Thursday, July 30, 2009

There's a right way...

...and then there's another right way, and perhaps even another right way! Of course, that's not what we all grew up hearing from our teachers. They said that 'there's a right way to do something and a wrong way to do it.' Rarely did a teacher allow for more than one right way. So when I teach, I often confuse my students, who want to know THE right way to weave their tapestry. I tell them, 'well, you could do it this way, or you could do it this other way...' Not always the simple answer they crave.


I was thinking of that when I reached this area of my cartoon, because I had to choose how I want to weave it. I could use eccentric wefts here, and it would be very organic looking - I love eccentric wefts! Or I could be quite traditional and weave all the way across the area, carrying several dozen wefts bundles back and forth across each of their areas all in one shed change. But I have chosen to just weave each tiny shape at a time, building up around each other as I come to them. Once I made that decision, I could move on with the weaving. Often I make these choices without thinking of them, but I guess I am more cognisant of what I am doing right now, as I am trying to do things in the most efficient way to use my scanty work time well.


New topic: (just thought I'd let you know before you got lost.) One of the things I love about where I live is that we can see the weather coming and going, long before it arrives. We have big sky here in western Colorado. The other evening, as I was driving home from a dinner out with some friends, I watched a storm roll in. The sky was gorgeous, so I grabbed my always-ready camera, and shot some sky through the windshield as I drove (luckily, very light traffic.) Isn't this a wonder? I especially love the area where the light shines through. (I shot about a dozen pictures, but I will spare you, and just show this one.)

6 comments:

Meabh Warburton said...

Hi Kathy,
How funny..... when we moved to our last two houses we had a long list of what might be considered somewhat eccentric demands. eg. must be at the end of a dead end lane, mustn't be able to hear road noise, must be surrounded by grazing not arable land, must be able to pee in the garden without being overlooked etc etc. If we were ever to move there would be an addition to the list - must be able to see weather coming!! Our kitchen window looks west towards the Lot valley and most of our weather comes from that direction. Like you I love being able to see what is in store. I've never had this before so never knew what I was missing!

Jennifer said...

I'm so glad you have time to weave - despite the paintings and Booker!

K Spoering said...

Yes, Meabh, when I go somewhere where there are too many buildings or trees to see the sky, and a lot of it, I can get very claustrophobic! Maybe because I grew up where there were tornadoes, I too like to be able to see what is ahead.

Anonymous said...

Sunday 8/2/09 8:12am
Hmmmmmmnnnnn...does eccentric really mean shooting up vertically on a slant??...if you weave each little section, don't you still have to get that vertical line in??....could you please explain this post a little more, maybe in other words....I'm a'readin but
I'm not sure I'm a'understandin....thanks from Janet on the rainy East Coast

K Spoering said...

Yes, Janet, eccentric does mean weaving on a slant, or not at a right angle to the warp. Even though I am weaving slanted lines and shapes, I chose not to do that (weave at a slant.) If you can enlarge the photo, maybe you can see that I have woven all of the shapes, even the most diagonal ones, by going back and forth in their tiny areas (sometimes as little as one warp width), keeping the weft at right angles to the warp. This will ensure that I have straight edges and a nice square tapestry, which I decided I wanted this time. It is really not a large enough piece to 'swallow' up a lot of eccentric wefts and remain flat and even. Did that help, or just confuse you more?

Anonymous said...

Monday 8/3/09 6:49am.....yes, I think it helped...I did enlarge the photo....at present I am working on a face with shadows all over....now to me I kinda like to weave those little areas like you are doing...but I find I am always thinking ahead to make sure I don't have to catch up on another color which might be all of a sudden underneath the present color and not conducive to getting the finger manipulated shed open....so I'm always trying to make sure everybody can keep moving up inside their own color, but not impeding the next color or row...and I'm going to start thinking more in your vein that whatever works must be just fine....sometimes I just sit and stare at your complicated borders on your seasons work and try to figure out howdshedothat??? Thanks from Janet

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