At the loom again, finally!

The studio has been unpacked for awhile, and I have been faithfully weaving my tapestry diary, but until last week I hadn't actually started a new tapestry.  One of the things I love most about our new place is that the windows are open all the time and New Mexico winds blow through . . . all the time.  Since my last studio was in a window-less basement, I am loving the airflow.

That's the working title of this new small piece, Airflow.  It's more of a study than anything, and a sample for the class I'm teaching at Convergence next month about using collage to design for tapestry.

Here is the collage I started with, along with the cartoon, the array of yarns and the yarn wrap, and barely visible at top left, my list of "20 Things I know about this piece" (thank you, Kathe Todd-Hooker), even if I did come up with only 11.  Did I mention it's a small piece (12" x 6")?  For some reason I left the blue yarns out of the photo.  But I am loving the gradations available from Weaver's Bazaar.  

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One fun thing I'm experimenting with this time is using the same yarn for both warp and the background of the image (it's Davidson Corporation's "Navaho warp", a Churro wool available at Earth Guild in Asheville, NC.)  I was inspired by painter David Hockney's early practice of leaving blank canvas visible in his paintings, and I wanted to try to translate this idea into tapestry.

Here are some progress shots.

I'm breaking up the background with slightly curved lines of eccentric weaving that go from selvage to selvage.  Those lines indicate the airflow.  You can't see it in the photos, but for these lines I'm combining two strands of shiny translucent metallic yarn from Giovanna Imports with the Churro warp.

I am so enjoying being back at the loom.  I hope you are finding time to weave--or whatever gets your own creative juices flowing--this June!

A reminder:  there is still some room in my two-day workshop at Convergence called Collage to Tapestry Cartoon.  Find out more and sign up HERE.  The supply list is  minimal since we'll be focusing on design rather than weaving.  I'd love to see you there!