Alert! This may be boring for those uninterested in tapestry design and weaving process! I’ve come to the top of the vase section in the weaving on my loom, Frida’s Flowers: A Still Life. I was weaving a bit higher on the loom than I should have, ergonomically, but I was interested to see that complete section before advancing the warp and hiding the bottom of the weaving.
I removed the cartoon to get a better sense of the “transparent” effect of the open warps.
Hmm…is it a bit too transparent? Are the exposed warps too long? After a couple of minutes I decided they were fine. None are longer that the exposed warps on my first piece in the technique, Roots. The open warp sections at the top of the potato plant were pretty long in that transparent tapestry.
As I came up to weaving the greenery draping down from the vase, I realized a big design mistake. I did not make the greenery/flower section butt up against the border. It would NOT be a good idea to have leave a 20″ long, wiggly unwoven warp between the sections! You can see in the photos above that I understood the problem and wove the edges of some leaves wider, so they would meet the border.
When I took the cartoon away from the weaving to advance the warp, I decided it would be best to enlarge the flowers so they would fill the frame up to the borders. Photoshop to the rescue. I enlarged sections and taped them to the cartoon. The pattern is not perfect — for example, I haven’t picked up a marker to extend the blue flower leaves to the border. I will adapt it while weaving, rather than making a new, more perfect cartoon.
The warp is advanced. I’ll put back the cartoon and watch Spirited, a Christmas Carol remake, on my laptop, and weave. Merry Christmas!
