Progress on the Tapestry Diary

I have been working on the tapestry diary and have actually kept up so I wove today, today!  I can already see the value of this practice.  Beside the obvious of having a wonderful and personal record of your days it is also a great discipline for improving your tapestry technique and a great way to try out new ideas, similar to a sketch everyday or writing every day.  What you do everyday becomes perfected eventually, fluid and balanced.

The first picture is the first few days from Arrowmont.  The first day on weaving my diary June 26th was the "A" for Arrowmont, a great place to get your art on or get on with your art. June 27th is a leaf surrounded in Green hemp soumac that I bought in the supply store, a symbol for new growth.  The series of dots and dashes is my own system for the dates. June 28th is a "T" for Tapestry, Thursday and Tennessee.  Our last day of class June 29th I did a Soumac outline of a bird I had sketched earlier in the week.  I think of our amazingly prepared and helpful instructor Tommye Scanlin as the bird.  The small colorful shapes represent the rest of the class. On the first day we chose colored papers out of a bag and received a small sketchbook in the same color we chose so the tiny shapes indicate those colors for each person, red, blue, yellow orange and black. The dots and dashes are the date symbols.  At that point I had to move the weaving forward so on to the next picture. June 30th I was driving home in my grey Subaru, on 7/1 I was able to walk through my front door, so I did a "7" that is the roof and side of the house and a "1" that is the front door.  July 2nd was a quick weave with two very warm triangles to indicate not only the weather here in Oklahoma but the fact that I have lots of chores waiting for me after being gone a little over a week and weaving time is short today.
July 3rd will likely be a rectangle shape.  I am having fun with this.

I am hoping to fit the rest of July and August on this sampler and then I will start a new one for Fall.  Looking forward to the beginning of the year for a new start and the ideas that might evolve.  I have the current diary on my twelve inch Mirrix but at the beginning of the year I will try to set aside a bigger loom for the project.  Here is a picture of my finished technique sampler from Arowmont, finished with a red cup, my initials and some soumac outlining.  I must admit to putting a rush on this so that I could spend more time on the diary.  It was done on a copper pipe frame loom like the ones that we each made in class.  Quite an adventure making a trip to the local Lowes and building our looms.

Archie Brennan style copper pipe fram loom with an attachment to accommodate Leashes.   Look on his website for building information.

Samplers from the Class

My Red Cup Sampler