Waterline: Weaving a River Continues

You probably know my main source of inspiration has been from land; prairie in particular. But the underlying theme of all my work is connection and reciprocity. We have numerous springs around our hills that lead to our creeks, that fill a pond on our land, and that eventually must make it to the river at some point.

That’s just one of the reasons I jumped at the opportunity to take part in the Waterline project with Joan Baxter and Nearly Wild Weaving. Exploring water connections. Of course, Joan was a big draw! I greatly admire her work.

The Waterline project is a collaborative work that will result in an exhibition next year in the UK (and hopefully other locations, too). There are 15 of us in all. Each piece will be hung next to another and tied together visually in the waterline running through all works. Our weavings will be a range of formats and sizes with none smaller than 10 inches or larger than 32 inches longest side (at last count; subject to change). The line will be a straight line across all weavings but the placement will vary within each design.

Our first meeting was in early September. Six weeks later, we’ve all come up with an initial design and most of us are working out our colors, sampling, and moving toward finalizing designs. A few have already begun to weave. You can guess where I am. Working on those colors! This time, taking into consideration the color choices of my neighbors.

I started with one design based on this image…

and these colors…

And ended up with another design based on this image

and these colors…

My piece will be 18” by 18” when it’s completed.

That’s the other thing. We should have roughly two months to get them finished or very nearly. I looked in my journal to compare how long a similar size weaving took me, so I’m good. Especially since a lot of my time will be freed up after the 16th of November, when all the (planned) content for the Elements course has been completed!

Kennita TullyOctober 31, 20216 Comments