Hi Everyone.  I just thought I'd post here some of the technical information about the two tapestries I posted to Projects today.  These are woven row-by-row, with all wefts moving in the same direction.  This enables me to weave following a gridded pattern that I make on my computer.  For this type of tesselation design, such precision is beneficial (necessary?) in order to follow the pattern and stay on the grid.

Making the pattern is not easy, as the image needs to tile the plane and of course still look like what it is supposed to be.  It has taken a lot of reading and experimentation to get to the point where I'm at with it.  The remaining 3-4 pieces I plan to do for this series will present new challenges I'm sure.

Comments

Tue, 09/07/2010 - 18:56

claudia (not verified)

I assume this is the tapestry you are referring to: http://weavolution.com/project/bonnie-datta/polar-bear-tapestry

It is an impressive and beautiful work.  Your depiction of the polar bears makes them seem alive on the tapestry.  You did a fine job.  Thank you for sharing this piece.  Are there specific books you have found useful in your study of tesselation?

Claudia

Wed, 09/08/2010 - 14:53

Bonnie Datta (not verified)

Thank you Claudia.  I think the quizzical looks on the bears' faces, read like "What the heck are you humans doing to us??"

Four good books that I have are:

Washburn & Crowe, Symmetries of Culture, Theory and Practice of Plane Pattern Analysis, 1988;  ISBN 0-295-97084-7

Although it is printed in B/W only there are scads of pictures of textiles and other objects of art from cultures worldwide.  Pieces are shown as examples of the types of symmetry under discussion.

Grunbaum & Shephard, Tilings and Patterns, An Introduction, 1989;  ISBN 0-7167-1998-3

This one is a very technical math book -- not recommended reading but it has many inspirational drawings and diagrams.

Beyer, Jinny, Designing Tessellations, 1998;  ISBN 0-8092-2866-1

This book is written primarily for quilters so it offers a really a down-to-earth, practical explanation.  The fantastic use of color and the outstanding sample plates make this book most relevant to weavers.

Schattschneider, Doris, M.C. Escher: Visions of Symmetry, 2004;  ISBN0-8109-4308-5

This is a comprehensive color catalogue of all of Escher's work, including notebooks and lecture notes.  The author is a mathematician and she does a lot of analysis to bring the notation and terminology up-to-date.

Bonnie.

Fri, 10/22/2010 - 20:57

Robweaves (not verified)

Bonnie, I like both of the endangered species tapestries and found the Polar Bears very interesting.  Since we are talking technique, can you explain how you did the outlining around each bear?

 

Rob

Wed, 11/24/2010 - 16:42

Bonnie Datta (not verified)

Hi Rob.  I've been vacationing and catching up and missed your post.

I draw the images, including the outlines, on a grid using CorelDraw.  It is not easy to get the outline right -- that is, making it a tile that will cover the plane, AND having it look like the subject.  It's largely a matter of trial and error.  The beauty of using a drawing program is that I can copy and paste and tweek very easily.

It's also important that you start with an image that is both typical (readily identifiable) of the subject, and whose outline comes close to "fitting together" somehow.  Escher was brilliant in his choice of subjects, especially those that can be oriented upside down and every which way.  With subjects like bears it seems inappropriate to have them jumbled up so it's an additional challenge to keep them all right-side up.

Hope this answers your question -- if not please write again.

Bonnie.