Tag Archives: tapestry

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’:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com

and,

‘Woven Women: Looking Skywards’

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com

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’:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com

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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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’:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

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:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

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….

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

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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Tapestry Diary for Woven Women show- 1

Even though I haven’t been posting about my solo show of tapestries and woven works (Woven Women) that is opening in August 2014 (eep…. tick tock, tick tock…. eep), I have been working away on new pieces for it.

I noticed that the Tapestry weaving group on Ravelry (the facebook of the fibre arts world) is having a weave along in which people are weaving ‘Tapestry Diaries’.

That means that they are weaving daily, weekly or monthly, on pieces that reflect their lives in those given moments.

I have wanted to do this for several years, but just have never started one…. until, the other day, I had an ‘Aha!’ moment.

I have been contemplating a series of small woven figures- I’ve woven the faces for them, but haven’t started the bodies.

It struck me that weaving the bodies for these figures would work beautifully as a Tapestry Diary.

I got all excited about doing this, and then took the plunge and asked the moderator if I could join, even if I am late to the party.

She graciously said that I could, and so I am!

I love that the online community creates ‘Virtual Guilds’ with members from all over the planet inspiring and encouraging each other. It’s just awesome.

I decided to warp up my 8 inch Mirrix tapestry loom to get started, but I can see that I may want to warp up my 16 inch Mirrix for this, too.

Some people choose to weave very specific shapes in their tapestry diaries, like little squares or rectangles, that are quite uniform in size.

I have decided that my shape is going to be one that I have loved working with over the decades.

It’s an hourglass motif that has shown up in embroidery, weaving, stitchery,  stone and metal work for thousands of years.

It’s sometimes called. ‘The Shepherdess’ motif.

I did a bunch of drawings, until I was happy with a very simple, basic shape that I think will give me lots of options for experimenting with color and pattern. Of course, I have no idea how they will turn out.  🙂

I chose to weave these figures in a fairly narrow configuration-  only 3 inches wide, set at 8 ends per inch.

Here’s my loom warped up, heddled, and with the first little bit woven.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com

I inherited my mother’s stash of embroidery floss and threads, and will be using them in this series.

Thanks, Mom….. hope you like what I am doing with your treasures……

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Woven Women- Our Lady of the Waters

Today, on facebook, the National Parks of Canada said that it is ‘World Wide Water Day’.

So, I decided to post a photo of my newest tapestry:’ Woven Women: Our Lady of the Waters’

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com

And, here is her poem:

Our Lady of the Waters

Moving in us, through us-

Fill us with awe

with wonder

at the beauty

the Every Thing….

Fill us with delight

in the power of

the sacred drop of water.

What color is water?

It is, ‘Yes’.

It is, ‘Life’.

It is ALL.

‘Woven Women- Our Lady of the Waters’ is a mixed media tapestry, including wool yarn, stones, wire and pounded metal.

I wove her with several different looms: A tapestry loom, a 2 harness table loom, a 2 harness Saori floor loom, a peg loom and also used a spool knitter.

She’s  28 inches tall by 11 1/2 inches wide.

I think that she is probably my favorite piece that I have ever woven.

Here’s a closeup of a section that I wove on the table loom at 15 epi.

I used tabby,  inlay, soumak, clasped weft and embroidery.

It was VERY slow to weave:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay http://www.crone-findlay.com

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Woven Women- In the Heart of the Flower

In the deep mid-winter, I long for flowers.

My studio is full of plants that bloom, and I am grateful for their beauty.

Even though I can’t have flowers growing outside in the deep deep snow and ice,

I can dream of flowers and weave yarn songs to blossoms and blooming……

Here is my homage to flowers and blossoms:

copyright
Noreen Crone-Findlay
http://www.crone-findlay.com

She is 15 inches wide by 39 inches tall.

See: Woven Women-Dreaming the Well   LINK   for a photo of how I weave these tapestries on peg looms.

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Woven Women – Blythe Spirit

This week’s tapestry is a love song to my beloved cousin who died from a brain tumor.

She was a total sweetheart and I miss her so much.

