Tapestry Weaving

It has been a long time since I posted any tapestry weaving on this blog.  I do very little weaving now but have been trying to at least do the 20 x 20cm AU/NZ Tapestry Challenges.  A theme is given each year and the completed tapestries are circulated for exhibition in New Zealand and Australia over several months.

I have just finished this first one I called "Fire" (for the theme 'Elements') and will mail it off tomorrow.  I know my skills have deteriorated over the years since I was studying the diploma at Warrnambool TAFE.  I have too many interests and not enough time. Retirement is too busy!




The theme for 2016 was "Flight" and this shows the Concorde from a photo I took in the Nairobi Game Park in 1974.



The theme for 2015 was "My Home"and this shows my back deck. Unfortunately this tapestry and two others were stolen from an exhibition space in Melbourne.



The 2014 theme was "Light and Shade"



The 2009 theme was "Is this me?" - not sure about the result!



The first challenge I did in 2008 was titled "Tapestry Blues"

Still life painting & tapestry weaving

This was a small still life acrylic painting I did a month ago when there were plenty of peaches around.  I looked at Itten's Elements of Colour" and tried some unusual harmonious tertiary colours as my palette.  I was about to start a huge tryptich and wanted to experiment with colour.  The theme is Matisse's indoor compositions and paintings - lots of colour and pattern. The large one is still in progress 1m x 2.2m in size.

This is a small woven tapestry on the theme Light and Shade that I have just entered in the annual tapestry challenge that is exhibited in New Zealand and Australia. Images are eventually all shown on Flickr.

Tapestry Weaving

It's been a long time since I posted any weaving on this blog but now is the time!  Today I went to the Textiles Workshop in the Canberra School of Art and was present for the cutting off of the Canberra Centenary Community Tapestry. There is a blog on it at canberra100communitytapestry. This has been a huge project all year by both experienced tapestry weavers and some beginners after instruction.  It is part of the Canberra Centenary.  This photo was taken just before it was cut off.  I only contributed a small amount of weaving but it was most exciting.  Annie Trevillian was the designer.  Those familiar with Canberra can find an amazing lot of features, both historic and natural.  It will hang in the Legislative Assembly from early December.

Many are making small tapestries on Canberra to hang with the large one for a short time.  This is a small (approximately A4) tapestry that I have done.  Mine is an interpretation of Floriade which occurs every spring in Commonwealth Park.  There are lots of flower beds, especially wih bulbs. I used French knots to make them!

Tapestry flower abstract

It is a long time since I posted anything but finally I am recovering well from my hip replacement and getting back to normal activities.....  still lots of rehab. though so I can stop limping!

This tapestry weaving is not one of my best but it has been on the loom for about a year and I just had to finish it!  The surface is too irregular in places but since I was no longer working for assignments I didn't undo sections when the tension needed changing ....  I should have.  I made the design a couple of years ago when I used a photo of a crowea plant (Australian native) and applied a Photoshop filter to it.  I quite liked it so decided to weave it - 42 x 27 cm size.

Top 50 Tapestry Blogs

I've recently been notified that my blog has  been added to "Sewn Together by a Thread: Top 50 Tapestry Blogs".  I am really pleased by this, especially as I am not doing as much tapestry this year and therefore don't have much to display.   For those interested in looking up these blogs the link is http://www.liberalartsdegree.com/sewn-together-by-a-thread-top-50-tapestry-blogs/  Many of them are excellent.

Is This Me? Tapestry Weaving Challenge

Each year the AuNZ Tapestry Group have a challenge to weave and exhibit in both Australia and New Zealand.  "Is this me?" or self-portraits was the 2010 challenge and this is the link to Flickr where they are all displayed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41841907@N04/

"Tapestry Blues", the challenge from 2009 is also here.

