Visiting tapestry artists

As part of our tour in Aubusson, we visited several tapestry weavers in their studios.  One of the first was France-Odile Perrine-Criniere.  She graciously allowed us to ask her questions as she showed us her work in progress.
She also has a large low warp loom.  Once again, I was amazed to see the number of bobbins in use - all kept under great control.

You can see the image reproduced in various sizes lying on the warp.

France-Odile explained her design work to us.  For the above work, she painted a small image using gouache and then manipulated it in a computer program, enlarging it finally to the size she wanted to weave.  The cartoon is under the warp and she also uses mirrors to check the progress of the design.

The wool is tied together into the colours she will use and kept handy to the work.  We saw this method of organising the yarns in several studios.

Some of the work in her shopfront had unusual glass frames on her tapestries.  She also had some texture in some of her work.