Monday, September 23, 2019

Tapestry Weavers Create More Portraits

And have fun doing it, at least I hope so...

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.

one of my first time weavers and look at the results below

he really captured the essence of his wife in this

Sam cat begins to emerge

Alice the dog with her doggles in a motorcycle side car...try that!

I bet you know what inspiration this weaver used

an illustrator used to drawing tries tapestry for the first time

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.





Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Summer Dyeing, Revamped Website and Laundry Sketches

It's official, Summer's Over....well at least Labor Day has passed...and when the kids start walking to school around here, I figure it's time for me to get into fall mode.



remember this project? remember the snow?

It was a delightful summer, Wisconsin weather behaved itself far better than last year so my dyeing efforts have been quite pleasant. I focused on some yarns I needed for upcoming workshops and the Almost Neutrals I will need to complete the final 2 pieces of Substitute Tales. These are the barely green, barely blue, slightly mauve. Very difficult colors to achieve, trust me.



I've revised and streamlined my website and the most exciting part is I've added a page of Laundry Sketches. Head over here and see them all together, it puts a smile on my face and I hope the same will happen to you.



Summer weaving focused on a new workshop I'm teaching at Lost Art Fiber Studio near Milwaukee called Tapestry Portraits from Photographs. I've enjoyed the chance to think about how I approach using photos which I do, but with great caution.

It was delightful to weave all three samples from photos of my daughter.



A better model you could not ask for.

How was your summer? I'm hoping you stayed creative and continue to do so this fall.