"If I could save time in a bottle..."

The beginning of my new tapestry. It's based on a quote from a folk song that Peter, Paul, and Mary made famous. The line is-"And, he who tells a bigger tale will have to tell a lie. That and the Jim Croce song.Time in a bottle. The two songs have been torturing me for the last 2-3 months. they are like a cycling rhyme that is always in the back of my mind. So i decided to design a wool tapestry that is going to be at this point 59 inches by 30 inches and be woven at 10 epi. The cartoon seems to be a little elusive to put on paper. It's been a sound in my head rather then an image. I had fun drawing and cutting up the images of one of my Grandmother's doilies for the corner and surrounding one of the peonies. The falling corked bottle with numbers or times is an old magnesium bottle I have in in my studio for years. The bottle glass starts out clear and when left in the sun they turn purple. There are more puzzle images and a banner that i adapted from a 17th Spanish tapestry. The clock face is the back of a raptor in flight. The peonies 3 of them are adapted from my drawings and photographs that I have taken over the years. The sunset pictured here is the probable backgound for my new piece. I took this photo at Mary's Peak just outside of Philomoth Oregon on a very cold evening.

I should be further, but I have been working on my book So Warped. Pat Spark and I are writing it together. Pat is one of the few people I would trust to write this book with me. She is incredibly knowledgeable about anything that has to do with a loom. Before she was a felter she was a tapestry weaver. I am working on a very special section about the loom that the Turkish Old Believers weave tapestry belts up on. It's been a few years since I have used the loom. Let alone tried to remember all of the steps to warping and weaving on the loom.The belt to the right is a Turkish Old Believer belt that is woven in tapestry. The loom is a type of backstrap loom and has interesting heddles. The belts are woven 3 at a time and are highly symbolic and are identifiers of the church members. The belt designs no longer designate a place or a village-only what the weaver thought was a beautiful design.They are given as gifts, requests for prayer, on all special occasions including birth, weddings and death. They symbolize the wearer as being wrapped in the arms of the church and of Christ. The more common type of belt to be woven on this loom is a warp faced warp replacement pickup. On the left are is the more common style of belt woven on the loom. In the center is the loom without the weaver in the center. The loom is made to hook into or onto the belt that is always worn by the Old Believer.

I am still studying soumack. i have been reading everything I can find on it by Marla Mallert. She has an incredible web site that is just stuffed with information. I also have used her book on woven structures as a resource. The other book that is very helpful in my studies of soumack is a book written by David Fraser-A Guide to Weft Twining... Soumack can be broken into two categories one is a construct that creates a ground fabric and the other floats over the ground fabric, but is always controlled directionally by the placement of the warps. On the tapestry list some one called it a surface design as opposed to a ground fabric. So my question is --can a tapestry that has soumack lines be entered into surface design competitions?

Chene's new kitten Rya/Wry and her facial markings and for the knot because he has tufts of very long white fur mixed with shorter black soft Persian hair. He is half Persian. Ryaa was raised with a doberman pincher. At this point he weighs close to 4 lbs and Chene' has topped out at a slight bit over 5 lbs. Pyewacket ways 13 lbs. Rya has huge feet and we expect him to be 2-3 times bigger then Chine' . Chene's still in shock that Rya doesn't behave like a cat should and run from his kingly majestic self.
I am not sure that Rya doesn't think that that Chene" is an over grown rat that's the way he treats him. They wrestle and chase each other all around and up down our two story house. Chene' is totally bent because already Rya can get up on things such as the bed with out being lifted up like he has to be lifted. It's pretty hilarious.

Yes we did see Turandot Saturday. It was live feed. We loved it. Still have never figured out why Calipha didn't find away to dump Turandot for her evil nasty ways and keep the Liu the slave. Put Liu was at least compensated by having the best lyrics and best arias. So maybe there is a little justice. The costuming and sets were wonderful and designed by the same designer and producer as the movie Romeo and Juliet in the very early 70's.

Okay, This seems to be enough for now!
kathe

I am finished two weeks later then I wanted to finish, but 7 of those days were tied up in very long silversmithing classes. It is so good to be finally done. I'll leave it on the loom for a few days and keep looking for threads and missing lines.

