Part 9 Tapestry reflections

I've loved this part of the course.  It's been full on all the time because I've never done any weaving before.  Because of this I did a tutorial from a book that gave me practice in the basics and I'm glad I did; it gave me some confidence.

I've used a variety of materials; some quite unexpected like drinking straws which gave a really structured feel to an otherwise informal piece.  I've used plastic, wool in variety, lace, sari silk, torn fabric strips of various kinds and introduced tyvek beads and felting as an experiment.

The wool has always given me the basics but depending on what sort of wool it can create flat surfaces or lovely bubbly textures especially if used as a soumak knot.  I enjoyed mixing wool with other things as well.

I've used sari silk extensively, both the flat ribbon like one and the rolled one.  They give a lustre and always come up with a surprise as the colour varies so quickly.  The ribbon sari silk made attractive soumak and I liked it best when it was really loose.  I love it.   

Carrier bags give an interesting texture and I was surprised how easy they were to use; just like any other yarn really.

I had more than enough material to play with because it seems you can use just about anything.

Weaving is slow particularly when the equipment you're using is so basic.  If you have no  expectation of speed then it's fine.  I found I just relaxed into it and enjoyed it.  The leisurely pace allows some thinking time and I was able to use this to plan how to use materials.  Is it limiting - I'm not sure.  If you have chosen tapestry as your medium you have also chosen it's limits so I guess they are acceptable to you.  If you're prepared to try things out and see if they work it has no need to be just plain and boring.  I have found it exciting and I think I've produced some of my best work in this section.

Sample one

I've managed three samples, all very different.  Having done a bit of practice my first sample aims to develop my skills a bit more and I tried a circle.  Having a bit of distance from it now I can see that it doesn't hang together very well and the problem is the pale green at the bottom - it has nowhere near enough texture compared to the rest.  The overwhelming colour in my original photo was green so it was always going to be a challenge to create enough "difference" and I think I've managed it.  I very much like the way the warp shows when chunky wefts are used.  I can see that this could be incorporated into the design to make yet another texture.

Sample 2

I had little intention of creating something like this but it was sparked by a picture and I just had to see the idea through.  I wanted to make something in landscape format and I managed that OK.  The fields work as well but the sky looks too threatening for a summer day.  It is quite a literal interpretation and I'm not as fond of it as my other pieces.  However, I traced an idea through, was prepared for it to fail and was happy enough with the result. It is the sort of piece that will spark other ideas I think.

Sample 3

My tension problems are boringly documented so I'll not go through it all again.
This is an additional piece just to concentrate on improving it.  Success.  Basically it's just wool and sari silk but it's turned out well with lots of texture and lovely colours.  I'm pleased that I've been able to trouble shoot the tension problem because I'd like to return to tapestry without having to worry too much about it.

I like working both from source material and intuitively but I think intuitively just has the edge; I'm not quite so tied down.  Tomorrow I might give another answer though.

Project 9 Stage 4c

Sample 3 (24cm x 20cm)

I've a bit of time in hand so I'm going to take the opportunity to master the tension problem I've got with my weaving.  In my last sample this was compounded by the felting I inserted.

I've been thinking quite a lot about why my tension distorts my work and I've come to the conclusion it's because I'm working mainly with butterflies and not using a shuttle stick.  Consequently there's a lot of drag on the warp.

I've borrowed a slightly smaller loom and the spacing of the warp is wider than I've been using.  I'm not going to try anything fancy just concentrate on my tension.

I'm also going to try felting again as that gave me further tension problems in my last sample.  My plan is to leave the ends of the shed really, really loose then felt from the centre outwards so that the slack is taken up as I work.

I'm pretty pleased to say it's much better.  My measurement at the beginning is 24cm and the measurement at the end is 24cm.  My palette is exuberant and looks a bit like a box of costume jewellery.  I would never have used these colours together until quite recently but I love them.  To my surprise the tapestry wool I have been using as standard felted brilliantly  (the magenta). I thought it had an acrylic content.

I had planned to see if I could needle felt the warp into the back of the work but when it came to doing it I thought it would be a shame because they look so attractive as they are.

I've had tremendous problems getting an even half decent photo.  In spite of how it looks there are absolutely no florescent colours involved here!

Patchings Art Festival

I've made my annual pilgrimage to Patchings Art Festival and come back laden with goodies and some brilliant bargains.

Apart from anything else it's a wonderful place to find out about new art materials and to try before you buy.

Whilst the main focus is on painting there are a significant number of artists showing other crafts like silk painting, felting and ceramics.  I managed to find some lovely hand dyed yarns in small quantities.

