Blog - Page 25 of 100 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

The old fashioned way

The days are busy. After a period of much inactivity, I’m back on track. As much as I try, I can’t always figure out why that happens. Sometimes it’s obvious, others not. The warp is measured to go on the Baby Wolf for a series of small pieces or experimentation. I’m still trying to decide on the next big piece, but the choices are getting fewer.

To do the warp, I hauled out the warping reel, something I haven’t used in ages, wondering if I even remember how to use it. It really doesn’t matter very much if I do make mistakes. The warp is narrow, 8 epi. The reel had lots of webs all over it. Dragged out the card table too. Now to take that warp off, and load the loom.

As an aside, I started to say drug out the card table (instead of dragged), which prompted me to look it up. Isn’t it amazing what information is out there for us to find? Anyway, turns out that drug is not really wrong; it’s dialect. But more formally, one would say dragged. A couple of good sites: Grammar Girl and Grammarist.

What’s going on

The stove has been working over time in the studio

Yes, it was 29° here yesterday. Yes, I did some dyeing. Yes, my brain must have been frozen because I really messed up this session. Instead of the sort of ochre color I was aiming for, I weighed my dyes without changing the weights back on my scale. That means instead of putting in, say 1 gram of magenta, I put in 11

Mustard and magenta yarns

grams. Not really a disaster, but I needed the ochre color. So, to try and spread the dye love, I added two skeins that were already dyed mustard. I can’t tell that it made much of a difference.

The two on right were mustard

So now I will rethink my plan for the next weaving. At least I tied on the warp and am ready to go, and I got out the small loom to prepare for warping. I made a spreadsheet for the warp calculations–I was probably trying to delay the warping, but it does come in handy, and I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

As I was looking a photos of the yarns I found another one that I took on the day of the natural dyeing program. It is of the wall in the restaurant where we went to lunch. I love the patterns and texture of this wall. What do you take pictures of? Patterns? Colors? All of the above?

If the ice on the streets disappears, I will go out and get a saw and miter board. An experiment to see if I can make better cuts.

Piddling

Seems that it’s almost impossible to get focused right now. I think part of the problem is that I’m trying to find a direction that I want to take next. Maybe some really small things? I may attempt that, but it means finally getting the small loom set up. One glance in that direction, and I walk off, although it would be really good to do, if only because it has a raddle. I’ve never used one before.

In the meantime…it’s winter again. My new-found embrace-the-weather attitude is being tested. So what do you do on a cold winter day? I played with apps. One it called Waterlogue. You can take one of your photos and the app will turn it into a “watercolor.”

I also was the program for a really nice group of garden club ladies. They asked me to do a program on natural dyeing, since, after all, they are gardeners. I got out the projector to make sure everything worked, when I discover that I have no way to connect the projector to my current compute

Rescued!

r! Yikes! I got changed for a trip to town, when I thought about my accordion folder for all things computer, including printer info, etc. Now I’m not usually so organized, but this time I was. In one of the pockets were several wrapped items, and lucky day! One was a dongle. Rescued!

More about focus later. One day it’s there, next day it’s gone.

Winter treats

Meyer Lemon blossom

Meyer lemon

Not being from California, Florida, or even south Texas, I had no idea how wonderful fruit tree blossoms could smell. Since I am now the proud owner of a Meyer lemon tree, I now have some first-hand experience. The tree is now in the hallway, so every time I walk there, I get that marvelous scent! Makes me smile! Frankly, I know nothing about having fruit trees inside, except that I know it’s done. And I know even less about Meyer Lemons, but it WAS a special price. 🙂 🙂

Another treat for the winter doldrums: fresh flowers. My daughter gave me a gift card to Central Market, which I save just for flowers. These Gerbera Daisies were everywhere yesterday, in many beautiful colors.

You can see from these pictures that I’ve got a red thing going on. What about you? What color draws you in?

