Final Post

The sad news is that Honeybee Pineapple is at an end. The good news is that I am on my way to being a published author. Due to this, I am closing down Honeybee Pineapple Studio and opening a new one.

You can find me at bridgettenibrian.com

Here I'll continue to write about fiber arts, but also expand into my writing a bit more. It will be a blog where I'll explore the arts, specifically writing and fiber arts, and how it relates to church, life, as well as history. It's going to be interesting.

Tapestry Frames

So, the plan was to show some weaving updates, but it was side-lined due to another problem: no tapestry frame. Thankfully, I have a sister who can make almost anything. 

Tapestries, since they are created on a plain weave, can be woven on my rigid heddle looms, but I wanted an actual little frame for demonstration purposes and potential sales. My sister and I went shopping for items to create my looms, and probably in the next few days, she'll make them for me. I should have two nice frames and one utilitarian frame.

Frames can be made out of most anything: picture frames, foam boards, pipe, or even sturdy piece of wood. One of the best things about tapestries, indeed most plain weaves, is the simplicity of the equipment, and the beauty of the finished product. Items such as Berber textiles and Oriental carpets are created on simple structures, but the products look impossibly difficult.

As the projects progress, I'll add photos. It should be interesting to see what appears.

More Tapestry Lessons

Some more photos of my tapestry lessons. These were woven before the shape tapestries of last week. Later on this week, I'm going to start to weave basic landscapes using the lessons that I have learned.

Tapestry Lessons

The tapestry study of shape: a diamond, a leaf and a circle. The warp is a yellow rug warp (5/2 cotton), while the weft are various colors of embroidery floss. Out of the three, the diamond was the hardest to keep balanced because it was woven from sight as opposed from a cartoon. As you can see in the photo below, it is a little bottom heavy.

While I did well keeping the ascent and descent correct on the sides, I failed to put in enough rows to keep the top and bottom balanced. I counted the rows and they are equal, so I might have actually beat the weft in harder on the top than on the bottom. Practice in weaving, as well as training my eyes to discern my images better will help.

The leaf, for those who wonder, is two different colors since I ran out of one color green.

For my first freeform shape, as well as the first attempt to follow a cartoon, I think I did well. The edges need work, but that comes from practice. The colors are two greens, but my brown is the same color up until the top left hand corner. Once again I did not have enough weft, but I tried to blend the colors as best I could.

The last of the three sections. This is the one that I am the least pleased with - the edges are terrible.  I think I might have figured out the problems - it has to do with how I approach the edges. I think symmetrical circles, diamonds and the like are going to be my difficult areas.

I also find that my warp tightens in the center as I weave. I have yet to discern how to fix or prevent the problem, but once again, it comes with practice. The leaf and the circle had fewer problems with my warp tightening than earlier projects did.

Just an overview of what my tapestry lessons have looked like since I started. Tapestry is a fun weaving style, and I look forward to painting with yarn. Let's hope I paint with yarn better than I paint with oils.

Updates

Lots have been happening over the past several months - the big thing has been tapestry weaving. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of my progress, but hope to have one up next week. My hardrive crashed, and working to move everything from one computer to another.

Tapestry weaving - wow. Talk about taking a slow path. I've been doing rep weave on my little rigid heddle loom. My tapestries have been small - five inches wide. For ease of use, variety of color, and expense, I use embroidery floss as the weft. The biggest difficulty I have is keeping my lines smooth - especially when weaving the shapes. I realize that it'll improve with practice, but sometimes the practice part is the hardest part.

Slowly working on putting a regular schedule of projects both woven, written and knitted. Keep coming back - new things are coming.

Etsy Store Re-opened

I've been on vacation that past two months preparing for a craft fair. Now, the store has re-opened. Come over and check it out.

Working on new projects, some of my great ideas didn't turn out to be so great (that's normal). I've learned that lots of ideas are good, I just need to have people who can help me filter out the clunkers. It's always nice to have those blunt friends and family who tell you like it is.

Finished this quilt top last night. I like it, but I'm not certain what I'll sell it as, yet. It's just about 3 feet squared. Looks like a baby quilt to me, or maybe a table topper. No idea. The layout for the quilt is becoming my go-to layout. If in doubt, I usually stick with this one. I think it has a name, but I'm not certain what it is. The block is a stripped Drunkard's Path. I can't stand sewing all those curves in traditional drunkard's path, so I came up with a stripped version. I saw some other quilts with the same concept, and figured out my own way of doing it.

Teaching myself about tapestry weaving. I enjoy weaving, but the tapestry weaving will combine painting and weaving; tapestries just takes a long time to weave a small section. I will have to return to rag rugs and other items just to keep myself from pulling my hair out! Still, I love looking at the woven tapestries, especially those from the Gothic age, and the modern ones. I like tapestries so much, I'm currently working on a book that has a tapestry weaver as the main character. It's the beginning of a fantasy series, so there's going to be fun things like dragons in it. Personally, my favorite part is some of the weaving bits that I have in it. I plan on having the first draft finished by the end of the year.

Weft-faced Weaves

This wasn't the first of my weft-faced weaves, but it was the first of the Twelve Months that I made. July. Red, White and Blue. It turned out rather well, so I continued. At the bottom of the photo is the beginning of August, which didn't turn out quite as well.

The sett on these is 7.5/inch, and I used regular embroidery floss as my weft. Gives a firm feel to the finished project. Haven't figured out what I'll do with them. They are about four inches wide, and around four inches in length. They would make nice little coasters, but I think I'll keep them as a hanging instead. They just look so pretty, I don't want to cut them apart.

This is the whole lot. January begins at the top left-hand side, and July is the top right-hand side. I used three shades of red for February. It's hard to tell in the photo, but while weaving the colors blended so well that I had a hard time distinguishing which was which.