Getting My Weave On

When I was a kid, my parents had a piece of artwork made for our home. It has hung in our home ever since & my mom still has it. There was a lady they knew that made tapestries with a loom. My mom took me one day to show me the process & it’s something I never forgot about. I just thought it was so cool. Throughout the years I’ve seen similar pieces & always admired them because I got to see the work & creativity that goes into them first hand. The last couple of years I have picked up crocheting & have enjoyed making scarves & blankets & little things for my loved ones. I found the repetition almost meditative. It was enjoyable but after so many scarves & blankets my ADD mind is bored. So in a recent perusing of crochet & yarn projects on Pinterest I came across pictures of loom art. One article even said “Bored with crochet? Try this” and it spoke of how you can use all your left over scraps of yarn to create this art. Woven art on a loom.

And those memories of watching my moms friend sit at her loom & show us how it worked while she made our piece, all came back to me. 

I showed the pictures to Rusty & told him I’d like to try doing that sometime. It wasn’t too long before he came home one day with some 2 x 4 lumber & boxes of golden screws & he said, 

“Do you know what this is for?” 

And I said, “A loom?!” 

And he said, “Yes!”  

Rusty is really great with supporting anything I take up interest in & he gets into it with me. We make a great team when it comes to creative projects. He says he’s anxious to come home to see what I’ve created.  I have created 3 pieces in the last month & am working on a fourth. I really enjoy the creativity & there’s an addictive quality to it that I don’t like to walk away when I’m working on something. I just have to get a few more rows in. And I know when I find something like that, that it’s a good thing!

This above was my first

And the picture below is my third piece while it was still on the loom. 

What I find interesting about the loom projects is that I’m using so many of my hairdressing skills & tools, I did that for 30 years of my life, it’s in my blood!

The layering of strands of yarn is much like hair, incorporating, layering & weaving colors & textures. I find myself combing the yarn fringe & trimming it & using point cutting precision, requiring an old pair of hair shears. I’m using hair clips to hold pieces up out of the way while I work on underneath layers. While I work at the loom I’m sitting on the same rolling saddle chair I used to use while doing hair extensions. And the loom is sitting on an easel I’ve had for 20 years that has held mirrors, white boards for classes & signage during my salon years. 

Combing & clipping just like when I was a hairdresser 

Precise trimming 

Even clippings on the floor that reminded me of when doing haircuts 

Weaving colors like highlighting & coloring 

All this makes it feel very meant to be as progression of my creativity. 

So I wanted to share my art & creative gifts.

I have had a few people contact me about purchasing the pieces I have posted on Instagram & Facebook & someone also is interested in a piece made especially for her workspace. So if you see something you like & would like something like this for your home or office, I can create something specifically for you! You can help choose colors or send me photos of the space it will hang & I can go off that & find complementing colors. Just send me a message & we’ll talk! 

Thanks so much for reading & taking interest in my newest creative endeavor!