Final Project - "Over and Under the Parks"

For my final project I knew I wanted to revisit weaving. I have had an admiration for yarn and wall hangings for the past couple of years but haven’t attempted to try making my own piece until now. This piece started out with no design plan in mind but the idea of trying out different techniques in one to see how they looked and for my own practice. This way, I can get familiar with how I can use yarn to create different looks and textures in my pieces. I did choose the earthy tones for the yarn with the intention to tie it together with the National Parks I have visited. Someday I would like to do or be a part of something big that will help me give back to the parks and preserve them because I do believe they are important. For now, I capture their beauty through my photography and do the little things that I can to help out. So naturally, my design turned into the idea of a landscape from Big Bend National Park, the very first park I visited and the one that got me to appreciate nature so much more.

I was surprised at how much easier I found this to be than I thought it would be. The last time I tried weaving was in fourth grade when my elementary art teacher taught us how. We were only supposed to do one, but I remember I ended up doing several and even made my own loom at home out of cardboard (because that’s how we were taught) to continue. Of course I need more practice but the joy of weaving was still there like when I was in fourth grade.

I’m truly impressed with yarn and the different techniques I can do to make different designs on the loom. I bought some fluffier yarn because it was on clearance and it ended up being my favorite on there. I’d like to use the colors and techniques to incorporate more of the colors and patterns I see at National Parks.

My take away from this project is to always try or do what you have been dreaming about doing. Like I mentioned through out this course, I follow local artists on Instagram and I feel inspired by their work. I have found myself to have less time to create while teaching but there are still ideas and things I want to create and do. Weaving was one of them. If it wasn’t for this project, I eventually would have tried it…but it definitely wouldn’t have been until the summer or whenever I decided to set time aside.

I’m not fully done with it, I’m wanting to hang it on a stick from a tree to keep that natural look to it.