This is my favorite wall of my studio. It is always an inspiration when I see so many different colors altogether. I have pulled the colors I will use in my next piece onto the table. I like to do a black and white cartoon and keep it very simple in scope. I leave many of the details to the moment when I am working on an area. The colors on the table remind me of my palette. Even with my big color collection, I am occasionally frustrated not to have a certain shade.
I do the best I can by blending 3-4 ends together but sometimes I have taken to the dye pot to get exactly what I want. That is quite a treat too.
Over the years I have amassed a lot of yarns; mostly wool, some silks, linens and cottons and I have a stash of unusual yarns which I incorporate for effect now and then.
Many years ago I went to visit Mark Adams and to see his studio in a church loft in San Francisco. I was quite astonished to see that he had no big collection of yarn but rather just the colors he knew he would be using in the current project. His cartoons were large, fully colored and layered with many changes in his evolving designs. He would have worked out his colors based on the cartoons. He also did a lot of beautiful watercolors which would have informed his color choice.
He is known for some beautiful tapestries but, in fact, he had two assistants who did his weaving. That he did not do his own weaving probably explains his limited selection of colors. I don't know many weavers who do not revel in the colors that a yarn stash provides!
More on the next tapestry in the next blog.
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