OF COMPULSIONS AND PISTACHIOS….

 

I am almost

finished with Chene’s portrait-real and not real. I am really liking the rug he’s standing on.Reminds me a little of Cezanne and Matisse.  It is so sort of floaty and not photo realistic-Just fun to weave. Weaving Chene has been a challenge all of that blackish and greyish  fur and trying to make his face look like him. It’s going to be  approx.. 7 inches by 5 inches when finished.

Another 2  or 3 weeks have vanished into into a very grey dismal spring. Normally I like the

rain in Oregon. It is usually  fairly warm not to heavy rain with days of beautiful sunshine interspersed. Not so this spring. The rain is freezing and often torrential laced with nasty little bits of hail. In the last month I have  had one day where I could walk Chene to class. The only thing growing is grass. The yard is till to wet to work in. Everyone who planted their tomatoes last week is now replanting-We had a killing frost.  I bought pepper and herbs but haven’t planted them in the garden-yet. I am afraid they will drown as last years did.

Serendipitous things-Had to do a run to Portland for coffee for my Dad. He was out and wasn’t remembering that he’s not suppose to drive. It was an expensive can of coffee. Have found a solution. Pat is designing a shopping list that will cater to his personal needs and I have discovered Safeway will deliver groceries for less then it cost me to drive to Portland. Two more weeks and he’ll have his scooter. Now if the weather would just co-operate.

That taken care of Spencer, Chene and I drove up to Bingen. The sun was shining. We could even see Mt Hood. For the last 6 months we haven’t seen Mt. Hood because of the rain and fog.  I found my rock wall that will be in the redesigned corner of And He…the smaller version. As soon as I make it through ANWG and MAFA it will be going on my Zeus Mirrix to be woven. Don’t get me wrong I love the teaching, but as always I need to weave more and produce more tapestries.  It will be the largest small scale, small format piece I have ever woven.

Which leads me to thinking about. You guessed it!

compulsions-again.

Compulsions and tapestry weaving are a little like eating pistachio’s with shells. There are always the last few that are unopenable  that need to be bashed with what ever hard object is available before one tears off the last fingernail. Just because they are there and need to be opened no matter what!!!

Origin: 1595–1605; obsolete compulse v. (< Latin compuls ( us ), past participle of compellere; see compulsion) + –ive Wikipedia

 (like how can they figure the origin of a word to a 10 year period? This is just plain weird.)

compel and compulse.-not because you want to behave that way, but because you  feel you have to do so.

After all of these years I still can not figure out why I feel the need to get up every morning and spend hours a day creating something in an archaic technique to describe a thought process and an internal view of the world that no one but me feels compelled to acknowledge. But, If

I combine the compulsion to weave and design with the word synthesis. I just may have the beginnings of an answer. Tapestry seems to be the one place where everything becomes a whole.

“In general, the noun synthesis (from the ancient Greek  σύνθεσις, σύν "with" and θέσις "placing") refers to a combination of two or more entities that together form something new. The corresponding verb, to synthesize (or synthesis), means to make or form a synthesis.”Wikipedia

 

A flower that I really want to know what it is. It was cozied up to an “Old Vic” in downtown Albany and I really really really want one????!!!!

I have been spending time studying several more interesting techniques that I have found on a couple of weavings that I have found in various places. Anyone who knows me knows that means garage sell or Antique stores. Acquired while Spencer looks for ebay stuff.  They usually don’t have a lot of provenance as to where they were created and by who. Makes for some interesting guesses.

Front-little checker boards                 Back- floats that run across the fell line

I think this is a Turkish rug, but I am not sure where in Turkey. It  is also  a wide border on the ends of a knotted rug.

The other rug or textile I am trying to determine it’s origin. It doesn’t feel like wool. The design reminds me of Scandinavian designs. Something I may Have seen in my books on Scandinavian weaving possibly in my Book Flat Weaves From Fjords to Forest by Peter Walborg.

What I really want to know is if the outline is twined or if it is a double soumack.  It has a very odd warp. The warp looks like it is plied with a light and dark of two dissimilar materials.

Anyway –enuff for today!

And yes I did find my moss

covered wall at Ainsworth fountain on the Columbia Gorge HI way-Oregon side.

Gone, time, and Compulsion

Gone-Go is historically derived from at least three Proto-Indo-European roots: *ghê, the source of go and maybe gone; *ei and ī, the source of ēode; and a root beginning *w-, the source of went from wendan from windan. All three roots are continually used in the standard English derivatives go, gone and went.

absent, away, left, disappeared, moved out, departed, vanished

used up, spent, finished, consumed, depleted, drained, exhausted

dead, deceased, passed away, passed on, no more

So where does time all go? I guess into some sort of void. I really need to find that void so I can retrieve a few things-One synonym for void and gone both is never. Gone is so laden with should haves, could haves, would haves.

Really! Where does time go? It doesn't seem to be terribly missing because there always seems to be more of it until there isn't.

