The Protest Poster Tapestry Continues

As I reached the words part of this piece (“Liberty and Justice 4 All”), I realized that my collaged cartoon was not clear enough behind the warp. The area surrounding each letter will be left as open warp. The broad background is blue and the inner letters will be orange. I unpinned the cartoon and used a white oil pastel stick to make the area around the letters lighter. It’s much easier to see where to weave now.

As I wove the bottom portion of the image, I realized that the whole area has a pretty high proportion of warp left uncovered. Here’s a test! Will it lie nicely when taken off the loom? Or will it be too wispy? (That’s my fear.) In my last piece, “Baldishol Duck,” the bottom band had a higher proportion of woven to unwoven area.

In Frida Hansen’s style of wool transparency the bottom was typically finished with a row of knots.  I may add a thin acrylic rod at the bottom of my new piece–tie the knots around it. It would add rigidity and weight without being intrusive visually. It’a an idea.

The whole piece is part of my ongoing experimentation with design and materials in this technique. Not enough hours in the day!