There is no bowl....

Saturday, Tapestry Weavers South met at the Yadkin Valley Fiber Room.  This is a wonderful venue for all things fiber.

Leslie Fesperman has created something really special here, with looms, fiber, yarn and more.  We did some Kool-Aid dyeing in the backroom.

The Yadkin Valley Art Center hosted the TWS exhibit.  It was such a pleasure to see the exhibit again with many of the weavers available to talk about their work.

Laurie O'Neill

Labyrinth at Healing Grounds

Linda Weghorst

Ghana Mama

April Price

Detail of Maniessier's Port de Nord

Leslie Fesperman

Alice

Barbara Gilmore

My Blue Bowl

I asked Barbara about this piece which was one of my favorites.  Specifically I asked about the bowl that inspired the tapestry and what it looked like.  She laughed and explained there was no bowl.

A group shot of the weavers of Tapestry Weavers South behind Holly's wonderful three dimensional tapestry blocks.

We also had show and tell.

It was a great meeting and I left inspired to get to work.

Little Booboos and Big Lessons

I am working on a small tapestry sampler, loosely following the Joanne Mattera's book Navajo Techniques for Today's Weaver.  This was published in 1975 and has really good diagrams and explanations.  I have actually attempted this twice before.

There were some issues with the color.  I bought some single ply naturally dyed churro. I  thought it would be perfect but the colors were too muted.  Blah.

I tried again with some random yarns from an estate sale of a talented tapestry weaver.  Maybe a little of Martha's magic would be present.

Much better contrast as evidenced by the black and white photo below.  This is a tip learned from Tommye Scanlon.  During the class in Raleigh she had us use our phones to take pictures of yarn we were choosing for tapestry.

Very basic design concepts like value, contrast and hue are not easily understood by me.  This visual helps.

I played with meet and separate, slits, shading, wedge weave and lazy lines.  But wait...

Do you see it?  As I built the areas up separately for eccentric weft I lost track of my "overs and unders".  The two adjacent warp threads in the aqua and purple are going through the same shed.

No worries this is a play learning warp and I am going to keep playing and learning.

Tapestry Weavers South

Dear hubs and I travelled to the Yadkin Arts Council to see the Tapestry Weavers South show.

This is a three dimensional piece titled On the Trail by Nancy Garretson.

These beauties capture your eye as soon as you enter the gallery.

The Kite

A wonderful work by April Price.

This piece is by Tommye Scanlon, I love the way she captures the beauty of the flowers and leaves.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show.  I carefully looked at each piece and wished the artists were there to talk about their inspiration, design process and techniques.  My apologies to the artists and works I could not identify.  I carefully took pictures of all the information cards but they were unreadable.  It was an inspiring show and I went home and planned my next sampler.

Tapestry, Ikat and Inspiration

The three day tapestry workshop is over, so thankful to have had this opportunity to learn from Tommye.  Today, at lunch this was the state of my tapestry.

I learned so much.  One of the problems with telling yourself you have no drawing or artistic ability at a very early age is you are never exposed to basic concepts.  Tommye took us through basics on color and how to judge light, medium and dark values.   She also covered basic design elements and principles.  Tommye does a tapestry diary every year.  Below is 2015.

It is hard to see the beauty of this in a photo.  Tommye is inspired by the things in her landscape in Georgia, black walnuts, pecans, gingko leaves and many more.

This is Mary Kirchner.  She was the class organizer and assistant.  Mary is also a  talented   artist weaver with a studio in Artspace.  Below are some shots of her  work.

Mary specializes in ikat.



Mary's ikat board with dyeing work in progress.  The yellow you see is a section of yarn taped off so it will not absorb any dye.

The yarns are dyed and numbered to be woven in a sequence to achieve outstanding and dramatic results.

Getting Schooled!

Tomorrow is my last day of a three day tapestry class with Tommye Scanlon.  It has been a delight, such a wonderful opportunity to focus on something I love.  The class is being held at Artspace.  It is such an inspiring place, being surrounded by artists studios makes me believe even more in the value of "making things".

The class is intended for beginners, which definitely is appropriate for me.  Tommye brought beautiful samples of her work.

The class is a great combination of Tommye demonstrating techniques and hands on weaving.

As you can see we are working hard and trying to absorb as much as possible.  You would think three days would be a gracious plenty but it is not. The workshop has been extremely well organized.  Tommye brought looms, yarns and booklets for each of us.   Artspace is an excellent venue.

Tomorrow a post on an inspiring tapestry artist and her studio and the ATA juried small format show.

Focusing on Tapestry

I became intrigued with tapestry after seeing the work of one of my guild members. 
It was a small tapestry of a black cat walking away down a path.  It was striking and memorable.  I did a few samplers and looked unsuccessfully for local workshops.

On Ravelry there is a tapestry weavers group and much discussion about an online tapestry weaving class.  Rebecca Mezoff has a variety of classes and I have jumped in with both feet.

 

I love the way Rebecca has structured these classes.  There are videos, handouts and instructor feedback.  Above is the very beginning of my class sampler for the Part One class.  You are actually seeing the back as I am weaving from the back.  Rebecca weaves from the back and splices her ends as she weaves.  This results in a very flat tapestry with a very clean back.

This is my tapestry thus far, see how neat the back looks.  This is a sampler with each section demonstrating a different technique.  After reading the handouts and watching the videos you weave a section.  In order to complete each skill you post a picture for Rebecca's evaluation.

I am using my 12inch Mirrix tapestry loom warped at 8 ends per inch.  The warp is 12/6 seine twine and the weft is Harrisville Highlands 2 ply yarn that I dyed with Greener Shades.  I am enjoying learning these new skills and very surprised at how well this online format works for me.

 



 

Throughout my life I have always believed I cannot draw.  It is true, I can't.  However, all these wonderful ideas for future tapestry are rolling around in my brain and I need them on paper. So I splurged and spent all of $6.99 on a visual journal kit to try my hand at  sketching and water colors.  What have you told yourself you couldn't do?