The creative process led me to creating a trio of small weavings about the creative process, specifically writing:
The Blank Page;
Concept of a Plan;
First Edit.
I really only meant to make the one in the middle. I wanted to practice a tapestry joining technique – looping the weft threads of two different colors – to improve my skill.
When I was done, the white rectangle looked like a sheet of paper on a desk, ready to be written on. Story of my life! So off I went into a story made of wool. Practice can be artistic, too.
For the second tapestry, Blank Page, I tried a different technique – creating a slit instead of a loop where the colors meet. I kept the design very simple. After weaving, I added top stitching long the left slit to indicate a notebook’s bound edge.
And the final weaving, First Edit, is a close-up of paper with writing on it. This one had yet another joining technique – looping around the warp thread. It produced a familiar southwest tapestry look. This little tapestry challenged my ability with its small shapes and multiple color changes. I have a lot to learn!
Each piece is approximately eleven centimeters square, all woven on the same loom. I used wools and wool blends from the stash Tod gave me for Christmas, except for the warp which is acrylic yarn that a friend passed along to me when I needed a white color for another weaving. I am happy that the whole thing is supported by her generosity.
Halfway through the project, I realised I needed a way to display these together. I mounted the three pieces together on dowels which I cut to size and finished with painted ends and yarn wraps.
And then I changed my mind about the third weaving. I removed the first overlaid slash of blue (reminiscent of a non-repro blue pen) and changed it to two smaller editing marks – a deletion loop and an insertion caret. The concept was good, but it felt too fussy. I removed them and changed back to a single mark, a caret with an asterisk to insert into the blank space on the first line.
So First Edit is actually the third edit, but let’s not tell anyone.
