically and metaphorically, we both weave in our ends."

The pressure was too much

The pressure was too much

I woke up one day a few weeks ago and realized that all the pressure comes from me. 

To be honest, I didn't just realize this. I've known it for a long time and some wise people have reinforced it lately. I put an immense amount of pressure on myself to run a successful tapestry studio. And that needle of where "success" is keeps moving every time I get there.

That isn't healthy for me or anyone else.

So I'm taking a step back on a few things this year. Yes, I still have lofty goals, but I'm giving myself a little more time to accomplish them. I know that you all want things from me like an online dye class and a video index. Those things are in process in some fashion. But they aren't going to be done tomorrow because there is only one of me and I forget that frequently.

Finding community in the alley between the dumpsters

Finding community in the alley between the dumpsters

I woke up this morning muttering, "I'm dying," and feeling much like Cameron in THIS scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In the movie, Ferris replies to his friend via telephone, "You're not dying, you just can't think of anything good to do."

Of course what I meant was, "I'm dyeing." And also, "I'm SO over it!"

. . . 

It is so easy to focus on the negative things in life. I think this is a tough human trait to overcome. I've been taking steps lately to shift my responses to events and especially to my own thoughts. To do this requires being aware of my thoughts in the first place. I've toyed with meditation in the broader sphere of yoga practice for decades, but this is the first time I've been able to stick with a committed practice for many months in a row. I attribute that to support from a community. 

About six months ago I was exiting the back side of a parking garage in downtown Fort Collins and I stopped dead in my tracks.

I agreed to weave 81 square feet of tapestry. Commissions and how they work.

I agreed to weave 81 square feet of tapestry. Commissions and how they work.

The question of whether I'm nuts or not might occur to many of you, but I'd appreciate it if you'd just think of me as a little bit driven. I did indeed contract to weave a very large tapestry this year. Actually, it has been in the works for almost a year now and I'm finally getting to the actual process of weaving. 

How does the commission process work?

Artists handle commissions in different ways, but this is how I've done it thus far.

Someone contacts me and wants me to weave something for them. (Yay!!! Happy Dance!! Someone loves my work!)

A tapestry weaver's signature technique

A tapestry weaver's signature technique

There are many tapestry weavers who make work that is very recognizable. Most of us have a style we work in for awhile as we explore an idea and some weavers use a particular way of filling space that helps identify the work as theirs.

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There are endless examples of this sort of thing. As you look at tapestries, think about what devices the weaver is using to express themselves and which of those are particularly weaverly in form.