First "tapestry"

This is my first “tapestry” as I attempt to teach myself something new. I glanced at my book, ignored the first instructions and jumped in. The bottom vertical strips were the first part to be done working with 2 “shuttles.” Basically the dark color is followed by the light color, both traveling in the same direction, when it comes to returning the other way I just did a twist of one color over the other and went on my merry way. In looking closely at my selvages I didn’t really like the way it looked and when I referred to the book, I had of course not done it the “best” way or the correct way according to the book.

Now this is exactly why I did not want to produce a “sampler” -- all the techniques in one weaving  -- while learning techniques, at this point I would be so annoyed that it doesn’t look nice that I would either unweave it and start over or procrastinate and slowly (very slowly) continue. But the way I’m doing it, I can completely start over putting the “bad” one aside; I can also do another variation to practice the technique. Maybe it’s easier for me to focus on one technique per project. Having something finished – yea! victory! And then move on to the next project. I also have “cute” little weavings suitable for a doll house or maybe coasters – never underestimate the “cute” factor on the satisfaction scale.
I did like doing the angled weaving part, I’ll do more of that for practice building up some confidence for when I get the nerve to do curves and someday a circle!

What is tapestry?

For a brief moment I wondered what the official definition of tapestry was, so to “The Tapestry Handbook” by Carol K Russell came:

Tapestry is the interweaving of discontinuous weft yarns with tensioned warp yarn through two alternate sheds, resulting in a firm, weft-surface textile constructed concurrently with the description of its design. Taken as a whole, this definition identifies tapestry’s distinctive elements.

Uh huh, ok well fine… I knew my first little sample was not tapestry, but I wanted to see what weaving on the little toy loom was like. There are a lot of disadvantages, like hard to tension evenly, no shed to open, it was more like needle weaving, but I still think I can get the techniques down, and convenience factor was high – I could carry it anywhere.


“discontinuous weft yarns” In most hand-weaving techniques, a weft yarn is passed continuously across each row of weaving. Since the direction of the weft is reversed only at a selvedge (an outside edge), weft colors are all interchanged vertically. By contrast, tapestry technique involves several wefts in each row of weaving. Because they can be entered, deleted, or reversed at any point in the row, color can be shifted horizontally.


My little stripe weaving does not meet this criteria.

“two alternate sheds” Tapestry weave is the simplest of all woven structures, universally known as “tabby” or “plain weave” – that is, each weft is woven over and under successive warps, in opposite order to the weft preceding it.


Definitely fits this.


“weft surface textile” Horizontal rows of tightly woven weft completely cover he vertical warps and thus form the surface of the textile.


Ditto on this one.


“constructed concurrently with the description of its design” In most visual arts (painting, for instance), the artist adds an image to an existing surface (in this case, a canvas). In tapestry, however, the artist constructs the image and the surface at the same time. This last criterion helps differentiate tapestry from other types of textiles. Embroidery stitched onto a woven surface may be fiber art, but it cannot correctly be defined as tapestry, it does not form the essential structure of the textile.


Ok, there is not really any image, but it does form the “essential structure.”


My sample is a pretty weak attempt, but others will follow more fitting of the definition of “tapestry.”

2 week weaving continued

I guess I need to go back to the beginning of the assignment...

The project that I'm using for my "past" example is the one featured in this blog on Sunday, December 28, 2009 and Thursday, January 1, 2009. (It's still not really finished, ends tied and ready for hanging.) Upon "Reflection" (using the four aspects of the Creative Process) I'm thinking over how I came about to do this project. I think I just put the idea into my book, not even putting in the time to finish the sketch. I was getting back into weaving and just wanted to get going on something. There wasn't really a concept, certainly not any incubation time where I really thought about it. I was also in a hurry to try these acid dyes that I had bought, seeing what I would get for colors. I got the yarn dyed and had it on the loom by the time the Fall fibers class started and there it sat until we had a break at Christmas when I finished weaving it. I guess I thought the colors were nice and intense, but now after going to class I wasn't really satisfied with it, because it didn't really say anything. After awhile I gave it a name "Breaking Through," I thought it was fitting with what I had been learning. So I guess I gave it a concept after I was finished with it, not exactly the best plan.


The new project I'm working on for the assignment...

During the fall I was mulling over what I was hearing in class, trying to break free from the geometrical, balanced gradations that I had been doing. Musing in my head about how much information there was about us out there for anyone to find out. And how much we are even inviting strangers into our lives through blogs, Facebook, etc. We don't really know who's reading about us, watching us, listening...

