After the break-- second part.

Shyness is one of the reasons that I write on this blog. It’s suppose to be therapeutic in helping me deal with my shyness.   The first of December I hit a wall with posting blogs. It was one too many and way too much for my shyness.  Life was fine. Totally full but fine.   I just didn’t want to write in such an open format. I refused to even think about  it.  I retreated. I didn’t even post the first part of this blog and it was very close to being finished. Maybe 2 hours adding pictures and playing with fonts, which I really enjoy.

Do Rya or Not!Since then I have finished Chene’s piece with the rya border. Haven't decided whether I want to leave it or not. I have had at least one person tell me they dislike  the rya border.On the other hand they might just hate rya in any form. At least one other person has told me they love the Rya and it suits the piece, the comfort of the blankets, Chene's contentment, and possible it making a statement about the fribbles and attitudes from the time of my formative years when I first learned handwork and women's relationships to hand made things.  It reminds me of the pillows that were made just to keep ones hands busy. I was thinking about trimming the rya{(making it more disciplined and now I wonder if I will. I like the untamed overgrown quality of the rya. The border is actualkly a series of triangles done in embroidery floss and hand dyed silk ribbon.  It’s almost an expression of Chene’s personality. It’s so in your face. Surrounding a calm soothing portrait of a sometimes(?) hyperactive dog.

 

 

So what have I learned form doing rya on the two pieces with  Rya that I have been working on.

1-how to make the rya to lay in the direction I want it to go to frame something on 4 sides.   Rya will always lean away from the bar of the larks heard knot.  In order to outline a rectangle the first rows across the fell line that hangs down away from the center have the bars on top and are tied in what one normally sees in rya design.

 

2.  To match the density of the knots running across the fell line you have to deal with 2 warps and 1 knot.  To do the sides you can use  groups of 2 warps together and knot around them or you can knot around one warp and skip a warp between the knots.

3. In order to get the top knots to lean upwards the knot is tied upside down to the way it was tied on the first rows of knots that pull down and away from the center.

3. The stand up density of the rya is partially controlled by the amount of passes between the rows of knotting.

4.  The best joins for the verticals slits created between the tapestry and the knots  is a single interlock between the warps. Other joins such as shared and dovetails  warps leave a notch that can disturb the smooth transition of the slits visually.

5. At 20 epi a doubled embroidery floss averages 100 knots to the square inch. When thinking about the size of the pile one needs to think in terms of a cone-the  knot begins tight and  flairs the ends out into a cone shape that takes more space as the ends lengthen and can cause the tapestry to buckle and curve to the back. If the rya tails are long most of the design becomes indistinct the longer the ends.

Shelley Socolofsky’s new Piece  with rya and detail  called  Frontiers at the OCAC Instructors exhibit.

6. If the materials you are using are slick and difficult to  stay put-mohair, monofilaments,  hair and silk  weight as you knot. They often times will set a curl or twist and make them stay in place better.

7. When you measure a piece or a cartoon that has rya on the edges. The rya is going to increase the width of the piece when it lays down. Hence the piece I was going to send to ATA unjuried small format show is now an inch and a half to big for the show. 10 inches became 13 inches. I have a 3.5 inch warp left beside Chene’s piece that I will now be weaving frantically on  for a piece in that exhibit. Thankfully, the piece wasn’t due at the same time the entry was. IT gives me a month to finish a piece to take it’s place.

Cape Arrigo and Sunset Beach in the rain Christmas day

As for other things-

                          Chene as pillow and and me with my kindle

Pat and I are almost finished with updating the Shaped Tapestry book. There is a new section that has 3-d weaving for shaping-using feathers pulled warps and rya. Plus we took the section on mounting tapestries a little further to reflect the way I mount small format tapestry now. Updated the tools section. Updated the gallery and added more tapestries.We are really happy with the update. It is just amazing how technology has changed in the layout and publishing world since 2004. ONe of the new Gallery shots in the Shaped Tapestry book the tapestry is by Bev Walker and is called Gateways. It helps to illustrate the pulled wefts and soumack in the book.

