Tapestry completed!

 

The black eyed Susan tapestry I was working on last month got its last strands of weft woven in last week.

 

 I've now gotten of the finishing details out of the way and it's ready to go to the frame shop. Here's a photo I took of it yesterday after I hung it in the studio to take a look.

 

I'll have a better photograph done after it comes back from the framer. In fact, I hope Chris Dant will be available to do the photography. Here's Chris when he was working on recording the previous tapestry:

And the results:

 

I'm hoping to get a new warp on the loom in the next few days but I'll have to order warp before I can do that. It's sort of nice to be running out of warp thread because I've used so much of it in the last six months! 

I've had a couple of acceptances to exhibits and publication in the last month or so. And also a rejection for an exhibit. That's the way it goes and I'm pretty much used to it now after entering juried exhibits for many years. The most recent acceptance is for the LaGrange Southeast Regional exhibit, LaGrange, Georgia. My tapestry Climate Change will be exhibited at the Lamar Dodd Art Center at LaGrange College later this fall.

 

So far, this is the only piece (other than a few samples) that includes Morse Code. I hope to be planning more tapestry designs to incorporate code in some ways. 

One other thing that I will probably be posting about soon is the upcoming book fair that's going to be held at UNG on September 12. In conjunction with the book fair, the Bayeux Tapestry painted replica will again be on exhibit at UNG. I'll be there to show the difference between the type of embroidery that was used on the historic "tapestry" and handwoven tapestry. As I've been learning about the stitches used, I came across Mia Hansson's work. She's replicating the piece to scale and has spent around a decade so far on the task! She has a beautiful book showing her process and also posts to her Facebook page about it frequently.  

A New Tapestry's Progress

A quick post to record the beginnings of the next tapestry. This is the third I've worked on since November. I began it on the remains of the warp from the piece I finished in June. I thought there was enough warpn left to do a small piece. I wanted to design something to celebrate summer since the last one was all about the spring emergence of color. What better way than to do black eyed susans? Their bright, bold colors seem to epotimize the hot summer months to me. 

 

 

So here's where the tapestry stands today. I'm working from a photo I took of flowers at the square in Dahlonega. I cropped the image and manipulated with Photoshop a bit to simplify. The background is being done with a pattern of triangles and diamonds in a variety of greens. Maybe I'll finish this soon!

 

Mid-year Catching Up!

Oops! It's been half a year since I posted. I used to write in my blog almost weekly (and daily sometimes, espeically when I was at a retreat or teaching a workshop). These days I mostly post to Instagram about the tapestry work (and a few other studio things going on). So I'm going to do a quick summary of the year 2026 so far. I spent a wonderful week with my friends Beth & Fran in February. They came from Texas (Beth) and Florida (Fran) to spend the days with me at the studio here in Dahlonega. We first met in the fall of 1965 when we three entered North Georgia College as freshmen. We've stayed in touch over these decades and gotten together whenever we could—sometimes years apart. It was a great few days. We always do "studio time" and this year I introduced them to tapestry weaving! Each designed and wove a small tapestry in the evenings. During the days we had adventures out and about. We've already gotten plans for next year's adventures and I hope we can continue to do these times together for many more years to come.

In early March I taught for a week at John C. Campbell Folk School. The class was based on the tapestries of one of the early weavers at the Folk School, Alice Tipton. She wove lyrical landscapes and we were able to see several of her tapestries that are in the Folk School's collection during the week. Very inspirational to have those tapestries in hand to get a real feeling for her process. 

Later in March tapestries were delivered to the Roy C. Moore Gallery of UNG Gainesville for a solo exhibit. That show was up until June. There was a reception and artist talk on April 1 and a few weeks later I met with one of the faculty members and her students to talk abbout my work in the gallery. 

 

 In April I was in Asheville, NC to do a book talk and workshop at Local Cloth. I had a full class and there were lots of interesting approaches to "marking time" with tapestry (the topic of the workshop). It was the first time I've been to the River Arts District in Asheville after the devestation of Hurricane Helene in 2024. The recovery efforts made by the Local Cloth volunteers was amazing! I saw photos of the interior flooding earlier and to see what they've been able to do to reclaim their building is amazing! 

 

On May 12th I arrived for a week's stay at the Hambidge Center—and that afternoon as I was moving in I hit my tibia HARD on the edge of the bed frame and caused a massive contusion. It was quite painful and I decided to leave after a couple of days; came back home to see my orthopedic doctor for x-rays and treatment. Luckily there were no fractures but there's still a lump eight weeks later, even after several weeks of physical therapy. Even though I left too early, the couple of days at Hambidge gave me a chance to try a few things.

 

May 16th the Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild held a reception for their members' exhibit that was being held in the Atrium Gallery at the UNG Gainesville campus. After the awards ceremony there we went across campus to see my exhibit. 

 

In late June I cut off the tapestry I'd been working on since finishing the ginkgo piece in January. It's the second one done on the Glimakra tapestry loom. There's enough warp remaining to do a smaller piece on it before re-warping and I'm working on design ideas for that now. 

I haven't gotten a good photo of the tapestry; below is the tapestry on the right and the painting I based the design on at the left. 

 Maybe it won't be another six months before I post again? Time will tell!

Cutting off a New Tapestry!

 

I've started 2026 with a big sigh of relief: I was able to begin and complete a tapestry within two months! Although I was nervous about the way the design was progressing as I wove (because once again I hadn't planned the image completely and so had to make modifications along the way), I'm pleased with the result.

 

 

The tapestry is 36" x 24.5" and woven at 8 epi with two-fold of wool. The warp is 12/9 cotton seine twine. 

 

I began weaving in late November after the Ruthie loom went to live in Minnesota with Emily. This is the first tapestry I've woven on the loom I purchased from a friend a few years ago. I liked using the loom quite a lot although the image can be seen less as I weave because of it being wound onto the cloth beam.

 

Completing the weaving of a tapestry isn't the final step. Next, I need to clip weft ends at the back and do a warp finishing and determine the hanging method. All of that usually takes awhile and I usually do it in stages over several days. I put the tapestry on a table and turn on podcasts or music and get to work. Somewhat boring task but it's part of the whole process. 

 

 

Here's the 2025 tapestry diary laid out on the table for finishing currently:

 

 I have a class coming in early March at the Folk School to which I now need to turn my attention. But I want to put a new warp on this loom before long. Maybe the next new tapestry will be a few months away!