Weaving the Landscape

Some of you may know that I bought a table-top tapestry loom several months ago, and weaving has become somewhat of an obsession for me.

It’s entirely a new medium for me and has been a very stimulating learning experience. Almost immediately, I wanted to apply my love of landscape to the medium, moving from learning basic patterning (counting…ugh!) to figuring out how to apply various weaving techniques to representational subjects. 

After some experimentation and working on larger weavings, I decided to set up two sections of warp threads on the loom side by side so I could use as much of the warp length as possible. That resulted in eight pieces of approximately 5” x 5” (not counting the fringe, which I added later).

First, I made some sketches and applied one of the ideas to grid paper to work out the color and number of stitches. Well, that was too rigid for this free spirit, so after the first weaving, I just worked freestyle from my sketches.

I completed two of each design, and of course, they are not identical as I tried different techniques with each weaving. If you look closely at the various pieces, some are not strictly horizontal rows of yarn—there curved and angled sections, which added an element of fun and interest to the project.

Once complete, the finish work begins, which can take longer than the actual weaving…I’m still trying to figure out how to be more efficient at that part of the process. Finishing requires tying off the warp threads and weaving them—and all the “tails” of the various colors—into the back of the weaving. I then added fringe, stitched the top edge, and added a hanging pocket.

Stay tuned for the next adventure in weaving…

Summer Still Life & A New Obsession

 

Summer Still Life
8” x 10”
Limited Edition Relief Print

I tried my hand at another reduction print, inspired by a photo I took last summer: the veggies dramatically bathed in bright sunlight, casting deep shadows across the surface. 

The reduction process, as I've mentioned before, is a bit scary. And for me, highly unpredictable. Determining what to cut and what to leave is still very challenging. While the process results in a limited number of prints, that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's only so much room in the studio after all. 

This piece was a welcome relief from my latest obsession, weaving. In early November I purchased a table loom and have been learning how to weave. My technique is rather crude at this point, and I’ll need hours decades of practice to improve. 

My first piece was experimenting with basic weaving (“plain weave”) and then creating simple shapes and patterns. I tore out the yarn many times and reworked many areas and at one point, accidentally cut my warp (the framework you weave the yarn, or “weft” through) and had to totally start over. However, I was not discouraged and kept at it. For any weavers out there, please excuse my amateur results. I hope to continue to improve.

Next, I jumped right to something complicated (yeah, no baby steps here) when I decided to try to create a landscape. Again, I “unwove” and rewove most of the piece several times to repair mistakes and after several weeks, finally finished it. I’m not crazy about it as it lost something through several reworkings. Plus, the craftsmanship is still very rough, but I learned a LOT and have seen incremental improvement.
 

High Country, Fall
16.5” x 12”

I was midway through completing the landscape piece for the second time (when I decided I needed a break) and created Summer Still Life.

Currently I’m experimenting with a smaller piece to learn “wedge weaving” …stay tuned for notes on how that turns out.