This tapestry is based on a watercolour by Carolina Martinez. I wove it using a variety of soumak knots, varying them to try to get some texture and movement. It was very satisfying to weave and was looking quite reasonable on the loom. When I cut it off various distortions appeared and I had to block like crazy to get it back towards the rectangular. I have been pondering as to the reason for this and I have the following possible causes.
-Knots tied at different tensions
-No plain weave between the rows of soumak
-Uneven distribution of line soumak (used for the tree) and dot soumak (used for the background).
The photographs below some of the stages in the weaving. I wove it intermittently over a period of 10 months.
Technical
7 1/4 x 10 8/10 "
10 epi
Warp:- 98 ends of 12/9 seine twine
Weft:- 3 strands Bendigo 2 ply wool
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I love how it turned out. I can see why you would want it to be not "distorted" (to use your word) since you planned to weave a tapestry with nice right angles. However, I feel that the way it is trying to resist the grid structure is very organic and tree-like. To me this seems like a living thing. It is a very expressive and powerful image. Well done.
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