I am working on a series of circular tapestries that are contemplations on the nature of healing, imagination, dreams, stories and the power of community.
These two tapestries: ‘Each Flower Has a Memory’
and ‘Mermaid Circle of Imagination and Hope’
were woven on many different looms, including peg looms, weaving sticks and a variety of pin looms.
There’s also quite a lot of tatting included because of the soothing nature of lace making.
The tapestries are each 28 inches in diameter (70 cm).
Here’s a little video that shows the new tapestries:
The last couple of years have been really intense as I have been working night and day on two new books as well as new tapestries and woven works.
One of the books is now up online available for pre-order (I’ll post links asap) and one of the series of tapestries is now in the gallery (Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton), awaiting the opening on October 18.
This piece is from my ‘Follow the Thread’ series of mixed media weavings:” Terpsichore- Carmen’s Birds”.
Terpsichore is the muse of the dance.
This piece is definitely influenced by my husband, Jim Findlay‘s commitment to playing flamenco.
I was having trouble resolving the piece, because I knew that she needed something to lift her to completion.
Then, my friend, Carma, who sings and dances with Jim and Susan and Barb in Corazone del Flamenco gave me a beautiful little black necklace with tiny birds, and Voila! Done! The birds were exactly what Terpsichore was needing (demanding!)
Last year, I wove a series of tapestries that I call, ‘The Fabula Figures’.
Fabula means ‘story’ in Latin… and each of the Fabula Figures is about the power of story.
The one in the photo below is called ‘Fabula Figure: The Storyteller’ and is about 44 inches tall.
She’s one of the later figures in the series.
I had woven a few prototypes for the series before January of 2017, but I really committed to the series on January 1 of 2017, and I haven’t stopped weaving them.
10 of the Fabula Figure tapestries are part of the ‘Faconner’ show that I wrote about in the previous blog post.
Here’s a little video of the Fabula Figures that I wove from January 1 – September 30, 2017:
Oops… I have been working so hard on a whole bunch of things that I kept getting to the end of my day without having taken time to play catch up on my blog.
So, I am going to do that now.
I am so happy that 15 of my tapestries are part of a one year long show at the gorgeous Legislative Assembly of Alberta gallery that is part of the gift shop, ‘Alberta Branded’ in the Edmonton Federal Building, across the plaza from the Legislature building in Edmonton AB.
When someone on facebook asked if it was possible to weave tapestry on triangle looms, I thought: ‘Great question!’
and then … ‘Of course it is!’
and then….’I have to try it to see if it really is!’
I had been mulling over weaving a new Mermaid tapestry for quite awhile, and had woven narrow bands on my Structo 4 harness loom as well as my rigid heddle box loom, to start.
I had a big ‘aha!’ about weaving the rest of the mermaid using my 14 inch triangle loom from Dewberry Ridge Looms. LINK
Because there are a few things to know about weaving tapestry on a triangle loom, I made a short video as part of the video about the Blue Butterfly Mermaid tapestry – it’s close to the end of the video.
I used other looms to weave the other elements of the tapestry: a hexagon woven in copper wire on the Lily Speed o Weave Loom, narrow bands woven on the 4 harness vintage Structo loom, narrow bands woven on a rigid heddle box loom, 2 small triangles woven on the 7 inch Lil Weaver loom from Dewberry Ridge Looms and some tatting.
The hair is twisted cord made with a cord twister from Lacis.com.
The metallic threads used in the tapestry are from Kreinik. LINK
This Mermaid has been tapping me on the shoulder for months, asking to be woven, so I made a plan.
I carefully chose my colorways when I was making all the ‘how to’ videos on the hexagon loom, (see previous posts) so that I could use them to build a Mermaid tapestry.
And, here she is: Sophia is her name:
She’s about 44 inches tall.
She includes techniques for weaving tapestry technique, mandala (tapestry woven in the round), Teneriffe and floral motifs on hexagon looms as well as a little help from the Vasilisa and Mollie Whuppie looms.
The glittery narrow band that outlines her body was woven on my little narrow band rigid heddle loom, using Kreinik metallic threads.
This tapestry is a one of a kind piece, and there are no patterns for her.
My friend asked me to please photograph the process of how I was weaving the mermaid tapestry, so I have – although I was well into the project by the time I started the photographing.
Anyhow- here’s a video showing glimpses of the hundreds of hours I put into weaving Sophia, the Mermaid, tapestry:
For many months, I have been working really hard on new mixed media fiber art sculptures.
The 6th Sense is intuition/inspiration/imagination.
These one of a kind art dolls are based on dreams, memories, meditations and contemplations and are an invitation to embrace creativity, healing and wholeness.
They are a combination of tapestry weaving, narrow band weaving, lucet cords, tatting, knitting, wood work wire work and leather work.
Here’s a slide show video of my 6th Sense One of a Kind Art dolls.
Most of the 6th Sense One of a Kind Art Dolls in the video are for sale, but some of them have already sold and gone to live in their new homes.
I have posted a new video tutorial that is the second in a series of how to weave tapestry on the Mollie Whuppie and Vasilisa looms.
I designed the Mollie Whuppie and Vasilisa looms and Dewberry Ridge makes them. They’re wonderful!
This video shows how to
1- Start the weaving at the curved edge while weaving side to side.
2- How to fill the curved space that will form by using eccentric weaving (weaving that doesn’t go all the way from side to side).
3- How to weave dots of color.
4- How to use hatching to make a pattern- in this case, a circle shape in the middle of the weaving is made by alternating 2 colors of yarn.
5- How to finish the straight edge at the end of the weaving.
Here’s the video:
To see how to set up the Mollie Whuppie loom please go to my previous post, which will take you to the first video in this series: LINK
