There are as many ways to design for tapestry as there are tapestry weavers. Everyone has to find their own way. But over the last couple years I have employed one particular technique that I find shakes my brain loose and helps me conquer the fear that comes up when designing large pieces. I start

I have been doing some finishing on the Riverside tapestry this week. It is about postcard size at 5 inches by 7.75 inches and I enjoyed w...

I'm preparing for an exhibit soon and have lots of small tapestries that I'm getting ready to hang. I thought I'd share some of the process here. There's a good collection of articles about hanging methods for tapestry included at the American Tapestry Alliance website at this link. The method I was using a few years ago was the one I described at the ATA site and it's just a bit different than what I'm showing here. But... there you go... always looking for a different way... if not better! So here are my steps: For the mounting board I've used 1/2" foam core board. It works fine for small pieces; the largest one in this group is 41" long x 4" wide. I measured and cut the mounting board using a fresh blade in the utility knife. A cutting mat is quite helpful for this process as is a metal yard stick. Next, I stretched a layer of cotton flannel (prewashed/dried) over the board using 3/8" staples. I clipped the ends and trimmed excess cloth away. The mounting fabric in this instance is a natural color of cotton twill canvas. It was also washed, dried and this fabric was steam pressed (no need to press the flannel since it smooths out when stretching and stapling it.) Excess fabric was clipped out of the corners, then the edges folded over and stapled at the back. This step is a bit tricky--you want to pull the corners as tightly and smoothly as possible. Staple and then you're ready to stitch on the tapestry. The tapestry is laid onto the mounting board and pinned in place temporarily with t-pins. The mounting boards are about 1/4" to 1/2" larger than the tapestry so there's a small margin showing around the edges of the weavings. Before mounting, the ends of the warps are dealt with... for small pieces that aren't four-selvedge woven (which leaves no loose warps to deal with), I usually use a half-Damascus edge that Peter Collingwood describes in his book, The Techniques of Rug Weaving. It's shown on pages 484-486. The process is done with the face of the tapestry down and it makes the warp ends lay against the back/body of the tapestry. Then I whip-stitch the warp ends down, four to six grouped together. And wefts that are near the edges are also tucked to the back with a whip stitch. Using a curved needle, the tapestry is stitched to the mounting fabric, moving around the edges. A color of sewing thread that will blend with the edge colors as well as possible is what was used, although I changed color of stitching thread if the value contrast of the weft at the edges was great. On the pieces with the warp showing at the edge, the stitching color was changed to the warp color (usually natural color). The curved needle will slip into the mounting fabric, travel up about 1/4" and then come out between the first and second warp. Pull the needle out, bury the sewing thread between wefts, then put the needle across to the mounting fabric again where you'll take another stitch under the fabric to the next point of attachment to the tapestry. This is a curved needle... although looks straight here. The back of the mounting board was covered with a piece of illustration board (mat board will work also) that was glued down. To glue it in place, the illustration board was quickly painted with slightly diluted craft glue, brushing it over the entire board and immediately laying the board on the back of the mounting board/tapestry. You need to be prepared to weight the whole thing down immediately--have wax paper torn to sightly larger size than the board (this is a barrier to keep any bits of glue from your weight) and put the wax paper on top of the whole thing. Weigh it down with something heavy (I use books). Leave it all alone overnight and when you uncover it the next day, all should be fine. For hanging, there are several solutions... you can use an adhesive hanging system, sawtooth hangers, or velcro. I was able to locate enough push pin sawtooth hangers to use for the tapestry diary pieces at the local hardware. This is an easy method to use and should stay in place just fine. The mounting board may also be put into a shadowbox-like frame. That's what I'm going to do with several of the smallest tapestries--frames will have to be built to size by a local craftsman in this case since I haven't been able to find shadowbox frames as small as I need. And... here are the framed pieces... Jeff just delivered the frames a short while ago. They're exactly what I wanted for these pieces.

The Cameron Peak Fire burned 326 square miles near my home in 2020.* It started August 13th and was finally declared controlled in January of 2021. All four of the trails I backpacked prior to August 13th in 2020 burned in the fire as did every other trail near home on my hiking bucket list. The for

My studio table has been covered with mounting projects for a few weeks now. I sold a handful of small-format tapestries and not all of them were mounted. I also finished a small tapestry that was a donation to Petrified Forest National Park from my artist residency last November. (Read about that

Using a cartoon for tapestry and other figurative weaving is a time-honored technique. Here's how Tommye McClure Scanlin does it.