We spent Christmas at the ocean recharging our Batteries. There is a motel in Yachats that has beautiful rooms that overlook the ocean with huge windows. We spent 4 days there. Reading, walking listening to music. There was absolutely no internet or phone connection, TV, and so quiet you could hear the ocean and the birds. Long enough for Chene to run from the wild rabbits-semi wild and decide walking on beach sand beasts walking in the desert.  He learned to fetch his sweater when he was cold and attempt to put it on. Hasn’t quite got the hang of putting his feet in the leg holes, but he tries. But he has learned to back himself as soon as he sees a suitcase.

 

 

Yes, we are still waiting on the solar panels. Everything has been done for the solar panels. We are now waiting for permits from the city of Albany and the energy trust of Oregon. We told it could take 3 days to 3 months for them to come through.  We took the sign down that they put in the front yard, because people kept stopping to ask where the solar panels are that are waiting on the bureaucrats. It seems like we may be one of the first people in the city of Albany to get home solar panels. Browser books is the only other business in town with solar panels.

The windows are now all upgraded and Anthony is working on the laundry room and small bathroom that seems to serve as the entry between the studio and our home. No one who knows us ever uses the front porch.

My walk is almost done that allows me to chase Wry and Chene across the hopefully soon to be flower garden. Once it’s cleared of boards scaffolding and rain. It’s typical Oregon winter weather.  My new lake with submerged walk way. Not water spots  and splash circles above the walkway.

Another take on renovating old Houses. If one  looks closely you can see the old house and it’s free to a good home. Somewhere on the Utah border. We were gassing the car and just happened to look over and see

the sign and the house after a rather discouraged discussion on what was left to be done to our house. Maybe they have the right idea.

Back in two weeks!.

kathe

So belated-Redefining normal-again

The post that I almost finished before it became too hard and I needed to take a break. The second post is where I am now. Decided to post it anyway. Even though I never finished. TO get a better idea of what I am doing now read the second post that will go up within minutes of this one. Almost another month has gone by since this post.

“In behaviour, normal refers to a lack of significant deviation from the average” wikipedia with the editorial change to British spelling.

Since I last wrote in this blog almost 2 months ago I have managed to keep myself frantically busy-too busy often times to be doing what I really want to do.Which in my thoughts equals 3-4 blog entries in my goal  to make an entry every two weeks.  I have allowed my home schedule and accomplishments(?) to be dictated by reaction rather then action. Which usually leaves little time time for what I wish or want to be doing in my studio.It’s not as if I am sitting in a corner doing nothing, but it feels like it sometimes.

I have incredible memories from this summer and fall from traveling and teaching.

I finally got to see Canyon De Chelly and the place that weaving began-Spider Women Rock.

 

“The name chelly (or Chelley) is a Spanish borrowing of the Navajo word Tséyiʼ, which means "canyon" (literally "inside the rock" < tsé "rock" + -yiʼ "inside of, within"). The Navajo pronunciation is [tséɣiʔ]. The Spanish pronunciation of de Chelly [deˈtʃeʎi] was adapted into English, apparently through modelling after a French-like spelling pronunciation, and now English pronunciation: /dəˈʃeɪ/ də·shā′”.wikipedia

We arrived sparsely/scarcely  before sundown and between two storms. (The we, of course, is Chene, Spencer and I)We ended up driving all night to beat another storm into Utah and points north.  I spent time with old friends-not as much as I would have liked.

Explored Santa Fe again. Saw a show on depression jeweler and saw an incredible recycled jewelry show at the Wheelwright museum. It was amazing seeing the recycled materials used to create the Thunderbird jewelry of the Santo Domingo Indian Silversmiths during the depression, battery cases, celluloid from combs and brushes, old phonograph records-anything that could be cut up recycled to sell to tourist on route 66. There was also a show in conjunction with the Depression thunderbird stuff of modern recycled jewelry. It was extremely thought provoking. For the last several years in my silversmithing forays I have been playing with (and collecting)  the idea of using recycled jewelry in my pieces.