She was a gifted photographer, and I based this tapestry on a self portrait that she took of herself not long before she died.

I’ve named it, ‘Blythe Spirit’, because that’s what she is….. a lovely soul!

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

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Woven Women- Child in the Shadows

I’ve decided that once a week, I am going  to post a photo of one of the pieces from my solo show of tapestries and woven works, ‘Woven Women’.

This week, it’s : ‘Child in the Shadows’.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

I love working with images of shadows.

I wove this little tapestry using Soumak stitch.

It’s 8 1/2 inches wide by 9 1/2 inches tall.

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A video showing the Woven Women Mermaids Song tapestry

I am working on a large series of woven and mixed fiber media pieces that I am calling: Woven Women.

I am almost done a fairly large piece, called: Mermaid’s Song: 

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

She’s large- 6 ft by 2ft, and hard to photograph in my studio, so I figured that I would show a video of her.

I used small looms, knitting, crochet, tatting, spoolknitting and flower looms to make her, along with copper foil work.

Some of the looms were: 2 inch square vintage weave it loom, potholder loom, pinboard looms, Martha Stewart loom and flower looms.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

http://www.crone-findlay.com copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

And, here’s the video:

Remember: The size of your loom doesn’t limit the size of your finished piece!

Happy weaving! 🙂

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Peg loom tapestry Dreaming the Well

I am working on a series of woven piece, called, ‘Woven Women’.

Here is my most recent Woven Woman,  ‘Dreaming the Well’.

I wove her on a peg loom.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

Here she is, with the weaving complete, still on the pegs of the loom.

And, then, I got out my felting needles and spent many, many, many hours, felting the details onto her:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

And here are some closer looks.

She’s 27 inches tall by 17 inches wide (69 cm by 43 cm).

Unfortunately, my camera messes with the colors and makes the edges harsher… the felting does soften things up very nicely.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

The images are based on meditations, dreams and just whatever wanted to be woven at that moment.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

I keep promising to show more of the Woven Women pieces, so I will post more pics of them throughout the next few days, so stay tuned!

Mustn’t leave without giving credit to my daughter in law, for many of the handspun yarns in ‘Dreaming the Well’: LINK

And, as always…. go gently and with joy! 😀

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Can you weave tapestry on potholder loom? why, yes!

One of my Ravelry buddies just shared photos of a lovely little tapestry loom that he’s built.

He then commented that Noreen would probably say that you can weave tapestries on her beloved potholder looms.

And, of course, I chirrupped up: “Funny you should mention that, but Y E S you can! ”

Last year, after the devastation of the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, I was very upset, and sat down with my sketchbook.

I did a little drawing that made me sit up and say: “I could weave that!”

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

So, I whipped out my Harrisville potholder loom (Link to Harrisville) and cut a square of cardboard to fit inside it.

I made a cartoon of the basic elements of the drawing: A circle inside a square, and taped it to the cardboard.

I decided to use all Harrisville yarns and fibers in this piece, so I warped up with warp yarn from Harrisville.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

I used a table fork to beat the weft strands:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

When I was finished, I wove an inkle border on my Schacht Inkle loom

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

I saw how the circle could become a face, so I warped up, again, and wove this:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

And, this face made me think of the sun, so of course, I had to weave a companion,

‘Song to the Moon’: woven with yarn from my stash

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

Normally, I dislike fringes, but this piece demanded them, so I faithfully added them.

I was intrigued by weaving the expressive little faces (remember, the potholder loom yields a woven piece that is 6 inches square)

so…. with handspun yarn and stash yarn, I wove this little tapestry:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

I have been meaning to block these little tapestries, but have been busy with so many other things that I haven’t gotten around to it.

But, when Misha joked about me weaving tapestries on the potholder loom, I thought…

“Well, they’re not blocked, but so what! I’ll post a note about them anyhow!”

So, when my ‘to do’ list calms down a little, I will, um…. I might get them blocked!

Until then, keep on weaving! I am….  😀

Please remember that this post is copyright protected, so please don’t copy the images etc! Thanks so much~!

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