Every year I run a class I call Summer of Tapestry. It revolves around a practice I’ve had for many years now of bringing a small loom with me when I’m hiking or traveling and weaving something about what I experienced or saw. I often call the practice sketch tapestry because my goal is to capture s

Today is the third anniversary of my signature online tapestry course, Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry . The launching of this course was my first step away from my career as a healthcare provider. Sure I had been working as a tapestry teacher and artist for many years prior, but

For my small tapestry work and for teaching on small looms, I have used Hokett looms for many years. Jim Hokett retired in 2019 and though I will use my personal stash of these looms forever, those of you who didn’t manage to get one before he retired are looking for other options. Why would you wa

I have been doing some finishing on the Riverside tapestry this week. It is about postcard size at 5 inches by 7.75 inches and I enjoyed weaving it. There is an idea cooking, not fully baked yet that it might be fun to create a collage of small tapestries based on the theme " postcards from home". In the interim it would be nice to be able to display it individually. Of course there are many ways to finish tapestries but I will take you through my process for this one. Starting from the beginning I loosen the warp before cutting it from the loom. Notice the bright yellow orange thread, this will not be part of the finished piece. I like to use a guide thread to help keep the edges even and parallel as I climb up the warp. This is nothing new but most of the time the guide threads are an extra warp thread placed next to the actual edges of the piece. I have been frustrated with this in the past because of my tendency to weave the guide threads into the actual tapestry. My solution is to use a very contrasting color of cotton rug warp and place the guide threads on separately next to the doubled warp ends that will be the actual edge of the tapestry. Then I weave a waste header in the same color catching in the guide threads to make them stable. They are not attached to a heddle either. Once the tapestry is off the loom i can remove the guide strings and the waste header in one piece and it is even possible to reuse it. Then I trim the ends to make it easier to handle and let it rest for a couple of days before I proceed. As you can see the back is a jumble of ends and I was really working on reducing weft ends? I also try to keep the ends away from the edges but if I have missed a couple they get needle woven away. This is a good time to mention that it is important not to split or needle into the warp threads themselves but to carefully weave under the wefts to hold the threads in place. Next, trim the ends to a reasonable length. Here, a half inch or so. I like to use appliqué scissors for this. For an all wool tapestry trimming is all you usually need but this tapestry has many slick threads like cotton, silk and rayon. These threads work themselves out of the weaving much easier and so I tie them loosely into a small knot before trimming. Then I will give my warp threads a neater trim. If the piece needs blocking I would do it now. Also should mention that I had only one small slit that I needed to sew in this piece and it is done by now. This tapestry is responding well to a light steaming on the back so I will leave it at that. Here are the ends trimmed, knotted and worked toward the center away from the edges. This piece has hems on two ends so I will reinforce only two edges with twill tape, if I had no hems I would do all four edges taking the warp ends in as I go. I press the hems under along my Soumak edge using a metal guide and steam, for picture purposes there is no press cloth in this picture . Then strong thread is used to whip the edges of the hems and the twill tape in place, whipping the warp threads under as I go. The back is a little neater now. Then I like to take a piece of cotton fabric and make a backing for the whole tapestry. I often use this backing to add more documentation as I usually just put initials on the front. Here is a picture of another small tapestry with the backing stitched in place with matching thread. On Riverside I also attached a small hanging sleeve to the back which can be used to display it right away. If I decide later to make it part of a larger piece it will be simple to remove the cotton backing with the hanging sleeve without damaging the finishing underneath.

I love viewing tapestries in person. I can get a close look at how they were constructed and if I’m lucky enough to be at an opening where the artist is present, I can ask them to show me the back along with peppering them with questions about their work. The small format unjuried tapestry show that

For my small tapestry work and for teaching on small looms, I have used Hokett looms for many years. Jim Hokett retired in 2019 and though I will use my personal stash of these looms forever, those of you who didn’t manage to get one before he retired are looking for other options. Why would you wa