TRYING SOMETHING NEW

I have had a cop of black warp for over 20 years and never used it, until now. It has been suggested to me several times that I might like to try using a black warp when I interoperate into tapestry paintings that I have painted on black canvass. Scottish tapestry artist Jo Barker sometimes uses a black mohair warp, which I would love to try but as yet I have been unable to source mohair here in Australia that would take the tension required for weaving tapestry. Even though tapestry is a weft face weave, you can notice the warp when you use a coloured one! I tried a few samples using wool for the weft but I found that if the colour was a bit muddy it definitely showed in the tapestry. I also tried mercerized cotton but as the cotton packs down differently to wool it does not seem to show up the black warp the same. I remember reading a post on Meabh Warburton’s blog were she had used two different colours in the warp. If you look at the photo you can see in the tapestry on the far left that using two different colours does show up. The next problem is what do you use to ink the cartoon on with? I found that I had some liquid art spectrum in white, so after about 20 years I have dragged out my traditional pen and it works just fine as a way of marking the warp!