I really enjoy silversmithing-novice that I am. FFP purchased a smith torch so that I can work a little larger, if I want. Putting it into the studio is a big scary step for me. It seems like a really big step. Acetylene torches burn so much hotter the the small torches we have been using. The tank is larger-much larger and has many more pages of stuff one should be aware of and not do. In the culture and age that I grew up in so much of what I am doing now was not in the job description we were taught was the right thing to emulate-like using tools. I was supposed to marry a husband that would take care of that aspect of my life. I am married, but not to a man who can handle tools and or do any of the whole tool thing. So as I stumble on-hopefully- I won't blow up the studio or remove a finger or two in the process of learning. The next step is to buy a Fordham grinder before I wear out my Dremel-another step up. BUT, again as always I am more interested in how I can apply and combine the silver designs with tapestry. I am such a beginner!!! The next snaps are the pieces I have designed in class with Don Norris when he comes to Albany. With the exception of one pennant that is a piece I did on my own that contains a piece of broken china from my favourite set of dishes that I love. It seems the odder the shape the more I love the design. I have never gravitated to or felt the pull of using small oval stones.

In another day, hopefully, I will be ready to start my large format wool piece. I am not sure I can get it done by the deadline at the end of the month. I want it to submit it to the ATA exhibit. The deadline is 5 weeks away from now. I already have a smaller sewing thread piece to submit, but would like to do a wool piece just to see how my small format images will translate to a larger format and scale-again. I seem to be continually testing and focusing on how the images will apply in the two formats. Scale doesn't seem to be an issue. I know that the smaller the scale the more detail I can have in a given area/piece. There is a balance in creating the format size that sometimes has to do with the scale of the rib structure that I find unendingly interesting and fascinating. I have no desire to weave a large format piece in a small scale or a small format piece in large scale.

With the silver I can't seem to design small uncomplicated pieces. Every design I have done so far-not that there have been that many-has felt the need to be larger with more complicated elements not smaller. The opposite of my tapestry weaving with the exception that i keep adding more elements and complexity to the designs. Most of my silver pieces are bearably wearable because of the size of the piece. Too large to be practical in everyday settings. I guess it could be that I am not really wanting to design jewelery that will be worn or adorn the body, but architectural pieces-well-small boxes and reliquaries that can be closed, locked, used for concealment or concealing the tapestry images. Again for the same reasons that I put many of my tapestries in wooden boxes that could/can be locked. The nice thing about doing the boxes in silver is that I will be able to do my own boxes and not have to depend on someone else to do the work on the boxes I design. When I research metal working I find that I am focusing on pieces from the the 3rd century to the 14th century. Most of it is gold. I prefer silver. I wil probably be using some of the same elements, but in silver. Many of favourite are Russian, Viking and Celtic-not- surprisingly-American Indian. Another case of nuture vs. environment.


I am still researching soumack and its various structures that can be used in tapestry. This is a Turkish piece that uses a very interesting vertical and horizontal soumack to create a grid. The background surrounding the soumack is tapestry.

These are shadows from the City of Refuge that I think might make good a good soumack study. I took these while I was in Kona this last summer.

Cheers and all,

kathe

Almost there, but late again- once more.

Sometimes I just want to be done with a piece. It's usually the last week this happens. Invariably I get slowed down because something takes 4 times longer then it should. It leaves one wondering such mundanes things as why on earth did I put one hundred peddles in a chrysanthemum when maybe I could have it done it with 30 and just been done with the flower. I know because it felt needful. I need to reread Needful Things by Stephen King to reinforce the thought that needful things are not always what one should do or have. Somewhere in the process of setting my deadline to finish I forgot that I would need to soumack around each of the very small petals some only a warp or two wide. Somewhere I forgot that I wasn't just weaving a big shape that I could knock out in a day. Somewhere I forgot that bookkeeping in the studio would be full of personal and personnel challenges I needed to correct and deal with in the last week. Chene' would hate the neighbor cat that torments him and I would constantly need to retrieve him. In the city of Albany he can only bark 10 minutes in an hour. I am so ready for more rain that keeps him in. The poor thing hates having wet feet. Pye would decide it's cold and demand to share Chene's bed. He finds his baby

much easier to deal with and easier to share his bed with.

I forgot that finishes on dressers dry slowly in Oregon so everything is backed up waiting for it to dry-more chaos as things can't be put away. This stuff only seems to happen when I am almost done with a piece. Somewhere I forgot that the world goes on out side my studio while I am lost in the zone that I create when I weave where time doesn't exist. Only, unfortunately, the end of the day comes and I realize that life has gone on and I still am not finished. Okay-that's the end of the pity party. I wil, be happy I get to weave tomorrow that is enough for me!