The highlight of my day was watching Ann Blockley give a demonstration.  How she can manage to talk to an audience of over 300 and paint at the same time beats me. I looked at Ann's technique in Project 3 (Daring Colour) and marvelled at her loose flowing style.  It was quite remarkable to actually see it happen.  At first the paint seemed to go on the paper in an almost arbitrary fashion and it was quite alarming.  Ann waited for an image to emerge and then took steps to define it better.  Her sense of colour is wonderful and very courageous and her comment "it's not subtle" was quite an understatement.

Ann painted two pictures; one of a bluebell wood and the other of poppies.  I found these on her website of similar subject matter.

Poppy field

Bluebell Wood

I just like this one.

Woodland Cottage

Watching what can be done with mixed media makes me think that at some time I'd like to have a go and see what I can do.


In the artists tent there were many styles to see.  I particularly liked Carol Baker's work.  It has a similar loose style to that of Ann Blockley.  These are both oil on canvas.

True Brilliance

Dancing with Hues

I had a brilliant day.

More Open Studios Notts

We stayed very local this weekend; not straying further that 5 or 6 miles from home. And we saw more wonderful work.

Artempo are a group of eight local artists and they displayed their work in Bassetlaw Museum.   It included paintings, drawings, textiles and ceramics.  And details of another exhibition...

As a direct result of talking to exhibitors I've booked onto a collograph workshop and decided to go to the local Embroiderers Guild (not quite sure of it's real name) on Wednesday to hear Ingrid Karlsson-Kemp talk about her work.

There are Places - Ingrid Karlsson Kemp

Original stitched in fabric & fibres including found objects.

Stretched and framed in handmade whitewashed box frame.   http://ingrid-karlsson-kemp.co.uk/

My workshop is by Carole Eason whose family inspired, detailed prints I just loved.

A Touch of Autumn - Carol Eason

We also wandered up to the studio of Polly Warren is the lovely village of Askham.  Polly uses a converted garage as her place of work and she produces linocut prints.  She showed us the process and demonstrated her new press.

Polly's demo - getting used to the new press

Amazingly Polly told us she "couldn't draw".   I wish I "couldn't draw" like Polly.

We've had two great weekends that have helped me to understand my own work much better.  I'm starting to feel I'm a "can do" artist.

Project 9 Stage 4b

Sample 2  (30cm x 15cm max)

Developing design ideas into weaving

At the Open Studios last Saturday I saw the work of Peter Dworok. 

I propose woven land and felted sea/sky

Immediately I saw it I made links between the tapestry I've been working on and the work on skies by  Francoise Tellier-Loumagne in the Art of Felt.

Felt sky

I had an idea that I've not been able to shake off.  I wondered how I could incorporate felting into weaving and it took me  a while to come up with something that might just work.

The bottom of Dworok's painting I can imagine as distorted weft with an outline as I did in my first piece.  Above that I plan to try just plain weaving then needle felting eventually introducing clouds.  This should give me the opportunity to concentrate on my tension a bit as well.

I'm not actually going to use this picture, it just happens to be the sort that sparked my idea.

What I am going to start with is the word "sunshine".  We've had so little sun that the weekend was a real treat and we had a lovely walk via a place we call "the top of the world".  We live in a rural area where this time of year is bright yellow with rape flowers.  It was beautiful and what I want to capture is that feeling.  I took some photos to help me remember.  They are not exactly what I wanted but good enough.

There's a lot of imagining to do here so I think I'll need to draw.

I'm not an experienced weaver and not an experienced needle felter either so I need to keep things simple.

I warped up my loom with wool, made a hem then put in a few rows of grassy field.  I worked two colours of green wool (two rows) then a row of the novelty yarn.  To start with it seemed very odd to be working with blue warp!

With a bit of artistic license I put in the distorted weft view.....

....then the sky.

My tension was better than last time but far from perfect.

 I thought if I left some openness the mingling of the colours would provide an extra dimension.  I was wrong but more of that later.

My choice of sky colours was dictated by the range on offer locally, ie no real choice at all.  I would have preferred a slightly paler blue.

With some trepidation I began to felt the sky using the shading technique I've learned.    I introduced some merino top wispy clouds.  This is the result.

The felting pulled the fabric in quite significantly.  Where I'd left the yarns more open the felting just didn't really happen which was disappointing.  I have overdone the pink a bit.

Where the shading colours joined the yarns pulled apart in the "shrinkage" that occurred.

This piece is quite small and neat and I have wondered if this is a slight regression.  I've only just learned to "let go" a bit.  On reflection though, it seems that I have followed an idea and chosen appropriate options to get an outcome.

Having been critical of what happened I am generally very happy with the piece of work now it's off the loom.  Considering it was a total shot in the dark I think it's better than I had hoped.

I think I've managed to get the summer day feeling I wanted and it looks like "the top of the world".

Some time later....

I felt increasingly unhappy with the colours of the sky; too dark a blue and too much pink.  I introduced more white to tone the blue down a bit and a tiny bit of yellow above the rape field.  I think it's a change for the better.  There's less harsh contrast.

