Keeping it simple and real!

Large Shannock

half done

It always amazes me how easy it is to cling to something that is no longer useful or does needs to be part of one’s life. Sometimes it’s hard to give up the security blanket of having it around-just in case.  I woke up a couple of mornings ago very early before the traffic and anticipation of trying to stuff too much into a day and realized I no longer needed or wanted my 6.5 Shannock- a probable epiphany  a long time coming on my part. I love the loom and its workings. It’s one of the first 20 wooden Shannock looms that were made. It has history! It has beautiful wood and beautiful engineering.  The loom is not the problem. I am not giving up tapestry, if I don’t use it or have it.  I am moving on and doing what I really want to concentrate on for the rest of my weaving career. I can still teach large format, but it will no longer be a weaving goal that always simmers in the back of mid and ask when. Well, of course, also teaching, writing and silver smithing-just doing.  I am out of love and out of the wanting to do large format tapestry. 

last Sweet WIlliams of the season

AND, finally, there are enough exhibits and people that will appreciate the small format work. I don’t need to do larger tapestries to stay in the “game”. I no longer care about the game. I am at an age where I probably have 10- 20 years or more of weaving left to do. I have already done 36 years.
I am what I am. No apologizes needed.  It’s a beautiful loom and I am doing it a disservice not weaving on it.   Perhaps, I am doing myself an even greater disservice by not focusing on what I really want to do. With it in the studio I feel guilty not weaving on it.  The loom is an icon of past realities. It really is time to downsize the size of my looms, but not my life goals.

I have  decided what I really want are 2-3 more Mirrix’s in different sizes. Which the sale of my Shannock will provide.

new cartoon that will be
10 inches 5 or 7 inches

 I have finally realized that what I really like about doing large format work is working with someone else on their loom. Some of the  best times that I have had weaving were sharing a bench with Shelley and working on large pieces with her. So with that one caveat on large format  it’s time to move on and make space and peace within my thought processes. I no longer think large format. We are talking about 6 feet square and bigger. When I think about working large format-10 wpi etc at any size,  I spend all of my time thinking that I need to reweave the piece at 20 epi and no larger than 2-3 feet square in sewing thread.  I have just spent the summer realizing  and trying to think through the process that the large piece on the loom needs to be about 2 feet rather than 4 x 6 feet to make me happy. I am no longer willing to invest 6 months to a year on a piece that I would be happier with at less than two feet and half the scale. So I am going to sale the Shannock for 4000.00- to be hauled out and packaged by the new owner  and may it bring them peace and contentment, but they still have to move it out of my studio.  There is just no way that my friends and I could handle getting it out of here and neither would I ask. Buy the Mirrix’s with treadles that define what I really need and want to do. Not look back to the maybe’s, might have, should have, or could have because they no longer define my designs or thought processes. It feels really good to know what I really want to do and not worry about working in large format-anymore.

acid eaten photo shopped
rose- part of new cartoon

 The trouble with  an epiphany is they have to be implemented which always leads to more work and more journaling. I am taking the first steps by reorganizing my weaving and design space. The large Shannock is no longer  a cog in the design process.  I am now trying to decide if I need to make the cartoon/ maquette smaller that I had blown up  to 6x4 feet . It is now 14 inches by 24 inches, which might not be a bad size. It was meant to be woven the first time around at  6 foot by 4 feet.  My main concern is the feathers in the wings of time. The weaving of the feathers was thought out at 10 epi and three times as large.  What are the concessions I will need to make in downsizing the woven structures. A corner I want to change back from what I would have woven at a larger format.

But first I need to finish 2 pieces by November 30^th and another by the end of January.

yellow tomatoes that should be ripe by now

On another note-In my last issue of American Crafts there is an article called the Cult of Simplicity by Akkiko Busch. It explains the difference between being simple and appearing simple. I am so tired of being told that tapestry technique should be dumbed down for the masses-DIY’s. To quote” 


Akkiko Busch from the Cult of simplicity.

