Category Archives: Loom & looms & small loom weaving

September 30, 2014 · 12:39 pm

Too many projects for one book?

Oh oh…. I am so inspired by my new book about peg loom weaving that I am coming up with waaaaaaaaaay too many ideas for it….

I can draw a star with my weaving sticks LOL

And, then, instead of carrying on with figuring out yardage etc and working on the forms I have created to help me track my progress and keep everything organized… I stopped and played…..

Sigh.

That’s not going to get a book written, is it?

Okay.

Back to work.

(Voice of Inner Child: But look! I can draw things with my weaving sticks! Whee!

Voice of Serious, Studious Adult: Oh, shush, and let me get back to work…. oh wait… that IS fun!)

All right, all right…. I really am getting back to work now.

Really. 😉

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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, Peg and Stick Loom weaving, peg looms and weaving sticks, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as Noreen Crone-Findlay, peg loom weaving, weaving sticks, weavingsticks, writing a book

September 25, 2014 · 3:18 pm

Book Contract Signed- Now I Can Tell

Wheee! I am so excited!

I can finally share my good news!

For months, I have been sworn to secrecy, but now….the contracts are signed…. so……..

My editor has given me the go ahead to let the cat out of the bag.

(A brief moment of happy dancing here)

Stackpole Books is going to be publishing my new book about Peg and Stick Loom Weaving.

I love peg looms and stick weaving- they are simple little looms, but have incredible creative potential.

I have already self published many ebooks and patterns for wonderful designs with peg and stick looms:

Jewelry making with Peg and Stick looms: LINK

Baskets LINK

Mermaid Dolls LINK

Woven Dolls: with 6 weaving sticks LINK with 4 weaving sticks LINK

A shortcut to my Peg Loom & Stick Weaving listings on etsy are: ETSY

And, I’ll post pics of some of the tapestries that I have woven on the Peg Loom soon, just to show a bit more of the potential of these delightful looms.

For the new book, I have designed oodles and oodles and oodles of new designs- oh my! I am so excited!!!!!

And…. I am covering all kinds of awesome techniques right from the very basics up to advanced and slightly boggling ways of working with the peg loom. (And weaving sticks, too).

I’ll be working my sweet little chops off from now until June of 2015, when the manuscript, photos, illustrations and diagrams take flight to land in the capable hands of my editor and her clever cohorts.

They will then spend months making magic with it, (so much happens to the text, photos, diagrams and illustrations once the wizards of technology at Stackpole Books get their hot little hands flying!).

Then, the book comes back to me for my proofreading, and back to them and then, it takes flight again, off to the printers.

That’s why it takes another whole year before it can miraculously pop up on book shelves.

It’s worth the wait 🙂 I hope.

I’ve asked my editor if it’s okay to share my journey with writing the book with you, and she has said yes, as long as it doesn’t upset people that they have to wait so long for it.

There is soooooooooooo much involved in writing a book, and I find it very interesting, so I hope that you will, too.

(And of course, I can’t let the cat out of the bag about the exact projects until the book is closer to release, but then, I’ll be able to share ALL the pics).

But, now…. I must get back to work!

After a little more happy dancing, of course….. 🙂

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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, Peg and Stick Loom weaving, peg looms and weaving sticks, personal stuff, weaving & handwoven

Tagged as Noreen Crone-Findlay, peg loom weaving, publishing, Stackpole Books, weaving sticks, writing a book

September 5, 2014 · 2:34 pm

Woven Women- And All Shall Be Well

One of my most favorite prayers is Dame Julian of Norwich’s …

“And All Shall Be Well, and All Shall Be Well, and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well….”

This prayer is a mantra that I repeat to myself through thick and thin, through the darkest nights and hardest moments- we all have them, and they are transformed into a wellspring of compassion, but, oh my, how incredibly challenging it can be at times to navigate them.

Thank you, Dame Julian, for these words to live by…..

I love weaving words, and have done many woven homages to Dame Julian.

But, this is the first time I have woven her prayer in tapestry-

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay www.crone-findlay.com

She is approximately 36 inches tall.

I wove the central tapestry panel on my Mirrix 8 inch tapestry loom at 6 epi.

The side and back panels were woven on my 4 harness floor loom at 12 epi.

On her face, there are bits of sea glass, fragments of pottery and seashells, as well as driftwood.

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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tapestry, weaving & handwoven, Woven Women tapestries and woven works

Tagged as And all shall be well, Dame Julian, Dame Julian of Norwich, hand weaving, Mirrix loom, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestries, tapestry, woven

August 23, 2014 · 12:38 pm

Woven Women tapestries- Seven Ravens

The story, The Seven Ravens, by the Brothers Grimm inspired me to weave a tapestry.

