The magic of colored yarn

The magic of colored yarn

I love yarn in a fairly fierce way. I think some of that attraction to this material has to do with the deep nature of color expressed in yarn. Wool yarn especially takes dye in a beautiful, rich way. Wool being the primary material in my tapestries means that I get to use this gratifying material in all my work.

The second season of the Design Solutions course launched this month* and the first module has information on using warm and cool contrast in design. I had a lot of fun playing with these concepts as I put the course together and one of the last things I did for the first module was weave two tiny Fringeless tapestries. One was in warm colors, one in cool colors. I just wanted to see what the same sort of design looked like when woven in warm and cool colors.

Season 2 of Design Solutions for the Artist/Weaver

Season 2 of Design Solutions for the Artist/Weaver

Last year I started an online course about designing for tapestry weaving. This is a subject that I find students frequently struggle with and there are many things about design that are particular to tapestry weaving’s techniques, tools, and materials.

We had a great deal of fun last year in Season 1. Season 2 of the course is about to start. The class is now open for registration with more information on my website here: https://rebeccamezoff.com/design-solutions-season-2

The course content opens on Monday, January 11th and you’ll want to register soon to maximize your time with Module 1’s material before registration closes the end of the month.

The video below is a short look at what you’ll see in the course.

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What do you need to get started with tapestry weaving?

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What do you need to get started with tapestry weaving?

Tapestry weaving can seem like a pursuit that requires A LOT. A lot of equipment, materials, and knowledge.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Weaving tapestry can be quite simple and your materials and equipment do not have to be complicated. If you want to learn tapestry weaving, below are some suggestions for how to get started. There are also many resources for people already deep into the tapestry experience, but this post is for people who are pretty new to tapestry weaving.

At the end of the post is an actual list you might use to shop with.

Making hue and value decisions as I weave

Making hue and value decisions as I weave

Those of you who have been following me on Change the Shed on YouTube since March have seen first hand how I make decisions as I’m weaving. For me, many of my tapestry design decisions are made before I start the weaving. But often color choices aren’t really clear until the tapestry is underway. In a small piece I am unlikely to weave a sample, so I am experimenting while working on the actual tapestry.

In the December 9th episode of Change the Shed I was struggling with a value choice that I didn’t trial before I turned the camera on that morning. After briefly considering (silently) how embarrassed I was going to be when I made live “errors” to a fairly wide audience, I decided that letting it play out on camera was just fine with me.

Keep up the wonder

Keep up the wonder

Curiosity.

Is it the key? To everything?

As an annoyingly persistent optimist, I am feeling a little blue of late. It isn’t new, it comes and goes, and I blame it on 2020 entirely. It is hard to watch this pandemic flatten my country when we could have managed it so much better. It is hard to see people dying when they didn’t have to. And there is a lot of fear in the unknown future. I do feel a measure of hope (that is the persistent part of the optimist in me), but some days I need a little reminder.

Fyber Monday: All tapestry classes on sale

Fyber Monday: All tapestry classes on sale

The Monday after Thanksgiving in the USA is often called “Cyber Monday.” It is a day created by marketers to get you to buy online products. I hardly think we need days devoted to convincing us to buy more stuff, but I do value education. And since my online courses are digital programs and it fits with the Cyber Monday theme, I have chosen it as the one day a year I have a sale.* Fyber Monday of course being a play on “Cyber Monday.”

This year I’m offering all my current classes for sale.** Each of these codes will only work once, but you could get three classes during this sale! Choose Design Solutions, Season 1, Fringeless: Four-selvedge warping, and any third class you want.

Fiber books: a brief look at my favorites so far this year

Fiber books: a brief look at my favorites so far this year

In the northern hemisphere, winter is bearing down on us. With COVID and colder weather keeping us home, I am digging through my “to be read” shelves and making stacks around my favorite reading spot.* I thought you might like a few possibilities for your own favorite reading spot so I’ve listed some of my current favorites below. These are fiber-related books but I definitely have a good mix of other types in my stack. These books are also all more process-oriented. I have some history-of-fiber or tapestry books queued up to talk about soon.^