Let the Fiber Speak Series

For months while working on my Woven Language Series, I focused on row counts, weft interlocks, and iconography.  I was so focused on what I wanted to say with the fiber. However, while weaving the tapestries in this series, I was reminded that weaving is not about me. I am in collaboration with the Navajo Churro sheep that graciously give their fleece and the shepherdesses that rear them. Lady of Spring Coyote Ranch has her own story to tell. Her fiber, once hand-carded and spun, has an embedded symbolic system waiting to be expressed in the interlocking of wefts. What need do I have to embellish with texture or impose my story through design? None, it’s best to attend to the technical details of spinning and weaving and get out of the way.  Let the fiber speak.

I have created 16 tapestries in this series of various sizes, which I arranged in different configurations as installations. By thinking of my weavings as components of an installation, I created large, repetitive patterns with the tapestries on the wall.