Tapestry Diary, Tapestry Weaving
Rebecca Mezoff
Practicing color: a free mini-course

Every year I run a class I call Summer of Tapestry. It revolves around a practice I’ve had for many years of bringing a small loom with me when I’m hiking or traveling and weaving something about what I experienced or saw. I call the practice sketch tapestry because my goal is to capture something interesting about the experience, not to replicate what I saw in a realistic way.

I find that the practice of really looking at something and then weaving about it makes me pay attention instead of just rushing blindly through the experience and more generally, my life. The inspirations I’ve woven something about are things that I remember months and years later.

Practicing color: a free mini-course

I'm taking a break! The mountains are calling.

I'm taking a break! The mountains are calling.

Those of you who watched the last Change the Shed or saw my newsletter last week know that I’m taking a little time away from my office. The last several years of writing a book and producing two new online courses* have taken a lot of the zing out of me and I’m ready for a long hike.

One of my favorite activities is long distance backpacking. That just means backpacking but for a long time over hundreds of miles. Backpackers call it thru-hiking if you finish a long trail. I’m going to attempt that this year, but I’m not making any promises. I’ve had a few health challenges recently and I’m not going to force my body to do anything it isn’t ready for. But I’ve been training and am feeling strong and the miles are coming easier.

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Change the Shed: Handbasket cut-off!

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Change the Shed: Handbasket cut-off!

In this week’s episode of Change the Shed, I cut off the Handbasket tapestry. I am reasonably pleased with this tapestry in large part because it was so much fun to weave! I wove much of it on Change the Shed over the last 9 months. Those of you who follow that program have seen it grow, experienced the decisions I made moment to moment, and in the live event yesterday, heard me talk about the things I might do differently as well as what I liked about it.

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Jilly Edwards: Yellows and Pinks

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Jilly Edwards: Yellows and Pinks

Jilly Edwards is an artist working in woven tapestry from the UK. She currently maintains a studio in Bristol. I was able to interview her for my online course, Design Solutions for the Artist/Weaver, Season 2 this spring. Jilly is an inspiring artist who is keen to share her knowledge and work with the rest of the tapestry world. I spoke with her for several hours and as always when I write or talk to Jilly, I felt like I’d just had a heart to heart with the dearest of friends.

Let's have a throw-out-fear day, shall we?

Let's have a throw-out-fear day, shall we?

The word fear in relation to tapestry design has come up a lot lately both in the Design Solutions course and in my own work. I’m stuck and have been for a long time. I thought I was unstuck, but still I haven’t started. There is a warp on the loom and a room full of dyed yarn waiting, but the final design decision is something I keep walking away from.

Partly I keep having new ideas. Since ideas are endless, this could mean the tapestry never gets started, so at some point I have to just settle on one of them. The rest of it is just some unfounded worry about it not being good enough!

Avoiding draw-in: keeping your selvedges straight(er)

Avoiding draw-in: keeping your selvedges straight(er)

A very common struggle among newer tapestry weavers is to keep the weaving square. This is all about weft tension or how much weft is going into your tapestry at any one time. Too much weft and the piece will get wider, too little and it’ll get narrower. I find that most students have more trouble with the tapestry getting narrower as they work. The changes can be subtle! It is easy to weave a whole piece not realizing that over the course of it you’ve drawn in a half an inch or more. The only fool-proof way I’ve found to make sure this isn’t happening is to make myself measure the width of the tapestry frequently.

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Questions from the Book: Ease of weaving and loom length

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Questions from the Book: Ease of weaving and loom length

What does loom length have to do with it?

Many of you are now working through my book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving, and I’ve been answering some of your questions here on the blog. One recent question from Zach was about how much warp you need to leave for various finishing techniques on the Mirrix Saffron loom. This question got me thinking about loom length and the video below was the result.

Loom length is something that I don’t hear tapestry instructors talking about a lot. Those of us who have been weaving for a long time intuitively understand the limitations of a short warp. But for new weavers, it isn’t something you’d automatically think about.