The Rose Tapestry at 50 Hours

Hello!

I just wanted to leave a little update of pictures of the rose tapestry (I am no longer calling it Leviathan. I would like to reserve that as an inspirational word, so that I may choose to base more work around in the future). For now I will just refer to it as the rose tapestry until I have found a suitable title.


I wanted to continue the scale effect at the top of the left hand petal, but I wanted it to follow the angle of the petal, so I wove the diamonds a bit differently from those on the right. The texture created from the slits between scales, and the silk soumac knots connecting everything worked out really neat! I'm also enjoying that coral, orange and minty green action. It's really coming to life!


I am getting ready to tackle the turquoise and lime green petal, so I had to take a break from weaving to do more dye work today. I ran out of green! That little ball at the top right is what I had left after the first two yellow/green petals. It's a size 30 cotton crochet thread. I definitely needed more than that to finish. So I made all these colours!


Here are a few more close ups of the tapestry. If you want to take a closer look just click on the pic!


I'm weaving each section of colour with a bobbin or yarn butterfly that almost always consists of 3 colours together. This way I get to play with a lot more variations of colour, and it gives a stippled effect. It also makes blending/gradation a lot easier.


I started a sketchbook strictly for Leviathan inspired work (I think I'd like to do 8 of them). It will include everything from images,textures and colour combinations that stir me to word maps, poetry and song lyrics, quotes, essays etc. I will try to post images of the pages along with the tapestry progress. I know this will not only help me to log ideas/inspiration for future use, but also to write my artist statement in the end.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend!
Thank you for stopping by,
♥
JQ

Leviathan Day 13 (29 hours)

Hello and happy Friday everybody!

This week weaving has been a little slower, but save for a two day break, I managed to put an hour in a day. This is the way she looks after 29 hours of weaving:


I'm using a knot called soumac (that is used a lot in rugs) to add texture. Here is a diagram I found*:


I'm usually looping around every warp thread. This is a diagram of how the knot is used in rug construction.

You can see where I used black in the shaded areas how it sits along the surface. I'm trying to duplicate the line quality in any given area so in some places the soumac uses a double thread and others just a single.


I'm also using soumac where the green silk delineates the scales on the yellow petal. I like the way the silk shimmers next to the cotton. I can't get a really good shot of just how bright the colours are and how shimmery the silk looks, but under the right lighting it's really sensuous!


And this is the area that I'll be moving on to later today. With tapestry you have to build up certain areas before you can weave others. I couldn't weave the yellow/orange pink area of the petal in the foreground until I had woven up the leaf in the lower left and the green/yellow petal to the right, because this pinkish petal increases to lay over top of the other two areas. So now that I have the scaly green area done I can weave the 2 areas of black line work shading at the left and right and then continue weaving the yellow/pink petal over top of that.


I hope to be back on Sunday to post about how I finally decided to frame my Dimensions entry, and the title that resonates the most for me so far. I find it sooo difficult to give things titles. Submissions are due Tuesday! Time flies!

Thanks for visiting!
♥
JQ

*Diagram of soumac was found at: http://www.hillco.co.uk/info/rugcon1.htm

Leviathan Day 2 (6 hrs)

My studio corner! I am so glad I decided to bite the bullet and devote a corner to my living room to tapestry. I actually get a fair bit done in a day even with my 2 year old demanding my attention. :P All of these pictures should be clickable in case anyone wants to take a closer look.


Progress! The scales are turning out! There is so much blending compared to what I'm used to, and it's hard not to get confused/overwhelmed, but I will persevere. The results are going to be worth it!


A few detail shots. The one above is the lower right corner. I ran a thread of pink/fuchsia variegated along with the charcoal grey wool 2 ply to create a bit of depth and interest. My camera isn't doing the color in these shots as much justice as I'd like, but you get the idea.


The scales. Crochet thread in all sorts of purple and green and blue shades( some hand dyed, others store bought, some variegated, some finer than others). I am blending the outline of the scales from blue to lilac, to pale pale purple to mint green and then up where the black shading is the scales will be darker again, but the outlining will be in charcoal and black--or at least that is how I imagine it should work. So far so good though!

Happy Sunday,
♥
JQ