Friday 12 March 2010

Weaving a Shaped Tapestry

This was an assignment for my Diploma of  Tapestry Weaving and the first shaped tapestry I have made.  The first photo shows it in progress on the loom.  I wove it sideways so the black shapes would be smooth. The design was based on a journey towards mountains - a memory from living in Canada for three years some time ago and visiting the Rockies at every opportunity.  It is mainly woven using 2ply wool with a cotton thread in some bobbins and some glittery thread in the white areas.


Shaped-tapestry-progress
The curve at the left side and the sharper shapes at the right side had pieces of cardboard placed in them and taped in place so the half hitches wouldn't move down the warps.  These were removed later and the warps carefully pulled through into the spaces to give enough length when they were cut and turned back.  This was quite hard to do.  Double half hitches were worked on each warp and these were turned back and stitched after the tapestry was cut from the loom and cardboard discarded.

A piece of foamcore was cut carefully in the shape of the tapestry and covered with a piece of stretchy black fabric.  The tapestry was stretched slightly and pinned to the foamcore and slip- stitched around the edges into the black cloth.

It is so light it can be hung with two pins and a thread.  It was photographed on a textured yellow-green chair but I thought this background looked OK.
Shaped tapestry finished

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

What a GREAT idea with the cardboard! I was familiar to Kirsten Glasbrook's method of simply building up the edge with warp yarn like the foundation is. What an easier method with the cardboard! Thank you for sharing that!

Ruth Lathlean said...

Glad my technique was useful Jennifer. It's a bit fiddly and you sometimes need to use sticky tape to anchor the cardboard but it's a lot quicker than weaving waste - do you do much tapestry weaving?

Unknown said...

Love the movement in you design, dancing mountain spirits,also the dramatic colour.