Weaving at Joanne Tallarovic's Studio

detail of  Carol's rep weave using print yardage as weft

Way back in January, we had our monthly meeting at Carol Phillip's home.  She had taken a  rep weave class with Joanne Tallarovic in Arizona.  It turned out she was the only student and so it was a chance to get some in depth knowledge about rep weave and its possibilities.  Carol says Joanne has a whole house devoted to studio space, so it was a real luxury to work with the master in her surroundings.

Carol wasn't sure what to take with her to the class, so she brought some colorful printed cottons.  Igor is holding up one of the pieces she wove during her stay in Arizona.  It looks like three different fabrics were used in this piece.  Joanne has a procedure for cutting her fabrics and getting them to line up in sequence during the weaving process so that the original fabric design shows through in a blurred representation of the original cloth. 

This is a towel woven with sewing thread and 8/2 cotton.  It is wonderfully flexible cloth and not at all what might be expected with rep weave.  Joanne specializes in rep weave clothing and the fabrics Carol wove in her stay with Joanne are very suitable for use as yardage.

If you aren't familiar with Joanne's work, her book Rep Weave and Beyond is a fabulous introduction.  However, when I looked for copies I saw that it is no longer in print and used copies are very expensive. This is a good book to see if your guild library owns, or maybe borrow a copy through interlibrary loan.