A few weeks ago the studio was lucky to visit the incredible studio of textile artist, Helena Hernmarck. I absolutely love the way she organizes all of her wool on this long studio wall in a color gradation.
Helena is known for her intricate and site specific tapestries. Her work is oftentimes designed for architectual spaces, and monunmental in scale.
Blue Wash Tapestries; Helena Hernmarck, Minneapolis Institute of Art
Helena weaves all of her tapestries by hand (for instance the two above are part of a four piece series, each 20 feet long!), and about 250 pounds of wool. Helena was born in Sweden, and although she now works out of her studio in Connecticut, she exclusively sources her wool from a small family run factory in Sweden. All of her wool is Rya wool - native to Sweden and made famous in the early 1960s by Rya rugs and bedspreads in Scandinavian decor.
Kari's Leaf, Helena Hernmarck
Detail; Handwoven Tapestry
The subtle color variations and painstaking work that goes into each handwoven tapestry is absolutely mind boggling. Most of Helena's work is figurative, with delicate shading and visual depth in each piece.
When we toured her studio, Helena showed us some of her new works in progress, and how the studio brings each weaving to life.
Addendum
When I visited Las Vegas a few weeks ago, we did a fabulous paste paper workshop with the Wynn design team. Such fun and such a lovely group of people!