These are some flowers- Asters- that I bought because I get so tired of the oranges and fall colours. Fall colours always seem over baked and dried out to me. These asters are an incredible blue red-very cool with cyan green leaves, totally intense. They will probably show up in the next tapestry I am weaving. I am hoping to capture the same intensity in wool. The next tapestry is probably going to be 2 feet by 5 feet. It's becoming more and more a study about how much of the intensity, detail and contained chaos of my small pieces in a large wool piece.

Pat Dunston kindly sent me 23 jpegs of a soumack rug. I received it a day ago and haven't even had a chance to thank her for the jpegs- yet. Ifn you read this Pat thank you, thank you so very much! The details are wonderful and I will be spending the next couple of evenings analyzing the technique from the front and back photo's that she sent me. It's larger or grosser in soumack size then the small sample I had in the last blog. Seeing both sides makes it easier to see how the technique is being done.



















The left side is the front side and the other is a detail of the back. One can see that each row of soumack is countered with a half pass. They only do the detail design in small areas with small floats. It also looks like they are using 2 different sizes of twiners. They are also using vertical soumack to do the verticals or perhaps and more likely just wraps rather then vertical soumack. It's all very intriguing.

Pat and I put up a file on the finefiberpress.com web page from the Shaped Tapestry book on weaving a box. Weaving and thinking about boxes are a memory that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, because I wove these boxes with my Grandmother. I was small and would sit on the old pop cooler weaving when it was so hot or sometimes in a corner by the bread that was brought in from Rogers Bakery every morning. What's very coincidental to the discussion that was going on the list was the fact that I will be teaching in February a workshop through the Corvallis Guild a workshop on making boxes. One of these days I'll ask Sarah Swett who taught her to weave boxes.


I have been thinking a lot about how boorish and disrespectful and just plain mean our culture has become. Often times I just tune things out because I can't deal or don't want to deal with the bad mean jokes and rude behaviour that is becoming so prevalent. I now have a better understanding of the roots of the problem thanks to this editorial peace. It makes me feel sad to think that perhaps we can't go back to a nicer kinder time. I have spent most of the week thinking about an oped article by Tim Rutten called The politics of Incivility-A Crash course on our descent into coarseness. It's copyrighted through the LA Times. It's an article well worth reading. To quote- "The growing culture of assertion and the death of persuasion, rather then the loss of civility, are what we ought to fear about our politics. Because there is no insistence on a common set of facts, we're perilously close to the point at which we stop talking past each other and the language of politics dissolves into mutually unintelligible dialects." It's well worth reading.
Guess that' all until next week. Hopefully I will be able to say my piece is finished!!!
Cheers and all!

This and that and always more!

One more week gone-or a little more. I am pretty sure I'll be done or very close to done by the end of the weekend. The most difficult thing to weave was the playing card. It has such a limited colour range-blue, red, yellow, tan for skin, and black. I am so used to having huge amounts of colour and technique to choose from. The second playing card is going much faster. It's only a jack, but having done the one this jack is going quicker. Bringing this in under 15 inches is going to be difficult. It feels like I am going to need another half inch. Hope not. Don't want it to be to big for Small Expressions entry in a year.
I am beginning to list all the ways I use soumack in my tapestries. I am also trying to collect all the various soumack techniques from every source I can fine. I have an Afghan rug and a Turkish rug to draw some techniques from. I am still trying to find a sample of a rug done wholly in soumack. I have seen this technique in museums but you can't touch and turn in a museum. Marla Mallett's book-Woven Structures is a great help, but not nearly enough. Her web site is also very good. Soumack needs to be thought of in two different ways-1. Structurally and the other as a design element. There are some soumacks that become the cloth body and others that are used as lines and dots to create the design. So the list would began with....next week.

I am hoping to have a rough draft of my class handouts ready in another month so that i can weave the sampler for my class I am teaching in San Jose. The notes are becoming so thick I am thing about writing a monograph on soumack as an addendum to my Lines in Tapestry.

Kathy S. got me to thinking about parks this is a photo of waterlilies at MT. Hebo an old CCC lake in Oregon that is a park that I love to watch the eagles learn to fish in. The last time I was there this baby eagle kept plopping way to low. It sounded like an explosian everytime he belly flopped into the lake.

