Hi Dorothy,

My apologies for disappearing for a while. I have freed up my Hagen loom my removing the beginnings of the lettering tapestry. I also have a new loom, the one built to Archie Brennan's specifications by his son Jesse (you can see it at http://www.brennan-maffei.com/Loom.htm ). And, I found I have a basic frame loom already warped to about 6 inches wide. Any reason I couldn't use that for sampling?

I have put together some weft bundles to sample and will add pictures to this entry tomorrow morning. In addition to blending different values of the same hue, I am trying weft bundles of slightly different grays -- in Paternayan color names, for example, I am mixing the taupe I had started with to some steel grey. (Those color samples are side by side here: http://www.florilegium.com/images/Paternayan%20Yarn/Ptryn%20100-213a.jpg )

I got hung up though on the background for the sample. I have very little of the tweedy yarn I started using for the background, and am not sure that I would have enough for the tapestry itself if I also used it for sampling. It was a small amount of yarn left on a cone at the school, and I have been unplying it and using a single strand. I began thinking it would be more interesting to create my own background color through weft blending and other color techniques (like hatching in other blends). So I am identifying some colors to use with that. It would make sense to sample the color blends of the gray with color blends of the background I want. Does all that sound right? If so, I am going to see if I can get the colors I want locally and, if not, mail order them.

A yarn with hand dyed variations would work very well for this piece as I imagine it, but I need to focus. The color study distracted me from the weaving, to be honest and I think I will stick to the sampling for the moment.

You said no more than 6 inches wide for the sample. I will be sampling a circle, of course, to implement what you described in your post.

I will post pictures of the gray weft bundles, and, when I get them, some of the background paper/parchment type colors.

High and low passes and circles

High and Low passes

There are two types of passes- sometimes know as hills and valleys, or high and low passes.

High pass (hill) -  on the turn the front warp is covered – which results in a steeper outline

Low pass (valley) - on the turn the back warp is covered – which results in a smooth outline.

Generally if several passes are made on top of each other do three low, two high for a smooth outline, and three high, two low for a stepped outline.

Make the choice depending on the outline needed .

Weaving a circle

Plan ahead in the exact placement of the circle on the warps

Ink on your circle making sure that the two warps marked pink in the diagram are low passes on the turn.

Weave section 1a  first

The first pass of the background colour is right across the tapestry forming the base of the circle. 

The second pass of the background weft is turned around a back warp.  (pink warp)Low pass

The third pass of background weft is turned around a front warp. (blue warp) High pass.

The third and fours pass of background weft is turned around one warp short the first turnaround.  Low pass.

The fifth and sixth pass of background weft is turned around one warp short the  last turnaround warp.  (red warp) High pass.

Continue on in this manner to carefully describe the outline of the circle.

Weave 1b in the same way on the other side.

To weave a beautiful smooth curve you can imagine that the high and low passes are assigned a number value.  The number represents the number of passes around a particular warp . Low passes  are .5 and high passes a full number.

1^st pass one low pass                                                                                     1

2^nd pass one high pass                                                                                 1.5

3rd and 4^th pass low passes                                                                        2.

5th and 6th passes  ending on a high pass                                             2.5

7^th,8^th,9^th passes making the curve steeper ending on low pass   3

10^th, 11^th, 12^th,13^th passes ending on a high pass                                 3.5

 14^th, 15^th, 15^th, 17^th passes ending on a low pass                                        4

14^th, 15^th, 16^th, 17^thpasses ending on high pass                                    4.5

 

And so on.  Gradually increase the number of passes at the appropriate rate to describe the outline of the curve.    The important thing is to start a curve on a low pass.

When weaving a smooth curve make sure your assigned values and step ups  proceed in a gradual fashion depending on the steepness of the curve.

This is much easier to do, than to describe I hope it is clear.

