hoxa tapestry gallery
Leila Thomson - Orkney tapestry artist
About Us
Before weaving comes the idea and the drawing, which often takes as long as the weaving. Leila generally works in charcoal or pencil on a full scale sketch, which then becomes the cartoon for the tapestry and is tied to the loom behind the warp. Some artists prefer to sketch in colour on a smaller scale using paints or oil/chalk pastels which then has to be scaled up to the appropriate size, but Leila feels that working on the full scale makes the drawing more fluid and balanced. Her large, upright loom is made from builders’ scaffolding; it is strong and can be adjusted to suit the size of tapestry being woven. It is important that the warp is plumb and the bottom row of knots on the tapestry is level to make it square. A leashing bar is attached at the front and each leash from this bar goes around each back warp enabling you to pick up several warps at once, speeding up the process. The tapestries are woven on a cotton warp at a count of 8 - 12 warps per inch and take between 2 and 4 months to weave depending on how complicated the weaving is. The weft generally consists of linen, cotton and Shetland wool, however anything flexible can be used if it creates the desired effect. The yarns are wound by hand onto a wooden bobbin which carries the yarn and also beats down the weaving. In tapestry the weft creates the image and the warp is not seen, also you only weave across a small number of warps at a time and never go from side to side across the whole width as you would on a horizontal cloth loom.