“It's human nature to try to reduce what is complicated to something we can under­stand and live with. But it would be a mis­take to believe that complex things really are simple. Just as there is a difference between making something efficient, clear and operable and just dumbing it down. Observing complexity, acknowledging it, respecting it and then finding a way to manage it generally leads to the more desir­able outcome. ..

Chinese Kesi woven at around 60 epi

detail

At a time when the cult of simplicity is ever tantalizing, it is increasingly possible for those outside the field to romanticize the handmade object as an icon of the sim­ple life. But craft tradition has always been more about appearing simple than being simple: DIYers who go into crafts for its anti-consumer message find that making one of something can have the same complexity as making many; studio craftspeople often find themselves working at an intricate in­tersection of conceptual content, material skill and an appreciation for ambiguity. Which is why this seems to be the time for those engaged with craft to show how their •work is, in fact, a process effacing, rather than avoiding, complexity…” end of quote.

Chene's New friend-since
 he found it wants to keep it

    I am glad someone has finally defined and synthesized what has been causing me major frustrations with the way I see and deal with the new world that is so different then what anyone could have imagined 50 or 60 years ago.  I still come from an age before…Reading I, Robot  by Issac Asimov was considered to be our future and the future is nothing like Asimov imagined.  The computer I am typing on is a good example of just that-miniaturization did it in.

Churro skeins-Now what-so beautiful

Diane K. sent me some beautiful churro roving and yarn. I am not a spinner,but I do felt occasionally. How can one not with Pat Spark as a business partner and best friend. BUT, I more then like the samples of  churro tapestry yarns. I wish they were a little thinner because I would love to do bobbin blending with them on a small tapestry.   I think I am love with  the  feel and workability of the churro roving.  The roving looks like it will felt pretty hard. I have only worked with merino which is very soft and wears easily.  Just like I would never walk on a wool tapestry rug made of merino. Maybe, I’ll even do some shibori arashi with the felted churro. I think it’s time I made another pair of moccasins. It’s been awhile. I spent the first 10 years wearing moccasins and or oxfords depending on the weather to school.  My toes no longer like to be rubbed by the tops of my store bought leather shoes  and cross trainers. It’s too  cold in the studio during the winter to go barefoot-my preference in the studio. I once made a pair of Apache dance boots out of felt with leather bottoms. I think I want them a tad lower toped and closer to my ankles though. More like a Kiowa boot. I will use leather bottoms and have my orthotic sewn to the leather. It rains a lot in Oregon so it will take a lot of snow seal to make the bottoms water proof. I am unwilling to do it the traditional way-no time/no inclination to process leather.  The best leather  for bottoms comes from a leather  surrounding smoke holes in a tipi or as my Grandmother did it over firebox in her wood stove. I’ll bead at least part of them and maybe needle felt part with my Grandmother’s design. Who knows maybe I’ll add a few tinglers just for the joy of hearing them while I weave with my treadles.. .The more I think about it the more I like this idea.  

Apache Boots copied from a picture of Geronimo

Shorter style I am going to make with dyed felted Churro

The description I wrote for the last pair of moccasins that I made. It’s hard to believe this is from a show that was in 1996.

Dance Boots for the Between

Dance Boots for the between

detail of boots

Hand made wool felt, Shibori arashi (pole resist dyed), leather soles from a well loved pair of handmade moccasins, with dance tinglers (made from tobacco plug lids often used not for smoking or chewing but for gifts to the spirits) and silver thimbles (traditional tinglers are a sign of wealth and skill) created from a pattern for apache boots that would have been traditionally made from leather not felt. The moccasin style is one of several styles made by Todd-Hooker’s Grandmother for her to wear as a child and young adult.  Silver tingles are a necessity on dance and party regalia for sound, beautiful movement.  Whispers and rhythm for snagging, shawl, and butterfly dances which were never attended because of a religion and fear of discovery.  These boots were made for dancing in and out for places and people that are and were somewhere between cultures. None of the techniques, styles or materials would have been combined together in any of the three represented cultures. So the dance boots are for the betweens.

