Inch by inch-row by row-fast or slow

Inch by inch, row by row, fast or slow, it’s all the same to me. I am going make this garden grow…Paraphrase of Pete Seeger's Garden Song from 1979 correction-actually written by David Mallet, but covered by Arlo Guthrie and  sung at a Pete Seegar concert. I originally heard it sung on Sesame Street by John Denver

Chapter 1-
Tapestry weaving 
is one of those things that creates a quiet place that has a tendency to leave one open to invasive thoughts.It’s been strange. For days I have been humming this strange little ditty-just the notes. Some would call this cycling or repetitive word cycling-a thing that won’t go away. It’s  just relentlessly over and over.
        A little like an off the wall mantra-word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation" I could not remember the lyrics-just the sounds and notes. Every time I’d take on some new task. I would think inch by inch. At first, I thought it was a song by Elvis Costello’s-“ Inch by Inch”. I’d had the lyrics in my journal for years. Heavy metal to the core-not my thing, but it described something terribly important at the time. Asa introduced the words to me in another life time.

rip it open wider let no inch remain rip me open harder tear my soul and let it… molded facts keep faith in tact so close the text search within deeper examine every inch expectation nothing something you can’t quite… I burn so clean why can’t you see. Inch by inch-lyrics by Elvis Costello

It is so easy to wake up in the morning with dread. Usually, I begin my day with a list of things that I have to do. Note the words have to. Things for the last 6 months have been not so much difficult as fueled by daily rituals, injuries to knees death, Pat’s accident, remodeling, painting,  working with Shelley,deadlines, answering business e-mail, book keeping, house hold chores, that eventually would get in the way of everything I wanted to do-nothing for me.
I have a friend Andrea Furber- who I have known for 50 or 60 years. Andrea writes a blog called the Handy Andy-things I get to do today. reading her blog has become a treasured morning ritual. It’s all about one task she chooses to do each day.
I had an honest to god epiphany about the difference between what I have to do and what I get to do. I am changing my outlook and the way I word things. Words and the way one puts them together really do make a huge difference in the way one perceives things!.
My list when I wake up now is a positive-joyful list of the things I get to do. Sure, the not so enjoyable things are still on the a list, but not the one I wake up to. Makes a world of difference!
From a performance piece from the Franck Studio. By asking everyone who participates receives an incredible hand painted box of happiness. I understand that so far thousands have participated. I am in love with mine!
So I have managed to plan at least until Late September a tripless stay at home summer. I am excited I have until the end of September to do as much weaving and writing as I want daily. I’ll teach the students that come to the studio, but not trae any long distances to teach.  It does mean in October I'll be teaching back to two back classes in Colorado, a workshop in Georgia and a workshop in Mendocino, California.
I intend to finish “AND HE..” by the end of July and have time to do some very small pieces to finally get a little more a head.
I have accepted the fact that as long as I get my inch by inch and my row by row when I weave a day I am happy.

Chene’s idea of summer Bliss-
By the way turns out the ditty was the one I heard on Sesame street when Shane and Asa were little. We used to sing and pantomime it together. A very happy memory and it makes a nice mantra.
That said.
Chapter 2
       In the last issue of Tapestry Topics I wrote an article about Surface in the last issue.  After I wrote the article I realized in  one of those quiet moments filled with invasive thoughts while weaving that I had really not touched on something in my weaving that has become very important to me in the last couple of years.
     This story all started many years ago when a very good friend and mentor-Karen Zimmerman- committed suicide. One of the things I inherited was her sewing threads. She had perfect runs from light to dark in every colour imaginable.
  I still have partial spools left from her hoarded collection.
       Then a few years ago Jan Austin asked me if I wanted her Mother’s sewing thread. I said, yes and a box of threads showed up. I didn’t realize how much these two events were going to colour and invade my thoughts about tapestry. Many of threads that belonged to Jan’s mother were from the 40’s 50’s and 60’s. There were a mercerized boiled cotton and some were Cortecelli’s silk dress maker’s thread. There was this wonderful orange that I had never seen before as I wove it into one of my Kona’ sunsets I became aware of all of its beautiful colours, the feel of the spin, the lack of knobblies in the spinning, the richness of the colours. None of my modern threads-Gutterman, sulkies, DMC’s dual duty or embroidery flosses that I was buying at so many sewing stores had the same feeling of quality or often the same richness of colour. I have gotten hooked on these threads. My husband-Spencer- has an eBay business. He does a lot of garage selling to come up with

“Ephemera are transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera are advertising trade cards, airsickness bags, bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters, pamphlets, postcards, posters, prospectuses, stock certificates, tickets and zines. Decks of personality identification playing cards from the war in Iraq are a recent example.” borrowed from Wikipedia

and things to sell. I navigate. We can hit on a good day in the summer 10-20 sales.  We do this one day a week sometimes two mornings a week.  I navigate and plan the route. I started finding the old spools of thread in mint condition at estates sales.  I started buying the old mercerized cotton threads to weave with in my tapestries. These old threads feel luxurious compared to the modern threads I have had to use.
 The next thing I knew I began to think about the unknown women whose things were being sold. Often times the sellers are relatives, friends or estate managers or clearers that didn’t remember what the spools were originally  used for or that there was a time when women made their own clothing and their children’s clothing.
       Often times the things made  were as transitory and as ephemeral as those things described as empherma. Used up and discarded leaving only the partial spool of thread after the garment or whatever was worn out, reused and or discarded. The spools a  reminder of what might have been.  I have started thinking about my Grandmother sewing  my clothes for me, teaching me to weave, sew and crochet for me and her many spools of partially or unused spools of thread thread.  It just feels appropriate that the spools of thread  should be used up and used to create another product that might be treasured or valued as a remembrance of things past, present and future dreams.
That’s it for now!
kathe

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