Category Archives: Woven Women tapestries and woven works

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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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 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”.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay www.tottietalkscrafts.com

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

June 6, 2014 · 11:43 am

Woven Women – Spiral Eyes

A couple of days ago, I posted photos of ‘Woven Women- Spiral Eyes’ in process and with the weaving finished, but still on the loom. LINK

I was planning on weaving more small diary pieces on the same warp, but- oops!

I broke a warp strand while advancing the warp- ack!

So, I cut the warp off and finished framing her:

My thoughts while weaving this piece were

that we simply have to come from a place of compassion….

which is what the spirals represent to me-

spiral in, spiral out.

The eyes, of course, are about seeing….

the blue around her face represents tears,

the green in the spirals is all about hope.

So… that’s what’s woven into a very tiny tapestry. (It’s 3 inches by 5 inches)

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Tagged as miniature tapestries, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestries, tapestry, tapestry diary weave along, Woven Women tapestries by Noreen Crone-Findlay

June 2, 2014 · 4:27 pm

Tapestry Diary May 2014

I have committed to a year long project on Ravelry- weaving a tapestry diary.

I didn’t quite finish my May tapestry diary piece in May…. I just finished it today.

I have been bothered and irritated by one of the eyes and just wasn’t happy, so had to do some serious unweaving and unpicking.

I am still not quite there with it, but it’s going to be on the loom until I weave the next diary piece (I warped enough to weave several small diary entries) so, I can puzzle over it more, or simply accept it as is.

It’s called: Woven Women- Spiral Eyes.

Here it is in progress:

And here it is in it’s ~almost finished~ state (of course, it will have to be ‘really finished’ later when it comes off the loom, but that won’t be happening right away)

It’s about how we spiral inward when we are faced with difficult events in our lives-

May was very challenging for us, with the death of one of dear old dogs, the destruction of my website by hackers, then, learning that the gallery that was supposed to be hosting the solo show of my tapestries and other woven works has been botched by the builders, so the gallery can’t open this year- so my show is cancelled.

Then, we learned that a long, long time friend is very ill.

Rough, rough month…. and in the news, the school girls in Nigeria still not being released, as well as troubles all over the planet…. oh my….

And, the thing that I take away from my personal journey and looking at what others are facing,

is that we simply have to come from a place of compassion….

which is what the spirals represent to me-

spiral in, spiral out.

The eyes, of course, are about seeing….

the blue around her face represents tears,

the green in the spirals is all about hope.

So… that’s what’s woven into a very tiny tapestry. (It’s 3 inches by 5 inches)
I will be framing it in one of my painted plaster frames when it comes off the loom.

On a very happy note, I was thrilled today to receive the most gorgeous package of yarn from LeiLaniSue of Heavenly Fibers LINK

Thank you, thank you, LeiLani!

So very beautiful!!!!!!! and soooooooooooooo appreciated!!!!!

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Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestry, Tapestry Diary, tapestry weaving, Woven Women tapestry by Noreen Crone-Findlay

May 15, 2014 · 4:38 pm

Woven Women- Blue Dress

Today, I finished another of my tiny tapestries: “Woven Women- Blue Dress”.

I wove her on the very small copper pipe loom that Jim built for me:

And then blocked her:

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

And, finally….

framed her:

Details:

The tapestry is 3 inches by 5 inches (approximately).

The frame is about 5 inches by about 7 inches (also approximate).

Woven at 8 epi.

Warp: Cotton Seine Twine

Weft: Wool tapestry yarn.

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Tagged as Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestry, Tapestry Diary, Woven Women - Blue Dress, Woven Women tapestries by Noreen Crone-Findlay

May 6, 2014 · 4:24 pm

Woven Women- May Day in her frame

A few months ago, my wonderful daughter, Chloe Findlay-Harder, bought me some exquisite vintage chip carved frames in our favorite thrift shop.

Oh my! Inspiration!

Weave tiny tapestries!

Make moulds!

Cast plaster of paris to make many frames!

Well…. it’s been a lot of work, and I haven’t been at all certain that it would turn out…

I’ve had a few fails along the way, but….

WHEEEEEEEE!!!!

I finished the first tiny tapestry (it’s 3 inches by 5 inches) – I posted about it yesterday.

She’s called: Woven Women: May Day

I loved weaving her soooooooooooooooo much that I asked my darlin’ husband to make me a teeny tiny copper pipe loom for weaving the rest of the series. Bless his heart, he built me a poifeck one, but more about that later….

Anyhow, with trepidation, I painted many layers of paint onto one of the frames, added some woven band to the top and bottom and worked out a system that will keep the tiny tapestry secured in the frame.

And, Voila!