Chene' dismounts from favourite drinking spot

summer drinks

I finally reframed the icon I painted
carved and gilded. I love the background
etching. I'll probably use it again!

non ripe tomatoes-
Maybe green tomato juice

This has been a confusing couple of weeks. So I have been doing a lot of journaling. I needed to reassess my goals and where I am going and if I am headed in the right direction. I haven’t set the goals parts-yet-because too many important people in my life are choosing to be in inbetween places. I find that I really do need goals, good time management, and the discipline of stated goals and direction.  Life is just too short for anything else. Lately, it hasn’t been working that way because of too many outside responsibilities and reacting to others instead of acting for myself and my goals. Very few of the goals that I wanted to accomplish in a non rain season have  been done.  It looks to me after the last couple of days that winter and fall are very close and many of the sunny time goals will have to wait until next year and dryness. Even my garden of tomatoes and peppers have decided to take a vacation and not ripen this year. Summer is gone. Summer and all that it entailed and  promised.  is gone and I feel cheated. That acknowledged it is time to move towards the promise of fall and winter and good comfy things like lots of rain and wind.

Creeting card Spencer gave me after a particular disappointing day
Pretty much sums up the summer!

WOW!!! and meanderings

WOW!! WE DID IT!!! SO WARPED IS WRITTEN, LAID OUT, AND BEING PROOFED!!! GOOD JOB, PAT, you are so good and getting better all of the time!!!!The book is now in/ready for pre-publication sales. We even have the cost and a discount for anyone who purchases it in advance. 35.00 After release and 32.00 for those who buy a prepublication copy of the book. The book has 110 pages of everything you want to know about warping just about any loom you can weave tapestry on with exception of the shaped tapestry looms which is in the Shaped Tapestry book. I am spending the weekend writing the press release and starting the announcements for the prepublication sales.
       Left is a picture of the cover of the book, but without the cool Mulberry coloured background.

BUT, first, it’s time to do my blog. It’s over due and nagging at my conscience to be done. This means I’ll never get anything done if I don’t take care of my goals for the year-Writing my blog every two weeks, keeping up my photo journal, and my weaving journal. Fortunately, for me I am having a very quiet day. Spencer is working at Block, Pat is off on a well deserved visit with relatives and the sun is shining but too cold and wet with rain burst to work in the yard. No one is aware that I even exist today. The phone is not ringing for a change. So, it’s me, my stuff, Wry, Chene and Brahms for the day with maybe a little Hans Zimmer to keep the energy level up.

One of the new things I have learned in the last few weeks is Viking Knitting. It’s really addictive. I can sit and do it for hours. Viking knitting is a type of looping that is done with wire to produce a chain that can be used in jewellery. After it is looped the knitting is pulled through a draw plate that extends it length and turns the rather ugly as in duckling thing into a beautiful sensuous chain. I have a bracelet that I have to wear all of the time so I created a bracelet from the chain. I had looped and attached the old charms to it and added cones and a pretty finding with a flower on it. It looks so much better then what I had been wearing. Pat is putting together a class on Viking knitting that involves using felt. It sounds really interesting. It’s a class I would take if I were going to a conference and taking a workshop.

I finished Kona Orange. I think I’ll leave it with that name. I am taking some teasing from family member’s about-Kona gold, Maui Wowie, and a few other such brand names. It was really good to get it off to the Enchanted Passages exhibit.

The studio has felt a bit overwhelming and imposing for the last month and perhaps a little sinister as in promoting guilty feelings. Everywhere I look; there are warped looms ready to weave on, but no plans to weave on them. It’s like someone gave into a warping fetish and obsession. Actually, they are looms warped for illustrations in the So Warped book, but it’s still intimidating. Let alone staring at the awesome sized space on my large Shannock with all that space ready to be filled for “and HE.”.

