Sunday, October 21, 2012

Will it be a waste of time???

I have decided to try one of the cocoon templates, that I have already posted about, in my tapestry weaving.
It is one that is on an A4 piece of paper which fits nicely across the loom.  As I am making it up as I go along, I think I might make it a bit larger, maybe a squarer shape, as I can't make the width of the loom any bigger but I can make the design taller. The free motion sample is fairly small once it is joined together, so I am hoping that by making the fringe parts longer it will be slightly bigger. The thicker fabric may have an effect also.  Hence the thought that I could be wasting my time, it might not work at all.

It consists of 13 separate sections that will join when I get to the correct height.  So I will get lots of practice making slits (which I don't have to sew up - yay!!) as well as keeping my sides straight, 13 times. Each section is only 8 warps wide so I can say to myself, "I'll just finish this section".  This seems to make it go more quickly, at least, it did when I used to do Fair Isle knitting, I haven't done enough weaving on this piece to know yet.

If this doesn't work, I won't know till I have woven it all and am trying to sew it together.  Tapestry is much slower than the free motion sewing but I have decided that I really want to try it, so here goes.

Here it is with the first fringe piece done - I started with left-over bits of warp from another tapestry.  I need to sew the ends together so that it is not obvious where the joins are and I thought that this might disguise the plaiting of the warp ends a bit.  Another thing I won't know till it is finished.

6 comments:

Michelle said...

Definitely *not* a waste of time - how exciting!! :D

Mary said...

Thanks Michelle,
I suppose it is exciting, letting my mind wander and do 'what if?' - even if it has been done by someone else, I am unaware of it and so it is my testing procedure. And it is good not to have to produce it for a class, to just let the idea simmer for a while and then finally decide to try it. No deadline pressure. How is your course going? It must be getting close to hand-in time.

parlance said...

At worst, at least it will be a learning experience.

Michelle said...

I agree, no deadline pressure = more creativity!

I have quite a bit more to go of my large tapestry ... and 2 more Elements Of Design assignments. I'm looking forward to relaxing after November 21!! :P

Anonymous said...

Looks very interesting! I look forward to see more! :-)

Mary said...

Thanks Vera, I am hoping it won't be quite as small as the machine sewn one. That medium does have a tendency to shrink when you dissolve the fabric you sewed on, so I am hoping it will be a bit bigger.