As Demented Spectres Dance

As Demented Spectres Dance, 2007
14" x 6 1/2"
linen, wool, unknown fibre
pulled warp tapestry

A test piece I recently finished.

I was experimenting with flat, shaped tapestry and with creating transparency in tapestry (like the sleeve in "A mon seul désir" from The Lady and The Unicorn tapestry series


Part of the experimentation with transparency was to see what different thicknesses of white yarn would look like. I knew thinner thread would make a more transparent figure, but wanted to SEE it. This white thread was the same thread as most of the background threads, a 2-ply Quebecois.


This thread was the thinner wool yarn I usually do my finer tapestry pieces in.


Some fine, scrap yarn. Finer than the tapestry yarn, and I think it was rayon, so shiny too, to see if the shininess shows (not really).


And for the curious, this is a picture of the piece on the loom, nearly done, to show how it's done. I worked from the other side.

The title of the piece (or rather the later piece this was a test for) comes from one of my poems.

Forsaken

and perhaps you only linger here in dreams
as demented spectres dance
what other songs would you sing now
forsaken one
you are the child of an unspoken longing
your feet tap through the shadows
and you raise your arms to the cold
and distant blessings of the stars