Thursday, February 18, 2010

Tapestry diary for 2010 moves ahead

I'm taking a different approach to this year's tapestry diary.  Instead of the irregular sized rectangles of last year I'm using a square for each day.  Another change--last year I put ten days across the warp width; this year I'm using seven across, beginning on the left side and moving across the warp width until the seventh day.  Next week begins again at the left and goes across.



I'm still determined to use only wefts from my stash of wefts remaining from past tapestries... in this photo one can see just a bit on that stash in the big plastic bin and basket on the floor.  When finishing a tapestry I empty bobbins by winding a butterfly of the weft that remains.  I store almost every inch of the weft--only if it's a few inches long will I throw it out.  I usually stuff the wefts into a plastic zip lock bag, then put the bag into my storage bin.  I have pounds of yarn of this sort!


My colors, so far, are chosen by week.  I began with primary colors in the first week of January and moved to secondary colors in the second week.  I'm altering that order, week by week, with lots of variations and stretches toward intermediate colors--red orange will fall in a primary week, for instance, and yellow-green probably will fit best in a secondary week.

New rules to what's becoming an old game now that I'm over a month into a second year of weaving a small bit daily on an ongoing exercise.  I continue to be intrigued by what can happen and look forward to sitting down at the loom and making small decisions each day.

7 comments:

  1. Tommye,
    It looks beautiful and I love how you are determining colors. I do wonder though, do you have a particular pattern you do for say a snowy or rainy day? Sunshine? What makes me think of that is the heart for Valentines Day. Plans for other special days to be represented in some way so that when you look back at the year you'll know that day you did X etc?

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  2. Hi Theresa,
    Thanks for your comment. No, I don't have an indicator for weather planned ahead of time but last year did record some symbol of special significance of a date--had several "red letter days" for instance, like when my nephew returned safely from his third tour in Iraq. So I can look back through 2009 and a few special dates jump out at me. I'll be doing something like that again, whenever the mood or the event, strikes me--like it did for Valentine's Day. The only constant within the squares is that I'm making a mark for each day I'm weaving. As the month grows old, the marks grow to be many and I have very distinct challenges of how to place that many in a small space!

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  3. Do you leave slits between the days, or are they joined as you go?

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  4. Thnaks Tommye for sharing your thought processes. I thinking after the discipline of the photos that I'll want to do this. One question - with these squares - are you taking time to join any of the edges or corners?

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  5. Hi Alice and Jennifer,
    No, I'm not joining the slits as I go and won't join them once it's off the loom. However, I am twining across the top of a whole week's worth of squares, using the same linen as I'm using for the warp. That said, I am stitching slits within squares if there's a spot where I'm going up more than three passes... as in the rectangles or squares within the day squares. Part of what I want to show with the year's passage is the separateness of days as well as the unity of time. This is my solution for this year.

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  6. Tommye, I love what you said about making small decisions every day. That's what I've been enjoying about my Tapestry Diary too.

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  7. This looks very playful and fun so far. Beautiful.

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