Blog - Page 22 of 100 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Back in the swing of things, sorta

Air walking

Air sitting

I went through pictures from our “vacation.” At the pool, the boys like to create “optical illusions” with their cameras.

The list was made, the week organized…when that happens, you know what happens next. Yep, unplanned events interrupt the carefully planned week. Much on the list remains for next week. I did finish the mowing, picked tomatoes and eggplant in the garden, weeded, and finished what was on the loom. The next project is planned and the yarns labeled for dyeing, along with the dye spreadsheet with formulas. I also did a dye inventory and ordered dyes. What I haven’t done? I have not tackled the envelope of receipts for all the things the boys and I did. I think there is an element of denial working here. Nor did I start cutting the brush on the south. Next week.

Close-up

Spotted rays

We went to the World Aquarium in Dallas (no lost child this time, nor a missed train).

For some reason I noticed patterns on the animals this time. Do you do that? I especially liked the rays, shown swimming in the pool above. It’s not very noticeable in the first picture, but the close-up shot shows how some of the spots are surrounded by spots. Kind of interesting.

Summer

There’s something wrong with this picture. The younger, smaller brother is on the bottom.

A busy time around here, so this post is mostly pictures. I have two boys staying with me until June 27, and you know, it’s easy to forget how much space children take. My grandsons always come for the Posse Rodeo, which is held in June. Every year I ask if they still like going to the rodeo, and they say yes. I keep hoping…

Being a long-distance grandmother, I work hard at doing things with them and exposing to many types of things. Some are just a given every year, some fall out of favor, and things are added. The swim party at my sister’s is one of the givens. When the boys were younger, the older cousins could throw them across the pool. That’s no longer possible, as the older brother is now 13 and 5’10”–hard to believe. Swords

We saw the Samurai exhibit at the Kimbell and a film there about making and using Samurai swords. I’m sure you know what they wanted to do when they got home. We went to the Museum of Science for Reel Adventure and the Indiana Jones exhibit.

My small Indiana Jones

Today I drove them to visit south of here. Seeing the flowers in bloom Liatris was good for the soul. I don’t think I’ve ever seen liatris like this before. Even though we’re in a drought situation, these flowers are really Pasture showing off. I love the pasture of Indian blanket and liatris.

And there is the fairy church–no not a church for fairies, at least I don’t think so.–but for the almost-ghost town of Fairy, Texas.

We’ve also tried out a little spinning (ahem!), they got to do some welding with their grandfather, and a little gardening.

Public art

Last week I went to a presentation about public art hosted by Fort Worth Public Art. Usually I put these kinds of things on my calendar, and then talk myself out of going when the day arrives. In my effort to get to more art activities, I made myself go–yes, MADE myself–and I am so glad I did. The presentation was by a representative of Franz Mayer, a German company that constructs architectural glass and mosaics. A slide show of the many artist-designed projects was inspiring, and the process of creating those large art pieces was interesting. Getting the right colors by combining tiny bits of glass in a mosaic, laminating different kinds of glass for a particular design, painting on glass, airbrush, stained glass, mouth blown glass, you name it, it’s all done. There were brochures with examples of the work. Above is a pic of one of the brochures. I was captivated by this tree, but then I opened the brochure and saw this whole scene from a subway tunnel. All I can say is, “Wow!” Artist Norie Sato was at the presentation and talked a bit about her designs for columns on a new parkway in town. Her work is beautiful and worth a visit to her website.

Another of my new favorite things to do is to use the interlibrary. I recently found out (through the interlibrary) that our local museums all have art libraries that are quite extensive and are available for anyone. This comes in handy when you’re thinking about buying an exhibition catalog or other expensive book. I have wanted to see the catalog Matisse, His Art and His Textiles for a long time, and there it was, just waiting for me to check it out! Artsits-and-textiles

There was also Artists Textiles 1940-1976, so I requested it also. It’s an interested book, with fabrics designed by artists. Some are really ugly, but that’s because they just don’t appeal in this decade. There are just some fashion decades that should be obliterated!

