Tapestry Techniques with Claudia Chase A CraftArtEdu Class

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2 Definitions Tapestry: a weft-faced fabric (in other words, the warp yarn is completely covered); a fabric consisting of plain weave (under and over every other warp thread) and some discontinuous wefts (threads that are not woven from selvedge to selvedge). Warp: The very strong strings that are attached to the loom. Weft: The yarn that is woven into the warp. Butterfly: Yarn wrapped in figure-of-eights to keep it organized for weaving. Selvedge: The four sides of the tapestry. Fell Line: The last completed row of weaving. Shed: The space between the raised and lowered warp threads. Shedding Device: The mechanism on the loom that lowers and raises the warp threads to make weaving easier and quicker. Heddles: The loops of string that attach the shedding device to the warp threads. Header and footer: The beginning and end sections of the tapestry woven from warp material and sometimes folded to the back of the piece and not seen. Beater: A wooden or metal hand held tool that is used to beat down the woven yarn. 2

3 Techniques A half pass: The weft is woven in only one direction. A full pass: The weft is woven in one direction and then back again forming a line since now all the warps are covered with this weft thread. Hill: Created when a weft thread crosses in front of a warp thread. 3

4 Valley: Created when a weft thread crosses behind a warp thread. 4

5 Raised and lowered warps (pigtails): All your weft yarns should always have their tails at the back of the weaving. To begin a weft yarn at the selvedge, you will use one of two methods depending on whether or not the selvedge warp is raised or lowered. If it is lowered, simply start your weft yarn at the side. It will automatically be behind the weaving. If the selvedge warp is lowered, take your weft behind the two selvedge warp yarns and around the the final warp yarn. Stick the end toward the back of the weaving through the two selvedge warp yarns. This is called a pigtail, which can also be used to end a weft yarn at the selvedge of a tapestry. You will encounter this many times in this course. Later, you will also learn how to start weft and end weft yarns in the middle of the tapestry. Pre-Bubbling: What happens to the weft yarn when it is woven into the shed? 5

6 The straight line of yarn becomes a series of hills and valleys when you change the shed. Therefore, if you weave a completely straight line, when you change the shed, the no longer straight yarn will cause the selvedges to pull in. To avoid this, you need to bubble (see next page). Bubbling: First make a curve with your weft yarn. You can do a few of these at a time. Then take your finger and push down to make bubbles. Next beat the weft. The bubbling will provide the extra weft yarn needed to make up for the hills and valleys. 6

7 Starting and Ending Weft Yarn: Remember that the tails of your wefts must always be in back of the tapestry. When starting the weft yarn at the selvedge if the selvedge warp is raised, just start weaving; if it is lowered, make a pigtail around i (left). If you run out in the middle of the tapestry, stick the end of the weft yarn to the back and start a new one where it ended (middle). The same goes for replacing it with a new color (right). 7

8 Wavy Lines: Wavy lines are the result of weaving full passes layering two colors. Even though a full pass makes a complete line because it covers every warp, it still does not actually translate into a straight line. This technique is good on its own or can be used for shading. 8

9 Weft Interlock: To start weft interlock, which as it sounds connects two wefts in the space between warps, insert wefts from right to left going in the same direction. Then return to the right selvedge, weave it to the left, hook the next weft around it and weave tat to the left. When all the wefts are woven, return to the right selvedge and weave all the wefts from right to left. 9

10 Pick and Pick (raised): Since a half pass covers every other thread, if you alternate half passes of different colored wefts, you will achieve vertical stripes called Pick and Pick. There are two different scenarios that can happen at the selvedges when you replace one color with the next. If the first yarn goes under the raised selvedge warp, wrap the second yarn around that weft and pull it in so it rests between the last end warps. As you can see this produces selvedge stripes that are one color. 10

11 Pick and Pick (lowered): When weaving Pick and Pick if the first weft yarn goes under a lowered selvedge warp, wrap the second weft yarn around that warp twice. Not only does this and the previous method guarantee that the selvedge warps will be one color, but it will also make sure there are the correct number of wraps there. 11

12 Single Soumak Knotting: Soumak knotting is a non-woven technique because instead of passing the weft through the shed you wrap it around warp threads. This version is Single Soumak. Your shed will be closed. In other words the warp threads are all in the same position. For this technique, the weft is wrapped around each warp thread instead of passing through the shed. 12

13 On the return Soumak Knotting trip go under two warp threads from left to right and then through those two warp threads to the back of the tapestry. Keep repeating this pattern until you reach the right side of your tapestry. Notice the chevron pattern that is created with this technique. Slit Tapestry: Elegantly simple, Slit Tapestry is just what it sounds like. Treat interior warp threads like selvedge threads, neatly wrapping around them to form a slit between two areas of weft. 13

14 Warp Interlock: Instead of looping the weft yarns to one another, you will alternately wrap them around the warp threads. 14

15 Double Soumak Knotting: Pass the black weft to the right and over three warps then to the right and behind two warps, coming out in front of the tapestry. Continue this pattern of over three warps to the left and under two warps to the right. 15

16 Eccentric Wefts and Outlining: It is not always necessary to weave in a straight line. When you break out of this mode, the technique is called Eccentric Wefts. When it is covered with a line of weft, that is called Outlining. 16

17 Skills How to make a butterfly: Making your yarn into a butterfly makes it easier to weave with. Cut a length of yarn and wind it around your fingers like the pictures indicate. It is important to not overlap your yarn so that it pulls easily from the butterfly. 17

18 Marking Warp Threads: Use a permanent marker to trace a circle onto your warp threads. You will use this as a guide when weaving. 18

19 Making Your Own Heddles: You will need to make as many individual heddles as there will be warps in your weaving. These heddles (as well as the Mirrix heddles you can buy) will be reusable. The thinner and stronger the string you use, the better. For bead weavers, cotton quilting or beading thread works great. For tapestry weavers, cotton crochet thread, linen warp or single-ply cotton warp works well. Nail two finishing nails into a piece of wood three and one-eight inches apart. You will use this little tool to tie your warps. Cut ten inch lengths of your heddle material, one for each heddle you will make. Tie them around the nails, using an overhand knot to secure the ends. In order to get that knot to sit right next to the nail, slip a needle into the knot before it is pulled tight and push the knot toward the nail. Then tighten it. Trim off the ends of the heddles to within a quarter of an inch of the knot. Alternatively, you can cut a piece of cardboard three and one-eighth inches apart and use that to tie your heddles around. 19

20 Warping Part 1 20

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37 End Part 1 Warping 37

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