Taps

My love for skies (and one particular photo of the sky) has evolved to be  somewhat of series of art pieces beginning with the photo itself, then taking the form of a dress in hand woven shag, and finally a tapestry weaving.

Tapestry weaving is different from the more commonly known type of weaving in a few distinct ways, one being that the weft (horizontal) is discontinuous and another being that it is weft faced, making it imbalanced--as in, there is not an equal amount of warp (vertical) showing.  Both of these aspects, particularly the weft faced one, usually means that the weaving would be more time consuming than one that is not weft faced.  This is only my second tapestry weaving so I can hardly attest to the labour of tapestry (especially since mine are both only about 6X6 inches), but I can surely attest to the fact that it is meditative and exhilarating at the same time (giving your spacial intelligence a workout).  As you can see from the back this type of weaving is not exactly strait forward.

Usually tapestries are woven based on a cartoon which can be mounted behind the loom as a guide.  When I began this project I wasn't fond of this idea since I had looked at the photo for so many hours while weaving my shag dress.  For this reason I chose to attempt to weave my image without mounting it, using it more like inspiration, referring to it now and then.  

It will accompany a short research paper about tapestry weaver Jean Lurcat, who I will share more about in the next few weeks.