Letters - tapestry

It is somewhat difficult from the photograph to decide if your warp is not at the right sett. There is great article here http://www.americantapestryalliance.org/Education/Ed_Ar/BrennanWarp.html you will find that you can use this method and then adjust the number of warp threads up or down by one or two to give you the woven texture and feel that you want.  It can accommodate any type of warp that you want to use, and is more useful than giving you a strict number of warps per inch with a particular type/size of warp.

Without looking at the whole photograph of the loom and tapestry it is a bit difficult to tell but you may like to make sure that the ‘floor’  (the  warp yarn that starts off the beginning of the tapestry) is pulled very tight.  Use one length of yarn and wrap around the loom uprights, three passes are better than two, make sure that the floor is the same thickness  as warp. 

There should be even gaps between the vertical warps and the horizontal floor warps, each gap should be the same sized square. Make the spacings are  even with the point of your bobbin .  If you look at the left hand side of the floor in the photograph it is pushed up close together at the edge and spaced apart further along.

There are various ways to start the initial first row of the tapestry. Twining is fine.  I shall, when I have time, post them other ways of starting a tapestry later on so that you can see different options.

You will need to look closely at the edges of the letter shapes there are some very graceful curves in the cartoon, and they will call for some decision making and a few technique refinements.  You might like to consider enlarging the scale of  carton slightly, and/or using a finer weft bundle. Later this week or early next week  I will post information about ‘hills and valleys’ and some of techniques to get great curves,  and I shall look to see if I have any tapestry  images with text in them to show you different approaches – you might like look at the Archie Brennan online exhibition at the ATA website, I am sure there will be some text there.

Some other useful links

There is also a glossary of weaving terms here http://www.americantapestryalliance.org/Education/Ed_Ar/Glossary.html

And the neatest way to sew slits, http://www.americantapestryalliance.org/Education/Ed_Ar/MaffeiSlits.html  I have experimented with and been taught several ways but this is my favourite one.  Your sewn slits look good.

Lettering - cartoon comments and thoughts



Inked on warps



First some thoughts about the cartoon

With the letters hard up against the edge of the frame with some being cut off it gives the impression that it is not a complete design, but a part of a greater piece.

Is that what you had intended?

 I notice in the tapestry that the letters start well in from the edge and that the background has changed from dark to light.  It would probably be useful at this stage to work out your design carefully at the cartoon stage especially the darks and lights, and the frame/size of background around the letters.  Darks and lights have the characteristic of pushing and pulling shapes backwards and forwards in the picture frame making some shapes float in front of the background or even create visual ‘holes’ in the background.   By changing the background to a very light value it will change the look of the tapestry quite dramatically. Not that this is wrong the slightly flecked background works well, just want you to be aware of what happens if you change the values/colours.  The frame and the amount of background also makes a difference to how the finished tapestry will look. It is useful to work out the ]varying proprtions of frame/background at the cartton stage.

Warm neutrals will come forward and cool neutrals will recede. It would be useful for you to explore this at the design stage and explore how the shapes react, , rather than  make the colour decisions entirely at the weaving stage.   Some tapestry weavers often make a colour design, then convert it to greyscale, relying on the colour printout as a guide to colour and the greyscale as an indication of colour values.  In general the eye has evolved to see black and white first- as pattern recognition, then greyscale -as an indication of three dimensionality, and distance;  colour comes last. 

 You could via the computer graphics program experiment fairly quickly with the lights and darks, browns and greys doing different versions to see which looks best.

I notice in the photograph of the tapestry that you do not seem to mark the design shapes on the warp. 

Once the loom is set up and warped ready to weave I would recommend that you mark the warps with your design.  Use a permanent felt tip pen (fine point) and test it be marking a piece of warp yarn, letting it dry thoroughly,  then immerse it in water – if it runs or bleeds try another brand do not take it for granted that all pens sold as permanent are permanent)

Once you start marking the warps do not move the cartoon.

First mark with a small dot of ink at the front or the warp outlining each shape,  then after each section is completed go back and ink around the sides and back of each warp.  This is time consuming but will help you make accurate shapes. 

