I started this small tapestry as a "study" of techniques. I actually used "real" tapestry wool for this, rather than knitting yarn or my handspun. The yarn was free and the colors not those that I might pick, but that made it interesting to chose as I wove...
Circles are not my forté and they may never be, but it was fun to try.
In looking back on my fiber career, I've mostly been self taught, and so it was with wedge weave. I've done two now, on two different looms. Both times, I've used a combination of manufactured and hand dyed, hand spun yarns. This makes for ripply weaving in a technique that moves the warp in a zig zag anyway!
This one was done on a wood tapestry loom that fell apart while I was adjusting the tension, I would have done a fourth "row" but it just wasn't possible. This weaving technique was and is used by Navaho weavers, so the little beads with Cherokee syllabary animals on them seemed appropriate. Purchased at Low Country Pow Wow!
I love my KoiguKPPPM and decided to explore its color changes in a tapestry done on a small frame loom.
I am happy with this although next time I might make the wefts more diagonal and use more oof a wedge weave technique...
These looms, apparently, multiply the way spinning wheels do!
After seeing a friend's tapestries, I was enchanted. It was one of those epiphany moments when you know what your next creative step is will be. One of the things the friend had was copper pipe looms. Having a touch of the steampunk in me, I wanted to own one!
I took Rebecca Mezoff's "Little Looms" class online. I recommend her classes. Learned the basics and a bit more, and figured out that I did not need to use classic tapestry wools but I could use my stash.None of my looms here have a shedding mechanism to make opening the shed faster, so it must be "picked". You CAN add heddles but I have not done that here. I should note that there are many brands and styles of tapestry looms. You can also make your own from a sturdy picture frame!
Here is a weaving on a copper pipe loom: she will be the orange goddess when I'm done. I purchased this loom (cheating!!) because I could not wait to make my own... Copper pipe looms are tensionable, i.e., they can have a screw mechanism to loosen the weaving as you weave, because the weaving tightens up. Here is Rebecca Mezoff's blog post on making a pipe loom: https://rebeccamezoff.com/blog/2016/10/23/making-your-own-tapestry-loom-out-of-copper-pipe. You can either solder it or buy more expensive corners that will fit on your pipes. If you take her "Little Looms" class you can learn how to solder one together (this one is soldered).
Here is my homemade copper pipe loom. I cheated and rather than soldering I bought more expensive joints to fit my loom. Figuring out the size of threaded rod was tricky and required a trip to Home Depot in person. I did buy the little tool to cut copper rod, however!
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If I were to buy another loom (this could happen) I may get a HelloHydrangea Loom with a shedding mechanism available here:https://www.hellohydrangea.com/shop/looms.
