Weft Relays

Now we’re getting into what I would call real tapestry weaving. As “The Tapestry Handbook” says; Unlike wefts that are shuttled from selvedge to selvedge, discontinuous tapestry wefts travel back and forth within the contours of the artist’s images, either touching gently in the spaces between the warps or crossing securely in some manner. These interactions between adjacent tapestry wefts affect not only the structural integrity of the textile but the style of its design interpretation.

There are a number of techniques for creating the “discontinuous wefts” that will make up your design. The first one is called “basic slit technique.” The weft yarns don’t touch each other, but simply go around the ending warp for each color. This does tend to pull the warps away from each other creating spaces between the colors; the two wefts should “kiss” each other before going their opposite directions. If you were to create long vertical slits, these would usually be stitched together on the back side for strength. If the weaving were to hang horizontal in its finished form these slits would form baggy gaps over time without the stitching.

My little weaving has spaces between all the colors. I either pulled the weft too tight around the warp, or because the wide spacing between warps (about 4 epi) is almost impossible to fill the space. I did not create any long slits, but switched color width fairly often. Although not technically correct, I kind of like the little spaces, I could see incorporating these spaces into the design.

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!

Tapestry beginnings

I have taken upon myself to learn tapestry, I think the skill will be useful for my next art exploration. This thought is coming to me with a bit of reservation. I like the idea of creating the cloth as I add the design rather than just "attaching" it to the already manufactured cloth, and I also know this will also be a way to add texture to what I create. My reservation comes from the fact that it is SLOW, it can really take a long time and I want to make things with some size to them. In the past I have dabbled in tapestry a couple of times, but did not have the skills to make it look good, so now it is time to learn. I feel you should learn the technique - the rules before you can break them and I am certain to break them. I don't have a desire to "paint" pretty pictures by doing tapestry, but I do think it may be a good way to build my abstract ideas.

I have a book called "The Tapestry Handbook" by Carol K Russell that I will follow as well as I can follow any written instructions. Books like these always want to teach techniques by having the "student" make a sampler. I have no desire to make a sampler and follow along in the book in the order prescribed. I think that will just frustrate me, plodding along making something I don't want. So I have come up with the idea of using a very small "no frills" loom. I can take each technique and create a tiny work and then cut it off and throw it away if I hate it -- with a sampler I would be stuck looking at something I hate the whole time. I can also redo a lesson or skip one at my own pace.



The loom I have chosen is a Good Wood Loom, as you can see it is more of a toy than a loom, but I think it will work for what I have in mind. I want to be able to carry it around and use it when I have bits of free time, like lunch, or breaks at work, maybe even riding the bus if I want to deal with the questions. The loom measures 5" x 7" and creates a weaving approximately 4" x 5.5".

Carrot tops

Using the tops from carrots for dye -- who knew? It's fun to see the plant parts used for dye, it generally isn't what you're growing the plant for, you don't use the "food" part, it's the leftover parts -- tops, stems and leaves that get simmered in the pot. The carrot tops produced an nice range of four distinct colors, yellow to dark green, a little to brassy. I liked the dark green (carrot tops with iron) the best, with some dark blues, browns and grays, it would be a nice addition to the pallet.

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.

Yellow Onion

I'm not sure when we started collecting the dry onion skins, but we saved the outside part every time we cooked with onions. It was a fair amount for sample dyeing, but I still found myself raiding the onion bin at the local food store for extra dry pieces that had been cast aside.

I separated the yellow onion skins from the red/purple ones wondering if it would make a difference and as it turned out it did, not dramatically different, but the yellow onions were much brighter than the red onions. These were definitely vibrant colors; beautiful colors if you like the fall golds, oranges and browns, a range one could weave many a tapestry or functional item. The tin mordant brought out the brightest colors; this was the first dye batch which really brought out the difference between the prealumed wools and non prealumed wools, every variation was a distinct color.

The colors shown from right to left are: no mordant, prealum, prealum + tin, tin only, prealum + copper, copper only, prealum + iron, iron only.

New project

Before the real class starts I have some projects of my own to get done.

I like to garden and love to work with color, so why not combine the two and try some plant dyes? Last spring I checked out a bunch of books from the library and foundn out what plants might give me some success. I bought some extra geraniums and marigolds, planted red cabbage and carrots just for the dye possibilites.

I later ordered mordants (alum, tin, iron and copper) online http://www.woolery.com/, bought some stainless steel pots at the thrift store and waited for the busy summer weekends to wind down.

The photo is my dyeing set up outside on the driveway, I call it "the lab"