Sunday, January 31, 2016

Tapestry Diary Project Series

Here is the Gobelin loom as of this afternoon. The Tapestry Diary project for 2016 is caught up and underway. It has been a slow start to the year but it is swimming along now. January has given me a chance to get my feet wet with the plan for the coming year. My working title is Rocking The Boat and I used a local lake as inspiration for the format this year. It is a place I have visited since my boys were small and spent many hours just watching the water, sketching and wandering around. My journey is a watery one this year and I have decided to use triangles as the month markers instead of squares as they remind me of boats bobbing on the surface. It is hard to tell how this will evolve through the year but I plan to make use of reflections to help tell the story. One day in January shows the refection of a quarter moon, many days of light reflected on the water and perhaps I will even run aground a time or two during the year. 




I will have to photograph it soon a little earlier in the day when the light is better. It is done on the same warp as last year and I think there is just enough to finish the project.


It took a while to go through last years selection of yarns and work up the palette for this year. 

I also have some of the rough sketches that I made during the last year in anticipation.






Here is a photo of 2015, Into The Hills just as the last day of December was completed.



















This is how it looked right before I took it off the loom. I let the last day of December open to waft through the mists into the new year.

2015 was an interesting journey and now it s rolled up and waiting for some finishing attention.












Finally a last look at Red Dirt Days, Journey Through 2014. I found out in January that it has been juried into the American Tapestry Biennial 11 (ATB 11) sponsored by the American Tapestry Alliance. There is more information about this exhibit  on the ATA website here,  http://americantapestryalliance.org/exhibitions/atbiennials/american-tapestry-biennial-11




It is very exciting to have my work in the ATB 11!  

I am managing to keep my looms busy and next on the list is to think about a small tapestry for the 
Tapestry Unlimited: 11th international, unhurried small format tapestry exhibition. I am trying to decide if it will be a newly woven effort or perhaps one of the small tapestries I have already woven.

I also have plans to write about warping the new Fireside Cantilever tapestry loom and catch up with the Paint Box tapestry that is now underway. The Blog plan for this year is for shorter more frequent posts. Happy Weaving to all and a creatively satisfying 2016!