Home Made Originals: Back in the (Weaving) Saddle Again

I've been weaving over 50 years, although some years have been quite sparse in terms of production. I have way too many fiber related hobbies and I am easily distracted and go down the newest "rabbit hole" for periods of time. Sometimes, I only briefly go down a particular new creative rabbit hole, but often it becomes a new passion that I carry forward. That is what happened with weaving, beading, and art quilting. And of course, knitting, one of my first fiber "loves" always remains something in my creative arsenal.

I have MANY (some would say too many) looms--2 inkle looms, a long skinny homemade bead loom (which I'd never used until recently...read on!), a simple tapestry loom, a four harness table loom I inherited from my father, and two floor looms (one 42" 8 harness Studio loom and a 26" 4 harness Gilmore that my friend Sharon gifted me). I can do sectional warping on my large floor loom so I also have an AVL warping wheel. All this weaving equipment requires a whole other room in my house aside from my studio. To round it out, I have a couple of pin loms/potholder looms as well. You can see that I am well covered in the weaving equipment arena.

Early in my weaving career I completed a couple of tapestries. The first one is a large piece that was made on a simple wood frame loom with nails.

This was a fun project that I wove on my first floor loom using tapestry techniques:

Fast forward a few decades and a few years ago I borrowed a friend's tapestry pipe loom and did a small project which became this coaster. I didn't catch the tapestry bug at that time so it was a one-off.

I've also done beading for about 10 years. I've played with different techniques and bead types but the majority of my beading has been with Peyote stitch.

After drooling over my friend, Sarah's Mirrix loom, I started exploring and found this cute little beaded tapestry called Art Deco Squares on the Mirrix website. I decided I could try making it on the homemade bead loom I already had and since I have tons of Delica beads, this was a perfect project to see if I would like loom beading. Well, I was instantly hooked and shortly after I purchased my own Mirrix Little Guy loom, and started back down the tapestry and bead loom rabbit hole in earnest.

I've finished my first bead tapestry (below). Don't you think it looks a bit like a little village? Completing it has gotten me interested in making my own designs for loom beading. I'm currently using Loomerly to play with this idea, but also exploring other apps/programs for bead design.