Wednesday class at the assisted care home has now moved to Friday afternoons. Marge is doing a tapestry of sand dunes and a sunset for the ATA small format show. Evelyn has finished hers. Edith piece will be too big, but her work is always large. Her sail boat is a little further along then the picture of the piece in my blog. I fully expect it to take first prize in the county fair like her last one did of the barn that had been her family for a hundred or so years.
Evelyn's piece for the small format show is from a picture that she took from her backyard of Mt Hood in a fog bank at sunset. It's only 7 inches by 4.5 inches in wool and 10 epi. She did a nice job with the soumack branches and using the tiny hatches as landscape elements. She's very excited that there is a catalogue with the show and that it is a non juried show.



Dee and her fancy glasses slumped and weaving. She's now switching to a low warp loom. Should be fun to teach I sa seldom use la warp looms for tapestry. It's actually been about 10 or 15 years since I wove a tapestry on a low warp loom. Guess it was a good thing Rebecca was in my class this summer.









Everyone in this class is 90 years old or more. They are an amazing group to teach. I am so glad to have them back. I learn so much from teaching them. Edith has been having problems with her forgetfulness and Evie is recuperating from a fractured hip, but now they are all back.



Tommye's attempting to use krogbard in a tapestry brought back a lot of ideas that I have shelved for years. Things I want to try. I really want to use brocading in a tapestry to create designs in the background of a tapestry. I experimented with overshot and double weave-turning 10 epi into 5 epi. While I was back east I bought an overshot pillow and a rose overshot from coverlets. Xenakis many years ago wrote an article in the Prairie Home Companion on using overshot as tapestry. One removes the shots between the floats. Of course on a two harness loom this would be a whole lot of picking, but suppose one only did small areas of the overshot patterns. One needs to build the pattern higher to square it up because of the loss of the passes between the floating threads. The other thing I have been studying is a very old Norwegian weaving that was given to Marge when She married which is 75 years old or there abouts. Then I have an Oaxaca weaving with a float pattern that is really pick and pick and doubled up wefts. Perhaps, when I finish the next two pieces I will begin to experiment with them again. Like I said I am really interested in doing smallish areas of brocading. I have always thought it would be interesting to weave frames for tapestries.
Several weeks ago I took a a class in peyote beading which lead me to revisit loom beading something my grandmother used to do. The idea that lead me to this was again frames for my tapestries. I am also thinking about doing peyote stitch around the felt and twill tape surrounds of my Small format tapestries. Will be interesting to see where this leads. I think I can bead weave and do tapestry at the same time on the same warp so that there will be no sewing.
Time to end the blog. I think I may have gotten a little cared away, but I had fun writing and trying to add the pictures. The last shot is another sunset that I took in Durango from the college IWC was held.

Huzzah!!!

Finally, I am starting to get back on schedule. I am back to weaving everyday and writing my blog when I should. To me those are large accomplishments. Someone who was at the studio visiting today from Kamloops asked me how i do what I do. Usually I draw a rather large blank. I just do. I think it really breaks down to the discipline of staying on schedule and just leading a very boring routine life when I am not off teaching. The boring is so peaceful and non-interruptive. I can be very strange with my warped sense of humour, love of scheduling, and contentment with weaving 8 hours a day. Sometimes schedules don't work, but most of the time they seem to work for me. Of course, when the deadline is missed because the scheduling either failed or life interferes I try and leave my self a mental-guilt free out. So with that said, I really want to have this piece done by the end of this month. I need to start another tapestry. A large format tapestry in wool. So far I am on schedule. Even Dan Brown isn't allowed in the studio with his temptation of the "new book". So Kathy S. -looks like you'll just have to get the bobbins bobbing to beat me!

Reds are really a lot of work to weave with in a weft bundle. Optical blending is a often a nightmare with the light reds and the dark reds. When one tries to do a chene' or melange so many things come into play. Red reacts differently with the light-dark contrasts. Perhaps, I think, in part, red is so sensitive to warm-cool contrast when weaving. To get my deepest red I am making my weft bundle with navy blue and red. All dark reds and burgundies seem to become muddy when combined in a weft bundle. If you try and mix them with greens- any greens-greenish red browns etc. they become even muddier-not dark greys even to black visually like they should. The light pinks or reds always seem to float in front of anything one would call red. I think there should be a whole other contrast in colour theory-possibly called the red to pink conundrum. Lighter reds always seem to float in front of deeper reds and look like they are in a different layer-riding on top of a base colour-=no matter what the contrast. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground in blending the colours It has as far as I can see no other relationship to any other type of contrast, light dark, warm cool, etc, etc. yet red and darker reds are so easy to make go back and forth according to warm cool contrast. I could get rid of the problem by using my techniques architectronically rather then shading and blending the colours, but it's not what i want and pays to much heed to the weavers of the past 20th century and their limited colour ranges.

