... as in hard as stones. For me, this is true. Even if the subject I'm hoping to use for the next tapestry is stones. I always have a hard time beginning some tapestries. I stew, I ruminate, I delay, I doubt, I... I... I. It's all about me. But, it's not that, really. It's all about my ability to carry out what I hope to with a tapestry image.
When weaving tapestry one sits with an image for months at a time. The ideas involved in the initial forming of the image are usually growing and deepening as the image builds at the loom. I know this yet I forget this each and every time I'm about to begin a new tapestry.
My loom is warped. I've taken weeks to get the warp ready to put weft into it. Some days I've simply looked at the loom when I'm at the studio. Several days I've ignored the loom and worked to organize stuff on shelves in another room. Other days I've done bits and pieces of the preparation stages (tying onto the rod at the bottom; weaving in scrap yarn to spread out the warp bouts; twining across to help set the sett; weaving in header of the same seine twine as used for the warp to even out the spacing even better; putting half-hitches across to secure the bottom; getting wefts off the shelf and sorting into color groups; ordering more yarn; getting the cartoon finalized....)
I'm ready now. Almost. Maybe today I'll put the first weft of this particular tapestry journey into place.
"Begin at the beginning... and go on till you come to the end: then stop."
I know exactly what you mean. Then you sit down to weave and have that panic moment when you wonder if you even know how to do this anymore. But then, after the first few wefts are in, it all comes back, and you not only know what you are doing, but it feels like you are where you are supposed to be, doing what you were meant to do.
ReplyDeleteIt will be wonderful, as always.... Once you begin.
It is funny, I don't have a hard time starting. For me that is the easy part. It is the part in the middle that becomes hard. I start, my vision for the tapestry seems true, then I get about 1/3 of the way through then I have a hard time continuing. My tapestry no longer matches my vision. My confidence in my vision and my tapestry weaving skills wane, and then sometimes I even abandon the work for a while.
ReplyDeleteany words of wisdom?
The hardest for me is the first pass of colour or even the first interchange of colour. Some wwhere not to far past that point-maybe to the the first fourth. There is the moment when you know it's all going to be okay and it is.
ReplyDeleteIt's like when I get a new journal. i need to scribble or ruin a page to get rid of the feeling of newness.
Looks like a really interesting piece from what I can see. Time to just go for it!