Both of these books have interesting bits, and perhaps even inspiring bits, but I am not going to buy them.

Habits, photography, beaters

My photograph

Habits, photography, beaters–now there’s a combination!

In reference to my post about habits, there is good news. My morning walk has become enjoyable! Instead of keeping my eyes forward to the distance goal for the day, my mind has started wandering, often to design and weaving. Yippee! Years ago, I walked five miles daily. One of the best things about that was going out for my walk with some sort of problem in my head and returning home with the solution.

Professional

This is a picture (left) taken with a good camera, but you can see how dark the picture is at the top, but especially the bottom, which means I need to learn about lighting. As I think about this, the top part is because I was blending yarns from different dye lots. There’s a really bad picture–taken with my phone–on the Habit post. It’s not the phone’s fault that the picture is so bad; it’s that I played around with editing it, and the original disappeared. Monday I got a professional photo made (right). Find differences? What do you think? Better? Not worth it? Chime in.

My new beater from Weaving Southwest arrived, and not a minute too soon. I am experimenting with weaving two small pieces at the same time, and this beater works better for this than the loom’s beater. I love the weight, the length, everything about this beater. The old one is very beat up after being dropped on the floor too many times. I even glued a tine back on, but not successfully.

Do you see things graphically all around you? I do. Things like shadows, lines in a building under construction. Sometimes I detour to take pictures. Yesterday I saw a huge concrete wall being propped up with tall metal rods

Tornadoes Possible West Texas Snowfall

which crisscrossed each other. I loved the pattern, but unfortunately, while driving 65 on a busy highway, stopping for pictures is not possible. These small pieces are based on something I (we) see quite frequently on TV, in the newspaper, in social media, etc. I have no idea if they will be successful or not, but I’m experimenting with the rest of the warp on the loom, before I put a new warp of linen on. What everyday stuff appeals to you graphically? Keep a list and let us know.

Habit

Just off the loom. Colors are way off in this pic, taken with phone.

The real color

It seems as though habit, either good or bad, has been a constantly running theme for me. We all have them; they’re necessary for accomplishing anything. It took me a while to develop my studio habit of working consistently and not getting up and doing something just because it flitted through my monkey brain. Keeping a notepad handy and writing down the thought helped with that. I have read books, listened to books, thought about articles…you know how that goes. Plus, and I’m really excited about this, I am doing the finish work on pieces as soon as they’re cut off. This is a really big change for me–patting myself on the back.

One thing that seems to be consistent with habit change is to identify the cue and to substitute an new activity for the old one. The habit that I am working on now is to walk and work in the yard on a consistent basis. I have been setting the alarm, getting out of bed, getting dressed, and walking out the door every morning. 6:15 and I’m on the street. Every night I ask myself if I really want that alarm to go off so early, but I know that if I miss one day, that will be it. No more walking. I’m such an all or nothing person! So the alarm stays.

Before heading outside, I do allow myself to have my coffee and newspaper after my walk. But the shoes do not come off, because that will mean that I don’t go outside and do whatever Brush-tarp tasks I’ve set for myself. Coming up, my outside chores are to learn how to use a chain saw. The tree branches overhanging the roof have been trimmed, but the wood is too good not to cut up for firewood. To say nothing about how heavy they are to drag anywhere! My makeshift wagon is a tarp, on which I pile the smaller brush and drag to the street for disposal. Why didn’t I think of this years ago!

I first heard about the book, The Power of Habit from Lisa Call. She has some great online workshops. I’ve also done a little Googling about habit:

Power of Habit graphic
Zen Habits
Lifehacker
NPR article–This article took me to another type of change–making decisions quickly. A topic for another day!

Shuttle, Spindle, & Dyepot

Just in case you missed it–and I know it’s of vital importance (ha ha)–here’s a picture of a couple of pages from Shuttle, Spindle, & Dyepot‘s latest issue. I always look forward to seeing the pictures of the many varied works that others are making. Years ago, I was somewhat frustrated with these pages because it was so hard to find the description of the work. The picture would be on one page and the description pages after that. Now it seems to be more organized, at least as far as my brain is concerned.

