A colorful guided tour from an expert, enabling weavers, textile lovers, and art lovers to notice and appreciate what tapestries can do and how they do it. This guide from expert tapestry weaver and historian Sidore gives how-to strategies enabling weavers and nonweavers to notice and appreciate the meaning of these artworks. You'll discover much to enjoy in photos of more than 300 tapestries from the 12th to the 21st centuries. Sidore enables you to think about the weavings in ways you have never before considered as she groups pieces that talk with each other--and that also converse with the viewer. Enjoy learning basic elements of weaving to help you become increasingly sophisticated in understanding what you're seeing. Then, learn six ways in which tapestries can call attention to themselves as cloth. This eye-opening guide to seeing explains the great range of materials and visual themes, the use of trompe l'oeil, the importance of the direction in which the weaver weaves, and more. After this learning experience, you'll bring smarter eyes to your museum wandering, deeper enjoyment to your collection and purchases, and surprising new skills and creativity to your weaving of fibers . . . and of life.

Jean Pierre Larochette is a renowned top-level artist, making this opportunity to learn from him a treasure for all levels of weavers.

Tapestries were among the most prestigious of art forms, created for the mightiest in the land and valued for centuries. Despite its illustrious history, tapestry weaving is actually a simple technique that requires little equipment or expenditure, and can be done anywhere. Written by a prominent tapestry weaver, this lavishly illustrated book gently leads you through the whole process with detailed diagrams and exciting work by contemporary weavers. It will be useful to the absolute beginner, but experienced weavers will also find new ideas and techniques to tempt and inspire them. The book includes a step-by-step guide to setting up a small frame loom and starting to weave; basic and more advanced techniques, and how to create shapes and textures; advice on taking your work into the third dimension, whether bas relief or fully sculptural; information on the qualities of different materials and how they can be used to create the effects you want; and design ideas for tapestry and how to follow supplied designs. This will be an essential source book for experienced and novice weavers, and is beautifully illustrated with 190 colour illustrations and diagrams.

Once ideas and images come to mind, the next step in weaving your tapestry--interpreting these into effective compositions--may be challenging. Learn here, in ways that relate specifically to tapestry art, the design basics you need to make your best work. Renowned master weaver Scanlin offers 60 step-by-step "explorations" that lead you from understanding design concepts in your head to using them on your loom. Be inspired to explore "weavable" ways to manage line, shape, color, texture, emphasis, balance, rhythm, and more for results that bring your tapestries to a new level. In Part 1, dive into the fundamentals of design. Parts 2 and 3 hold explorations--exercises with a tapestry twist. Part 4 teaches ways to turn designs into cartoons. A resource treasure trove offers ideas for finishing tapestries (essential to the design's completeness), helpful templates, glossaries, and other core information to carry forward on your creative path.

Projects: Sun sampler -- Peruvian birds -- Cat and fishes -- Simple landscape -- Cover design -- Tulip -- The parrot gets the last word -- Little owl -- Sleeping dog -- Sleeping cat -- Bird.

Weaving is a highly accessible craft — over, under is the basic technique — but the stumbling block for many would-be weavers has been the high cost of a commercial loom. The Weaving Explorer removes that barrier, inviting crafters and artists to try out an amazing range of techniques and creative projects that are achievable with a simple homemade loom, or no loom at all! Weavers Deborah Jarchow and Gwen W. Steege take inspiration from the world of folk weaving traditions, adding a contemporary spin by introducing an unexpected range of materials and home dec projects. From sturdy rag fabric grocery bags to freeform wire baskets, delicately woven thread bracelets to colorful woven rugs, crafters will delight in exploring the opportunities to make their own personal variations on these beautiful — and functional — creations.

The Nature of Things weaves together a life full of happiness and sorrow. In these fourteen collected essays, Tommye McClure Scanlin reflects on her artistic journey and how crafting and life are interwoven, two threads that comprise a larger picture. Readers will find themselves lost in Scanlin's full-color tapestries and comforting writing style as they explore the natural fields and woods of southern Appalachia. A final part of the book gives an overview of tapestry weaving basics with diagrams and descriptions for setting up a simple pipe loom and weaving a small tapestry sampler. Glossary, simple pipe loom illustrations, and a resource list are included for reference.

With comprehensive text, diagrams, drafts, and examples of fine woven fabrics, this book about the art and craft of weaving offers complete coverage of the materials and equipment, the techniques and the creative possibilities of the medium. Now in its fourth edition, this indispensable handbook is a must-have resource for weavers of all skill levels. This timeless classic now features examples of contemporary work and discusses the use of digital tools for hand-weaving. Chapters include the fundamentals of weaving, as well as looms and other equipment, yarns, how to design a warp and warp the loom, drafting, the basic weaves, pattern weaves, and how to apply this knowledge to discover the many faces of weaving. Weave structures covered include tapestry techniques, knotted, pile, flat-woven rugs, and two- and three-dimensional wall hangings.

"I have been weaving tapestries for more than half a century. It is as much a part of my everyday as eating, sleeping - or dreaming. It is an utterly ordinary activity for me." One of the world's most influential tapestry weavers, renowned for bringing "pop" into the ancient art of tapestry, Archie Brennan (1931-2019) had an exceptionally long career. Beginning in the mid-1940s and continuing into the first two decades of the 21st century, he pushed the boundaries of the medium, he developed a unique approach to weaving and tapestry design, and he impacted many people with his teaching style and outsize personality. This memoir, compiled with the assistance of weaver and former Wednesday Group member Brenda Osborn, provides the opportunity to pass his insights and his creative voice to a new generation of weavers. Let his incomparable voice explain why weaving is worth dedicating your energies to, even though, as Brennan says, "In the first quarter of the 21st century, tapestry may be regarded as a very minor art form, even an archaic, redundant activity in a high speed, electronic age."

This classic book, now completely revised and expanded, has long been a favorite of both teachers and students of tapestry weaving. Learn to weave tapestry on any kind of loom, vertical or horizontal. Take an intriguing journey to make an elaborate, but logical, tapestry sampler. The process is explained step-by-step and illustrated with over 300 beautiful color photographs and diagrams of tapestry techniques. Along the way, color theories applicable to tapestry are explained. You will be inspired by the ancient art form explored on these colorful pages. Treasures from museums and prominent contemporary artists relate the historic significance of tapestries and their limitless range of visual power. Learn how archival finishing and mounting your handwoven textile completes the project. A chapter on designing for tapestry provides tools for translating future concepts into compositions. Be a part of this ancient, yet completely modern, weaving tradition.