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

Using an eccentric outline to shift the shed on Change the Shed

Using an eccentric outline to shift the shed on Change the Shed

I’ve been doing Change the Shed for one year and almost 10 months now. I started this free live program at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. There are now over 70 episodes and I’ve really enjoyed communicating with other tapestry weavers about what we’re working on and talking some about whatever my current project is.

The clip below was just one moment from today’s meet-up. I was explaining how I often use an eccentric outline to shift the shed when adding just one butterfly. It is a good example of the sorts of things I talk about on this program.

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Questions from the book: Headers and Finishing

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Questions from the book: Headers and Finishing

Lately I’ve seen a lot of questions in the online course and in my email from people asking about headers and finishing such as the one below from Hannah.

“I have purchased your book The Art of Tapestry Weaving and I am at the section about hemmed headers. I am at the end of my piece and am doing the header steps in reverse, but I'm not sure what to do after weaving the 1/2 inch of waste yarn. I will be grateful for your guidance. I'm truly loving the book. It's so good, thorough, and informative!” —Hannah via email

Thank you for this question Hannah. For anyone who doesn’t have The Art of Tapestry Weaving, I present two different ways to do headers in the book. There is a simple double half-hitch header that is very useful and a hemmed header which is the one I use on my large-format pieces.

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The wildflower tapestry: weaving on the big loom

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The wildflower tapestry: weaving on the big loom

I’m back to weaving on my favorite loom. I had a few ideas for tapestries while hiking the 500-mile Colorado Trail last summer and one of them is taking shape on the Harrisville Rug Loom.

In the spirit of curiosity and adventurousness that the Colorado Trail hike only strengthened, I am doing some experimenting with this tapestry. Perhaps not drastically so since the forms I like to weave are clearly present. I’m just using different materials than I usually do. It is the first time I’ve ever woven a large tapestry with yarn that I didn’t dye myself.*

For the last 15 years of my tapestry weaving career, on large tapestries I have used Harrisville Koehler Singles or Harrisville Highland dyed by me. That allows me to make the gradations I love and to make virtually any color I can think up. In this tapestry I’m using 100% commercially dyed yarns. I have found that a little shocking sometimes. For example, the photo below where I’m adding the Daffodil color on top of Indigo was one such moment. I would probably never dye this bright yellow color, but there is it. It is an experiment and I’m withholding judgement until it is all finished. If I don’t like it, the sheep are making more wool as we speak.

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What tools and materials do I need to learn tapestry weaving?

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What tools and materials do I need to learn tapestry weaving?

Learning a new art or craft can mean that you need to purchase some supplies. The hard thing is knowing what you actually need when there are so many options. Below is a list of equipment and yarns which I’ve seen be very successfully used by beginning tapestry weavers. Some people will use the same materials for their whole weaving career!

Fyber Monday! My once-a-year sale

Fyber Monday! My once-a-year sale

The Monday after Thanksgiving weekend in the USA has long been deemed “Cyber Monday.” It is a day for businesses to sell digital products. Though I care not for holiday hype, I do want to offer at least one opportunity during the holidays for people to purchase my online courses at a discount. I’ve dubbed this day Fyber Monday and all my courses are on sale.

November 29, 2021

All courses are 15% off (and yes, you can purchase more than one with the discount) with the code ExploreFyber21

For an additional bonus, Fringeless: Four-selvedge warping with Sarah C. Swett (and produced by yours truly) is 25% off with the discount code Selvedge21

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The surface of your tapestry: do those bumps matter?

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The surface of your tapestry: do those bumps matter?

What materials you use for your tapestry will, to some extent, determine how much surface variation there is in your tapestry. I’m talking about the bumps you see when the strands of weft don’t quite line up.

If you use a worsted spun wool that is fairly smooth like weaversbazaar or Gist Yarn’s Array, you’ll find that you have slight variations in the surface unless you spend a lot of time lining up the yarns in your weft bundle. I’d like to suggest that these slight surface differences are just part of this medium. One of the joys of seeing tapestry in person is that you can experience these surface details and they add to the piece in most instances.

For example, I’ve been sampling Gist Array’s yarn versus my regular Harrisville Singles for a large tapestry. The background colors in the sample are wool and silk (unbleached and white in these photos). The colored bits are the yarns I’m deciding between.