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.