I bought a small piece of weaving from a weaver at Tec Nos Pec.The weaver is Ruth Elthie. It’s a double sided all edged finished with twining birds eye twill –6.5 inches 10 inches. I saw an incredible amount of Navajo pictorial tapestries in a room off of the Service station and small store. Thanks to Diane K. I learned a bit about British water colours and traded a future tapestry for several of her  paintings in that style of watercolour. Discovered that Susan Seuter one of my Village wool students has been making has been making woven  balls from the Shaped Tapestry book. 

On the other hand-I have painted most of new window sills, had the front porch rebuilt the porch,added rails on the steps, redone the studio door, gotten rid of the holes in the walls from the exited  failing electric heaters etc.

Wry still sits at the blocked holes and morns the loss of his play grounds and hidey holes in the walls. He seems to becoming content with banging the attic door until it opens and he can sleep in a nice warm place that  Chene can’t get into.  Still some things-yet- to be finished. Anthony Secedo our contractor  has done a wonderful job. It all just takes time and working with other peoples schedule.

The solar panels for the studio are being prepared-waiting on the engineer and then the installation. Can not believe how long that has taken to get through the paperwork. Of course, with the amount of air stagnation and fog we have had in the last month I am wondering just how productive they will be.

Understanding that there is time for doing everything in it is proper time sequence isn’t always logically for me or does it feel right. It just is the way things happen.

Weaving with Shelley has taken a slow down for the month of December. We are too began 3 days a week again in January. 

I have been doing things-many things, but not as much weaving as I thought I would be doing.  It’s time for a deep breath and another beginning.

I postponed working full time on “And He…” for a bit, because I need to finish a couple of smaller pieces first. I did start the black soumack roses on one side that needed to be.

I have the bottom  border done on a small piece of Chene.  I think that their will be 3 pieces in this series. The first is done. The bottom  border on the nw piece is rya done in silk ribbon and embroidery floss. It’s relatively easy to knot rya so that it lays down  or up, but I have arrived at the point that I want the rya fringe to lay horizontally.In order to do so I have to tie the knots around two warps rather then between two knots. When I arrive at the top I’ll the revert to the other style of soumack but tie the knots up side down so that the knots will "hang straight up(?)”

 

I had so much fun on our trip back from
Albuquerque taking pictures of odd pieces  of architecture.

Pat and I are redoing the Shaped Tapestry book-updating, adding a colour gallery , a  slightly different stronger cover, a little more on mounting,  and adding a few things. Should be to the printer by the end of the month-maybe'/hopefully.  Times change, products change and there is always what you wished you had done differently or left out or in the first time.  We are adding too the 3-d weaving section with rya, ribbon boutonne, and feather weaving. Adding a few more patterns for shaped purses and a short intro for a  kumihimo strap for the purses. It’s a lot of new layout work for Pat. The book was published in 2004, but publishing programs have changed so drastically in the intervening years that all of the layout has to be updated and put into a new program in order to interface with the new programs the printer is using.

end

Passwords and passages

“A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource (example: an access code is a type of password)”.Wikipedia

without which there is no passage to what I need to be doing-such as weaving or writing or existing in more then a half life-anymore.

1. The act or process of passing, especially: A movement from one place to another, as by going by, through, over, or across; transit or migration.b.The process of elapsing: the passage of time.c. The process of passing from one condition or stage to another; transition: the passage from childhood to adulthood..d. The right, permission, or power to come and go freely:e. An occurrence or event: "Another encouraging passage took place . . . when heads of state . . . took note of the extraneous factors affecting their economies that are “beyond their control" .F. A segment of a written work or speech.Music A segment of a composition, especially one that demonstrates the virtuosity of the composer or performer: a passage of exquisite beauty, played to perfection.h. A section of a painting or other piece of artwork; a detail. None of which is going to happen until I remember which password is for which thing.

