Off The Wall

It is my belief that every tapestry has the right
to move and sway and spin.

My first tapestry Mobile. Dimensions on the slide. Remember slides? Remember the little dot in the corner? Feels like a long time ago. I miss them.

Indeed, freeing my tapestries from strictures
​is what you might call a long term goal.

Tapestry Mobile (detail); Hand Woven Tapestry; Hand Spun Wool; ©Sarah C. Swett 1997

Not that it is often realized.

Tapestries  end up on walls more often than not
(and look darned good while they are about it).

Concertina Face; 4 1/2" x 3 1/2"; Hand Woven Tapestry; Hand Embroidery; hand spun Wool; natural dye; ©Sarah C. Swett 2016

But even when on the wall, they usually have the structural integrity to hang with minimal support and do not need to be stretched or stapled or otherwise confined.

Not that I haven't done all three things to various works over time,
but it always feels like I'm being mean.

Twirling is such fun. 
And cloth is so good at it.

Getting my work out into the air is made easier for me
because I work in all my weft tails as I go
so the front and back look essentially the same.
(They are not but that is not a topic for today).

Warming Up; 4" x 5 1/2" ; Hand Embroidery on Hand Woven Tapestry; wool, natural dye; ©Sarah C. Swett 2016

Of course as per last week's post, the embroidery remains one sided.

I've also been helped by an endless attraction to the thrill of experimentation--
​a tug toward the open air of weaving techniques I haven't seen before.

"Front on the Line" from the two part tapestry mobile, "Back to Front". circa 2000

Indeed, to touch on something my friend Summer wrote about in her blog post yesterday,
I  end up spending a lot of time in the guise of a beginner.

Margin Notes; various sizes; hand woven tapestry; hand spun wool; natural dye ©Sarah C. Swett 2007

Actually, now that I write this, getting the work off the wall has rarely been the primary motivator in pursuing a work, but rather an ever-welcome addition.
​ I started weaving Margin Notes, for instance, as a response to my jealousy
of a character in a novel I was writing: 

Margin Notes; various sizes; hand woven tapestry; hand spun wool; natural dye ©Sarah C. Swett 2007

My protagonist, Love Miranda, wove  pages and pages of long narrow tapestries before I had to stop writing to copy her. Only later, as they hung in the middle of a room so you could move through them as though through a forest, the tapestries responding to whoever came by as that person responded to them-- like a dance-- did I see how much I wanted that too.

Margin Notes; various sizes; hand woven tapestry; hand spun wool; natural dye ©Sarah C. Swett 2007

Sadly, I never wove enough to get the full effect,  but you should have seen how fabulous they looked in the story. ​

Casting Off: A Comic in Seven Tapestries -Pages 2-3; 10" x 10" x 2"; wool, natural dye, cotton/ hemp, thread ©Sarah C. Swett 2009

Tapestry books are another way to escape the dreaded frame,
the reader getting to touch each page in its turn
​and experience ​the heft and fluidity of this amazing cloth.
One of these days, I'll return to these.  
​When the time is right.

Untitled as Yet; Tapestry Mobile in progress; Wool, Stone, Fishing Swivels; Contorted Filbert

Isn't it great how ideas circle around?
Nearly 20 years after that first mobile,
I'm exploring the form again.

Making Mobiles by Guy R. Williams; Emerson Books, Inc. New York 1969

When I started writing this morning I thought I'd end up getting into some of the reasons I find frames claustrophobic.  but I think I'll save that for another day

It's all just so interseting.

Circular Knitting; 5 1/2" x 4" ; Hand Embroidery on Hand Woven Tapestry; Wool, Natural Dye; ©Sarah C. Swett 2016