Let’s start with…

How many hours do you weave a day?

This question always puts my nervous system on alert! Funny, huh? I feel my body get tight and my brain begin to fog. And I always start out… “well, on a GOOD day…”

So on a good day, it feels great when I weave for 3 hours or more. A GREAT day is 6 hours, but truthfully that does not happen consistently unless I’ve got lots of uninterrupted time (rare these days) AND I’m totally in the flow of the tapestry in front of me. (Happily, that does happen often). When the two combine, I am known to weave 8 hours on any given day -but not consistently- not these days. I’m not 20 something anymore!

How long did it take to do that?

That’s a tricky one, right? I’ll bet you get asked that one, too. Just can’t come up with a quick answer so I usually say it’s impossible to answer. Some tapestries begin years before they get woven so doesn’t that count? I know that’s not what people mean, though. They mean, row by row- how long does it take?

On a general basis, I don’t keep track. Unless I’m just feeling curious or feeling like I’m not weaving enough. For instance, this year has been a tough one for me where weaving productivity is concerned. I’ve been working on the same tapestry all year. So after a certain point last month (it was actually after taking the first 6 inches out for the 3rd time) I started marking it down- how many hours each day.

But I CAN answer how long it took me to un-weave! 6 hours for 6 inches x 39 inches of weaving.

Which leads to another question:

How often do I undo, why? Technical, aesthetics, color choices?

I remember clearly the first time I un-wove something. It was during the Waterline project. I had never needed to before I guess. But I can definitively say it is always aesthetics (which can, of course, involve color choices, too). The undoing I mentioned earlier- that first 6 inches of my current tapestry, for instance- was all about color choices.

I don’t think I can answer the part about “how often” I unweave an area. I would say not often. And mostly, it’s at the beginning of a project.

Which reminds me, did you know that Barbara Kingsolver is known to write something like 100 pages before settling on the right beginning? (I just read that this week and it seemed fitting to throw in here).

Here’s another question I sometimes get…

What does your daily practice look like?

I love this question and I think it automatically ties into the last one:

What am I reading? Listening to? And how it affects my work.

My daily practice is all-encompassing. It’s not just about studio time or actual weaving. It starts at sunrise and when that rhythm is thrown off, often the whole day is skewed for me.

My day starts with getting outside to walk with Sally (above photo) and is followed by a combined 45 - 90 minute practice of block therapy and yoga and a few other physical exercises I find to be beneficial. If I miss this part because of an early commitment, I’m out of sorts the rest of the day. In other words, it’s the prep work for my (tapestry) daily practice.

When I get to the studio, I first take care of incoming and outgoing emails, and any other computer work I need to do, like teaching and writing. Then, eventually, I move to the loom or sketchbook. I’m lucky to have a very comfortable studio where I live. I’m in the studio three-quarters of my waking day. (I just used a calculator to figure that out)!

I’m not physically weaving this whole time, though. I have many other interests, so I do spend quite a bit of time “researching” - reading, listening to topics related to health, plant medicine, and lately, stone medicine. (By the way, I wrote a blog post on what my daily practice was like a few years ago. It referenced an ATA Tapesty Topics issue on the subject where you can read about the daily practice of other tapestry artists, too.

So back to the what am I reading? Listening to and how does it affect my work?

I like to read memoirs and biographies! Particularly, artist biographies, but non-artist folks occasionally, too. Most recently I re-read Van Gogh’s letters to his brother and a biography on Monet and the waterlily phase. I’ve also enjoyed some art history books lately, too. It’s interesting to read about certain periods long after they’ve passed.

As far as listening goes,

I have some podcasts I like, and docu-series. Interesting to note, though. I tend not to listen to tapestry related topics.

How it affects my work?

I’ll leave that for another time…

Tapestry Questions I'm Often Asked