When weaving weave right up to the ink marks on the warp, making sure the wefts are packed down well.  The accurate marking of the warps will enable you to wee before you start weaving how the shapes are going to evolve, for instance you say that the grey letter you have begun to weave is too broad, when you mark a vertical line on a particular warp delineating the edge of a shape you will, with practice, be able to decide where that particular mark should remain where it is or be shifted one warp to make the shape look correct when woven.

Colour Theory 2 -light and dark

Twelve steps of gray from white to black, and the twelve hues of the colur circle in matching brilliance (from Elements of colour)

This is exercise is initially for your information, and then later when you have done the colour wheel exercise, you will be able to complete it. 

Read the pdf files on The Seven Colour Contrasts.

The aim of this project is to encourage you to manipulate colour, and be able to solve problems with colour.

1 Light -dark contrast black velvet or shoe polish may be the darkest black, and white hospital linen the whitest white - and then in between there is a continuous scale of greys from dark to light. Using black and white paint and the mixtures of the two paints, paint a black square at one end and a white square at the other  and 8 greys between, in progressive even steps, as shown in the greyscale strip to the left of the colour diagram above.
Scan or photograph and post under Colour Theory 2 light and dark(subject heading)

lettering

Blogger is not letting me place this picture where I want: here is the cartoon for the lterrering tapestry. The g in the center will be in the style of illuminated letters, while my goal is that the bits and pieces of other visible letters will be in faded grays, taupes, browns.

Dorothy, I was hoping to take a picture of the beginnings of the lettering tapestry in natural light, but it is already 7:45 am here, and the sun has just appeared above the horizon. There is just not yet enough light outdoors. Here though is a picture taken of the lettering tapestry's beginnings. The tweedy background yarn is one I found at the School, not of course my usual Paternayan. The darker gray at the left needs to be removed and rewoven -- it is supposed to be in two differents shades, as part of two different letters. It is also too broad, and as I mentioned earlier, while weaving it all in one color was quick, the result is way too flat.

As I said in my comment to your posting, your plan for proceeding with this tapestry makes good sense. I definitely want to sample other ways of getting that grayed, brownish look to the background letters. I also think I need to reconsider the beginnings of this tapestry. The cartoon shows additional background letters under the right side of the g, while mine has it floating in space on that side.

I will continue to work this week on the color study, and on looking at the very interesting tapestries you are posting here.

Complimentary colours

Exert from Elements of Colour - Complimentary contrast
23-28 Mixture of bands of six complimentary pairs
29 Composition in the complimenary pair red/green and mixtures
30 mixture square of two complimentary pairs orange/blue and red-orange/green

As you can see from the varying mixtures of complimentary pairs there is another option for getting to either warm or cool nuetrals tending to either grey or brown.

If you squint at the sample above, which gives you the same effect as looking at the sample from a distance,   the individual colours tend to be reduced to nuetrals.  A very different way of obtaining greys and browns that is unique to tapestry.

Al this is probably more than you need to digest at the moments, but I thought that you would like to know this other option for grey.

On thinking about your choice in a logical manner I would recommend that you concentrate on the letter tapestry, taking the already started tapestry in for your tutor to look at, and being prepared to rewarp if neccessary, do some grey samples (with straight grey dyed yarn) and weave various interpretations of the pencil drawing in your three weekends.  That way you would solve the ribbing problem, experiment with the greys and interpretation without the added distraction of colour and complimentaries, which we could then concentrate on once you have finished the weekend workshops, both in paint and colour diagrams once the colour wheel exercise is done, as well as weaving and interpretation for Clip Horizontal. 
But it is your choice as to what you decide to do.