The magazine can be accessed from HGA’s website, but I think you have to be a member to actually view the magazine. Oh, and by the way, Fort Worth is misspelled.

Gardening

Saturday was the annual Herb Festival, something that I haven’t gone to for the last several years. Other times, it’s been hot, humid, and crowded, so I made sure to get there when they opened the doors. Walking to those doors was a real treat. Yards and yards of petunias. Until this little stroll to the door, I had not idea that petunias had a scent, and a pretty darn nice one too! It was wafting over us as we waited for 9:00.

Walk ing through the door to the sale area, I’m a goner. These baskets are my nemesis! I spotted one right away with perfect colors and a not-so-usual shape. Well, I needed a basket for shopping, didn’t I? Basket

One of the plants I wanted to get is pineapple sage, and a herb festival is certainly the place to find it, plus many others. In the fall, the red blooms from the sage are beautiful and welcoming. At least that is the way I remember them, pulling into my driveway and seeing those plants blooming.

DeBaggio Herbs http://www.debaggioherbs.com/garden.html

Driving home, I realized that I’m going to have to do some reconfiguring. The big galvanized trough is not working for me, probably because I didn’t add “real” soil to the mix. I’ve got one more bed outlined, so I’m going to empty that trough of compost into the new bed. Yes, a lot of work, but no more than hauling all those bags around. When the trough is empty, I can put it up on bricks and refill it.

So, what’s in your garden? What’s on the loom?

Goals

Definite line from the two different dye baths.

Not perfect, but improved

A lot of thinking has been going on in my head the last few weeks, about goals, what I want to do, etc. I know I want to weave and have a decent garden again, including a vegetable garden. Plus, there’s a desire to go to Machu Picchu, a place I’ve always wanted to see. That little item will take some serious getting into shape. Not only is the area challenging because of the trek, but also because of the altitude. Two times I have been in the Andes and both times I got a little tummy problem. The first time I just placed the blame on traveling, but the second time–well, maybe there’s a pattern here. So, this physical readiness becomes a goal. I liked the me that used to walk 5 miles a day, rain, sleet, wind, everything but lightning. So today, I got out and hit the street, then I worked at taming the climbing roses, before moving on to the weaving. The yarns I’m using came from two different dye pots, and there was a definite line in the weaving. So, I took out a few inches, then worked at blending the old color with the new color in that section. Now I’m just hoping I don’t run out of yarn!

Now about the little graphic at the top, yep, it’s the stick to it part that gets dropped. You?

Studio

Loom with baskets to hold yarn on wall.

Yarn, yarn everywhere. The baskets holding yarn are the baskets used at swimming pools to hold your belongings while you’re swimming. The only thing I’ve bought on eBay. Below is the loom facing a different direction, moved with the help of super sliders. Notice all the lights. Still necessary.

I tried wrapping in muslin for a while.

This is how they are wrapped now.

Yarn guardian made by my son.

ArtWalk 2014

Here’s how I spent my time over the weekend. ArtWalk in Fayetteville, Texas.

One of myneighbors was photographer Carol Lyon, who had this little guy in her booth. Meet Yarn Ball, who came home with me. I took this picture with my phone through the cellophane wrapping, so to see a really good picture, got to her website. I am in love with here bird abstracts. Going to have to get one next year. YarnBall

Everything went so smoothly this year that I kept thinking I must have forgotten something. The reason it all was so easy is because of Asana and my list making. Last year I used Asana to make a list of every possible thing I could think of that might be needed. When I got home from the show, I added to or deleted parts of the list. I even included a reminder to myself to make my hotel reservation. And it worked! No reinventing the wheel every year.

I’ve also been using Asana for other projects, like house renovations or garden changes. It’s a way to keep everything together in one place. Love it!