Tapestry Projects
Tapestry projects encourage creativity without the need for expensive, specialist equipment the way many hobbies do. Traditionally woven from textiles, tapestries are now being made from a range of different materials, including bottle tops, to emphasize the importance of modernity and the environment.
-
Tapestry Necklace Pouch
-
Combining tapestry techniques with crocheting, this project can be used to create a useful pouch for the designer or as an attractive gift for someone else. The base of the pouch is made first by crocheting a straight line. Then the rounds move up to form two, flat walls. A simple but unique motif can be added as the pouch develops, using a choice of colors. Professor of Art Carol Ventura at the Tennessee Technological University uses red and white to give a striking, simple result. (See iweb.tntech.edu.) The finished size of the pouch is 1 3/4 inches wide and 2 1/4 inches high, not including the strap.
Community Tapestry
-
Expanding a love of amateur tapestry into a community-based project is a rewarding option if time and funds permit. A giant tapestry works best in community tapestry because it enables more than one or two people to add to it at one time and for it to make an impact when displayed on completion. Large-scale projects require planning, preparation and the support of the community. As explained by Project Director E. K. Jeong at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, a community tapestry project draws people in because it is a comforting, familiar fabric to work with and avoids the uncomfortable feeling associated with creating realistic amateur painting and drawings. (See faculty.swosu.edu.)
-
Landscape Tapestries
-
Crafting a tapestry that concentrates on landscape but mixes modern art with contemporary hand weaving was originally invented by Russian-born, New York-based artist Louise Nevelson, according to University of Nebraska Art Historian Ann Lane Hedlund. This type of tapestry project involves the technique of collaging, which is the layering and combining of different materials, textures and shapes into a finished piece of art. Tapestries can be created from memory, from the imagination, on site or from photographs. The landscape tapestry can be woven to any size, can be simple or adventurous and can incorporate color or use striking black and white to emphasize light and shadow.
Non-Fabric Tapestries
-
A tapestry does not always have to be made from materials and fabrics in the traditional sense. Plus, a proper tapestry loom could be expensive. To follow a more modern approach and to illustrate the reusability of certain media, tapestries can be designed with bottle tops, recycled plastics or even household dry waste. This type of project can be undertaken alone or as a group. The result is best displayed locally to improve people's understanding of how an art project can help the environment. Tapestries can be hung from buildings, erected as installations inside public building entrances or hung as paintings in a home.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
