This is the last post in a series on Renditions 2020, the Unjuried Small Format Exhibition put together by the American Tapestry Alliance. The first post was It’s in the Details in case you missed it, followed by this one on Movement and Texture, then Weaving for the Environment and Little Blocks of Color.

The show was originally scheduled to be at the HGA conference, Convergence, but as a result of Covid-19 restrictions, it is now being shown online. Lucky you! You can view all of the entries here.

For this group, I’m choosing the title “Beautifully Rendered” because that’s what struck me when I saw these pieces. Several of them could have also gone into one of the past posts, but still fit nicely here.

As in the previous posts, below are photos of the pieces, followed by quotes from the artists.

I am always in awe of what some artists accomplish in depicting the human face in tapestry. This piece by Rebecca Smith pulls me in on many levels. Not only is it beautifully rendered. It evokes feelings of compassion - and wonder; don’t you just want to know this person? Her piece is 8” x 8”.

"Great, great, great grandma Lucy" is based on an actual photo of Lucy Bacon, an ancestor of mine who was a pioneer in western Ohio in the mid 1800s. I created the cartoon in Photoshop, which I used mostly to reduce detail and enhance the contrast of the original photo. My tapestry was part of a group entry for tapestry weavers in the San Diego Creative Weavers Guild. Our theme was "What Hue Are You?" The challenge was to design a tapestry using only one hue in addition to shades of black and white. Since the photo was black and white, I decided that the bonnet would be blue (my alternate title for the piece was "Lucy's Blue Bonnet"). The sett is 10 epi. I used Weavers Bazaar fine wool from their graphite collection. The blue yarn is Jaggerspun zephyr wool/silk which I love for its sheen. I used 2-3 strands in my weft bundle. One lesson I learned from this piece is that I should have elongated the cartoon to account for relaxation of the warp once it is cut from the loom. 

You can see more of Rebecca’s work on her website here.

In looking over all the entries again and again, Robbie LaFleur’s was one that would always make me stop. There’s something very calming about it. Maybe the background color? Robbie wrote about her tapestry on her blog earlier this spring, so be sure to go there to read more. She added a few more comments below.

This piece is 10” wide by 6” high. I used 12/9 seine twine for warp, at 9 epi. Part of the weft came from my extensive stash of Norwegian Rauma prydvevgarn (the blue of the horse and the brown and white mane). The background and some flowers were woven with small skeins from a bag of natural-dyed yarn I bought at a local sale, a dyer’s stash of samples. It is most special to me because it was requested by my granddaughter--I’m ready for Christmas. 

Elke Hülse’s piece is part of the As Catarinas group. Do look at their other entries. I could have easily included many of them in this series!

Metamorphosis was the title that we gave to the set of eight small formats that the group As Catarinas produced for the exhibition Renditions. My work measures 25 x 25 cm, in the warp I used 3 double threads per centimeter of cotton thread and in the weft cotton threads of a factory that reuses leftovers from the industry and transforms cotton knit in line again. That's why the title of the work and the butterfly theme to connect what best expresses metamorphosis.

We put together a short paragraph to poetically summarize our choice:

Metamorphosis

The caterpillar turns into a butterfly,

The butterfly’s design turns into tapestry

The textile industry scrap turns into yarn again,

The Catarinas turned this thread and butterfly design into tapestries.

You can see more of Elke’s work here.

I love the choices Jenny Chicone made in rendering “Time”. Jenny exhibited with the group Rebecca Mezoff’s Tapestry School.

The piece "Time Travel" is the result of a Guild challenge. Every year we are challenged to make something relating to a word. The word for this challenge was "Time". I tried to show the passage of time that occurs when one gets in front of a computer screen. Time floats by as does the person in the tapestry. Her face is blank, because she is not really engaged with her surroundings, just focused on her screen. The piece is 9.25 by 9.25 inches, woven with 12/6 seine twine for warp and 3 strands of Glimakra's Faro for weft, most of which I dyed.

Sometimes the elegance is in it’s simplicity. Sarah Warren’s piece is an example of this.

This piece is 10” x 7.25”. The sett is 10epi.  The warp is cotton seine and the weft is wool, all dyed by me.  The design was based on my memories of hiking in Capital Reef National Park.  I was mesmerized by the myriad striations in the rocks, land formations tilting every which-way.  

Visit Sarah’s website to see more of her work.

