More adventures in media

I already showed you the line drawing and the line stitching in black on white that relate to one another. I'm pursuing this concept of rendering the same composition in different media.  Right now I have a small watercolor painting of  cliffs on the coast of North Yorkshire, that I showed you some time ago, and I'm rendering it in tapestry. 

This is another of my homemade looms.  The frame you see at the front I salvaged ages ago from some building trash, not sure what it originally was.  I think maybe the underpinnings of a kitchen counter, because it's perfectly squared, absolute right angles at the corners, heavy wood, well finished so it doesn't snag the yarn.  And I figured out how to make it stand upright by attaching one of my stretcher looms to the back with strapping tape, which "gives" as you open it.  Then a simple flat stick to keep it from closing again while I work, and there you are, very functional loom, steady, no need to hold onto any part of it, a big advance on the hand held looms I made before.  In fact, I could warp another tapestry on the back of this one, on loom currently acting as a support.  No need to warp right over the top, just sling a dowel and warp over that.  But I get ahead of myself...

The yarns are either gifts (Ash, you'll see yours at the bottom right, Stefi, one of yours is in the sea, Miranda, yours, too, that brownish purplish one , roving donated by Carol, my own spun yarn or my own roving from fleece I processed.   Click to see better. I just started this, warped it day before yesterday with variegated acrylic yarn, strong stuff, and interesting peeks of blues and whites, and I started the weaving yesterday.  So this is very new. This artwork is totally recycled if you like to think of it that way.  The shuttles are craft sticks, another freecycle.  In fact the top the whole thing is standing on is a heavy glass tabletop rescued from the trash years ago and often used as a base for printmaking when I make monotypes.  Nothing goes to waste around here.

The concepts and labor, however, are strictly firsthand, and time consuming.  But transformation does take time.  My hands have recovered from the damage done during the care of HP, so that's not an issue in making tapestry any more, though it kept me away for a while.  But the stamina you need to work your upper body for a long time, now that I have to build up!  an hour is as much as I can handle without having to do different things to let my ribcage rest!