Rigid heddle update, tapestry likewise

Yesterday was all about learning to warp the rhl, sorting through numerous conflicting sets of instructions, until I finally decided to just go for it, what's the worst that could happen.

And here's where we are. Warp ends are about six feet in length, enough to be struggling with as a beginner and enough for the long narrow saori work I'm thinking about.

The top shows the warp wound on whatever they call that back thing, over paper. The paper keeps the warp threads organized and not getting all mixed up as you roll it on.

The bottom of the weaving is waste thread, woven in to organize the groups of warp threads into evenly distributed threads. It looks quite nice though, and I may not discard it at the end, we'll see. And I have not  inserted paper at the bottom, whatever they call that beam, that will happen once I weave enough to wind the warp along a bit.

I resorted to duct tape to secure the warp ends. Once the work is cut off the loom, that will go away. This is not exactly according to Hoyle, but don't tell the weaving police.

However there's a little adjustment, the heddle blocks attached with velcro straps to  the side supports. That's the  alternative to throwing the loom out of the window after discovering that, after three hours of warping,successfully, using a tiny crochet hook, thank you, Mittens, one of yours, to navigate the tiny eyes, as I say, right after admiring my new learning and amazing expertise, I found out...

That I had the heddle upside down. So the ears intended to rest in the supports, giving the other shed, were not there.

Soooo, refusing  to rewarp for hours for such a trifling reason as a non-functional setup, I fastened the heddle blocks, solid side up, to the side supports. Works a treat. Now you can raise and lower the heddle to change the shed, wheeee. And the blocks have two uses.

Art is all about problem solving, which is one reason for children to learn it, great life skill, aside from its total necessity to civilization, where was I..

The yarn at work here is courtesy of Kamala. And Ginny introduced me to the loom.

Then, back to tapestry, crewel yarn also courtesy of Kamala, here's the latest finished piece, which will be mounted on fabric and framed. Several options of fabric, organza, linen, silk thank you Cynthia, and if you want to weigh in on choices, please do.

1. Sage green linen

2. Gold organza

3. Green organza

4. Gold organza over stamped linen

5. Silk

6. Silk

7. Silk

I've decided that framing is the way to go for these little weavings. You can see them better as paintings in fiber this way.

Do pick your choice of backing. Crowd sourcing is great.  And as you see, my work is a women's cooperative! I'd really like your input.