Tapestry Weaving
Rebecca Mezoff
Testing out the Duet tapestry beater from ...

It is no secret that I love my tapestry forks/beaters with metal tines. Many people make them with dog combs. The metal tines slide through the warp easily and if the handles are shaped well, they provide a nice snap for work on tapestries large or small.

Over the years I’ve purchased many tapestry forks from Magpie Woodworks, Thomas Creations (Threads Thru Time), and Timber and Twine. These are beautiful hand-crafted tools and every tapestry weaver should have at least one of these in their toolbox.

But I have had so many students who were unable to get one of these forks or had to wait many months just because when a tool is hand-made one at a time, it takes a long time to produce them and more people want them than can get them.

Testing out the Duet tapestry beater from Schacht

What a crazy week.

What a crazy week.

Well.

What a week it was!

The first week of November, 2020 is not one I will quickly forget. Not only was it perhaps the most contentious election season in American politics in my memory, but my book also launched. The launch date was supposed to be a week earlier, but due to an unfortunate delay in the book’s arrival at the warehouse from the printer a day late, the publication date was moved to November 3.

For me it was a week of extremes. The polarization in the United States is incredibly distressing to me and I found myself so often during the week of waiting for election results wondering how we were ever going to learn to listen to each other. And on the other hand, people started receiving my book and I had wonderful messages from all over the world about how much they loved it. (Believe me, that is a huge relief. If the book was a total flop after putting so many years of work into it, it would be disappointing to say the least.)

How to start over without rewarping

How to start over without rewarping

Have you ever been several inches into a tapestry and had an overwhelming feeling that it just wasn’t working out? Maybe the colors are wrong or the forms just aren’t weaving well or you’ve chosen the wrong weft materials.

What do you do if you reach a point in a tapestry where you know you just have to start over?

On one of my recent pieces for the Pandemic Diaries series, I got about 3 inches into the weaving and realized I really hated what was happening with both the forms and the colors. I am weaving this piece as a way of cheering myself up at the end of a very long year and in the middle of a difficult election season in the USA. (WHY do our election “seasons” last so long? It feels like it has been an eon since this started.) To me, the piece is funny, though in a sarcastic, wry way, being a riff on the saying, “Going to hell in a handbasket.” The border of the tapestry is supposed to represent flames and though I did cartoon the forms I would weave I did not plan the colors beyond picking out a pile of warm colors and choosing them as I went. I hated the result.

Visions of book tours? (Let's have a virtual launch.)

Visions of book tours? (Let's have a virtual launch.)

I’m pretty sure most how-to book* authors don’t go on book tours, but a gal can dream. After two solid years of writing and editing, it does seem like a book tour would be fun. I am pretty sure I would be tired of it in about a week, so perhaps it is better that I’m not the next Margaret Atwood.

Due to COVID there won’t be any in-person book events at all for the foreseeable future, but I am doing some virtual events to celebrate my book launch. The publication date is Tuesday, November 3rd. I’m hoping those of you in the USA see it as a positive event on an otherwise fraught day instead of remembering that my book dropped on Election Day 2020. Thanks for helping me with that mental restructuring. The book was supposed to be released on October 27th, but it missed the arrival date in the warehouse and got pushed back a week and I’m still having a bit of a hard time syncing my book release (a happy thing!) with Election Day (a huge unknown). There are people who are getting the book delivered early and if you’re one of the lucky ones, I hope you’re enjoying it.

A new look, a new book, and the energy the fire took...

A new look, a new book, and the energy the fire took...

About the logo! I’ve been working on a logo for my business for about a year now. Some of you saw an earlier version and I appreciate your feedback on how you thought it did or did not reflect me and my teaching style.

And the book! My answer on Tuesday about my favorite part of the book was about a piece in the Introduction called “How to be a Beginning Tapestry Weaver.” This might actually have been the seminal idea for the whole manuscript.

And a bit about the fires in Colorado at the end.

The Nature of Things by Tommye McClure Scanlin

The Nature of Things by Tommye McClure Scanlin

Tommye McClure Scanlin is an artist from North Georgia. But I might also say that she is of North Georgia. She is an artist that is firmly rooted in this place she has lived all of her life and this is the thread I feel running through her artwork. Her new book, The Nature of Things: Essays of a Tapestry Weaver, has just been released from University of North Georgia Press.

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That dedication to exploration is one of the narrative strands throughout The Nature of Things. Because developing her own designs and work is full of this nature of exploration: from her walks in the woods as she contemplates subject matter through various methods of designing including painting, drawing, dyeing, collage, and woven sampling. Seeing this process laid out repeatedly in this book as she takes us through her work in various series and about a variety of subjects, underlines the organic way she works. She pays attention to what interested her in a particular project and she works through that interest in another iteration. Hearing her talk about this and seeing the images she provides of a project as it evolves is a powerful way to communicate her artistic process and draw us into her work.