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How tight should my warp be?

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How tight should my warp be?

I am frequently asked this question by readers of my book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving, and by students in my online classes. The best way to really know how tight the warp should be is to feel the warps of experienced tapestry weavers. But if you aren’t able to come to an in-person workshop or retreat any time soon, the video and discussion below will help you figure out what the right warp tension is for you.

When I got my first Mirrix loom I was thrilled with how tight I could make the tension. The looms come with a little wrench that you can use to tighten the wing nuts beyond what you can do with just your hands. I use a cotton seine twine warp which is very strong and can take a huge amount of tension. So I’d tighten that Mirrix warp very very tight. It was far tighter than I can get the tension on my beefy rug loom.

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Dwella is here along with a new online course, Introduction to rug weaving

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Dwella is here along with a new online course, Introduction to rug weaving

Many years ago I wove rugs on my shafted floor looms. I first bought rug yarn from Halcyon and then when I moved back home to New Mexico, I used rug yarn from Clasgens and then churro rug yarn which is particularly wonderful. I love how quickly rug-weight textiles weave up and how suited they are to tapestry techniques.

When I became the apprentice of James Koehler, I left rug weaving behind and focused on wall tapestries. But it is true that the very same techniques I use for my art tapestries can be used to make more functional rug-weight textiles. Of course rugs can also be hung on the wall and often are!*

Wedge weaving with Array: Indiana and a little loom (plus a bonus dog story)

Wedge weaving with Array: Indiana and a little loom (plus a bonus dog story)

In July I took a road trip.

To Indiana.

It wasn’t really planned but an opportunity came up for my wife and we decided to drive. I admit that I wasn’t looking forward to the part of the drive between the last of the Colorado Rockies and our friend’s swimming pool,* but it turned out to be just fine! Nebraska and Iowa are surprisingly beautiful and I had some fun with my little loom along the way.

When is it time to admit you're not going to finish something?

When is it time to admit you're not going to finish something?

I started a four-selvedge tapestry with the word Notice in it sometime long enough ago that I can’t place the circumstances… but fortunately I know I wove it on Change the Shed and I have a whole archive of them with thumbnails to help me find what I was weaving in any particular episode. If you want to find something interesting to watch, you can access those archives HERE.

The copper pipe loom has been hiding under my Harrisville rug loom for awhile now. Seeing the current state of my studio, you can understand why it has gone unnoticed for some time.

Natural Dyeing on Bluebird Days

Natural Dyeing on Bluebird Days

I’ve spent the last three Mondays taking a natural dye class at Bluebird Dye Gardens with Laurie Hall. The class was specifically about shibori and we practiced various forms of it. It was wildly fun and I’d do the whole thing over in a heartbeat. We spent some time in her huge dye garden to get a feel for the work that goes into producing those marvelous dye plants. It also just gave us a moment to get our hands in the dirt. Laurie grows a wide variety of flowers and has a healthy madder bed.

If it isn’t obvious, I think it is definitely true that natural dyeing is far more complicated than the synthetic dyeing I do in my work. There are so many details with natural dyeing and things change with every plant and fiber being dyed. This post is full of pictures and I don’t even know all the names of the dye plants much less the details about the chemistry.

The Mirrix bottom spring

The Mirrix bottom spring

How many years have we been using Mirrix looms now? For me it has been at least 15 and for some of you it has been much longer! A classic Mirrix loom is a really fancy pipe loom. These looms are sturdy and they hold as tight a tension as you want them to. They have a shedding device and you can swap out the spacing spring at the top of the loom to help you create different setts easily.

Did you know you can replace the bottom spring in an active warp when you start a new tapestry?

Ack!! My sheds are wrong AGAIN! What am I doing wrong?

Ack!! My sheds are wrong AGAIN! What am I doing wrong?

The good news is that you’re not doing anything wrong!

“My sheds are all messed up again! What am I doing wrong?!”

Does that sound familiar? The good news is that you’re not doing anything wrong! Shedding problems in tapestry weaving will always happen. Isn’t that a relief to know?

The other good news is that there are a handful of ways to fix shedding problems and once you understand what those are and when to use them, you can fix your shedding problems quickly and easily. Because the not as good news is, they’ll ALWAYS happen. There is no way you can plan your way out of shedding issues for an entire tapestry, so let’s just start by accepting that they will happen and that we have to know how to fix them.