This is such a screwy spring my Christmas Cactus is blooming at the wrong time of year. Really! Where does time go? It doesn't seem to be terribly missing because there always seems to be more of it until there isn't.

yes,this is one of mine-The late late and almost late

Marche Hare. copyright 2011TIME

"Webster's New World College Dictionary". 2010. http://www.yourdictionary.com/time. "1.indefinite, unlimited duration in which things are considered as happening in the past, present, or future; every moment there has ever been or ever will be... a system of measuring duration 2.the period between two events or during which something exists, happens, or acts; measured or measurable interval"

The last several weeks have been busy trying to learn the ins and outs of two new computers and retrieving those things that have gone missing from my old lap top. The other new computer is my personal computer sans FFP.  I am actually enjoying the process. Frustrating challenges are so much fun. A little like using a hammer on ones head. It feels so good when one quits hitting oneself in the head. I installed live writer into my computer to write my blog. So far so good. It doesn’t seem to have or create the unusual frustrating effects that the old program I was using did. I seem to have more control over picture placement, but we will see.

The weaving I have managed to do has been fun and nostalgic and a little painful. Tomorrow night I am teaching a short session on weaving on boxes. When I was a child My Gramma used the weaving of boxes as a means to keep me busy while she was running the store I would sit for hours and weave interesting designs and materials into elaborate boxes with lids-1955to the 196?’s,  I have always wondered how she came up with the idea of using a box as a loom to weave a 3 dimensional shape. I have often wondered if it was something she and her friends came up with the idea or if they found in a magazine or were taught by others trying to find projects for Vacation Bible school.

samples and kits

 I needed to regroup and reweave a few of my small boxes. In the past I have given all of the boxes a way as gifts. I have decided this will probably be the last time that I weave a small box at 8 ends per inch. The needle weaving the bottom is just too hard on my hands. One idea might be to soumack the bottom of the loom or do gross needlepoint on the bottom of the loom. Cash Grocery, College Place, WN.

I was about 5 years old when I wove my first box. At one time my Gramma had several of the old Boxes that I had woven, but somewhere along the way they went missing or my Grandfather may have sold them in a garage sale. Not so hard to understand the why as he owned Cash Grocery in College Place, Washington for over 50 years. By the end of his life selling things had become an obsession or maybe even a sickness with him. The sale was everything. He

If I could save time in a bottle The first thing that I'd like to do Is to save every day Till Eternity passes away Just to spend them with you Time in a bottle-Jim Croce

sold several very valuable family heirlooms for pennies on the hundreds of dollars they were worth. The other thing I have always found interesting is that Sara Swett also weaves on box looms. She is roughly from the same area that My Grandmother lived in. Gramma spent a lot of time in I have wondered if it was a regional type of weaving.

                                                                My attempt at

                                                               Time in a bottle

 

 Someday I should take the time to ask Sara. Of course, it could all be independent invention. I should ask her sometime where she learned. Most of the boxes I have seen that Sara has been involved with weaving or students work seem to be quite a bit larger than the ones I learned to weave and topless. There are also subtle differences in the way we set up the loom. My

Spring Flower that I have never seen before on Mary’s Peak.

Gramma's style always seemed to have lids and were never used as purses that folded over and were fastened with a button and a crocheted loop. The crocheted loop makes sense because my Gramma crocheted, embroidered laces, table clothes and lace clothing. I wish I'd paid more attention and asked Gramma where she learned to create all of the little different odd shaped looms that she taught me to weave on. Unfortunately, she died in the mid 90's. In my conceits Gramma just always was. By the time I realized how unique it all was the Alzheimer's had set in and I was busy dealing with the multitudes of problems of rearing 2 sons and working on my BA and MAIs.

I am finally as of this weekend almost done with my backlogs of things that were overdue. It’s taken me six weeks to catch-up!  The article is finished and being edited. All of the required pieces are all snuggled in the various shows that they are in. Love the word snuggled it always reminds of the night before Christmas. Things that needed to be done are done and done before Pat had knee surgery. Invoices and such are up to date and shipped. Pat had surgery on Monday. And, all seems to be well. I have about 2 months until the ANWG conference for my own projects. I am going to work on several new pieces and finish them for the exhibit in Corvallis.

 

My study for the next couple of weeks is this wonderful rug I bought at Peabody's an antique store in Albany that is going out of business. In the last several weeks I have bought 3 rugs, a bag all to study.

                                                            Knotted  silk rug that Chene has claimed.

Talk about an embarrassment of riches. I wish I knew how this technique was done. It has floats on the back. I’ll need to spend some time with my woven structures  book by Marla Mallert-Woven Structures- a guide to Oriental Rug and Textile Analysis.

           She has a wonderful web that I have learned so much from and makes me realize how little I know about all of the forms of tapestry and other  related structures.

Compulsion a strong, usually irresistible impulse to perform an act, especially one that is irrational or contrary to one's will.

“...in vain is the net baited while the bird is looking on...”

I had written a great deal about the obsessive compulsion that  comes over me when I haven’t woven in a while. Well, some how it’s all gone. Not the compulsion to weave just the written confession of an obsessive compulsive tapestry weaver.  Just know that I am suffering that compulsion as of right now and have been overcome with the need to weave.

Cheers until next time!

kathe

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with