The Mirrix is warped and I’ll start the other Kona piece today and be able to stare at the blank warps for another piece that needs to be done by November, but at least I am weaving and not brooding over the other piece. The design still hasn’t come together, but when it does, I am warped. Boy, isn’t that the truth. It must be spring even the looms are waiting with a pregnant pause and the excitement of beginnings. There’s something so satisfying about the first touch of colour on a loom. Of course, another warped loom will be used for my Soumack samples I am trying to get together for my class in Santa Clara on soumack and the More! class I am teaching in August in Albuquerque. I am tired of all of the little bits and pieces of samples floating around the studio. If I get them, all together in one sampler I can lose it instead of just random samples that I need for the class and can never find while packing to teach a class. I keep telling myself this is a good deal! Also, one warp is on the Fine Fiber Press loom and Pat is making ranuu and pick and pick pillow tops so that’s her problem not mine-gr!  So I guess perhaps it’s not quite as sinister since many of the looms have a purpose other then making me feel guilty for not filling up the warps. I just need to find the time to fill up the looms.

These are samples  of soumack that I have been spending time getting ready to weave. It's not in my sample collection,yet.            The Linten roses, or Mayflowers or helleborus are blooming beautifully. Your choice for the proper name that you prefer. What I call them seems to depend on my mood at the given time I am discussing them. They are the one flower in the yard that doesn't seem to mind the heavy rain we keep having. I must have variations of 10 different colours ranging from greenish white to purple. They are fun to watch. They can't seem to make up their mind about what colour they will be. I am definitely going to use them in a tapestry.   I have almost decided that I don't like the upper right hand corner of "And He"  and may change it to the Lenten Roses, because they are so changeable and can be used to bring on dreams. Sort of an appropriate flower for the piece. Actually it would be the bottom right if turned it's final direction.

 This is where I wish I were today. Tomorrow It will be raining. It's already clouding up.  So enough about today and the past weeks.It is just so right that So Warped is finished! It's time to move on to the next project a book on colour and colour movement in tapestry and get all of those warps filled up with colour. .   But the timing to begin will probably be in September or later for the next book. So I get a few months of weaving and prep time for classes.  Cheers and all!  

bit by bit, inch by inch

Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining. There is a promise and perhaps a hint of spring-pregnant with waiting. The camellia buds are swelling. I saw the first of my Grandmothers violets of the season. The moss in the side yard is beautifully green. The last week or two has been busy, dreary, tax season and solitary in the evenings. I am definitely ready for a trip to the coast, seeing a movie or going to the opera-Anything!! that doesn't take place in my home, yard or studio. Spencer is working 50-60 hours a week doing taxes-probably a good thing. He seems to enjoy the people he does taxes with. Even closing in on 45 years I enjoy his company and friendship and miss im when we don't get a chance to talk and do things together.

The ducks are starting to migrate over the house. Chene' is chasing them as they pass over the yard. He's got this thing about geese and airplanes. He has great hearing. Spencer thinks I should be grateful that he only chases flying geese and airplanes. He starts barking and running towards them before we can even hear them. Wry/Rya is back from becoming an "it" and hernia surgery. The results of the hernia surgery have turned him into a leaping ballet dancer with incredible karate chops and jumps. Usually done and around the dog for maximum exsposure and impressive value. Chene' is learning not to try and follow him, anymore over the furniture. Chene' drops like a rock trying to follow Wry/Rya graceful jumps and ascents. Chine’s ungraceful splats can be heard all over the house.  Can't seem to get it across that belly flops should be done in water and not hardwood floors.

     

I am proofing the galley for the So Warped book.

 Pat's illustrations are incredible. I wish I had been lucky enough to have a book like this when I started tapestry weaving. Especially since I didn't come at tapestry as a weaver, but as a surface embellisher (old term for surface design). Everyone just assumed I knew how to warp a loom. I can't tell how many times I reinvented the proverbial wheel.  At this point it is around 90 pages and still growing, BUT, Pat and I can see the end of the process. In some ways this has been the hardest of the books because it isn't actually about technique and a new program had to be learned-In Design by Pat. I like the fact that it's has no frills, but is loaded with information and packed with pictures and illustrations.

