Mid September I revisited Lost Arts Fiber and Textile Studio in Waukesha , WI for a 3 day workshop entitled Tapestry Portraits from Photographs. Nancy Wilson, owner of the Studio, and I decided to change it up a bit this year and purposefully use photos as resource for our weavings. Pets were an option.
I think all 10 of the participants can agree with me that this was an intense workshop. Most came with looms warped and had some experience, but not all. I'm especially proud of my first time tapestry weavers, they were not deterred and returned each day ready to go.
The results were quite remarkable.
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| one of my first time weavers and look at the results below |
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| he really captured the essence of his wife in this |
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| Sam cat begins to emerge |
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| Alice the dog with her doggles in a motorcycle side car...try that! |
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| I bet you know what inspiration this weaver used |
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| an illustrator used to drawing tries tapestry for the first time |
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| a face woven on the diagonal - yikes, always hard |
As with anything new, I reflected on what worked, what would needed to be changed. I have always had an aversion to photos and cartoons in my classes, I find students become too clingy, wanting to never put them aside to see where the weaving process is taking them. Photos can set you up for failure if you don't think through your interpretation.
Change and adaptation must happen.
But these 10 artists were good sports, did not give up...even when I nagged at them.
After all, as I like to say, art is hard.
PS.
Of course I arrived the night before so I could hang out at the local laundromat and do a couple sketches. Each place has it's own flavor, this was quite the find.