The toned down blue

A bit of yellow above the field

Tellier-Loumagne,  Francoise,  2006, The art of  felt. Thames and Hudson, New York.

Open Studios Notts

Open Studios Notts

Each year at this time Nottinghamshire artists open their studios for visitors.  We earmarked last Saturday to visit Southwell as there was lots on including a craft fair in the Minster.  We had a lovely, and expensive, day.

Open Studios are county wide; this is just the Southwell flyer

We visited the studio of Tim Sprignall who is a photographer although we didn't see any of his work various other artists had work displayed.

My favourite was Stuart Ackroyd glass his colours are wonderful and very exciting.

One of many beautiful pieces of glass

Sharon Dickinson showed an eclectic selection of novel items one of which became my husband's birthday present.  She was such a trusting soul.  Her card machine wouldn't work so we gave her the cash we had and walked away with the goods on the promise I'd send a cheque.  Lovely.

We visited the Bull Yard Gallery where Jayne Hale was exhibiting.  Although we didn't meet her we were told that Jayne has only recently felt confident in her ability to paint.  Sounds familiar.  Her paintings are vibrant and fun.

Jayne Hale

At The Barn Gallery I saw the work of Peter Dworok.

Loch Eynort, Isle of Skye, Peter Dworok

His elemental work has given me an idea that I can't shake off.  I'm going to try an experiment in my next sample.

Susan Isaacs opened her studio along with Carl Gray (ceramics) and Mark Green ( woodcraft).

Susan paints in oil in a loose figurative style.  Her prints showed me that she uses local towns as her inspiration.  I particularly liked her colours.

Southwell Minster.  Susan Isaacs

That takes me nicely to the work we saw in the Minster.  There were loads of stalls but I've become very selective.

I love metal as art

Irene is completely self taught

Intriguing boxes

I loved these seascapes - they're really inventive

Our last port of call was very local to us and involved people we have known for ever.

Lee Sinclair makes the most wonderful furniture.

Lee's lovely furniture

And his daughter makes a good cup of tea.

It is very exciting to see so much quality work going on in the area I live.  I had a great day and got lots of ideas along the way.  Thanks to the artists who are all so friendly and generous with their experiences.

Project 9 Stage 4a

Sample 1 (21cm x 30cm max)

Developing design ideas into weaving

This is what I've selected as my inspiration for this piece of tapestry.  It's hard to describe how beautiful this combination of plants is.

The pink plant is an unnamed tree peony that I rescued from death row in a local nursery many years ago.  The orange in the foreground is euphorbia Fireglow and the white remnants of magnolia stellata are in the background.  The bare branches are the stems of hydrangea paniculata.

I think I've set myself quite a challenge but the idea is that it's an interpretation so I'm happy to try.

I made my wrapping and was fairly happy with it.  The range of green is wide to give me lots of texture opportunities.

I started by looking at the main shapes.  I drew and then used my water soluble crayons.

I didn't think the colours would pose a problem but I thought representing the variety of greenery might be harder.  I found I didn't know where to start and soon realised it was because it was far too complicated so I pared down.

I isolated shapes but even so there were far too many so I took it a stage further and cut out most of it.

The long shapes are some tyvek beads to represent branches.  I scribbled on the drawing what I intended to do with my yarns and this became my plan.

Finished but still on the loom.

Basically I'm pleased with the result - with one or two caveats.

I like
the huge range of textures I've managed to get to convey the foliage
my almost circular tree peony
the warp that shows through the heftier yarns
the way I've got good variety by using yarns together
the way it felt exciting
the beads

I introduced extra colour because this section looked unexciting

Tyvek beads - a nightmare to weave in

Lots of texture

I don't like
the way I tighten my yarns even though I try very hard not to
the way the euphorbia motif looks central - it wasn't so on the plan.
the background to the euphorbia looks bland
my technique wouldn't stand close scrutiny in places

My text tells me not to alter my plan but there were points where I had to.  My design placed the peony too close to the edge for me to try a circle so I move it in a bit.  This meant I also had to move the beads.  The fifth, chunky bead had to go as it looked very clumsy so for balance I had to change the position of the others.  The result was a longer piece than I had planned.

Along the way I changed some of the yarns as well. The chiffon didn't work as a woven yarn, the space was too small. I didn't use the pale chiffon or the net at all.  I used twisted threads from the wrapping in a way I hadn't anticipated.  I think it's good to have a plan but you need to be flexible if something just isn't working.

Finished tapestry showing clearly the tension problem is predominantly on the right

I'm excited by the way tapestry offers so much scope but very frustrated and disappointed in my inability to keep a loose enough tension.  If I could master this I would feel inclined to pursue tapestry further.