Mid-week musing

Yes, this is still what’s going on around here. Stoke the fire, weave, walk around for a few minutes, weave, stoke the fire….. I’m actually using a timer and trying to walk around a bit every 30 minutes. The design was changed fairly drastically, and when it comes off the loom, I’ll know whether that was a good idea or not. I do think the selvedges are getting better with this weft-faced ikat, so that’s an improvement. I am taking careful notes, including information about the dyeing.

In the meantime, I’m getting antsy to weave something with a bit of tapestry and lots of color. Have several ideas, and therein lies (is that the correct form? I always get those mixed up.) the problem. So many ideas, so little time. Does this happen to everyone? More ideas than you know what to do with?

Treating myself

Artistic endeavor???

This week has been really big week for me so far. Not only am I having lunch out with friends twice–yes, two times!–my first workshop in the new studio space at the Kimbell was on Wednesday. What fun! As usual, the docents took us in small groups to view selected pieces, pointing out special details that they wanted us to notice and giving us information that we might not know about the artist or the work. All of the work that we viewed were in the exhibit Picasso and Matisse, and all related to collage. The works were not actual collages, but looked like a collage, probably having been constructed as an actual collage and then painted. Then we returned to the studio, which is absolutely marvelous. There are three studios, each with built in cabinets designed by the education director to include amenities that have been needed. Before, there was not even one room for studio creating. All was done at tables in the lobby as patrons walked by.

There were painted canvasses of various colors, but of course, I chose red. There were many interesting papers to choose from, stencils, and paints. What I found most interesting was that I started out with an idea that morphed into another idea entirely. I’m pretty happy with my work of “art.” And it was fun.

What does that tell me? Probably that I need to get out more, but also that playing around with new forms of art is good for the soul, that I need to do more experimenting with art at home, and let myself play without that critical voice saying a darn thing! Try something new!

Museum visit

Instagram picture from the back of statue at Kimbell

As a reward for all the experimenting with food and ikat I’ve been doing, I took myself out on a date to the Kimbell Art Museum, where there’s an exhibition from the Chicago Art Institute. It’s called The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from The Art Institute of Chicago. This exhibit covers a span of time from 1903 almost to World War II. As you can imagine, a great deal of different art categories are included in this span, from Picasso’s blue period to surrealism from Dalí. There were several paintings that stood out for me, but since the collection does not belong to the Kimbell, no pictures allowed. Instead, I have

Looking at tree trunks and shadows

trees from the courtyard and some links. One of my favorites was Spanish Dancer by Nathalija Gontcharova, although I thought the painting depicted a bride until I saw the title. The lace in this painting is beautiful. Are you ever amazed by how painters can paint with the shadows and lights of something like lace? Reminiscence of a Cathedral by Frantisek Kupka is also interesting. I’m not sure this was the intent of the artist, but to me it looks like a church tower with the stained glass on outside. An offshoot of Cubism, Orphism? I still don’t understand, except for the most part I’m not fond of Cubism. Or Surrealism as depicted by Dalí. But I do enjoy Miró–go figure! Klee’s Dancing Girl (1940) and Sunset (1930). Music was inspiration for many of these painters, but from what I’ve read, not just an appreciation but a knowledge of musical composition–something way beyond my understanding. I’m glad that Klee’s sense of humor was mentioned in the description of Dancing Girl, because she certainly looks exuberant to me. His signature at the bottom was made with a monogrammed handkerchief. Fun! And just because I’ve only mentioned a few pieces of the art doesn’t mean there weren’t others. And the color!

Experimenting, part 2

Ikat

Even my weaving is an experiment. I really should be “sampling,” but I just go all out, so weaving is not the refuge that it usually is. I took out all the weaving that I pictured last week and started again. It seems to be going better this time around. I’ve decided I’ll complete the first section and then make a decision—cut off or continue.

Giving up?

