Tapestry woven from handspun llama fiber

After taking an informal course in tapestry weaving at The University of Texas at Austin from Liza Collins, a professional British tapestry weaver and teacher, I decided to combine my new weaving, amateur handspinning, and old woodworking interests to create a unique tapestry sculpture.

The wood: Elm trees, as do other plants, remodel damaged limbs, covering the dead wood that eventually rots. I select the limbs tortured by parasitic mistletoe, remove the bark and much of the dead wood, then sand and oil the hidden treasure beneath.

The yarn: We shear our five llamas every spring to keep them cooler in the hot, Texas summer. I learned to spin the fiber using a drop spindle at a class at "Kid 'n Ewe and Llamas Too," a South Central Llama Association fiber event. White yarn is from Glacier and Apu, red-brown from Nova, and multihues of brown from Warpaint, an appaloosa. I treated Warpaint's fiber in two different ways: 1. mixing all colors together resulted in a uniform grey-brown yarn vs 2. keeping the colors separate, but spinning one after the other in the same skein. When the latter was plied (two strands), a novel candy stripe yarn was produced.

Tapestry warp (cotton string) is usually secured to a rectangular wood frame. I improvised using a utility step ladder as an easel to hold the elm pieces, the lower one being the disfigured element; the top one a smaller unremarkable limb. Old socks secured with duct tape protected the wood from friction of the ladder.

Warping the "loom." The piece is actually upside down because I want the woven top to be tight against the wood. The effect at the bottom will be a a compromise and not be finished as would a traditional tapestry.

I wound the yarn on small hand-made shuttles to make it easier to get it through the tight warp. The color difference between the two methods of preparing the appaloosa yarn is evident in the photo above.

I used a fork to pack tightly each row of yarn.

About half finished.s

The back side of the finished tapestry before tne yarn ends were worked into the fiber along the warp threads using a tapestry needle.

The finished unnamed piece, finally inverted to its proper position, suspended on the wall by a leather thong. The abstract design has no significance.

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