Warp-tastic
August 23, 2018After a lot of travel and time away from the studio, my latest piece is finally finished! I’ve titled it “Lotus Lines.”
If you read my last blog post, you know that I wove this tapestry on its side, leaving gaps for the warps to span. I was inspired to do this by all the wonderful fringy, textural, warp abundant work I see on Pinterest and Instagram these days. It is clear that warp is having a moment. I also wanted to step out of my box. Maybe this is just a pinky toe out of my box, but I’m very happy with the exposed warps in this piece. My only regret is that I did not leave wider warp spaces to achieve even more “droop.”
Originally, I intended for the warp threads to also show on the sides too.
I remember when Lialia Kuchma left side fringe on her shaped feather pieces and I thought that was so cool. But ultimately, I did not like the side fringe in this case so I sewed the ends down. I mounted the piece on a clear plexiglass batten. There are some monofilament stitches on the back that keep the side pieces from drifting apart.
I also embroidered outlines on the finished tapestry. It helps the lines pop. You can see in my detail that I used two setts. The lotus stems are woven at a finer set than the background.
This piece has given me a lot of ideas for incorporating warp as a design element. I am inspired to experiment further.
*Note, November 2021: This piece was subsequently exhibited with a title that was ill considered. I have changed it to more accurately describe this work’s conceptual intent and have edited this blog post accordingly.