Here she is:

‘Woven Women: May Day’ in her frame. (The frame measures about 8 inches/20 cm tall by 6 inches/15 cm wide).

The photo goobered on me and doesn’t show the paint accurately. Ah, well, c’est la vie….

I LOVE LOVE LOVE weaving these tiny tapestries more than words can say!

Happy dancing. Yup. 🙂

The only problem is that I love working on the tiny tapestries so much, that it’s hard for me to go back to weaving on a larger scale! oops….

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Tagged as Chloe Findlay-Harder, hand weaving, hand woven, miniature tapestries, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestries, tapestry, Woven Women tapestries by Noreen Crone-Findlay

May 5, 2014 · 7:15 pm

Tapestry Diary tiny Woven Women

As part of my ongoing participation in a year long weave along of tapestry diaries, I am weaving small images for my Woven Women show of tapestries and other woven works.

I have just finished 2 new tiny woven pieces – they were both on the same loom, so I had to finish the second one so I could cut them both off the loom and finish them.

And, here they are: (They are each 11 inches tall).

‘Woven Women: Dreaming of Flowers’:

and,

‘Woven Women: Looking Skywards’

Now that the loom is finally empty, I warped up, using a ‘Four selvedges’ technique.

I have begun a series of very very small tapestries that are 3 inches by 5 inches.

This is ‘Woven Women- May Day’:

I am making plaster frames for the series of 3 inch by 5 inch tapestries, and have started experimenting with how I will be painting them…. right now, the first one looks like a black blob, so there’s not much point in photographing it, but I will soon.

Weaving the tapestry diary pieces is just pure joy. 🙂

I am working on some larger pieces, too. Must take some photos….

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Tagged as 'Woven Women' by Noreen Crone-Findlay, hand woven, Noreen Crone-Findlay, tapestries, tapestry, Tapestry Diary, Weave along, weaving

April 7, 2014 · 11:07 am

Tapestry Diary – 4

I’ve been working on a series of little woven ‘dancing ladies’ for my Woven Women show.

And, I am participating in a tapestry weave along on Ravelry.

This week, I finished one of my Dancing Ladies- “Snowy Spring”.

I have a thing about red shoes, so, I just had to make red patent leather shoes for her….

And I even made heels for them (the soles and heels are heavy leather, the uppers are very thin patent leather)

She’s about 13 inches tall/33 cm tall.

I wove her on the Schacht Mini loom, which is a small plastic loom that I quite like.

I was surprised by how well it worked for tapestry weaving- I wasn’t sure about tensioning on it, but that was not a problem. (I wove in a tiny thin dowel at the top, which worked beautifully as a shed stick, and provided some tension).

She delights me.

I love how the tapestry diary is leading me in unexpected directions.

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March 30, 2014 · 3:48 pm

Tapestry Diary 2014- 3

This week has been insanely busy, with a major new project being on the top of my list, plus a maker’s faire yesterday, AND having to rush to get a vest done that I have been working on as a wedding gift… busy… very busy!

Even so- I have been working on my tapestry diaries….

Here’s where I have gotten to with my latest ‘Dancing Lady’:

The Schacht Mini Loom has been surprisingly satisfying for this small piece (*no affiliations or profit from saying that I do like this little loom*) although, of course, tensioning is pretty minimal!

I still have a whole lotta work to do on her, but that is ongoing.

For April, I will be working on this piece, that is the other half of the warp strands from my first Dancing Lady of the month:

The light is so glaring in my studio right now that I am either getting totally over exposed or under exposed pics. Sorry.

One of the things that has kept me so wildly busy, is that I am participating in a very neat project in Edmonton, Alberta, called, ‘Green Windows City’.

A group of artists have been paired with businesses in Old Strathcona, a very artsy part of Edmonton.

The artists are scrounging up stuff that has been discarded, or donated to the ReUse center, and are creating magical installations in one storefront window of their assigned business.

I chose the theme: ‘Weaving a new world’, and have been busily building a mannequin and loom and stand and props, and will be weaving up all manner of things….
so, here’s the loom warped (I’ll show more about the loom and stand in the upcoming days), but I haven’t got the drawing done for the cartoon yet….

The warp is set at 6 epi, and is soft hemp that was given to me by someone who had given up on weaving. The label said that it was warp, but it’s sure new to me to use hemp as warp! Wish me luck!!!!

The next couple of weeks are going to be sooooooooo busy, as I have to have everything done and ready for the installation on April 17 – eeeeeeeeep!

But, I do feel that the weaving on the loom for the installation is very much part of my diary process, so I will be including it here, and posting about it.

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tapestry, Woven Women tapestries and woven works

Tagged as Edmonton Alberta, green projects, Green Windows City, tapestry, Tapestry Diary, tapestry weaving, upcycling