Probably an easy guess!
 YES! I have messed up my passwords-again-  with a great deal of help from a dear person who will remain anonymous and the help of a Comcast techie. Fortunately, John the FFP techie saved the day and life is good for now! AND, AGAIN, I can never remember which I used for what. It’s amazing how many passwords we/I can accumulate in say a year. I can remember  everyone of  them with the exception of our Etsy account(a series of symbols), but not which ones I used  for which.  That, of course,  doesn’t even count the 4 temporary ones given to me by Comcast to use until I could get ones that I can remember again. The one constant on my laptop until last night was the fingerprint swipe, which I have discovered doesn’t work after several days of intensively  weaving tapestry. Passwords are an endless…pain!
Drop off at Niagara Falls!
Weaving progress so little to show
I have been so involved with trips, weaving with Shelley, yard work and pass word problems that I really haven’t woven much since the last time I wrote.  Put as one can see. I did weave a tad more on the blue peony and have started the soumack outline of the black rose on the right side. It’s companion black rose which will be on the right side will be solid. I am weaving the two black roses from a photo of a very deep red rose bud that I received when my mother died this summer.
Thank you to the person that returned my soumack sampler. It was greatly appreciated. No questions asked. I don’t means to sound greedy but could you also return the 4-5 others that were with it.
Thanks so much.
ENUFF SAID! ONWARD!

RYA---It’s been a million years since I have thought about weaving hairy stuff not fiber-pile. Well,  at least since grad school in the barely 80’s. Now, I am researching rya weaving(?)/knotting. Up until a couple weeks ago when I started weaving with Shelley Rya was my cat. Mostly people think about rya  as a Scandinavian, with a little(a lot) eastern influence thrown in for good measure. In the Seventies it seemed rya  was a major influence on everything. It seemed to show up in every major textile artist work.  Mildred Constantine's and Jack Leonard Larsen’s book The Art Fabric: Mainstream had dozens of pictures of major weavers of the time using rya and tapestry and just about every other technique as a woven ground fabric. I never felt really  excited  enough to really attempt to use the technique in my personal designs. I do remember seeing several rugs very white rugs that Pat Spark wove when I was in graduate school that had Islands of long, short ropy and smooth rya.  It was my first introduction to sculptural rya that wasn’t dark and dingy looking.   I was too fascinated with flat woven tapestry to try anything else beside tapestry.  The things that did interest me about rya was the wild and hairy historical samples of early Viking rya blankets and wall hangings, tufted Navajo saddle blankets, Apache blankets and a few samples of South American weaving. They all  used tufts of fiber or in the case of Apache blankets stripped rabbit hide.I have seen at least one pictorial example that uses rya knots in an Apache for the tufting in either my Amsden, or James I am just to lazy to look it up right now.
Some of the things I am learning about rya in the last couple of weeks  analyzing the process in my mind and weaving with Shelley is what it takes to control the pile. Shorter closer together knots make a more stand up stiffer  pile. Long and luxurious pile is created by longer tufts of the rya and more counters or ground fabric between the rows of knots. The type of fiber used in the knotting and tufting can also completely change the texture of the pile and perhaps it’s symbolic  meaning. Designs or patterns of the pile become very defused the longer the pile. The more the distinct the  designs in the knots the shorter the pile needs to be and the closer the knots need to be together.   
Another technique I have re-fallen in love with is zilli. I have worked with zilli a little bit in several samplers, but never in a large tapestry. I had  with it in samplers and discussed the results in  my Lines and Tapestry book. Worked with it in samplers and discussed the technique in several lectures that I gave to docents for various exhibits.  I have come to realize while working with Shelley on the new tapestry that the floats are nice, but there is a second element that I had never considered the counter or plain woven line that also creates a vertical. So, like with pick and pick you could create a second image within the vertical stripes running up the warp, while the floats create another image.

