Text Box: tapestry weaving

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Ashford LoomRed SheepFlock CartoonText Box: In the meantime, I hope that I have sparked your interest in reading more about tapestry weaving. You will find more places to learn about it on my links page.

Text Box:   The top was finished with a hem and the bottom with knotted fringe. This piece has generated a lot of interest in tapestry weaving and I take it with me when I teach classes or demonstrate so that people can see different elements and techniques of the weaving.     Now each year  I design a tapestry to weave at the fair in the Fiber Center. The theme is always sheep.   The top was finished with a hem and the bottom with knotted fringe. This piece has generated a lot of interest in tapestry weaving and I take it with me when I teach classes or demonstrate so that people can see different elements and techniques of the weaving.     Now each year  I design a tapestry to weave at the fair in the Fiber Center. The theme is always sheep.

Text Box: Once I began to weave the sheep bodies in the natural shades of wool the weaving went faster. Later I demonstrated tapestry weaving in a shop window once a week to encourage people to take a class. Soon the weaving was completed.

Text Box: Then I made the string heddles and began the weaving. I took the loom to the Fryeburg Fair to demonstrate tapestry weaving. It took most of the week to get all the sheep legs woven. Then I made the string heddles and began the weaving. I took the loom to the Fryeburg Fair to demonstrate tapestry weaving. It took most of the week to get all the sheep legs woven.

The FlockText Box: This is the second sheep tapestry in progress. I used a non-traditional yarn to weave this sheep. It is a thick and thin cotton. It posed some problems because it didn’t pack down evenly, but it did end up looking more like real fleece than if I had used a smooth wool yarn. The red yarn had a little bit of slub in it, too, but I used it because it had the little black flecks and a bit of luster that added to the overall look of the finished weaving and tied it all together.  

Text Box: pinestar studio denmark, maine

Text Box: As with most things, there are more ideas in my head than time to do them all. This piece remained on the loom for a long time because I planned to use the other end of the warp to do my first Soumak weaving.  

Text Box: Making up the design as I went along, here is a photo of the piece about half done. Sometimes I used a marker to define a shape but mostly I just played with the colors that I had selected.

Text Box: Soumak weaving involves using a half hitch which wraps each warp thread individually. It gives the appearance of having been knitted on the front side and looks like corduroy on the other side.   This was a fun piece to weave and the curl was a challenge. It is possible to build up curved shapes in a way that is very different from traditional tapestry weaving. Soumak weaving involves using a half hitch which wraps each warp thread individually. It gives the appearance of having been knitted on the front side and looks like corduroy on the other side.   This was a fun piece to weave and the curl was a challenge. It is possible to build up curved shapes in a way that is very different from traditional tapestry weaving.

Text Box: For the third sheep design I was looking for something entirely different and chose to do something that would create a new challenge for me. Using my camera I went out and photographed the tops of pine trees up and down my road. Then I came back to study how they really grew. Once I had their growth pattern in my mind I sketched out a forest and colored the shapes with crayons in dark blue and shades of green.  

Text Box: Trees? Where did the sheep come into the design? They would be fleecy white clouds in a brilliant blue sky!   The challenge was to make clouds that looked like sheep and sheep that looked like clouds!   Weaving the trees was its own challenge—how to keep the weft yarns in the right shed as the branches swept back and forth over each other. Trees? Where did the sheep come into the design? They would be fleecy white clouds in a brilliant blue sky!   The challenge was to make clouds that looked like sheep and sheep that looked like clouds!   Weaving the trees was its own challenge—how to keep the weft yarns in the right shed as the branches swept back and forth over each other.

Text Box: To give more depth and definition to the sheep clouds I wove the white yarn in blocks leaving small slits between them for shadowing. The faces, ears and horns were embroidered in satin stitch after the piece was removed from the loom. To give more depth and definition to the sheep clouds I wove the white yarn in blocks leaving small slits between them for shadowing. The faces, ears and horns were embroidered in satin stitch after the piece was removed from the loom.

Text Box: This piece was finished the day before the fair and hung on the wall of the Fiber Center that afternoon.   So what would the fourth design be, what kind of challenge?   Looking through my sheep photographs I found one of a Merino ram taken at the NY Sheep & Wool Festival a few years ago. He had such a wonderful set of curling horns and the light was shining over his shoulder creating lovely highlights along his face and back.   Although a white ram much of his fleece was in shadow . It would be interesting to translate the patterns of fleece and shadow into tapestry. The most painterly of the series so far it and the largest at 20” wide this piece will take many hours to complete.    

Text Box: Weaving is a wonderful way to use color and I find tapestry weaving to be the most personal form of weaving. Whether using a small frame loom or a larger standing loom, the warp for tapestry weaving can be wound on fairly quickly. In a short period of time you can be ready to weave.   There is no limit to design and color in tapestry weaving. You can weave  something very simple or very complex, use a few colors or many. The design can be very graphic or more painterly using multiple blended yarns.   My interest in tapestry weaving began in the 1970’s when I saw an exhibit of weaving from the Ramses Wissa Wassef Workshop in Harrania, Egypt. The colors and intricate patterns were amazing, all the more so because they were done by children.    So my dad made me a simple loom. The  “standing loom” I make now is based on that loom. I also make a “frame loom” for the classes that I teach. The largest tapestry loom on which I weave is one made by Ashford.   When I first acquired the Ashford loom I wanted to get started on a weaving right away. I looked through my box of yarns and found the kernel of an idea. Somewhere in my books and papers was a sheep design I had done for a block print years before. I had the colors for the sheep, a dark green for the grass and a blue for the sky. I warped the loom and expanded the design to fit .