I have been working on it for more than 5 months, and I am thrilled to have finally (!!!) finished it!!!!

While I was weaving it, I tried to remember to take progress pics, so I could make a little video showing how it grew.

I wasn’t very good at remembering to do that, so the pics really lurch and skip, but c’est la vie- sometimes, we lurch, don’t we?

And, now, thank goodness, it’s finally done!!!! yay!!! done done done!

And, here is the little video showing how it grew:

I am now delighted to be warping up for a new tapestry- yay!

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Tagged as Brothers Grimm, fairy tales, Noreen Crone-Findlay, raven, ravens, Seven Ravens tapestry by Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestry, tapestry weaving, The Seven Ravens, woven tapestry, Woven Women tapestries by Noreen Crone-Findlay

August 20, 2014 · 9:57 am

Woven Women – Three Sisters

Three sisters of the heart- tapestry/mixed media pieces that I wove and fabricated this summer:

On the left: Woven Women- Asking for Miracles 36 inches tall
Center: Woven Women- Edith’s Song (no regrets) 31 inches tall
On the right: Woven Women- Small Bird Sang and All Was Forgiven 36 inches tall

Woven on my Mirrix tapestry looms (16 inch wide loom and 8 inch wide loom).

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Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, Mirrix, Mirrix looms, mixed media art, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestry, tapestry weaving, textiles, weaving, Woven Women tapestries by Noreen Crone-Findlay

August 18, 2014 · 9:06 pm

Woven Women-Asking for Miracles

Night and day for the last couple of weeks, I have been weaving up a storm, finishing Part 3 of Rebecca Mezoff’s online tapestry workshop.

And, I have just finished: Woven Women- Asking For Miracles, which is built around the sampler that I wove for Part 3:

The dragon ship on her chest is based on images in the Bayeux tapestries, and the tree of life is based on a fragment of the Overhogdal tapestry fragments that I saw in the Viking exhibition at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, BC in July.

The Overhogdal tapestry was woven with a linen background, with the figures outlined in soumak and the colors filled in with colored weft in a kind of brocade technique.

The imagery in these tapestries is just so marvelous that I find them really inspiring and love sketching elements from them.

For her head dress, bodice construction, cuffs and hem, I used narrow bands that I wove on my double slotted Swedish rigid heddle loom.

Her head, hands, shoulder medalions, and feet are plywood.

I drew, cut out and burned and painted all the wooden elements.

Her earrings are made from beads, vintage buttons and reproductions of Viking coins that I bought in the Museum gift shop.

‘Asking for Miracles’ was woven on my 16 inch Mirrix tapestry loom and is about 36 inches tall.

And, that title?

Well…. there are a lot of things happening these days that could use some miraculous energy to set them to rights…

you know, the wars, the devastations that are being wrought on so many levels and in so many ways on our precious little planet.

As I weave, I often meditate on sending out peaceful, healing energy…. the stuff that miracles are made of, after all, so to be honest, I think that when I am doing this, I am asking for miracles…..

and may your life be full of miracles of healing, wholeness, wonderfulness in every way!

Miracles.

Yes, please.

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Filed under Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tapestry, weaving & handwoven, Woven Women tapestries and woven works

Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, Mirrix loom, mixed media weaving, Noreen Crone-Findlay, Rebecca Mezoff, Royal British Columbia Museum, tapestries, tapestry, tapestry loom, tapestry workshop, woven, Woven Women tapestry by Noreen Crone-Findlay

August 11, 2014 · 11:09 am

July 2014 Tapestry Diary

I’ve been so busy catching up since we got home from holidays that I forgot to post a pic of my July Tapestry diary.

Here it is:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay www.tottietalkscrafts.com

The title is: ‘Questions’.

It’s 3 inches wide by 5 inches tall.

I wove it on my wee copper pipe loom at 8 epi.

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Tagged as copper pipe tapestry loom, hand weaving, hand woven, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestries, tapestry, Tapestry Diary, tapestry diary weave along, textiles

August 8, 2014 · 8:03 pm

Woven Women- Small Bird Sang and All Was Forgiven

When we went on holidays in July, I took along 4 small looms- My Norwegian Cradle loom, my 8 inch Mirrix tapestry loom, my wee copper pipe loom and my tiny peg loom.

I warped up my Norwegian Cradle loom with fine cotton to weave a narrow band, using my Swedish double slotted rigid heddle.

The heddle is actually too wide for the Cradle loom, but oddly enough, this worked well in a quirky way.