The last month has been difficult. Pat has been recuperating from 2 surgeries and I have had some type of atypical something that has still left everyone wondering.  I feel fine now and am back to exercising and my better Bones and Balance class. Everything always seems to be behind or running toward major deadlines.

Yesterday I realized that I don't have a piece for the next ATA small format show that fits within the 100 square inch perimeters. I still have a year, but with small format the year slips away really fast. My Orange Kona piece is only half done, but at least it's the hard half. It will be going to ATA unjuried small format show-Enchanted.

I am building a galvanized pipe loom to photograph for the book and to illustrate the Gobelin heddles I used to use all of the time.finall figured out that a entretoise just means arched template.  Of course back then I loved sitting on the floor and weaving. Now I want a chair and cushions for my hip. I started weaving on a galvinized pipe loom in 1978-79. I wove on clear up[ into the 90's.  It was before I could afford my Shannock. It's so easy to put together and adapt and inexpensive. I spent several hours picking up pieces for the loom yesterday. I think the Home Depot people were glad to get rid of me by the time I found all of my bits and pieces for the loom. Things have changed since I built my last galvanized pipe loom. They barely carry galvanized pipe anymore. Everything has moved to copper or plastic pipe.

I think of all the looms I have been trying and researching I am beginning to really like my new Mirrix-best. I loved my hagen, but it's to difficult to get anymore. The heddle system and treadles on the mirrix is quite unique and portable. I am not so fond of reaching up and shifting by hand each shed, but the treadles do away with that problem. I find it to slow and it irritates the scar tissue from my hand surgeries to do for very long at a time.  With the treadles I don't need to worry about my shoulders or my hand pulling treadles or shifting the heddle bar. Also a definite plus when I am demonstrating to students both hands are free to point and weave. I am starting the thinking process for weaving a tapestry on it. Maybe I will weave two tapestries side by side so that I can practice taking one off and continuing weaving on its companion.

Both the Kona piece and “He who Tells...”have some interesting colour phenomena’s that I photographed and am trying to weave in the two pieces. In “He who tells...”I was photographing on Mary’s Peak at sunset what I am now using as the background for the piece and an interesting flash effect occurred. The green grass and trees suddenly flashed red. I was actually able to photograph the happening. I am trying to weave the effect in the background. By rights if you mix red and green you come up with grey or a muddy brown at a distance. I am using chine’s to try and get the effect of the red and green as they mixed in the photo. Logically your mind tells you can't do that because grass and trees are green or red. It almost shimmers. But it's amazing how the two colours when mixed on a bobbin and then woven become one colour and blend together. The Kona orange piece is a mixture of blue and orange to get a slightly foggy appearance as the colours blend together in the hatches and the Chinés. There is black foliage in front of the sunset that makes the orange appear particular bright. The thing that really interested me was the orange didn't seem to affect the bushes and the houses in the fore front. The colour splashes and houses all stayed magenta and turquoise-rather cool contrast to the intense oranges and blues.

The real problem with these colour mixes is they never photograph well or simply disappear in the photo of the work. One ends up trying to explain how the effect is really there, but you can't see it in the photo or slide. They need to be seen in person to get the correct effect. The blending is so subtle especially with the small needle thread tapestries. In some ways the colour relationships defines how you wish to use technique. Is the technique more important than replicating the picture or the design the design? Is there a difference or a new paradigm being created between architectonic, graphic, colour usage and blending almost photo realistic work? Is this starting to take the place in the tapestries some of us create? Well, at least mine. It's definitely a move away from the bold simplified designs that were woven in the past and ruled by Lurçat's dictates about what good tapestry should be. Based on the premise that all colours fade thier for the technique will become the design rather then the colour elements. To me it's more of a revisit to tapestries of the late 1700's a way from the tapestry designs of the apocalypse and earlier. For me and my tapestries not a bad idea!

I wish I could figure out this new blogger problem. It  seems to have a bunch of new features and no spell check.   What is it about us that always wants to change things whether they need it or not.  

Tell next time cheers and all