![]() ![]() By stepping back or holding their work at arm’s length the weaver can better view the overall progress of their work. The importance of both of these types of looms is that they enable the weaver to see their work as a whole. Both looms are generally positioned in an upright fashion or semi reclined position to facilitate sitting for long periods of time more comfortably. The former helps to semi-automate the weaving process, the latter is entirely achieved by hand. ![]() With these constraints in mind, the typical type of loom that a tapestry weaver will work on is either an upright tapestry loom which has a mechanism for switching picks (or rows) of plain weave or a frame loom (available in different sizes). (Photos from left to right: 1 & 2 Cassandra Smith, 3, Christabel Balfour) ![]() It also indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done once the tapestry is complete as the back of the tapestry will contain many ends that will need to be secured so that the final tapestry remains stable. The stop-start nature of this type of weaving also means that from a technical standpoint this type of weaving is very slow. ![]() But for the purposes of the hobby weaver, this still remains true). (As I write this I must confess that this is no longer strictly true, as there are now Jacquard looms which can easily, quickly and effectively create intricate tapestries on an industrial scale. As each section of the weft begins and ends in different locations across the width of the warp, the standardized nature of industrial looms dictates that this cannot be achieved efficiently or cost-effectively. One of the challenges of tapestry weaving is that by nature the process of tapestry weaving maintains that it can only be woven by hand. In truth the opposite is often true, but more on this later. There are of course exceptions to what constitutes a tapestry today as contemporary tapestry weavers do not always use simple yarns to create a flat cloth with similar textures. By working with only one pattern (plain weave) and restricting the yarns to only one type (or quality) of weft yarn, the outcome is a uniform, flat cloth that completely covers the warp yarns and creates extraordinary, detailed works of art. Historically the simplicity of this type of weaving is what has made it unique. The more pixels, the more definition and detail the cloth can have. For a modern analogy, you can equate this process to having a high ratio of pixels in a photograph. By changing the colours of the weft threads in small, specific locations on the overall cloth, the weaver can create very detailed drawings using yarn. The nature of this process enables the weaver to create a woven cloth that has a painterly quality to it. (Photos from left to right: 1, 2, 3, Cassandra Smith) By completely covering the warp threads the result is what is referred to as a weft-faced cloth, one which is densely packed and requires the dis-continuous weft threads to be securely woven in, thereby creating a stable cloth. In order to achieve this the warp is generally spaced wider apart and with a thick, neutral-coloured warp yarn and designed so that the colourful weft yarns cover the warp yarn in its entirety. Essentially you are more in control of the placement of the yarn which allows you greater flexibility to ‘draw with yarn’. By working with short, dis-continous lengths of yarn, you can control whether your pattern repeats or not and if so, the repeat can be across an irregular number of warp threads. Tapestry weaving is a hand-manipulated technique of creating cloth that involves working with one (or more) dis-continuous weft threads (horizontal threads) passing through the warp (vertical threads) in an irregular sequence to build up rows of woven cloth. Anyhow, this week I’m talking about the tapestry weaving process. Last week I wanted to write about the difference between hand-weaving and tapestry weaving but found that I had so much to say about each subject that I thought I’d split this topic into two blog posts (OK, 3 blog posts actually, so tune it next week!). ![]()
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