My workshop for Wisconsin Handweavers was held at Mount Carmel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, in the most amazing teaching space I’ve encountered. Lots of light, both natural and overhead, lots of tables and space to walk around them, and a giant screen at the front.
By the end of the first day, the students had their looms warped, weft chosen, and designs decided (although changes abounded during the workshop). On the second and third days, the students wove as I helped problem-solve with each person. Sometimes it became very quiet (there were no banging looms in this class). Then I would choose photos to show from my laptop, and tell more Frida Hansen stories.
Cindy Owen from Lake Forest, Illinois, was interested in weaving a trillium, and was pleased with her design for the blossom and leaves, but that was just the start of her process. She changed her ideas about her borders and backgrounds almost by the hour during the final two days of weaving. That was a good thing! She played with colors and shapes. For example, she started side borders of rectangles and circles and decided after the first yellow circles that she didn’t want that much yellow. Instead, two circles will be on the bottom border, and two at the top. They will echo the trillium center.
I felt it was a compliment that two our best teachers at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota came to Milwaukee to take my workshop. Connie LaTendresse teaches rigid heddle weaving and floor loom weaving, and has also been bit by the tapestry bug. She wanted to start with a floral motif to learn the open warp technique, and liked the asters at the bottom of my warbler tapestry, hanging in the window right near her table.
Donna Hansen is my other Minnesota friend, a long-time floor loom and pixeloom instructor. Donna has a butterfly design in process, but for the class decided to weave a deep-colored Frida rose. She was fretting about which green to use for her darker leaves, as the first shade she tried seemed to have no contrast to the warp color. She wove in small bits of three different dark greens before realizing that it was so hard to tell, and so hard to decide, because there just wasn’t enough light. As soon as we turned her loom toward the sunny windows, it was crystal clear that the first shade she loved was perfect. So, pro tip that we all know anyway: Get some light on your work!
Regina Kapta is a relatively new, self-taught tapestry weaver. She is also a painter, and is weaving in a very painterly way, waiting to figure out how each blossom should be filled in. Her first blossom had two types of white yarn in it, adding subtle variation. She was building the background with a variety of blues. Her tapestry frame had teeth set at 6 epi, a wider sett than the recommended 8 epi. The resulting shapes seem a bit less dense, or crisp, but they suit the painterly image.
Paula Holman came with her loom warped with a thin neutral yarn. When I showed my small tapestry with beautiful warp spun by Angela Kalmus (see this post), Paula said, “I have handspun like that.” On day two she showed up with her loom re-warped with sensational variegated blue yarn, which was perfect for her koi fish, inspired by a photograph by her husband.
Lynn Reif explored her own floral pattern, with an ant at the center. Abstracting an ant in tapestry is a challenge – how much needs to be woven before the “ant-ness” is visible? I’m sure she will nail it. Sometimes bundled yarns do not work well in the open warp technique, because a doubled warp may spread out at the turns, and not make a nice crisp edge when there is no yarn on top to squish it down. But Lynn used two strands of a fine wool, and it worked well. The petals of the flower at the left of her weaving have beautiful subtle shades.
Peggy MacArthur’s inspiration piece was a Japanese woodblock print of a black cat. She added a red vase with flowers. At the bottom, she wove a tablecloth overhang by weaving one row of pyramid shapes, leaving a bit open, and then a row of downward-pointed triangles to fit it in. Like a lacy tablecloth! She was weaving the cat by end of class. I can’t believe I didn’t take a photo on day three, because she managed to weave perfect tiny open spaces to delineate the cat’s claws. We look forward to seeing the completed tapestry soon!
Jane Glodoski has been trying a variety of weaving techniques lately, looking for the answer to, “What’s going to speak to me?” Perhaps open warp tapestry will speak to her. Her central design is botanical; not a colored blossom, but leaves of different greens.
Weaving tapestry can be difficult to do for hours on end, especially when you are concentrating on learning a new technique. Several students took stretch breaks to talk with one another. Jane tried weaving with the loom upright on the table, and then with the loom in her lap and resting on the table. A third way was the charm. The height was perfect when the loom rested on the windowsill.
Emily Robertson has done lettering her whole life, and is now doing it in a new technique. She is also an accomplished rug hooker, and had an exhibit at Villa Terrace Art Museum during the Republican Convention. She wore a red coat (a la Pat Nixon) but emblazoned with a reminder of the constitution. And for this workshop – “LOVE IS IN THE AIR.”
Patricia Jens came with a plan; she wanted to weave a silhouette of her daughter, from a photo taken during a special vacation. She had issues from the start. She warped with a bouncy, stretchy yarn, the type that is too soft. When taken off the loom, a soft yarn won’t create a base with integrity. It will turn out floppy. So Pat said, “I’m going to work with it; I’ll put a metal bar at the bottom to maintain tension.” She was using a rigid heddle loom, and its ability to hold tension was not the best. Her design was definitely too small and detailed to weave at 8 epi in this technique, so we experimented with size. Big, little, or medium? She went with medium. The figure became taller, so Pat decided to make the figure come down into part of the bottom border. Most important was getting in her daughter’s initials. She is an amazing problem solver and made a comment I think is true. “I think if it is done with love, it really makes a difference in the success of your weaving.”
On Saturday, the day after the workshop, I gave a lecture on Frida Hansen at the monthly Guild meeting. Before the meeting I displayed some of my tapestries. I’ve discovered that compression curtain rods work well for hanging in a temporary space. You can usually find a doorway or window of the right size. Finally, I want to give a shout-out to Kathy Reiley, who took such excellent care of me in her home during my stay. Such a comfortable bedroom, such healthy and delicious food. When I was exhausted after day two, she watched a Netflix movie with me.
And now, I can’t wait to see photos of all the completed transparencies roll into my email box!