Tapestry Diary 2015, First Week

One week in on the new 2015 tapestry diary. It is taking a little longer at the beginning because I am weaving an environment for the days to rise out of. I did that a little last year but this year is a bit more elaborate. I am weaving the base of the tapestry somewhat ahead of the days but once it is complete the days themselves should be pretty easy to keep up with.

For months now I have had an idea to continue to work with a journey theme but this year instead of hiking I am climbing. It is kind of funny really because I don't like heights much. I do like the idea of climbing though for several reasons. It is very appropriate for the actual act of weaving a tapestry because I am literally climbing up the warp as I weave. I am viewing each day as a step as I weave my journey. For me the idea of climbing connotes finding a foot hold and conquering inertia, gravity and fear.  All of these ideas seem appropriate baggage for a creative journey. After viewing the third installment of the Hobbit series I have come to think of this years journey as climbing the lonely mountain. Creating anything can sometimes feel like climbing the lonely mountain!

The days are going to read from right to left and left to right as the months go by. I am going to use the red squares again to designate the months. The gold shape with the red square is January first and the second is right above it. The days of the month will climb across the warp in twos although to accommodate the different number of days some will just have one. A pass of burgundy separates the days and then a contrast color will separate the months. There will be irregular shapes on the sides that will enclose the days. There should be quite a variety of sizes in the individual days depending on what the design calls for. February will start on the right and work back across and up the warp. It should be an adventure. Today I crossed the frozen valley and that is a fairly literal interpretation of the day.

Here is a detail of the center part of the base and I am still in the process of woking across. I have been using the twill with ground weave technique that I learned for last years diary quite a bit and I like the texture and directional quality it has.

A closer view of the far left side where the days of the month have begun. I think this idea will also lend itself to continuing to experiment with different weaving techniques in the coming year.

One more detail of the days so far as they rise up from behind the foreground shapes.  I'm looking forward to seeing where this year long adventure will lead.

When I posted about finishing the weaving of the 2014 daily tapestry a friend replied with an interesting question and I have been thinking about it ever since. " Does your blog keep you inspired to weave each day and work through those uninspired periods or do you even have those periods? I have days and even weeks that I just don't have the motivation I need to push through! Please share."

 My first response was to think that the weaving inspires the blog not the other way around and then I realized that it actually does work both ways. I originally started the blog as a way of making connections with people of similar interest. Having a blog does make the process of weaving a tapestry seem a little less like climbing a lonely mountain and it does help motivate me to be able to share with others. I have thought that I should be writing the blogs more often and even considered a resolution this year to write both of my blogs once a week. I quickly banished that thought! I try to write a post when I have something to share and I think that trying to do it once a week would not only take important time away from actually doing the work but it might also make my motivation change from communicating about the work I have done to trying to figure out what to write. I decided that for me the work should come first and then the blog.

 Do I have periods of low motivation? Of course I do, but I make a decision to weave this diary everyday and then I just do it. It helps a lot that I have a framework set in place for the daily project so that even on days when I feel scattered or lacking in imagination I can still weave my day. An important part of this equation is having some rules set up so all that is required on a daily basis are small decisions that are easily made. The big decision, to do it, has already been made and the rules have already been established.  Some days are just difficult. Often what seems to be a difficult day   gets better once I am working and I can then move onto other things in the studio with more positive energy. Sometimes for various reasons I can't weave my day but I always make it up somehow. I am excited by what can be achieved by this way of working and that also helps to motivate me. After all this is something I choose, I make the rules and if I decide they aren't working I change them. How many things in life are so satisfying?

I'm looking forward to sharing my daily tapestry journey this year  and watching my work evolve one day at a time.