Another example of simplistic elegance. I love the gesture and movement in those beaks in this tapestry by Claudia Jeffries!

This piece was done on my Hokett loom which has a sett of 8. I used 12/6 Seine Twine warp and Harrisville HIighland wool for my weft. The finished size is approximately 6.75" x 7”. It was done as part of the Southern California Handweavers Guild “Challenge” which is something the guild does every year. It challenges its members to create a piece around a specific theme. This particular theme was “FOWL”. It resulted in an array of creative ideas cross every spectrum imaginable. It was great.

My inspiration for my geese came from remembering a painting from Poland that hung in my grandmother’s living room of an old woman guiding her gaggle of geese on a country road. Obviously they weren’t blue and green with red beaks, nor depicted with any realism ….. hence the word “garble”.

Maddie Tsurusaki has captured so much expression and gesture in both the face and the body of this coyote through her color choices and blending. Maddie’s tapestry is 9" x 9 3/4" with a cotton warp and wool weft. 

I made this tapestry as part of the Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild Tapestry Study Group entry for Renditions.  Our theme was life around Tucson.  I hear the coyotes howl every night around my house, and so often, I hear their calls as I lay my head down for sleep.  I'm a retired school librarian, so alphabet books were a huge part of my daily experience as well.  The tapestry combines those pieces of me.

I have long been drawn to the work of Joyce Hayes. Her piece is part of the group Tapestry Artists of Puget Sound. They chose an interesting topic: paying homage to the painter, Frida Kahlo.

This piece is sett at 12 warps per inch, linen warp, hand dyed silk with chemical and natural dyes. Size is 5.25” x 6.25”. Thumb reconstruction surgery prevented me from weaving and this is the first piece I have been able to weave in a couple of years.  The time off has given me the opportunity to rethink tapestry and what I want do with it.

Visit Joyce’s artist page on the ATA website.

When I think of minimal color palettes, Janet Austin quickly comes to mind. Janet exhibited in the group Tapestry Weavers in New England.

Wintersweet was inspired by a photo I took on a very snowy RI morning with bright blue sky showing through the branches of my snow covered Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) bushes. It made me think of how almost every photo I have taken in New Mexico has at least a small patch of bright sky blue. The theme of our group entry was Blue Renditions. Blue is my favorite color though I rarely weave with it.

I used 12/9 seine twine warp at about 10 epi. The weft is a combination of various wools, with cotton/linen/wool for the white (white wool is never bright enough).

It is 8”x 7” and was woven sideways on an Archie Brennan copper pipe loom. 

Visit Janet’s website for more about her work.

Sharon Cameron’s tapestry mesmerizes me. It’s another one that always gives me pause - in a good way. She exhibited in the group Tapestry Weavers of Vancouver Island.

I really enjoyed weaving this “Shades of Time” piece. In May of 2015, I participated, along with other members of our island tapestry group, in a five day workshop on Vancouver Island lead by Joan Baxter, one of Scotland’s major tapestry weavers. It was her first trip to Canada. She had us explore the concept of ISLAND using visual and imaginative language. (not only what it looks like but how it feels and what stories it tells). The aim was to produce a tapestry that contains several layers of meaning. 

 My home is Nanaimo in the meadow area of a mountain. There is a stream bed that runs through our property. My idea in response to Joan’s workshop idea was to visit this special place with my camera five times during a single day. My first picture was taken at dawn, (left outside edge piece), the second mid morning, the third at noon, the fourth, mid afternoon and the last (right outside edge piece) at dusk. Each photo was taken from the same vantage point. The 5 pieces in my small tapestry represent separate times of day but pieced together they become the picture. There were obvious colour and mood changes to the scene during a one day time span. I tried to capture these. 

Tapestry dimensions: 9 in. x 10 in. Sett:  8 epi   Materials: mostly wool but some novelty fibres in synthetics interspersed.

A beautifully rendered tree. Terry Gerrard’s piece is also a part of the group Tapestry Weavers of Vancouver Island.

This lovely tree is rooted firmly on the ocean edge and has reached out from the shadow of the larger ones to survive. To me it represents the strength and beauty of small island life.

The tapestry’s finished size is 8”x 9”. It was woven on a pipe loom at 10 epi with a cotton seine twine warp. The weft is a variety of commercial tapestry wool.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. I’ve enjoyed the time spent looking deeper into these tapestries. I hope you have, too.