“Dress Me Up.” 24.5” W (+ 3.5” long fringes) x 16″ H
1. What is your artistic background? My entire life I have been creating through needlepoint, sewing, embroidery, quilting and patchwork. My grandmother was a professional dress maker and I was exposed from the time I was a toddler to needles, fabrics and fashion. Later in life, in 2008, I became interested in the Fibre Arts. I learned to spin yarn and weave tapestry. From that time I have woven many tapestries and I became a member of the Canadian Tapestry Network, the American Tapestry Alliance and Arts Council of Surrey, BC, Canada. I took courses at Capilano University in BC where I studied weaving, dyeing and design at the Textile Art department. I reside in British Colombia, Canada. My work has been displayed at many exhibitions throughout Canada, United States and Australia.
2. What is your creative process when you weave a tapestry? Designs for my tapestries emerge from the books that I’m reading, from the different subjects of the stories, and many times from studying the themes for exhibitions I would like to enter. Some of my tapestries grow from the color or the color combinations which appeal to my feeling to view the world through naïve fantasy. I work with collages of different photos and with swatches of paper. The drawing is only the undeveloped idea and through the process of weaving, I eliminate, add and alter the tapestry as if it’s talking to me. I spin and dye most of the yarn for my project.
3. Were you familiar with the Baldishol tapestry before this exhibit? Yes. When studying Tapestry weaving at Capilano University in British Colombia, which was one part of the Textile Art program, we were going through the history and the origin of famous tapestries around the world.
4. What draws you to the original Baldishol tapestry? What fires your imagination? I love Naïve Art and many of my tapestries that I create reflect this style. I found so many small details, beautiful color combination and I was researching for more information about it through the internet. I purchased the book from Norwegian Tapestries by Aase Bay Sjovold for further information.
Paper doll-like headgear accompanied by the wave-like border of the original tapestry
5. How did your piece reinterpret the original? I was curious about the design of the clothing at the time the original tapestry was designed; this was the base for my reinterpretation. I reinterpreted the original tunics and made them like paper clipping art.
6. How did your piece challenge your technical and artistic skills? I weave some of my tapestries from the back and some from the front. The Baldishol tapestry was made with great technical skill of the weavers so my choice for weaving the piece from the back was easy.
Vladimira wove from the back
I wove on a vertical loom from the side. Because I planned to weave with many details, I warped my loom the first time with a sett of 12 EPI. I decided to use Norwegian Spelsau yarn,which I mostly hand dyed with Cushings dyes. After weaving couple of inches I had to change the sett to 10 EPI and rewarp the loom again.
The image is woven on its side.
As the progress of the weaving was going I had to make some adjustments in my primary design–sometimes for technical reasons, sometimes for new ideas when the tapestry spoke to me differently. I use pick and pick often, so that wasn’t a problem, but a special “jagged” technique for the jagged looking effect I used only once on one of my tapestries and this was really challenging for me. It is also a challenge to work with a cartoon, which I designed on graph paper. I love all these new challenges!
the tapestry cartoon
7. What do you wish we knew about the original tapestry and its makers? I would like to know exactly the time when the original tapestry was woven (this was very important part of my study about the clothing). What was the warp sett on the loom and which type of wool was to use for the warp? How many weavers were working on the tapestry and for how long? Who did the design for this one and for other tapestries? What is the appearance of the colors of the weft today because the yarn was dyed many years ago with natural dyes? It is a real pity that we have only a fragment of the original longer weaving.
See more of Vladimira Fillion-Wackenreuther’s work at: vladimiratapestry.com, and see “Dress Me Up” in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020.
The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles
June 26-August 30, 2020 Norway House, Minneapolis, Minnesota Opening Party: Friday, June 26, 2020, 5-8 pm