It was Shop Small Saturday, not the best display opportunity. An interesting day. I had plenty of time to do some designing in my head and even got a few things down on paper. My business cards were a huge success. In fact, it seems that no one had seen cards quite like these cards from Moo. They are of heavy paper as the standard. In the picture each is not the same size, but that’s just me and poor editing.
When I do new ones, the text will be larger for the top three lines.
The mounting experiment that I mentioned in this post is a total loss. There is not point in going forward. Time would be better spent somewhere else. That brings me to these small pieces. Have you ever made a pillow? I’m thinking of mounting these (now that I have planned ahead of time for success) and then getting a pillow form for each.
On the left is the way I ended up weaving Happy Hair. Instead of doing all of her hair while at the loom, I decided to just weave her a very high forehead and give her hair later. On the right I’ve place yarns just to give an impression of hair. She looks kind of drunk, right?
The one here is nothing to write home about and it may end up as a pillow also. As I said, just experimenting. The metallic threads get lost, something I knew would happen but did anyway.
I haven’t decided whether to go on to a bigger project now, or to continue trying out small weavings. Maybe I’ll weave four pieces across.
Daybreak in situ
Deep, Cool Water
Yes, this is a little embarrassing, but I’ve lost all contact information for the wonderful people who bought these two pieces. I thought I knew right where it was, but… My only possible excuse is that a new computer ate it.
Please contact me. It’s for a good reason, really. sherri@sherriwoodardcoffey.com
The second of the two pieces being woven at the same time. I’m using metallics for the first time. Not so sure about that.
First, weaving news. The plan is to finish the two small pieces that I’m weaving at the same time. I’ve also sent out a newsletter for the first time since July. If you want to see it, subscribe here.
Lately I’ve been exploring a lot of rabbit holes, via the internet. Have you ever heard of the Martha Stewart Made in America awards? I hadn’t until I received an email, and off I went, limiting myself to only fiber-related businesses. Lo and behold! One of those businesses won! Explore Ricketts Indigo–I think you’ll find it interesting. Look at the pictures of Chinami’s kasuri process and Rowland’s sculptural pieces. Quoting from their website,
Rowland and Chinami Ricketts use natural materials and traditional processes to create contemporary textiles. Chinami hand-weaves narrow width yardage for kimono and obi. Rowland hand-dyes textiles that span art and design. Together we grow all the indigo that colors our cloth, investing ourselves and our time in our textiles because we believe this way of working to be an essential part of the material’s integrity and authenticity.
Here are other companies I liked
Some pictures today… I’ve noticed that the pictures are going up on Facebook and not here. Plus, frankly, there’s just not a lot to write about. It’s cold, and I’m already tired of cold weather. On cold days, my time goes like this:
The weaving–I’m weaving two small pieces on the big loom. They are in the neighborhood of 16 inches wide, and the intent is for them to be more or less square. I was having fun weaving one of the pieces and got to the place where the warp needed to be advanced. That means it’s time to work on the other piece. With both of these I am doing something different, at least for me.
Detail
When I posted the above pictures, I asked if anyone could tell what it is.
The next pic is below. Yep, here it is in all its glory. You may notice a lot of big slits. I don’t do slits. In theory, I know how to sew them together, but since I don’t do slits, well, you can see where this is going. And that “hair?” That’s what is in the detail above. That’s going to be everywhere, like Little Orphan Annie. Except more colorful.
And this may be the last picture seen of this project, depending on how those slits go. No matter, at least a something that’s been in my sketchbook for a really long time will have been attempted.
Last week, after flying to Denver, I drove to Golden, Colorado, where I attended Art Biz Makeover by Alyson Stanfield. About 80 or so artists attended, so there was lots of creative energy. Plus, it was nice to see faces in person that I’ve only seen online and get to visit with new faces. I stayed at Table Mountain Inn, where the event was being held. I don’t know if Table Mountain is considered a boutique hotel because I’m not sure about the definition of a boutique hotel. Whatever category it is, it’s a nice hotel.
Table Mountain Inn
Unfortunately, I did not see much of Golden, but on my last morning I took a short walk before heading back to Denver. I’m sorry I didn’t get to drive into the mountains or walk along the stream because the pictures look beautiful.
Wait for seating on these ski benches outside pizza place.
Shop window. Love those fishes!
A single fish
Quilt museum
Since I posted last week about the show I’m not going to in Atlanta, I feel better about my decision.
It’s all about that trusting your gut thing. Several people have contacted me, some who have actually lived in Atlanta, and told me I made the right decision. So, on to new things!
After a few days of travel, I am going to come back home and do a couple of small weavings on the big loom. Although I am much happier weaving on the Mirrix, I still just enjoy the big loom better. I think it’s the rhythm I get into there, and that might come on a small loom too, given more practice.
So, what’s on tap next? I’m going to weave two-at-a-time faces. They may not be successful at the sett I use normally, but I can certainly stop and move on to something else. The other studio task ahead is how to mount a small piece more successfully, namely the weather pieces. I am definitely not happy with the presentation below.
Side view of gallery wrapped canvas with fabric stapled on to it. West Texas Snowfall sewn onto the fabric.
In Kirsten Glasbrook’s book, she shows how she finishes and mounts shaped pieces by sewing the piece onto a piece of linen, and then stretches the combined linen and tapestry over a piece of block board. I had never heard of blockboard, so had to look it up–here’s a page with pics and definitions. I think I’ll try a thin piece of plywood. Masonite might work, but it’s a dark color. Don’t know about that.
Decisions! They always have to be made, no getting around it. We’ve all heard the saying that by not making a decision, we’re making a decision. I had to make a tough one this week. Not life or death, but hard for me to do. I was accepted into the American Craft Council show in Atlanta. What a debate I had with myself!
Cons
Pros
But what really made the final decision for me, after talking to a couple of artists from the 2014 show, I just didn’t think Atlanta was the best venue for my work. I could have swallowed all those cons if I thought the venue was a good one for my work. There’s still a smidgen of regret, but mostly I’m okay with the decision.
it’s is really embarrassing, but this book has been on my shelf for a while, and I haven’t looked at it. Actually probably not on the shelf for too long because I just organized my books. But still, it’s been in my house. It’s a beautiful book with some gorgeous pictures in it! There’s a bit of instruction, definitions of terms, etc, alternative materials, but one of the things I like is that the captions under the pictures give the epi of the piece. Why that matters to me I don’t know, but it does. Maybe because I weave at 4 epi, so it’s nice to see what other setts enable one to do. Anyway, check out Tapestry Weaving by Joanne Soroka. There’s a lot of eye candy!
By the way, when I went to Amazon to get a link for the book, they kindly told my that I “purchased this item on May 15, 2012.” So, yes, it has been in my house for a while.
mirrix
Mirrix with warp
My Mirrix is out again, after a long hibernation. I have decided to conquer this. Others rave about their small Mirrix looms, so I know it’s just me. Practice, practice, practice! I have looked at various sources for information. Of course, Mirrix has a great little PDF booklet about warping your loom. They also have a really good video. But here’s the problem–even though I knew exactly where my loom was, some of it’s vital parts were missing, things like the warping bar and the spring that spaces the warp. Luckily, I had ordered a bottom spring set, so one of those went to the top. Then I looked at alternate ways to warp, something that did not require the warp bar. Kathe Todd-Hooker has written a blog post about warping the Mirrix her way–and that’s what I did. I also ordered the parts that I need for my loom.
Now, what to weave. I have lots of ideas for small pieces, at least I did before I warped up. I’m sure they will come to me. There may even be a list somewhere,
