From Doodling to Tapestry

Donna Andersen “Tent Rocks”

10EPI; 12/6 warp, 3 strands medium Weavers Bazaar weft

I wrote earlier that I’ve been wanting to highlight some of the work I’m seeing come out of the “Elements” class. This week I’m sharing a piece by Donna Andersen. Donna has been weaving since the 80s and began to work in tapestry in 2015 when she joined the Tucson Handweavers & Spinners Guild (THSG) tapestry group. Like many of us, she was hooked. 

She wrote to me "Working through the exercises in the Shape section helped to relax my tendency to try to exactly replicate a subject - as I would like to achieve a looser design style. The viewfinder sketching exercise was very helpful as well as seeing examples of more organic or abstract works that Kennita presented."

This is the story of a tapestry she created, “Tent Rocks”  as a result of one of the Exercises in the Elements class. "Tent Rocks Houses" began with a sketch resulting from exercises working with Shapes.

She told me that she began by doodling shapes. “ I have been thinking a lot recently about Tent Rock National Monument in New Mexico - and the amazing shapes of the rock and then was thinking about the homes carved from rock near Cappodocia, Turkey.  Inspired by viewing tapestry work of Aideen Canning to try a somewhat abstract design….”

Inspired by the unique rock formations in the Kasha-Katuwe (Tent Rocks) National Monument in New Mexico and the rock houses of Cappadocia, Turkey. Photo attributed to Marshallhenrie on Wikipedia .

She then made several reprints of the original sketch/cartoon and tried various color combinations with watercolors.

“I selected one of the color studies to use as my cartoon and challenged myself to entirely using mixed weft bundles.  Each number on the black/white cartoon corresponds to the colors used in a weft bundle for weaving that particular space.”

“Tent Rocks” in progress, Donna Anderson

This weaving represents a first for Donna in several areas. She had never worked solely with weft bundles before. She had also normally been working with a smoother surface, but for this piece she changed her normal warp and weft relationship to create more texture.

Donna Andersen “Tent Rocks”

The cutbacks in the background also add to the texture Donna was after and creates that weaverly feel. The colors and placement of the shapes evoke a sense of security.

Doesn’t it just make you want to crawl inside?