Kati Paakki

I’m a Finnish tapestry weaver living in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. I have lived in UK two thirds of my life; therefore, I like to call myself a YorFinn or a Fritt. I learnt to weave tapestry through Rebecca Mezoff’s online courses and generally found weaving a solitary activity until I was chosen on the Waterline Project by Joan Baxter. It has been a delight to get to know such wonderful weavers across the world.

I have a large, light room that works as my office, sewing room and a tapestry studio.

When the Waterline project was coming to an end, I contacted the group to see whether they were interested in another collaboration idea – a Murmuration. I was pleasantly surprised that so many wanted to continue working together. Being part of this community is very important to me.

I’m inspired by nature, mainly birds. Another inspiration for me is a story. I prefer to weave tapestries that have a story; a moment captured in the lives of the characters. The design idea for the Murmuration came to me in a flash. I wanted to add to the drama in the sky by including starlings on the foreground. My tapestry is called “The Winged Rivals” where two starlings, the Suitor and the Contender, fight over a female, the Beholder, while a large murmuration dances over a ruined abbey nearby. Two young starlings flee the scene to join another murmuration.

The delight of this project for me has been strengthening the friendships already made and being part of a community working together towards a fantastic composite where a murmuration flies through all the tapestries. Although we set ourselves parameters to ensure harmony, there is still plenty of scope for individuality.

The design phase took much longer than we anticipated, but enthusiasm and commitment helped us get through. We had many really exciting and creative designs which, unfortunately, had to be rejected because of remote collaboration. I am excited to see the individual designs coming together and forming a large composite which will be internationally exhibited.

“Onwards together” are two words that could describe our community of tapestry weavers, and I hope this project will encourage others to form collaboration communities, local or otherwise.

Joan Baxter

Joan Baxter has been a professional tapestry weaver for 45 years. She has been involved with a number of collaborative projects with groups of learners including Waterline and then Murmuration.