On the first day we spent the afternoon getting inspirational shots of Cape Ann to develop a design for a tapestry with images of the sea and\/or the coastline. \u00a0This is the quarry at Halibut Point State Park. \u00a0You can see the Atlantic in the distance.<\/p>\n
I took a lot of wonderful images that day….including some shots of the women in my class. \u00a0We are all members of TWiNE (Tapestry Weavers in New England). \u00a0I had not met any of them before so it was also a good experience getting to know women I’ve only seen as names on email lists.<\/p>\n Someday maybe these images will inspire something, but my tapestry design was already chosen before I got to class. \u00a0For me, this class would be about honing what I wanted to say with an image I already had in mind.<\/p>\n Joan certainly knows how to design works with multiple layers of images that create an entire story in one tapestry. \u00a0You can see her work here<\/a>. \u00a0These are some of the samples she wove to blend colors for ideas for her designs.<\/p>\n She generously brought lots of yarn for us to try, \u00a07\/2 wool that she had dyed herself and every color of 18\/2 wool that Weavers’ Bazaar carries. \u00a0It was a terrific way to get familiar with their yarns.<\/p>\n I started a little sample of a Portuguese Man of War. \u00a0I’ll explain why I’m intrigued with this in a future post, when I have more to report.<\/p>\n Less than a week after Joan’s class, I headed up the Hudson almost to Albany for the last regular meeting of the Wednesday Group. \u00a0It was a bittersweet gathering of the entire group. \u00a0Some people really had to jump hurdles to get there, but we all managed it. \u00a0Archie made a very touching farewell to all of us, but I don’t think most of the group realized what he was doing.<\/p>\n He brought in one of his recently completed tapestries, one that we’d all seen in progress some months ago. \u00a0Typical of Archie, this tapestry is an experiment in meaning….woven in code. \u00a0He was testing the human ability to read many different fonts and handwriting styles. He wondered if we could as easily translate letters into colors, so he wove a poem with a coded color scheme. I think he wondered how many of us could decipher the poem….or would even bother to try. \u00a0Naturally, this brought out the puzzle solver in me and in one of my good friends in the group. \u00a0In the long run, I had to take a photo of it after Archie had wrapped it up to take it home. Hence the very bad image! Just a few minutes after class, two of us decoded the poem almost simultaneously! Then three of us got busy checking to see if we were right…and we were! \u00a0And it was a sweet farewell message from Archie to all of us!<\/p>\n I would love to tell you what the poem is, but I know he wants you to see this tapestry in some venue down the road. \u00a0He wants you to have a go at figuring it out, so I’d better not spoil it!<\/p>\n Meanwhile, our little band of friends wanted to let him know how touched we were, so we decided to sing<\/em> our own version of farewell to him at dinner that night. \u00a0I know it’s corny….when we arrived at our favorite sushi restaurant, four of us surrounded him and sang a little \u00a0farewell poem back to him. \u00a0It was clear that he knew we had broken the code, and he was very touched! \u00a0Our goodbyes could not have been any sweeter! \u00a0All things must pass, and I’m very thankful for these last wonderful days together.<\/p>\n The Wednesday Group also had a final project. Almost everyone has now delivered their chopstick weavings. \u00a0They are a terrific statement of each person’s weaving style! \u00a0For the most part we could all identify who wove each one!<\/p>\n This was Archie’s ingenious idea. \u00a0For several years now we have all stayed together after class on Wednesdays to order Chinese take-out to share. \u00a0The number of chopsticks used on these occasions was rapidly growing, and Archie wanted to find a creative way to recycle them. \u00a0He devised a little loom with 15 chopsticks for warps, and he challenged us to weave a face. \u00a0He made a loom for each member in the group, and some of us had so much fun that we made a few on our own in order to weave more chopstick portraits! This is my “Chopstick Triptych.”<\/p>\n![\"2014-09-15](\"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/2014-09-15-15.00.45.jpg\")
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