I wove and wove and wove and wove as we drove for many, many days, with the Norwegian Cradle loom in my lap:

The cotton thread in the narrow band is in the same colors that I was using to weave the sampler for Part 2 of the online tapestry course offered by Rebecca Mezoff.

I knew that I wanted to have narrow bands as part of the figure that I was weaving, using the sampler as the body.

And here she is: Her name is:
“Small Bird Sang and All Was Forgiven”.

Her body is the sampler that includes the techniques that were covered in Part Two of the course.

I wove her arms separately, using techniques from Part 2 as well.
I have included driftwood from our beachcombing at the ocean, as well as found objects.

Her hands, head, feet and the archway panel are cut from Baltic birch plywood. (Lovely stuff!)

I burned the features with a wood burning tool, and then painted and embellished with encaustic.

She is 36 inches/90 cm tall.

I wove her body first, then re-warped the loom and wove the arms separately.

Her body and arms were woven on my 8 inch Mirrix tapestry loom, which I also took along on holidays, as it’s a fabulous little traveling loom.

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Tagged as double hole Swedish rigid heddle loom, hand weaving, hand woven, Mirrix loom, narrow band weaving, Noreen Crone-Findlay, Norwegian cradle loom, Rebecca Mezoff, tapestry, tapestry weaving, textiles, weaving, Woven Women tapestry by Noreen Crone-Findlay

July 13, 2014 · 10:13 am

Woven Women- Edith’s Song

I’ve just finished weaving a new piece that I have called: ‘Edith’s Song: No Regrets’:

For the last 3 weeks, I have been weaving away, loving working on a sampler for Part One of Rebecca Mezoff’s online tapestry weaving workshop. LINK to her course outlines. (Love the course, highly recommend it!)

While I was weaving it, I got inspired to weave the last section in 3 panels- one for the torso, and 2 for the arms.

I shaped the upper edge in a semi circle to be the neckline of her bodice, and left empty triangles at the elbows so I could shape bent arms.

I pulled the warp strands to bend the arms and to shape her torso.

I chose to leave the slits unstitched in the lower panel so I could weave in narrow bands that I had previously woven on my double hole rigid heddle loom.

I also used the narrow bands as the hem and other embellishments.

I cut the head, hands and feet from 1/4 inch plywood.

The wings were a serendipitous thrift shop find.

The beads around her face are a peyote stitch tube that I made a couple of years ago and have been waiting for the perfect project.

Woven on my 16 inch Mirrix loom, using Paternayan tapestry yarn that I inherited from my mother and handspun from my daughter in law.

She makes me feel happy. 🙂

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Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, Mirrix loom, Noreen Crone-Findlay, Rebecca Mezoff, Rebecca Mezoff online tapestry workshop, tapestry, Woven Women tapestry by Noreen Crone-Findlay

July 1, 2014 · 10:55 am

Tapestry diary June 2014 -Doorway

Having committed to weaving a tapestry diary for the year of 2014 has been a wonderful experience for me.

As I have been experimenting with my diary pieces, I have come to a huge ‘aha’ about the ways that I love to work.

I have found that weaving tiny tapestries, 3 inches/7.5 cm by 5 inches/12.5 cm truly makes my heart sing.

Here is my completed tiny tapestry for the month of June:

I wanted to show the small size of the tapestry by placing it in the context of my studio, and I inadvertently included a little self revelation that made me flinch when I first saw the pic.

My little rock with ‘good enough’ in chalk….. not feeling good enough has been a life long struggle for me, and it’s rather ouchie to have my little ‘good enough’ rock in the photo.

BUT, I figured that I am not alone in this struggle, so, what the heck…. if it feels too uncomfortable to leave the pic as is, I can take it down… but… maybe it could be helpful to someone else who navigates that particular minefield, too, so, I’ll leave it for now.

To be honest, the weaving in this piece does have aspects that are not good enough.

But, as I have lived with now for the few days since I finished it, I have decided that there’s more to it than meets the eye, and I like how I have had ‘aha’ moments with it- finding new meaning in it.

One of the rules of the tapestry diary that I have made for myself is that I have to ask myself:

Where am I right now? What am I working on?

And, then do a drawing that feels like it has possibilities to show me more about that.

When I began my June drawing, I was deeply grieving the death of one of our beloved little dogs, as well as several other losses.

It made me really aware of how those we love do come and go, and how tender and precious life is…. and that’s what came up in the drawing and the weaving.

On the other hand, my daughter in law thinks it looks like something out of Star Trek or sci fi.

LOL!!!! That works for me! I say: If you see something in it that I didn’t, then, YAY! that’s a win.

….. and that’s good enough for me…..

🙂

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Tagged as diary, handweaving, handwoven, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestry, Tapestry Diary