One of the interesting things I have found that works really well with reds-not so much with the lighter-dark contrast is that one can twist the threads coming from the bobbin to the fell line and increase the density of the colour mix as you weave it into the shed. It looks pretty cool and really aids in the colour mix and the optical blending. I tried doing it with out using bobbins or with butterflies and it doesn't work nearly as well. The bobbin helps keep the twist between the point of entry on the fell line to the bobbin much better then other methods of controlling the weft bundle.

One of the things we did while in Maryland was to attend what is billed as the largest renaissance faire in the united states. They have now added pirates. I have never seen so many women falling out of bustiers or with so many pulled up and slit skirts and not one chemise. It was rather impressive and definitely an act of defying gravity and natural law. I am not quite sure what pirates have to do with medieval tournaments, but it was interesting. I liked the jousting and the court of love. I saw so many painted, pieced and jacquard woven tapestries. Of course the jacquard wasn't around until the very late 18th and early 19th century. The jacquard won a scientific prize from Napoleon and the French government the same year that food canning techniques won a prize. O, well, as one of my Grandkids pointed out that attending a renaissance fire requires a certain willingness on the part of the observer to suspend reality as we know it. In other words I should quit kvetching and enjoy the display.

I was also amazed at what great rock climbers KeeKee and Troy are becoming. No hesitation clear to the top and back. Good Job! It was really fun to watch them. My two son Dad-Shane and Uncle Asa were great mountain and rock climbers and so was I in my teens. Spencer is really developing great balance even though the rope ladder was rigged. We discovered the trick is to balance cross pattern to avoid shifting weight and the center of balance.

Of course, there was the fun of the last Mohawk. My youngest son as a musician used to wear a very tall Mohawk with a turquoise stripe dyed in it. The two grandkids are now wearing fuzzy Mohawks. Not shaved to the skin on the sides. How times have changed. So Uncle Asa volunteered for the last Mohawk and of course his brother at Mohawk envy.

Shane's Mohawk is a facsimile. He always wears his hair like this sans Mohawk. Yes, the red hair is real for both of them. Breaks my heart because he has or had the most beautiful straight copper hair as a child. Asa has always had curly red hair.

Mohawk Envy and the Last Mohawk which was shaved off the next day for a soccer game, but it did that evening have a turquoise stripe for a bit.

So Time to go back to work. Disneyland is done for a while. It's so good to be home. No more traveling for a few months. 5 majors trips in the last 6 months. I think I need to get back to reality-meet my deadlines and finish the new book-So Warped that Pat and i are writing.

Cheers and all until next week!

kathe

Too much ado about nothing.

Today has been a day of mythic almost Biblical proportions. I did get a tad bit of weaving done, but here's what I wove for the week-anyway. I am going to have to really make tracks when I get home to keep up with Kathy and Tommye so that I can finish by the end of September. We seem to have been visited by flood, fire(or almost fire), havoc, and mayhem. Of course, It's all because I am leaving tomorrow morning. To mix metaphors sort of the day before I leave is always like a visit to the Mad Hatter's tea party. I wish i could be the Mad Hatter and not Alice. She's always confused while the Mad Hatter doesn't care if he is confused or not-whole different state of mind and personal universe. Pat supplied the flood with a broken washer that let go in the middle of the night and flooded her down stairs. Living in ancient houses can be so much fun. We had the same thing happen the week we moved into our old house. Fortunately we hadn't unpacked all of the way. I can so sympathize. We did have her birthday lunch at Boccherini's and managed to talk for the first time in a week or so. It's always so nice to do this with her! The almost fire was because "Someone" tried to help by turning up the heat-so I could finish sooner- on my reducing tomato sauce that has to be done because the ripe tomato crop would rot while I am gone. The "someone" forgot to tell me they were being helpful and I went out my studio leaving it simmering and reducing on the stove while I went out to the studio to work. Talk about run on disaster sentences. Pestilence was supplied by trying to get UPS to pick up a rather large order in a timely fashion. Havoc was supplied by a telephone that wouldn't stop ringing demanding thier orders from today yesterday. Mayhem was created by everyone in general as we all tried to multitask at once. AND, the discovery of the theft of a Hagen loom from the covered patio. Fortunately there was no work or an almost finished tapestry on it. Probably a tweeker looking for metal walking by from the river which turns into homes for the homeless during the summer to the soup kitchen, but of course, ultimately, my fault for leaving it out. I don't mind the missing tomatoes as they walk by, but the loom was a whole other thing. Something not easily replaced.

