Enthusiasm for tapestry is building

 For those of you who could not come to my booth at The Artist Project here is my work on display. A mixture of handwoven tapestries, woven wallhangings and fibre mixed media. As people walked through my booth, an everexpanding smile would permeate the geography of their face. I wish I could have videotaped each of these individuals as my work transformed their countenance as they viewed it.  I met many wonderful artists and got to know several of them quite well.

My booth at the Toronto Artist Project.

An update on the international tapestry installation, Fate, Destiny and Self-Determination. We now have 131 people participating from 20 countries. To keep posted and updated on the project and make connections with other weavers all over the world, friend me on Facebook and then click on the Fate, Destiny and Self Determination project page, if you haven't already. Below, shapes that have been completed and/or received recently.

Shape woven by Bernard Ossant from France.

Shape needlepointed by Sharon L. Smith

 

The Community Threads tapestries which I launched in July of 2011 in Alliston Ontario continues to move at warp speed with their hardworking, dilligent, and accomplished weavers and spinners at the Nottawasaga Weavers and Spinners Guild located in the beautiful historic Gibson Community and Cultural Centre.

The latest panel to woven by Elisabeth Bishof depicting the historical octongonal barns on the Banting Homestead  in the New Tecumseth area. The entire banner is dedicated to Banting (insulin), and the property where he lived.

Linda Needles writes:

"We have just started weaving two more tapestries on the Gobelin loom. One depicts historic buildings in the New Tecumseth area and other is of scenes in the area. We are beginning the process of putting headers on the finished tapestries in order to ready them for hanging in our upcoming exhibit. In addition, we are preparing write ups for a brochure that will accompany the tapestries."

 

Betty Cerar, the current president of the guild, emailed me to say that the guild received a grant from the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners to pay for the expenses of displaying the Community Threads tapestries when they are completed.  A number of guild members assisted in putting the application together. Betty says that there is still a  LOT of work to complete in order to have the exhibition ready for the  Fall of 2013.   One of the requirements of the grant is to write an article in Fibre Focus magazine about the project so that more people (in particular weavers and spinners) from Ontario can see the finished results of their endeavours. Betty goes on to say: "I sure hope we don't run out of steam before the exhibit! The two current tapestries on the Gobelin loom had a bit of a slow start as people scrounged around for suitable colours, but they're going well now, and if we keep up the momentum, we'll be okay.I dropped in today after work for a bit, and yet another visitor was brought up by the director of the Gibson Centre to see us working. It's really nice to have so much support and enthusiasm for the project."

tapestry at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Jutta Polomski writes:
"My daughter and I have been touring the galleries, museums, and sights around London. At the Victoria and Albert museum. we saw many wonderful textiles. I took a couple of pictures, which of course do no justice to the actual tapestries. They had an example of how a tapestry is woven, and what it looks like on the back. There was also a write-up which I thought you could post in the class, for those new tapestry weavers who find it takes soooo long...."

 

More next week!