I was also looking at the blinds in our house liking the repeating horizontal lines, the gradation within each slat. Thinking if someone pulled the blinds apart to spy or peak out, this light would also be released. I thought about it for awhile and finally made this sketch a few days later. I continued to think about it, how I would dye the yarns to achive it, could I really dye the yarns with enough accuracy to make it work?

I kept going back to the sketch in my book, revisiting the idea, thinking about how I could make it happen. So when the possibility of doing a weaving came up, this project was just waiting to happen.

Macomber Looms

When I was out in New England last fall I decided to visit Macomber Looms and see where my loom was "born" many years ago. We drove down two lane Beech Ridge Road outside of York, Maine until we found the factory. It was as one would expect; a barn-like sturcture with a woodshop inside. When we first arrived we went upstairs to find someone to talk to, but only found tables with piles of paper on them - not much for computers in this place.


Downstairs we found the man in charge and he gave us a brief history as we walked around the place. Several looms were in various constuction stages and a few looked like they were ready to ship. I asked is all this was done by the two people I saw there, but he said "no, there were usually seven, but it was huntin' season." The maple comes from the lumberyard down the road and I think they manufacture the entire loom right there except for the heddles. I was giggling on the inside and had a big smile on my face on the outside. How wonderful to be standing right there where something is actually made all in one place -- should I say it? - in America.


How local, how simple and personal.

Tomato vines/leaves

Back to a few more plant dye tests...

Leaving the whole tomato plants to finish the job of ripening tomatoes, I thinned out some of the vines and leaves to dye with. I was surprised at the nice soft baby chick yellow produced with the tin mordant, also the soft green-slightly gray with the iron mordant, that is definitely a color I would like to have more of and with the size of the tomato plants I have, that will be able to happen.

I read later that I could have possibly produced a reddish dye out of the stems. I think they pulled their plant materials after the tomato season was over done producing red tomatoes. Did this may have something to do with what color of dye the stems will produce? I guess I'll have to get out the "lab" again a little later and test the information.

Pyracantha - Fire thorn

From my bus window I started noticing this shrub with bunches of bright orange berries. I didn't know what it was, but asked my plant expert at work. I had not read anything about the dyeing possibilities, but thought with those bright berries something had to happen. I went on a stealth gathering mission, collecting only the berries. Simmering them for and hour, letting it sit overnight and then straining and squeezing all the juice out. The color reminded me of a amber, dark beer color; not as strong a color as I thought. The alum samples came out a light orange color, maybe like cream of tomato soup with a little too much cream; the tin with alum made a nice golden tan color; the cooper with alum made an excellent light red-brown; and the iron again made nice neutral tan-grays.

Barberry

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I cut off the branches from my barberry bush, trying to take parts that seemed to have a lot of color and the tiny berries. I chopped them all up into small pieces and simmered for an hour and let it sit overnight. After straining, the juice seemed to be fairly red, so again I hoped for red. The first samples with alum produced an light tan-orange color. Adding the tin turned the samples to olive green, then tan-green with copper and a very nice warm gray-browns with the iron and pre alum + iron.

Oregon Grape

OK I'll admit it, I want reds, blues, and purples. I had huge expectations when I gathered and started cooking up my oregon grape berries. They stained my hands when I picked them, they were dark blue, the juice was really red...

The top photo is the Oregon Grape plant, middle photo = berry samples, bottom = leaves

In went the yarn samples, a very dark red stained the yarn, it was really dark, almost brown, but it was a red. Then I tried the tin, and again a really dark blue - midnight. Disappointed, I really wanted a lively purple, but not to be. The copper and the iron produced really rich browns. Like before, not what I was hoping for, but pretty, especially within the group, it's really a wonderful way to get a lovely range of color by using the one plant, but altering it with different chemicals, they always go together enhancing one another.

The grape leaves did not produce anything unusual, I got the the tans and greens. With copper and iron the greens were very nice, soft and dusty, they would go wonderfully with the oregon grape berry colors.

Red Onion

Again there was the collection of dry onion skins, boiled on the stove for about an hour and left to sit until the next morning.

The colors were in the same family as the yellow onion skins, but all a bit darker. Again, a fairly distinct color was garnered from the different minerals added. Tin brightened, whereas copper added the more red tones an iron the green.

So far the onion skins, both red and yellow, were the most successful plant dyes, based on the range of colors gathered from one plant -- if only I loved the fall colors as much as reds and purples.