The good news is I made it into the deep red peony and came to the conclusion that the awful bubble gummy acid pink is going to mellow down into a nice light red. Talk about a colour with a real attitude. The problems I am having with liking and being comfortable with the colour is that it reminds me of some the pinks that Rouault and DeKoonig used that I have never been fond of. The colours in this tapestry are so rich and vibrant-nothing hesitant at all about it. Some may think the design is to small for the format, but it feels right to me. The energy level really seems to mirror the emotions of the gambles we take in our lives.

There was great quote sent to my face page by someone when I was complaining about how slow my weaving was this last week. If you had wanted your art to be fast you would have been a painter. I am not putting it in quotes because I lost it on my face book wall. So, It's sort of right and I can't remember who sent it to me, but I still love it!!!

What is it about August and September that everything seems to be all yellow and orange and purple and burnt looking. Guess I'll break down and see if I can find some zonal Geraniums-At least they are reds. I have been doing some design work for another tapestry. I am beginning to feel that these Geraniums are basically the same shape as hydrangea's. I am wondering if they will mirror each other to closely and create confusion in my design. The geraniums might read as embarrassed hydraneas and the gerniums like ill..so it goes on and on. I am going to use the images that I design for my 20epi and do them at 10epi just for the sake of comparison. I have a five foot wide warp that I think I'll weave about a foot high as an exercises. I find that in my design journal I seemed to fixated on the phrase Time in a bottle. It's from an old Jim Croce song. I also saw the Time Travellers Wife. I think I need to read the book, but it hasn't helped my fixation on time images and words. Will probably show up in my next small format tapestry.

I am going to miss weaving this week. BUT, at least I will be doing something really fun. I am going to Maryland to see my family. It seems like forever since I have seen the Grandchildren-KeeKee, Troy and Spencer. KeeKee just had a birthday and turned 17. WOW-this seems like the opening of a whole new thing a little like an Epiphany- where everything becomes the past from this moment forward.

Sorry all Chene' has to stay and play with Livvie and Jenn again. I know how much you all want to see and meet him, but he's still a little to hyber for a jest ride under the seat in his carrier. People would hate me as I dislike crying children and children throwing temper tantrums on planes. Give him another year of training!

Grandpa's thinking we should maybe get another puppy so that Chene' has someone to play with. Gramma's not so sure. She's doing all of the training. Grandpa spoils. Chene' has a tunnel now. When we get back we will add his jumps to the course. He likes to fake us out by not going through the tunnel. He knows he's being funny, because he sits and waits for a reaction before he runs through the other side.

We are going to tour all of the Lincoln Assassination sites got to Gettysburg while in Maryland. Shane lives about 2 miles from Dr. Mudd's home. Haven't figured out what the fascination of going to battlefields is. So many people died there. They give me the creeps and makes my skin crawl. My Grandmother said that dead things and ghost of the past were best view from a very long distances so that they don't become attached to ones life/self. I know that's part of the reason she left one home and created a new one. I'd rather see a battlefield in papers and diagrams. I am hoping to see Mary Todd-Lincoln's inaugural gown. I have never seen My Great-Great Aunts dress. Every time in the last 37 years that I have gone their it's been down for conservations purposes. Perhaps it will be on display this time! We will be going to the Textile Museum and the Smithsonian Indian museums. Ramona Sakestewa designed a great tapestry curtain that was woven at Kawashima Textile Mills in Japan. It seems to me to be rather odd to have it woven by non-American-non native American tapestry weavers. It's not as big as the biggest Navajo weaving ever done. So what was the problem!! Go figure!

Guess I should go pack. We are leaving at about 3:30 in the morning.

Just a reminder to self that there is no place like home. Everything else is Disneyland. SO-- Disneyland it is for the next week.

Cheers

Slow dog days of summer

I wish someone would tell me why there are days and weeks when things feel so slow. I feel like I am watching rocks grow. Perhaps, it was because the earth star was slow to weave. It is one of the most difficult images that I have woven. The perspective and depth were difficult to achieve.

