Back in April 2002, before I became infected by felt and  was still interested in woven tapestry, I plucked up courage and attended a Tapestry Weaving Course run by professional tapestry weaver Bobbie Cox.  If you live in or near Rochester in Kent you may have seen some of her work as there are four of her tapestries adorning the Lady Chapel in Rochester Cathedral.  My report of the workshop was published in the March 2003 edition of The Journal for Weavers Spinners & Dyers.  I have reproduced it here.  I’m afraid that there weren’t any photographs for me to show you as I didn’t own a camera at that time.  I have tried to produce the sketches that I made and you will see why I say that I can’t draw, except with a felting needle!

“Peter Tavy, Two Coats Colder than Tavistock”

“And I wish I had known before I went!  Still this only related to the weather and was in contrast to the warmth of the welcome from the inhabitants of Peter Tavy when I joined 16 others on an ‘overflow’ course on Design & Tapestry Weaving given by Bobbie Cox at Peter Tavy Village Hall (formerly the school) in the second week in April 2002 (the original course had had such a long waiting list that Bobbie had arranged an additional one).

“Our first task was to explore the village taking in textures, colours and atmosphere, making notes, taking wax rubbings and collecting samples.

“On returning to the hall we discussed what we had found and then Bobbie told us that our theme for the course would be ‘windows’.  She showed us slides of photographs she had taken from the inside looking out, outside looking in, of misted window glass, and raindrops, of reflections and shadows.  She reminded us that windows are the eyes of a building and can be looking at us whilst we are looking at them.  (I’ll never regard a window in the same way again!)  Then she sent us out around the village again to ‘collect’ windows.  The villagers were (with one unpleasant exception) very tolerant of the students gazing at their properties in a very odd way, even the overwintering inhabitants of the sole remaining farm’s cowshed.

“The students were of mixed ability, from complete beginners (three of us – one of whom was our ‘token man’ Peter) to the quite advanced.  Bobbie showed us three ways of warping our frames, how to decide on the set of the warp and how to spread the warps appropriately.  She gave us advice and encouragement and showed us some of her many sample pieces to illustrate her points and her tips.

“After a picnic lunch beside the River Tavy, it was back to work – perfecting our designs with paint and pencil.  (I stayed up till 11.30 getting mine done.)

“Next day Bobbie set up an Indigo vat – in the back of her car!  (Well it was very cold out and much warmer inside the car which was standing in the sun, indigo vats need to be kept warm.)

“We all took turns to dip various yarns and fibres, re-dipping and over dyeing some coloured yarns for various periods during that day and also leaving some in the vat over-night.  In between times we started the actual weaving of our tapestries, all the time receiving tips and advice from Bobbie.

“She advised us to watch out for shrinkage or ‘waisting’ – the tapestry pulling in at the sides as the weaving progresses.  It is unlikely that this will be the result of poor selvedges, but more likely to be because the use of several different yarns in one pic, or ending one or more kelim slits in a single pic.  Bobbie’s suggestion was that we should insert a number of ‘guy ropes’ by sewing one end of a spare piece of warp thread near the edge of the tapestry (but not too close to it) and tying the ends to the sides of the frame.  If this is done on both sides of the tapestry, the tension will help to prevent the waisting. (I wondered what the purists would think of this, but if it’s good enough for Bobbie Cox it’s good enough for me.)

“Day 3; and after removing the yarns which had rested in the dye vat over-night, some of us tried some more in what was thought just to be the exhaust of the indigo.  In fact there was still quite a bit of life there and we dipped several skeins each.

“As the sun was still shining, we decided that we would lay out on the playground the yarns which had been dried over-night so that Bobbie and those students with cameras could photograph them.  It was then that we received some exuberant visitors.  They were some of the inhabitants of the cowshed on their way through the village to alternative accommodation.  They were moving at high speed in all directions, frantically followed by the farmer.  Bobbie saw off the ones which had decided to see what the activity was at the Village Hall.  I understand that they were eventually rounded up and led of to their new abode, having left liberal donations for the rose garden in the streets.

“Before lunch, delivered to the Village Hall by Jill, the Peter Tavy Sandwich Lady, some of the students accompanied Bobbie on a walk up to Dartmoor.  Some of us, not having sufficient warm clothing, decided to stay and work on.

“During the day Bobbie showed us some more slides of windows and also some of her own work.  However the highlight of the day was a visit to Bobbie’s own studio.  She was not working on anything at the moment, being very much involved in the administration of her touring exhibition ‘Woven Water’.  She did have two of the larger pieces from this Exhibition, ‘Spring’ and ‘Autumn’, which she  hung along with some other pieces for us to see, including a recently completed commission – a large tapestry inspired by the beach at Blakeney Point in Norfolk entitled ‘Tidelines, a Woven Memory of Blakeney’.  Also on display were picture boards showing the inspiration and development of that design and some of the Woven Water tapestries as well as some smaller samples and bundles of wefts tied and dyed.  Bobbie explained the mechanics of her large high warp loom and how she works on it.

“The next day – our last – was Sunday.  Now we were all working hard trying to get as much weaving done as possible before our visitors arrived.  At Bobbie’s suggestion we had all asked our bed and breakfast hosts to morning coffee and to see what we had been doing during our stay.  This is apparently a feature of Bobbie’s courses and many villagers visit regularly.  The noise level rose dramatically as the visitors wandered around and chatted.

“Bobbie did manage to fit in a few more tips for us though:

“1        Don’t be in too much of a hurry to cut the work off the loom, live with it for a while in case you subsequently decide that you want to add to it or make some changes.  It won’t be possible after it’s off the loom.

“2        Ends of yarns are usually left hanging at the back of the work, unless it is to be viewed from both sides.  Don’t cut them too close to the weaving or they will start to work through to the right side.

“3        Darn in yarn ends which are near the selvedge or kelim slits.

“4        When you darn in, slide the needle up or down the warp thread, not across the warps – it might show.

“5        Consider the mechanics you will use to hang the finished tapestry (although this should have been thought out at the design stage).  You may need to weave further pics in the heading, for instance if you will be incorporating a metal (preferably stainless) rod or a wooden slat.

“6        Weighting the bottom of the weaving will help it to hang better.

“7        Steam press the work on the reverse side – using a cloth and pressing lightly.

“At three o’clock we started to pack up and then display our work and our design drawings so that they could all be looked at and photographed.  It was amazing what diverse designs had been achieved.  We had all learned something, particularly we three beginners.  Bobbie  had encouraged us to try our own ideas and allowed us to make our own mistakes, lessons being better learned by trial and error than by example.

“By the time that we finished at about four, we were all very tired by very happy.  One usually finds on a course like this that there is one person who spoils things for the others, but it had been noted that our group was particularly lucky in that we were not “blessed” with the student who wanted to grab all the tutor’s time, or the one who wanted to be the centre of everyone’s attention (boring or noisy or both), or the hypochondriac.  We all had a great time – thank you Bobbie.

“PS If you attend another of Bobbie’s courses in Peter Tavy, better diet before you go – the food in the local pubs is marvellous – so’s the beer!”

A couple of weeks later I attended another tapestry workshop run by another professional but I’ll save my report of that one for another day.