The Process:    1.Clipping and Carding

The wool and mohair is clipped, and then washed several
times before being spun and dyed.
Tapestry Wallhangings: Clipping and Carding
Here’s Jolin getting his 1st clip which is the most beautiful mohair of all.
Tapestry Wallhangings : Carding
It is then carded into “rollags” on a drumcarder.
Tapestry Wallhangings : Clipping and Carding
This is the raw, washed mohair on the left and “rollags “on the right.

The Process:    2.Spinning and Dyeing

Tapestry Wallhangings : Spinning
The yarn is hand-spun by Sallie and Sheila Rodrick of Scalpay Linen.
This is a funny spinning wheel that was homemade and although
it doesn’t look very traditional, it
works very well indeed.
 
 Tapestry Wallhangings ; Spinning and Dyeing
 
The wools and mohair are individually and specifically hand-dyed for each tapestry in a
large jam saucepan; acid dyes are used to ensure permanent colours.
 
 
Sallie Tyszko Workshop
The hanks of wool or mohair are rinsed many times and dried in the wind.
These hanks are sky hangings
not yet wall hangings!
Tapestry Wallhangings : Dyeing
Tapestry Wallhangings : Dyeing
 
Sallie’s tapestry workshop is filled with baskets brimming with coloured yarns; a real feast for the eyes.
Tapestry Wallhangings : Dyeing
The warp for the tapestries is usually cotton, but for a transparent
background, 50lb-breaking strain fishing line is used, which is very
difficult, but gives rewarding results.
The weft (this is the material covering the warp and woven horizontally)
can be innovative: jute, lace, strips of velvet and chiffon, silk and satin,
sequins, plastic and metal. Sallie uses fishermen’s net mending needles
as bobbins to carry the weft, which she discovered while living in the
fishing village of Kinlochbervie, Sutherland.
 
The Process:   3.Warp and Weaving
Sometimes the tapestries come straight out of Sallie’s heart and memory; just sitting at the loom they somehow flow out in colours and shapes by themselves. Sometimes she does watercolours out in the hills, by the sea, on the islands. These are then enlarged to fit the size of the wall hanging as a “cartoon” or guide. Each warp thread is then inked to show the outline of a bird, the curve of a hill, etc.
Creating Tapestry Wallhangings
A Tapestry Wallhanging
Here’s a “cartoon” for Kyles Flodda ready to be Inked onto the warp threads.
This is the finished tapestry
Creating Tapestry Wallhangings

The occasional snatch of cow hair
from Serena provide lovely
red-golds

 <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width: 100%;">
Embroidery, crochet, plaiting and soumak are methods added to weaving to achieve the perfect picture.