I am finally learning the difference between architectonics and shading in tapestry technique. I much prefer the realism of the shading to using technique architectronically such as Lurcat promulgated that tapestry should be!(Yes, I know I left out the silly tailed c symbol that I can't find in this particular program. So get over it.) The style that is used by so many tapestry weavers who taught in the 40's-80' feels dated and not appropriate to what I weave today. I am now half done with so many chances. It's right on schedule.

It all looks very yellow because I didn't turn off the studio lights before I photographed the piece with my flash. I am not sure what I have done, but I can't seem to move the photos around. SO, she said in a huff." guess they will all be dead center."Not quite what i had envisioned, but I am probably the only one who knows they are not where I wanted them to be. Aww-well. Decided it was going to really nag at me so I deleted and started over. Deleting things that didn't work quite right is so satisfying.

I have been several hours trying to build a web page, because I am finally tired of waiting for the other one to be fixed. It's a needful thing!

It is summer and all that implies. The photo of the hoodoos is a picture I took on the way home from Durango. It seems to symbolize exactly how i feel about the last week of weaving. I love the way the hoodoo women seem to be waiting eternally for something to happen. On the other hand maybe they are just doing what I am doing procrastinating hoping the day will end before...

One of the questions I am asked about constantly is what do I weave on. I am a firm a believer that if you weave on a bad loom or one that doesn't tension well you have lost the battle or are very close to loosing the battle of producing a good tapestry. These are my two favourite looms-both Shannock's. They have lasted me so far since I purchased them around 1996. Before that It seemed like a constant battle with the looms I used. A good loom doesn't need to be exspensive or a Shannock. I am now to the point that I really like my copper looms much better because of the painters easel I use to hold them. I have noticed the comfort level of my students that use the easels is also much better. I think there is a lot of agreement that the easel is really a good thing. I have taken 4-5 of the easels to each class for use in the classes i have taught this summer and sold everyone of them. I keep running out of the easels and have to get more for the next class. FFP is definitely going to be selling them. I just received my bulk shipment yesterday. I am also becoming a firm believer that no one should start a beginning student on a loom that doesn't have a tensioning device. I am so sick of hearing newbie weavers tell me that good tension isn't important. That they like having screwed up tapestries, because they don't know what good technique is.They have to fight the loom constantly instead of concentrating on developing good technique.

We took Chene' to the coast yesterday and put him on a 23 foot leash. He loved it. He was completely covered with sand. He could not figure out which was the most fun to haul around seaweed or drift wood. The wind kept bowling him over. He chased kites and seagulls. The seagulls were not impressed with him and attacked. Chene' like a good tactician retreated to behind me. He's so tiny around 5 lbs. Pye out weighs him by 7 lbs. He loves the freedom of roaming in the sand and sliding down the dunes. He can also dig in it, which he can't do at home without completely upsetting Pyewycket. Pye has taught him how to fight with his feet. It is the starangest thing to see a dog attach and slap like a cat.
It rained this morning. Chene' wasn't happy to go walking. Less happy when he had to sit on the wet ground while I attached his leash. Even less happy when he got wet from walking a mile and a half. He absorbs rain like a sponge. I swore I would never be one of those people who dresses up their cute little dog, b-u-t I am thinking that Chene' may need a rain slicker. No boots, though. When we got home he ran into the bathroom and pulled a bath towel onto the floor and would not move from the towel. It took me forever to coax him outdoors and over to the studio. It's amazing how long a Pom. can stay in a snit. He wasn't even happy with his Starbucks cup. He did pull his Oliver gig and demand tuna fish-seconds.(see accompanying photo) He's now sleeping the day away while I procrastinate from doing my weaving.
Have you ever tried to write every weaving trick you know about a subject down? It's amazing how much we just do and don't even thing about it. i have been keeping a weaving journal to try and catch all of those little tricks so that I can write about them. The weaving technique after 30 years has become an extension of my body. I don't even think about it. I remember one of my easatern religion Tao instructors telling me that would happen back in the early 70's. I have told my students that it would happen. That the technique would become so internalized that you don't need to think about. i have finally figured it out that the old master in the Zen of Archery was right. It finally just happens. One weaves with the eyes closed in the minds eye. Still doesn't help with getting it down in writing though! I think this blog may be making feeling a little narcisstic and definitely older.