Crenulated weave structures are always fascinating. I tend to think of them as very very small hatches like  over one warp thread. Of course there are many types of the structures. The Scandinavian weavers used them for deign and technique. The middle Eastern weavers used them as both design and ways to close large slits structurally.   At times in English there is a bit of slang that calls them zippers. Shelly uses a lot of them in her weaving. She views them as sutures which gives them a heavily laddened sense of symbolic meeting for her.  I had never really looked at the crenulated structures as anything but  a technical element to close slits, make borders, and being related to hatches when stacked in a certain way. Totally unattached in  my mind as part of meaning.   This is a detail from the large tapestry that Shelley and I are weaving. In middle eastern weaving they are used in a less random fashion and usually in the borders and surrounds. This is a border detail of on one of my favourite Afghani rugs of a crenulated border.    
I should mention that the diagrams are from my books and Pat Spark created them.             
Other things-Somewhere a long the way when weaving on my own tapestries  there is a point where there is suddenly a knuckle bump moment, high five, aha when one knows it’s all coming together and the idea has jelled enough in the weaving that a sense of joy or a knowing that it’s right happens. Seems to take a little longer when I am working on someone else's tapestries.  I have finally reached that Point in “And He...” I am roughly a quarter done.
One of the questions I am frequently  asked(other then how long does it take) is what is the difference between weaving ones own design and weaving someone else’s  designs. When I am working on someone else's tapestries and the decisions aren’t mine to make it still takes time to find ones comfort level. Weaving someone else's design is a different thought process. As corny as it sounds, it’s almost a negation of self and it is definitely a test of self discipline-not a bad thing.  It’s a different mind process when trying to make ones personal style conform to another's dreams and images. The easy part is the technical part of weaving. The not so easy is remembering it’s not yours to mess around with. BUT, it’s a fun and dynamic change to be weaving side by side with Shelley on one of her designs-again.

 Sunday  Chene, Spencer and I leave to teach in Albuquerque, NM. at Village Wools. WE are driving!  I am so looking forward to the trip. I understand there are a few more spaces left in the class if anyone wants to join us. The class is a Beyond More. It’s about designing for tapestry and making the techniques of tapestry work right in your weaving. The class is a multilevel class.
cheers,
kathe

Of waterdogs and black berries…

Fall is here!

The rain is back!

The term came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year"

  Classes start again. Tomorrow will be the first day of Better Bones and Balance. Can’t believe how badly i have missed that class. It so hard to exercise on my own, but I do.

Nostalgia strikes or is it really?

The leaves are turning colour. So many things not done. So many things ended forever. Autumn always brings a sense of relief. The hot weather is gone. Summer ended. The beginning of the rush to be ready for winter.  School begins and schedules change-not so much anymore now that Spencer is retired. But, Autumn always feels like change.There was a time in my life when summers end meant hours of canning and preserving.

Dad, Grampa and not so happy Chene at Giant Springs overhang.

The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form. The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning "pain, ache". It was described as a medical condition, a form of melancholy, in the Early Modern period, and became an important trope* in Romanticism. Liberated from Wikipedia *a word that I love.

I no longer do this. I have been liberated and no longer have the time or feel the need with home life being just Spencer and I... To be truthful-Something I mostly, slightly, actually, very little regret. I grow a few vegetables, because tomatoes, cukes and peppers never taste the same as the store  “botten”-even when purchased at the farmers market. Makes me me wonder how much of the taste is real and how much the romance of the doing.  Wondering how much is enough  to last through winter and late springs? It was an urgency I inherited from my Grandmother who lived as a subsistence farmer in the Mountains surrounding Blachly. OR for part of her life-the later years.

 Time is viewed differently when you live as your ancestors lived. Her only concession was to build a house that overlooked a valley with old houses covered by Blackberries that made great places to tunnel into and read and draw. We only played in them by day because the cougars roamed and screamed too close and the waterdog protectors retreated into the safety of the mud or shapeshifted into something else at night. 

 Of course, we were also required to pick the blackberries, can,bake, dry, make fruit leathers with the berries, dye with the berries, and dig them out of the places they always seemed to be, but weren’t suppose to be…Check out those thorns. Occasionally, we were set to work dredging blue  Camas and eliminating white Camas from my Grandmothers pastures. Once we we were old enough and responsible enough to safely dig and separate the two. White Camas is deadly, Blue Camas is edible.We had to wait for them to go to seed, before we could dig Camas. So, that they could replenish what we ate.

         Good Blue Camas-edible-right

We picked and dried nasturtium leaves and seeds to substitute for black pepper and pickled fake capers. Then it was time to go to the Todd’s and my other Gramma was always so horrified with the deep stains and scratches on our hands, but even worse she hated nut stains from hazelnuts and walnuts that stained our fingers yellow like we had a serious nicotine problem. To her way of thinking Ladies might work and play in the sun, but should always protect themselves so it doesn’t show. Gramma Todd  was always concerned with freckles, but I have never had one in my life- a gift  or a legacy from my other Grandmother-that and copper eyes. She was always threatening that I would get freckles. AND,  so frustrated that I didn’t have any from not doing what I was told and wearing a hat.  Shane seems to have inherited all of the freckles with his red hair and light coloured skin.  Would I want to relive these experience? no. My mothers death last month has made things float through my mind to be reexamined and laid to rest-again.

