
I have been experimenting for some time with jacquard-woven “tapestries” in relation to my hand-woven work. The industry has a specific kind of warp setup known as “tapestry”, which consists of a repeating combination of 6-12 colors which combine & re-combine optically to create a semblance of a color spectrum. Semblance is, of course, the operative word. It is both a frustration, in that the true color I want to see is often not possible, and a relief, in that I know that the color I work by hand with such control is inimitable and hence, worth the effort!
Here is the first serious attempt to make a jacquard woven version of a full-color tapestry: Chicory, which relates to my work of last year called Cornflowers.
The question is rather like that I always ask at our life-drawing class: do I want an exact likeness or do I want to learn something new? I.E., is the color good enough here, without reference to the original? Perhaps I will let you browse back through other postings to find the original, as I can’t yet bear to see them side-by side, and yet I consider this image to be quite handsome in itself. More on this as it evolves — revisions are in process as I write this.
Shown here: Chicory 1, 2008, 26″ x 36″. Copyright Laura Foster Nicholson