Kay Lawrence Marcel Marois Tapestries

 Kay Lawrence Crossroads, crossed paths, crossing out 1985 132 x 151cm

Kay Lawrence A walk around the inside looking out five panels detail 104 x 72 1981

 Kay Lawrence Gender tapestry 139 x 157cm 1993

Kay Lawrence House/self 139 x 157cm 1993

 
Kay Lawrence Two hills/two years236 x 337cm 1982-83,

Marcel Marois Mutations-Temps: bleu, gris blanc,rouge detail 4 panels each 57 x 57cm 1994-95

Not the only interpretation of pencil drawings, and greys but the only images that I have access to.  I included the Marcel Marois tapestry as it is a very different technique and pure grey. He uses two and somtimes three strands of wool in two or three different colours or shades with each strand laid down carefully in the same shed in a particular order, rather than mixed threads that are generally woven as the become naturally twisted.  This creates a very structured pattern of threads rather than the somewhat tweedy effect that is usually produced with mixed threads if the hue values are not closely related.

In Kay Lawrences tapestries the values are generally closely related, with only small areas of mixed thread in stronger contrasted values givng a more visually textured look for contrast.

Dorothy,

Next weekend (Oct 30-31) my three-weekend tapestry workshop at the Southwest School of Art starts. We have thus 6 days (1- am- 3 pm) to work on projects there. I often work on my portable Hagen loom, since I can continue the work at home. I started the lettering tapestry there in July. I could of course continue to work on the lettering tapestry but I believe there are some technical difficulties. I will take some pictures when I get home tonight. The problems:

• I think perhaps my sett is too wide (too few ends per inch). I noticed, when I prepared to take pictures of it, that the warp threads are creating very visible ribs in the tapestry.
• I need to rework how I am using color on the gray background letters. I wanted a sort of pencilled look, but used just one weft bundle with a couple of shades of the same gray. I think I need to experiment with combining different grays and with doing some hatching -- the part I did looks very flat to me.

I came up with another idea then for the workshop, one that would let me continue to work on the color wheel. I though, in preparation for weaving the Clip-Horizontal, and pursuing the question of developing copper colors, I should do a color sample. I could experiment with different ways of weaving different colors to achieve the effect I want. As per your earlier comment, I could try different weft blends and weaving with complements, different background colors, etc. I could also do the same with different grays, to develop the look I want for the background letters for the lettering tapestry.

This idea appeals to me because it lets me focus on what we are talking about here on the blog; puts it into practice; and also structures the sampling into those three weekends.

What do you think?

Colour theory 1- Colour wheel

Hello Roberta,

I thought I would give you an idea of the kind of colour exercises I would give you.  so that you can decide if you will have the time to do all this.  Most of the excercises will be similar involving painting diagrams and some very simple designs.  I will post the exercise here and email additional pdf files for the readings. When you post your answers and scanned diagrams etc, please use the subject line and tags of the initial question posted and that way you will be able to go back in the archive and use it as a resource. 

regards

Dorothy

Colour Theory one – the colour wheel

Read pg 29 The 12 part colour circle from Elements of Colour by J Itten.  http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Color-Johannes-Itten/dp/0471289299 The page numbering might be slightly different depending on what edition you have.  Or see emailed pdf files.

Project – paint the 12 hue colour circle as illustrated pg 31.

1 Using a HB pencil, taking measurements from the book, and using ruler and compass draw the complete colour circle.

2 Use good quality poster paint or gauche student quality.

3 Practice on paper with paint and brush until you get the feel of the paint and control with yur brush. Work the paint to a creamy consistency with water so that it covers the paper evenly, not wishy- washy and streaky or lumpy and stiff.  The paint should flow from the tip of the brush, and the brush should have a good pint to it.

4 Paint the colours onto the colour wheel you have drawn, mixing the colours carefully. E.g. to mix orange place red and yellow on an old plate, work the colours together until the colour is even and make an orange midway between red and yellow.

5 Write down the names of the

i primary colours,

ii secondary colours  

iii tertiary colours

Scan or photograph the exercise and upload

Flora images and Office Love

'Flora' by Robert Wogensky 4'9"x 6'2" woven Tabard 1962

 'Flora' detail

Hello Roberta,
I thought I would send you these images of Flora as the style of weaving/design interpretation is similar to Tropical Nights, and with its use of solid and more transparent shapes, colours on top of colours, with more subtle  shapes receding into the background.  The hatching is more irregular not formal and changes into stripes in some places, some of the hatching is tapered to a point some is not.

