Between and Betwixt

Between, in the middle of, at intervals, in the midst of, among, betwixt, interjascence, etc, etc, etc. Things barely started and nothing near finishing or even begun enough to have a definitive personality. ..which always seems to morph into waiting, biding time, attend,anticipating, mark time, delay, tarry, lurking, hovering, dangling, wait in suspense,be left hanging...boredom and depression. Well, guess that pretty much covers my feelings for the last week or so. Think I better leave the thesaurus alone for a while. Just another way of killing time is to play the curious game with a book, but so much fun.

Now that I have written the words it feels almost humorous or possibly ironic. They sounds so static and lacking in energy-lackadaisical-almost. I still put in 8 hour + days. I have just added things like holidays, company, shipping times, cooking, Doctor appointments, research and writing.

I decided to start over on one of the Kona Balcony sunsets. I love the photos and the colours I took while setting on the veranda/balcony. Last Friday the electricity went out for about 5 hours. Fortunately, i had finished cooking our Friday Thanksgiving dinner eating in the dark was interesting. I was able to get out my collection of kerosene lamps to helpwith the darkness. My Father-Grampa- couldn't come on Thanksgiving because of a very long standing commitment to deliver Thanksgiving diners to the Elderly and infirm. He's 84. I am not quite sure when he things elderly starts. So, we changed diner to Friday. So when it got to cold we went to see the movie 2012. I kept laughing about valcanos and sky. They really needed a better colourist.
I had been away so long finishing so many chances I had lost the colours in my head. So I am resetting up the warp to start over. I'll need to finish it in the next week or two, because we will be photographing warping the Shannock loom for the So warped book Pat and I are writing.
Part of my research for this week has been the warp weighted loom. When i was requesting photo's of various tapestry looms Fireside Looms offered me a photo of the Sami warp weighted loom. The photo on the left is actually from wikipedia and is a Icelandic loom. I have had a sort of background low key fascination with warp weighted looms since I was at OKAC formerly known as OSAC doing undergraduate work. Marlene Kerrigan who taught Craft history showed slides of Greek pottery with warp weighted looms incised and or painted on the vases. Of course their is also the story of Penelope and Ulysses and of archaeological finds of viking loom weights and weaving. Pat who has a a really good background in Scandinavian weaving informed me that the warping begins with a rep weave that stabilizes and creates the top selvedge. The wefts of the rep become the warps for the tapestry or other weaving that can then be rolled around the top beam with the weighted warps hanging down the front of the loom. I am going to set up a small warp weighted loom. The process is totally fascinating to me. Beating is done with a two handed batten, so, any tapestry would need to be woven straight across the fell line and not up or down in this case.
Adventures of a Beginning Silversmith

Well this is as far as I have gotten. It's starting to come together. The top is laid out. One side is finished and the two sides are ready to sew together. My way of getting around pieces that are two large for me to handle. The pieces will be stitched together with gold thread/wire.







You can sort of make out the letters of the word miracles on the right side of the black paper. The green looking stones are Peruvian Opal and the other stones are died agate. These are the two tapestries that will be inside the box when I finish. Today almost became a little two exciting. I learned several valuable lessons. One, always work with shoes on. Two, always check the torch fittings and make sure they are tight. Three, Remember where the shut off valve is and reach for it first. Four, move fast, panic later. Five, Remembering, it's a good thing to keep Chene' in the house and not the studio when working with silver. No matter how much he wants to be in the studio.

Other then a melted floor, a few flames and scaring myself half to death nothing bad happened. A fitting on my torch head came loose and exploded/popped off the supply line in my hands and I dropped the flaming torch and pieces of the torch on the floor. Andy is going to check my torch for me to make sure I didn't damage anything and I am good to go. Probably not necessary for any reason other then my sanity. Valuable lessons learned without a lot of damage. Andy checked it a few minutes ago and taught me a little more. Helped me mark directions on the tank for turning off the valves. Gave everything a clean bill of and health and I am good to go again.

I am making great strides on a new monograph on Soumack and tapestry. I decided that my handouts for my class at ASCH 2010 were getting to be so many that perhaps they would make a good monogragh. I think I may also be teaching a variation of the class at the Eugene Textile Center. I have had several students come to the studio wanting to learn how I do my lines which are soumack and lacing. This week I also finished writing the chapter on the Old Believer tapestry loom. We just need to photograph the process for So Warped. Pat completed several major sections and layout on warping.

I had two small mentions in national Magazines- Fiberarts for an ATA award and An article about Small Expressions. There is a photo of one of the 3 pieces I had in Small Expressions.
Guess that's all for now.

Bye for now!

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.