Sampling continues

I may be able to complete this tomorrow.  It's going to be about 9" tall (wide--once the tapestry turns to the direction it will be seen as I'm showing it here):

Sampling

I weave tapestry a lot.  Yet there are times I need to sample a bit to see what might work best for what I want to weave.  Most of the time I use one of two setts for warps.  The sett, for those who might not know weaving terms, means the number of warp ends per inch (in the U.S.) and the number of warps per inch will have an effect on the design to be woven.  Just like pixels in a digital image... the larger the pixels, the coarser the image.  Same thing with tapestry... larger the sett (and the warp itself), the coarser the image.

My usual go-to setts are either 8 ends per inch of a cotton seine twine, either 12/12 or 12/15 in size, or 6 ends per inch of cotton seine twine, of 12/18 size.  Occasionally I use 10 epi of 12/9 or 12/6 (the 12/6 can be used at 12 epi, also).  I wrote a post at Tapestry Share about warp options a year or so ago.  Link to that is here.

In a previous post (the one about Hambidge) there was a photo of another sampling of bloodroot image in a sett of 8 epi.  For this sample, I'm using 12/6 cotton seine twine and 10 epi.

In the photo, the warp is turned 90˚ to the way it's being woven so that the design, a bloodroot blossom and leaf, can be read as it will be when completed.

I've also inked onto the warp.  I usually stitch the cartoon to the back of the warp when I'm weaving rather than taking time to ink on.  But the amount of detail in the blossoms is such that I'll need to be more in control, I think.  The inking is done with a laundry marker; I'll post about that process later on my Tapestry Share blog.

I want thin vein lines in some of the leaves and those are being done in the sample with soumak.  Weft size is 20/2 worsted wool, used at 3 strands (the soumak lines are done with only one strand).

I have a double row of soumak at the bottom (left side in the photo) and that's the line for the turn-back or hem.  The width of the sample is 6".

Sampling.  It's good to change it up a bit occasionally. 

News on the teaching front

It seems the John Campbell Folk School class I'll be teaching in February is now full!  And the Florida Tropical Weavers Conference class in March only has one space remaining.

Arrowmont registration has begun and I'm hoping for a full class there, also.  Here's the link to the Arrowmont class.

Hambidge days

I am a Hambidge Fellow and so am occasionally able to take part in a fill-in opportunity when there's a cancellation.  That has happened recently and I'm spending a few more days there this early winter. By the way, applications for next year are now open... go to this link to read more about how to apply.

I've spent wonderfully productive times at Hambidge Center in the past.  I was at the Center in mid-October and was able to get quite a bit done with the William Morris study in preparation for a John Campbell Class coming up in February.  This time, I'm working with designing thoughts for a new tapestry.  I'm working on paper and also sampling a bit on a small loom to clarify some of the ideas and to check the warp sett to see if I need to do a smaller sett than I usually use (usually I work with 8 epi but I think this will need to be 10 epi).

Weaving the sample turned 90˚

I'm also taking a bit of time to walk and gawk at the wonderful world of Hambidge.  North Georgia is a beautiful part of the world and Hambidge Center is right at the tip of it... almost in Western North Carolina.

The other night, Jamie Badoud, the Center's Director, invited the eight residents to his lodging, the Mary Hambidge house.   Interesting log structure with a deep history.  Mary Hambidge's loom is still there:

The history of Mary Hambidge and the Weavers of Rabun that she began is quite fascinating.  Here's a brief bit at the Hambidge site.  You can read more about it in Philis Alvic's book, Weavers of the Southern Highlands.