February News and Views

I have to admit February is usually one of my least favorite months but this year has been so busy that I haven't had time to notice. Yes, I am ready for Spring, I just haven't had time to wait for it this year.

After finishing February on the tapestry diary today I am packing up the Mango Hunters and the 2013 Diary Triptych. I will be taking them to the Tulsa Handweavers meeting tomorrow and then straight to UPS to be sent to the Fiber Celebration 2014 show in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fiber Celebration 2014   The studio will seem empty after they are gone, I guess that is a signal to start something new soon.

I also just sent the little Riverside tapestry for the Untitled Unjuried show in Rhode Island  that will open during Convergence 2014 and the ATA members retreat. I am so excited about being able to go both for the opening of this show and the members retreat this year. It will be awesome to see the tapestries from all over the US and many other countries as well. If you are interested in tapestry and are not familiar with The American Tapestry Alliance you will want to check it out here http://americantapestryalliance.org

Next is a photo of the 2014 daily practice tapestry taken today with 2/28 woven at the top.  I am really enjoying this daily tapestry this year and the addition of trying out some new techniques from Mette Rossing's book, The Threads Course in Tapestry has added to the excitement.

The last week or so I have been writing an article on tapestry diaries that features the work of ten tapestry weavers including myself and it should be available online after April 1 on the ATA website. I will provide a link when it is ready to read.

This month I have been carrying on with trying out some hachure variations that I talked about in the last post and more of the twill with ground weave samples.

Here is a closer view of the last part of February. I like the way the zigzag effect of the woven paths done with the displaced hachures contrasts with the smoother lines of the others.

My favorite technique so far though has been the twill with ground weave. I just keep thinking of variations to try and ways that it can be used both pictorially and as an effective use of directional line that moves the eye from one area to another in the design.

Here is a further detail showing a new variation I tried this morning in the last section at the top. By splitting the twill weft into two I was able to switch directions of the twill line moving right on one side and left on the other. I have got to experiment some more with that. I think it will be a way to also create the effect of a woven path without actually weaving one.

A little further down On the reddish triangle shape I split the path into both a light and dark blue green using the hachures which was a nice effect too.

For March I am going to move on and try to include some of the color effect in plain weave samples from pages 30-31 and some of the soumak variations on the following pages. Another great source for soumak is Kathe Todd Hooker's book, Line in tapestry and I have it available I'm my shop.

For now I am going to concentrate on finishing the Sheep Sampler which means I will get to sit down in front of the wheel and do some spinning.  It has been a while and I'm looking forward to that!

I guess Spring is delayed once again as we are expecting a snow/ice event later this weekend. On the first warm and sunny day I am planning to go out and sit in the sun and pretend I am a reptile.


I hope everyone is staying warm and dry,it is a good time to get some weaving done.