' Office Love' William Kentridge  Original design Chine colle and collage 28" x3 7",

Office Love detail woven by Stephans Tapestry Studio 2001

Office Love detail

William Kentridge is an interesting artist whose collages and drawings are used as a basis for workshop woven tapestries, sculptures and films. A quick web search will give many links to his work.  The weavers use mixed thread rather than hatching, giving a much less structure effect with the strong design shapes holding the structure.  I was not able to find out the size of this tapestry but they tend to to be wall sized.

If you consider using hatching as an interpretative technique you might like to spend a short time on doing a small sample of verious types before you start on the section of tapestry you wish to weave and also use the technique sampler to experiment with colour mixtures, especially if you consider using complimentary colours to get those subtle copper tones.

Note-Bloger has done its usual trick of cutting off some of the original design of Office Love to see the whole of it copy and paste in a new image document.

Postscript on colors and dyeing

Dorothy, I forgot to mention that I put my color study into practice when I began cleaning, dyeing and spinning yarn. I just did a little experimentation with dyeing, but found the color theory and a color wheel very useful in working toward preferred colors.

Hi Dorothy,

Setting up a blog for our mentoring project is a great idea. I thought I was being clever by linking to my Flickr photos, but obviously I need to improve my skills there.

To answer some questions:

The size of my looms: I have a portable Hagen loom with a weaving width of about 18" x 22 or 24". I also purchased, though I have not yet used, the larger
(103 cm x 74 cm, or 40 x 29") Ashford tapestry loom. The tapestry room at the Southwest School of Art is equipped with the 21 x 26 Ashford looms.

Do I dye my yarns? I have dyed (and spun) yarn, but have been using mostly the Paternayan yarns for tapestry weaving, and have access to their color card and a local store that stocks their colors. I have liked working with the Paternayan since I have enjoyed experimenting with color blending. So I separate plies and create my own colorful weft bundles.

Would I be interested in learning about color theory? Yes, and I have done some studying of my own on the subject. I read a number of common basic books about color theory (Albers, for example) and brought that back to fiber arts with Deb Menz's workbooks on Color Works: The Crafter's Guide to Color and her book on color in spinning The book Color Works was also very interesting in its demonstrations of how different media interact with color, and both books (and other articles) on how depressingly easy it is to muddy colors in weaving and in spinning. (I am an academic by training, and tackle new ideas and problems by studying.)

As for samples, I would be very pleased to sample -- my problem is actually with pre-designed samplers. So this little piece:



which is my first tapestry, started out as the sampler from Kirsten Glasbrook's book, but I got bored weaving someone else's design. So I began improvising. Her geometrics turned into my abstracted landscape. I think sampling to solve my own problems and questions would be interesting.

I learned the importance of planning with my second tapestry, in which my sad attempt at representing the northern lights fell prey to too much improvisation.
\

I am still very interested in way of representing light. And have a persistant interest in citiscapes.

Then came the digitally modified collages I spoke to you about.




I worked a version of the last one as a tapestry titled Tropical City Nights:

I will get a better picture of this. The Clip-Horizontal is an interesting piece of the collage that could not be represented the way I wanted in the tapestry, because I was working so small -- the tapestry is about 11 x 12 inches, I think, on a sett of 7 epi. A larger tapestry of just this clip might be very interesting, especially worked horizontally instead of vertically, as in the small tapestry.

Working with a black background, of course, made the other colors very brilliant. I was hesitant about working the background in solid black, since all the other colors were blends of Paternayan plies of different colors, but the results were very good. In a larger version of this, the shadings of red and black, and developing the copper-ish colors, would be very interesting and very challenging.

Tomorrow I will scan the lettering design I am working from. Working colors on a gray background is an interesting project after colors on black.

Roberta

Test post

Hello Roberta,
please reply via comments that you can access this, and make a posting yourself.
I have added a photo of myself in my studio, working on the Field Trial series just  to see if the technology works.