Tapestry Weaving – Rachel

Here is the finished tapestry weaving taken off of the loom. In general, I was trying all of the warp techniques from the glossary that I could figure out. In the beginning, I stuck to four colors, and just tried to keep it interesting by not using large blocks of one color, but patterning instead. It seemed quite stiff and technical.

However, after class last week and seeing more curved and textured examples, I started going in that direction. For me, I was just trying to compose something that was spontaneous and free. In architecture, we rarely do that – everything must be planned and the stakes are high with mistakes. So I wanted to use this project as a way to just relax and go where the yarn takes me. I ended up including more colors, and thicker yarn. The more wavy/curvy look takes your eye up and through the piece better than the base does. Given the colors and the techniques, it seems like a storm is coming on top of a calmer base.

I have noticed that the pulling of the hourglass shape of the weave is not as bad when you take it off the loom, something I was worried about before. To finish after taking it off the loom, I used a Damascus Edge on each side, and then a Bound Warp Protector for the bottom part.

For the last weft on the top, I used the scraps after I cleaned up the edges of the weave. I left tails of around 6 inches each when weaving, and I did not want to just discard them, so I tied them together and braided them to use as a weft.