My childhood was often not a pleasant place to be, but It made me what I am and I can truly say I am easy with the past and I have no regrets-now.  The biggest gift from my Mothers side of the family was thinking in symbols and symbolic languages, a firm belief in the unreal and myths and things that are not to be told but hinted at. Not a total loss.  

A piece I had forgotten about that was returned to me from my Mom’s estate. Done sometimes in the early 90’s for a mini textile show at Anger’s  in France that I was in. It’s 5x5inches.

Best of all's-

I have woven constantly for the last two weeks-6-8 hours-a day.  I am a fourth of the way done with my piece. I will weave every day for the next week. It is 19 inches wide. I am at the 7 inch march.Yes it is really going to be at least 24 inches tall- It just needed to be.  I hope to be a third done by the time I leave a week from Thursday. I will be leaving  to teach at EGLWC Conference in Chautauqua, NY. Unfortunately the class at Mirrix Looms didn’t fill. It would have been so much fun weaving with Claudia and all. SO, I won’t have the week in between for Museums and visiting friends. Next time.sigh!

  I thought I would have a Month before going to Albuquerque and teaching at Village Wools. Enough time to get very close to finishing the piece. It will be nice to see Diane and Shelley  and others-again. My plan is to arrive a day or so earlier then my class to do some research and visit friends. Two days in in Santa Fe, Albuquerque the surrounding areas. Yes, I am bringing Chene and Spencer.

 Then “And He” all slows down, but in a good way. I will be weaving as many hours, if not more, but on two pieces, two different formats and two different designers.BUT, instead, I am going to weave on a piece with Shelley Socolofsky- 3 days a week in her “studio” and 3 days a week at home. Shelley and I have woven several pieces together and it is always interesting and mind boggling. She designs and I weave. the last piece we wove together was based on  Fata Morgana  and other things or what between us we call Kathryn's piece. It was in the Corvallis exhibit of the 4 teachers and their students that she and I were in along with Dee Ford Potter and Rosalie Nielsen this summer. I am so excited the new tapestry includes Rya and is Shaped and it looks to be pretty large. I’ll know a whole lot more about it when I began on Saturday. 

My spare time for the last several weeks has been on finishing my PowerPoint presentation on warping the Mirrix loom for tapestry with a continuous warp. Haven’t quite decided whether to leave it as a slide show or make a brochure or small book showing the way I warp the mirrix. It’s something I get a lot of questions about. It has almost 50 slides and I need two more slides of turning the warp with a tapestry on it around the bottom beam and then it is done.

Chene trying to stay warm and hiding his bad haircut after being felted-accidently.

I am also in my spare time reweaving several samplers that disappeared while I was at the ANWG conference teaching. It’s the first time I have ever had samplers disappear from a class I was teaching. I keep hoping someone accidently picked them up and will return them. SO, I am taking time I don’t really have  reweaving my soumack sampler  and a small sample that illustrates what happens when you unbalance weft bundles. It is a series of hatches done in inch increments with different size weft bundles.

                                                       Gone Missing!

Please feel guilty enough to drop them in envelope no questions asked and return them to 604 first Avenue East, Albany, Or 97321.

FFP

is beginning to work on another booklet that will be ready for publication by Convergence 2012 at which Pat is teaching. Pat and I had fun choosing a name for it today.

It’s to be called-- 

The Viking’s should’ve. It’s  Pat’s  exploration into using felting, Viking knitting,  felting beads, felt dreads and other things. It’s really  cool. Viking knitting is a interesting metal working process that  is probably relate to nalbinding.  It’s really fun to do and Pat has some really interesting ways to use it with felt. The dreads as in dreadlocks are just plain fun.

Giant Springs on

a sunny day in

August!

Tell Next time!

kathe