My Tapestry Highlights of 2022
This is a post I like to write every year to reflect on the past year and record tapestry related highlights to look back upon. Browsing through my phone images and journal entries, I pick out the highlights of the year. It’s more of a record for myself, but if you find it interesting, read on.
My year began with zoom meetings and daily weaving on the Waterline project, but perhaps the most memorable experience that month was the ATA Studio Tour on Instagram.
Still from the Studio Tour video where I talked about yarns for weaving tapestry.
I’d never done anything like that before and I was incredibly nervous as the days led up to it. After it was over, I realized it was actually a lot of fun, and made a mental note to do more. That quickly fell to the wayside as the year progressed. (But hey, that’s what this blog post is about - a reminder of what happened… what didn’t!)
If you missed it, check out this post. I believe it does require an Instagram account to view, though.
Waterline, off the loom and resting
It seems February was almost entirely focused on the Waterline project- if my photos are any indication. Journal entries indicate the last rows of weaving were finished on the 20th.
Finishing Waterline left me somewhat paralyzed in terms of tapestry. Maybe it was the separation anxiety of sending it off so far away. I had plenty I needed to be doing: preparing for classes, working on articles, (and samples to support both), plus two new tapestries for shows I’d committed to. I decided the only way to recover was to weave a miniature.
“Mini Waterline” still on loom with tension loosened… ~5” x 5”
That seemed to do the trick because I managed to accomplish a lot in March as I began to move on. I started a weaving based on an image of a seed pod that’s been haunting me, hoping to send to Tiny But Mighty. It’s the Wild Blue Indigo seed pod that I’ve written about here before.
April was full of class preparation and sampling Array tapestry yarn from Gist Yarns for two separate articles. And travels. The beginning of three back-to-back trips with only a couple of days in between each. The first was Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado where I taught 5 tapestry classes. That was super fun and a great venue.
This was followed by a trip to Indiana where I saw a mind-blowing show of works by John Paul Morabito, A Queer Tangent in Tapestry, inspiring me to learn more about jacquard weaving. To see the entire show, click here or visit their IG profile.
John Paul Morabito, Madonna del ponte d’acqua (dopo Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino); 2019, Cotton, wool, glass beads; 79”x 41” ©John Paul Morabito
Below are details I took of the weave structure of this piece. I did say “mind-blowing!”
Travels continued into May when I flew to Los Angeles to visit my daughter, catching another exceptional exhibit while there. This time a solo of Diedrick Brackens, “heaven is a muddy riverbed.” Another amazing artist.
May continued with lots more sampling as deadlines were drawing near. And that seed pod…
It was clear about this time that the seed pod weaving was not going to work out. I had hoped to send it for Tiny But Mighty and if it didn’t get completed in time for that one, my back-up plan was to finish it for TTI’s The Natural World. But not to be.
As you can see from the images above, I did not give up easily! There was a point I was seriously considering covering the pod with knitted lace. I had a rectangular swatch from my previous days as a knitwear designer and I pinned it on top to see if it might work. I knew I would need to knit a shaped piece … and I knew that I could… But in the end, I just didn’t have the energy or the interest in knitting again.
At that point, I had to think quick because time was running out for both deadlines. Shamefully, I copped out on the Tiny but Mighty entry and sent another small weaving I’d recently completed that loosely fit the theme. But I still needed one more tapestry before the end of the month…
Luckily, the weaving goddesses were on my shoulder as I finished October Light just in time for The Natural World exhibit.
June came in like a breath of fresh air with those two major deadlines checked off. There was still the Gist blog post left, but I had most of the samples done at that point.
This month also brought about a new venture in teaching with Stitches at Home zoom classes. The Silvia Heyden study group (an added bonus to the Elements course) was also in full swing by this time so I tried to devote some time to that, too.
I even made some progress on the languishing Shannock design.
A plan and progress!
Oh, and I mentioned John Paul Morabito and my piqued interest in jacquard weaving? I took a zoom class from them on Digital Jacquard Design: Shaded Weaves! Fascinating, not that I expect to ever weave Jacquard, but I did learn some new Photoshop tricks in the process.
The last thing I did in June was to make a list. A list of each of my looms, whether empty or warped, a work in progress or merely naked warp threads. New plans began to emerge.
Unbeknownst to me, one particular event in June would prove to have a tremendous effect on my future tapestries. Coming up in Part 2…