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.