Tapestry Weaving finished at last

At last I have finished weaving this tapestry, the largest I have done for my Tapestry Diploma course.  Is about 46cm wide and 86cm tall.  It is based on a part of an abstract collage I did earlier this year.  This is the first time I have used mixed thread for the whole work but basically it is a colour study.  Mostly woven with 2ply wool, but with a little mohair added to achieve the colours and textures I wanted.  I also used some synthetic yarn and some small beads (hard to see) are added to the centres of the dark shapes.  Many of the colours are hatched into each other and I should have done more of this in the earlier part at the bottom but I was just feeling my way then.  Sewing up vertical slits is not my favourite task but I had some quite long slits to sew as I went.

I have 5cm hems turned under at top and bottom and sewn securely.  I have also sewn velcro to the hem at the top and attached an aluminium batten with velcro stuck on to it for mounting.  There is a slight shadow line across the photo near the top but this does not show on the actual tapestry.

I really enjoyed the experience of playing with colours and choosing ones to go together in the bobbins I used to weave with. 

Tapestry Weaving Progress

Large Tapestry
It has been a month since my last post but in that time I have been weaving most days trying to complete tapestry weaving assignments for my TAFE diploma.  Here is a picture of progress of the large tapestry which I begun some time ago.  I have nearly finished then have to do a hem and mount it with a batten and velcro to hang.  It has been a lot of fun mixing coloured threads in the bobbins to create effects.  But I can't say I like the rolling warp I had to use as it's not possible to get an overall view of the design as I'm working.



Tapestry Technical Sampler (below)

The title says it all - learning to weave straight lines, curves, outlines and points. It was remarkably hard to do (woven from the side) and is not perfect. But then tapestry weaving is a long process to learn - I'm into my 5th year of the course!

Tapestry Sampler for Commission (below)

Another assignment was to do a commission for someone's home. I used a friend of mine and she was interested in tree bark patterns for the wall space in her home. This is a sampler to scale of a photograph I took ages ago of snow gum bark when it is very red and green.

This is the original photograph of the snow bark and the sampler was done accross part of the top right section. I interpreted it fairly widely although the colours are actually a little closer than they seem here on the screen.

Tapestry Weaving

I have been quiet on the tapestry front for a while but nevertheless have been busy doing lots of assignments for my Diploma course.  I am doing a large tapestry as my final assignment for this year and it is so... slow.  I thought I would put this image of it in progress. As I am using a rolling warp, part of it has been rolled under.  It is 46cm wide and will be 86cm long excluding the hem.  This image shows about the halfway mark.

This is an abstract based originally on a collage of old paintings of mine. But I have had fun playing with colours and mixed thread in a wide interpretation.   It's easy to see I love colour!

Tapestry Weaving Ergonomics

This is a tip for those tapestry weavers who have trouble getting low enough to see what they are weaving at the bottom of a frame  on a table.  I  thought I would join Tapestry Share Blog and add it there but couldn't find out how to do it. 

To weave low down on a frame attach it to an ironing board which can then be easily raised high so you can look carefully at the work you are doing without doing damage to your back.  Likewise you can lower the ironing board  to easily weave at the top of the frame and see closely what you are doing.  Hope this is useful - it may be posted to the other blog by Jennifer.

Design from photographs

This is the first more complex design I have made from photographs using Photoshop. I have used some of the photos from the National Folk Festival from my last post as well as others. I am a very amateur Photoshop worker but have learnt a few things quite well from doing this design.

The idea was to do a design for a tapestry weaving but it is really too complex unless the weaving was huge. My teacher suggested it be divided into four different ones.

Tapestry Weaving

These are some of the tapestry weavings I have done as assignments in the correspondence course I have been studying for the last 3 years.... and will continue for at least another 3 years. It began as a Diploma of Arts (Tapestry) but has recently been changed to a Diploma of Tapestry. It is offered by SW TAFE, Warrnambool, a city in western Victoria. The course has been offered for over 20 years and several students from overseas are enrolled.

I am not an expert as there is much to learn technically and in designing. It is a very slow process and one where you spend a lot of time working alone.... can be quite meditative.

Click on the photos to find out more information on each one.