From watercolour to tapestry

And THIS guy, is just friggin awesome:

http://www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/artist_interviews/083_maximo_laura_12.html

I’m getting so many ideas to try out that I never got with knitting, that I think I’m heading in the right direction, and it works so well with other picture making crafts, they kinda weave (haha) together for me. And as I mentioned before, this will make my spinning more fun and less production oriented, since I probably won’t be spinning all my weaving yarns just now, just dyeing them. Win/win on time as well as pleasure.

In fact I’m already in the process of making a small frame loom to make (up to) 15×15 cm test samples of warp spacing/yarn type vs. yarn thickness of the weft as well as samples of various techniques. I figure that should keep me occupied for a while.Ā  And that’s what happens when you spend a Sunday indoors watching youtube because all the farmers decide it’s a good day to spread liquid pig manure on the fields. Gag. Not just a whif on the air this time, but massive sensory overload. I’ll probably have to rewash the laundry on the line…

And something a little different (because I wanted to save the link and my bookmarks are out of control)

http://annakubinyi.blogspot.dk/p/muterem.html

15 thoughts on “From watercolour to tapestry

  1. I loved watching the video. I’ve never seen anyone doing that before. It seems like a wonderful way to spend a day. Then I looked at the link to the Peruvian man’s work. Wow, just one of those tapestries would take me a lifetime to do. You have to admire these people, don’t you. Good luck with your beginnings šŸ™‚

    1. Yes, it’s pretty amazing – and of course when I hear they’ve all been working at it since they were young, for 20-30 or 60 years, it makes sense but I’m also thinking I’ve been wasting my time, because I won’t have that long to become just remotely good at it. But it still makes sense to me because I’ve been in a bit of a conundrum as to where to use my dye and spinning results. I can’t afford to buy wearable yarns in bulk for plant dyeing right now, but tapestry can be any old meat sheep.

  2. Oh my! That video!! I was captivated by the sounds as much as by the sights. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do – classes were among the options when I was at art college but I missed out and had to settle for artists books instead.

    I can’t wait to see how you get along with this new skill you’re acquiring … sadly it’s not for me any longer as the arthritis means I struggle to work with my arms held in front of me like that (there is one positive to that … it means hubby has to do all the ironing now!).

    1. As I mentioned, I wish it had dawned on me earlier as well. In fact it’s odd that it hasn’t, I remember knitting a pictorial poncho of my own design back in the 80’s and when I got back to knitting I did entertain the idea of knitting pictures, I just never had time or energy among all the other things I was doing. And now it just feels so right to choose this path. I’ll have to see how my hands and shoulders like it, perhaps there are workarounds in the form of designing my tools for it?

    2. I’m glad you mentioned the arm issue though – before I splurge on materials for larger looms. I know hand stitching isn’t a good thing for my neck, for the same reason I can no longer ride “smart and sporty” bicycles, as I discovered the other day while trying out some models. I’ll have to get a dorky granny type bike where you don’t lean on your arms if I want one again. And I should want one because my knees are shot and I could do with losing 8-10 pounds šŸ˜‰

  3. fascinating – I’d never heard of tapestry weaving before. It’ll be interesting to see what you come up with.

    1. I think I knew it existed in some dark corner of my mind, but not something that actively presented itself as something one person would do. It was the same with spinning before I was introduced to it, I knew it could be done, but never considered making my own yarn until I did and then I couldn’t stop! (actually that’s how it happened with reading. I knew the letters and as soon as someone told me “just say them in a sequence and you’re reading” I went “doh”, and I was reading)

  4. Hi Pia. I really liked the Jilly Edwards video. Her words are as soothing as the work she is doing. I’d like to try this myself. Jane

    1. Well, if you’re going to begin dyeing yarn, you, like me, will need something to do with in during the winter season!

  5. what a wonderfully inspiring video, thank you for posting it! I have been wanting to have a go at tapestry weaving for some time now and this just reinforced that dream. I’m looking forward to reading about how your first tapestry experiments turn out…

    And don’t you just love her stash of wool in all sorts of wonderful colours!!

    1. I just read in a weaving book that the first thing to do is to build a very large stash!! Ha! Saved my day several days in a row.

      The price on my usual plant dyeing yarn had gone up considerably, so I ordered some tapestry yarn from Texere, I think you were the one who mentioned them? Not only is it cheaper that the other yarn used to be, it’s also MUCH NICER. 4-ply instead of 2 ply in the same yarn weight. Not as scruffy. And already wound in 25 g hanks, so I don’t have to spend time doing that to the 100 g hanks. I wish I’d gotten more, since the postage is the same to DK up to 30 kg. They also have cotton yarns for warp. So you might want to keep that in mind, just in case.

      This means my old plant dyeing yarn, of which I have a bit left + all the plant dyed skeins, is not relegated to felting projects instead.

      1. Yes I mentioned Texere, it was recommended to me by someone, I think a lot of textile artists use them over here. I’ve only bought undyed silk thread from them so far, but was very pleased with the quality. I’m glad you were pleased with your purchases. And that 25g is a great tip, I seem to be spending my whole life making small skeins at the moment!!

        1. And the postage actually wasn’t much more than it would have been here for this amount. So I’m quite happy!

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