Wednesday, August 28, 2013

"June", at the 2/3rds woven point...


I am finally starting to fall in love with this tapestry! Sometimes it takes awhile. I start out concerned with technique, color choices, etc, and I just don't feel the tapestry; it's story or it's mood. But then, as the weaving progresses and most choices have been made, I remember what it is I am trying to convey in the piece, and I start to feel it working for me.

This happened for me today. I have completed the somewhat fussy water area, and am 'on dry land' again. 

Weaving this tapestry is somewhat feeling like a deja vu experience. I wove water, and a canoe, and mountains in the "Yellow Canoe" tapestry, many years ago. It was woven to capture a camping trip in Montana with my brother's family. (That tapestry has sold, and I apologize for the less than terrific photo below.) The tapestry was also an attempt to come to terms with weaving lines, and Kathe Todd-Hooker put it in her wonderful book, Line in Tapestry. (I think you can get it directly from her, but this is the first link that comes up for it.)

As you can see, the lines in the "Yellow Canoe" tapestry are pretty much about woven lines. I have tried to make the ones in the "June" tapestry a bit more organic; more about the lines you would see in actual moving water.

The Yellow Canoe 35x35" 1995 KSpoering
I am actually a bit ahead of schedule in getting done in time for my shortened deadline! But I am not letting up. Although I feel that the most 'fiddley' work is done, I still have a cloud filled sky and a tree-lined horizon to weave. So, back to it! Six inches to go....!

3 comments:

Ruth Manning said...

The canoe makes me feel there is suddenly a story...the fish has more meaning....I wonder what will happen......

Angie Willis said...

I'm loving following the progress of this and it's really great to see it on the enlarged version of the photo. Are you weaving this in different sections? I seem to be seeing lines dividing the work into thirds.

K Spoering said...

Angela, you do see divisions. They are uneven thirds. I'm not weaving in seperate sections, but i chose to use visual divisions. The design has an uneven thirds distribution horizontally; about one- third deep water area, one- third middle area (with the boat), and the upper third or so will be sky. So, to keep that from being too 'regularly divided' looking, I also used divisions into uneven thirds in the middle section. I think it also keeps it from looking like a "picture" and more like a design.

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