I told myself that I would experiment with this for three months, so giving up is not a good option. However, I could go back to only rectangular shapes until I have a better handle on what is measured on the ikat board and what actually weaves up. Hmmm…

What I’ve learned this go-round

Weaving

Woven

Woven

One of the things that I’ve learned is to try to center the next pick with the one before it. That means forgetting those marked warps and trying to weave the design according to those. By centering the wefts in this way, they make the shape they’re supposed to make. On the left is a section woven in this manner. Now, that doesn’t mean they’re as good as I would like, but an improvement over the bottom picture–which I took out.

Dyeing

Trying all of those WashFast colors that I have is another experiment. After my initial disappointment, I’m really liking the colors. I’ll put them all in a pile and take a picture soon. Also need to make sample sheets, since the samples that I received are dyed at different percentages. Above are two yellows. The skeins are WashFast and the ball is the yellow from my usual dyes. The new yellow has a greenish cast, although not as severe as in this picture. Below is an adjusted picture. Not much better after all….just believe me!

Photo adjusted

Ikat Dyeing

More on this later, but experimentation here also. I’m not even dyeing the other tied sections until I decide the fate of this piece.

Experimenting, part 1

Experimenting with one thing after another seems to have taken over my life. They seem to be in these categories: food, weaving, and the to-do list.

Vegan????

I’m experimenting with food in an effort to eat more healthfully, not that it was too un health, but there’s room for improvement. Also, my doctor said that I might consider a vegan diet to help with inflammation—you know, the arthritis thing. I’m investigating veganism, but I’m not sure I could give up cheese and eggs. And that one cup of coffee in my espresso every morning.

New foods

This week I have tried polenta, quinoa, and meatless crumbles. I have to admit, each of those was quite tasty.

I made a pot of pintos with onion and Ro-Tel tomatoes and served it with polenta.
Meatless crumbles
I had the quinoa with stir-fry vegetables (I meant to add some leftover chicken, but forgot). Actually, the only vegetables used were green onions, mushrooms, and snap peas. I think that’s what they are—no peas inside, just the flat pod itself.

Verdict

I actually liked the quinoa. For something so tiny (before cooking, you have to rinse it in a fine sieve), there was a little crunch to it. I’ve heard that the popularity of quinoa here has made it difficult for poor people where it is grown, to afford it now. Of course, there seems to be a difference of opinion even about this.
The polenta was pretty good with the beans, but next time I think I’m going to used coarsely ground cornmeal instead of the instant polenta.
The crumbles were great with a little spaghetti sauce and whatever else you want to add.

I’m not sure I can keep up the pace on trying new things. Maybe just one new thing this week.

Have you tried a new food lately? I’m looking for ideas!

Just because

My Christmas cactus seems to prefer blooming in January. Here’s one of the blooms.

What to do…continue or not?

This is what I’ve been weaving the last few days, off and on. I’m not happy with it, but can’t decide what to do. Cut off? Continue? Unweave and try again? What I may do is weave this half of the first section (up to the top of the lines drawn on the warp) because that will give me another number to develop a formula for MY ikat measuring. The drawing on the right is what this section is supposed to look like. I realize the colors aren’t the same, but obviously, improvement needs to be made, either in the ikat itself or the weaving. So, maybe go back and weave this as tapestry?

Tera Muskrat is a New Mexico artist who paints large pieces inspired by Mexican calendar girls (or New Mexican). I think only certain generations will know about calendar girls, but maybe I’m wrong. For some reason, the name Jane Russell comes to my mind, but maybe I’m wrong about that too. Marilyn Monroe, even not from the 30s, might be another example. They may have also been called pin-up girls. I have to admit that one of my favorites is is a woman holding a Chihuahua against here bosom. I also like Channeling Georgia. Maybe the attraction is the humor in her paintings, I don’t know. I would have bought one, but they are large, and I don’t have a place for a large painting. So, I did the next best thing–I bought her calendar for 2014 on Etsy. I like that it’s in Spanish (I’m really hoping to refurbish my Spanish this year–not using it plays havoc) and has large pictures for each month. The page below is for Octubre. The text along side it is La Viuda, the widow.