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

Weaving shapes versus weaving line-by-line

Weaving shapes versus weaving line-by-line

Some of you will be surprised that tapestry weavers weave a line at a time at all! There are reasons to weave this way and I spend a fair amount of my own weaving time using this method.

How do you know whether you should weave a shape at a time or line by line? There are reasons for both and the truth is that you’re probably going to use both methods depending on your design and the equipment you’re using.

This is the topic of the Tapestry Discovery Box which opened on October 15th. The box is a collaboration between myself and Gist Yarn. Gist produces a lovely tapestry yarn called Array and every quarter they’ll send you 7 new colors of this yarn chosen by me along with access to an online course which uses the yarns to address a few tapestry techniques.

Guide to a well-behaved dog. Puppy assistance.

Guide to a well-behaved dog. Puppy assistance.

Moving is no picnic. Granted, if I owned fewer things it would be easier at least physically. But beyond the packing and unpacking there is the reorientation. All the things I got used to over 9 years in Fort Collins have to be figured out in a new rural environment.

Every box that had space in it got filled with yarn. This seemed like a brilliant idea when I was packing, but when unpacking I’ve ended up with boxes of yarn used for packing which belongs in a handful of different places, all of which are already full of yarn. I opened the box containing the video head for my tripod when setting up for Change the Shed this week, and like all the other boxes, there was yarn inside. Look at that! Who puts an overdyed churro in with Shetland and what looks like a mini-skein of Highland plus there is a ball of Harrisville Koehler singles tucked in there as well? Yarn does make a good packing material and so far I’ve found nothing broken, so there is that.

Read on for puppy updates!

Taos Wools Festival 2023

Taos Wools Festival 2023

I had a wonderful time in Taos last week. The three-day Tapestry in Taos workshop focused on using churro yarn hand-dyed by Taos Wools to depict something about our environment there. I had a committed group of students and we enjoyed being near the center of town at Revolt Gallery.

Driving into Taos the night before the workshop, it was raining hard and then the rainbow pictured at the top of the post appeared over Taos Pueblo. It seemed a good omen for the week since we were weaving about the Taos area.

A race to the moving truck...

A race to the moving truck...

I’ve been racing to get small tapestries off looms. I said on Change the Shed that I was clearing off looms. That wasn’t a lie, but the reason I am cutting tapestries off looms is that I have to move them. It seems smarter to finish tapestries and cut them off the loom than try to protect them in progress. Thus the cutting off of five tapestries last month with one more to do.

The moving truck(s) are coming and all must be packed. We have lived in Fort Collins for over nine years now and I lived here for three years when I was here for graduate school. It is time to move away from the Front Range of Colorado. Fort Collins is a beautiful place and an easy place to live, but we’re tired of driving through the traffic of I-25 every time we want to see friends and family all of whom seem to live on the other side of the big cities.

So we’re packing up and moving on. I’ll have more details about all of it in a few weeks when the dust has settled. Packing is no picnic and the dogs seem to be perpetually worried they’re going to end up in one of the boxes. The new studio is full of sunshine and has room for me to work.

Back to Taos!!

Back to Taos!!

Taos calls me back again and again. I lived near there for most of a decade and never tired of visiting and hiking nearby. I now teach there several times a year and next week I get to go back again! I’m teaching for Taos Wools Festival which happens October 6 and 7. My class is earlier in the week (I might be able to sneak one more person in if you want to come!).

Taos Wools Festival is a brand new festival.

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It's for the birds!

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It's for the birds!

I have had two bird tapestries on the go for months now. Those of you who took Summer of Tapestry 2023* will recognize them and will also raise your eyebrows at the fact that they are not yet finished even though the live version of the class wrapped last month.

Yesterday on Change the Shed I cut off five four small tapestries from a variety of looms. I had planned on five, but the last one was not done. I wove on it some at the end of the broadcast, and you know what? Then I sat down and finished the thing and cut it off too.

This particular weaving is frenetic and WAY too busy for my taste. But it has been so fun to weave and it does fit well in the sketch tapestry spirit that the Summer of Tapestry class follows. It was woven for the process. I took photos of birds that came to my backyard feeder last spring and then I matched their colors and wove a bit about each bird. I enjoyed the time thinking about each of the birds and attempting to match their colors. The joy is in the process.

There are no tapestry police: Sarah Swett and Rebecca talk tapestry

There are no tapestry police: Sarah Swett and Rebecca talk tapestry

Sarah Swett and I had a fun time talking to all of you on YouTube as we discussed tapestry weaving, Fringeless four-selvedge warping, and not nearly enough about our dogs, though we were reminded to bring them into the mix! The recording of the chat is below and I’ve included some “show notes” below that.

Spending time with people who are deeply passionate about making, materials, and playing with ideas is invigorating to me and that is why people like Sarah are part of my world. We talked about many things mostly in the realm of tapestry weaving. We talked about the value of limitations and how important playing is to learning and growing.

Part of my mission in teaching tapestry weaving is to remind people that though this is an art tradition with a lot of history behind it, there are no tapestry police. You can make whatever artwork you want and utilize any fiber techniques you want to get there. Sarah is a fantastic idea of someone who uses the techniques of tapestry to experiment with all sorts of fiber ideas. Enjoy the chat and if you want to join the class which is full of more Sarah wisdom with some nuggets from me as well, there is a discount code in the video that is good a bit longer for 20% off.