Blog - Page 28 of 100 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Arizona

What do you find yourself noticing most when you travel? Guess it depends where you travel to, right? I have just recently returned from Arizona, where I did a big loop around the state. Besides the obvious, mountains, I found myself fascinated with the desert plants.

I found this grouping of magazines interesting in Bookman’s

After taking care of the car rental, I drove to Flagstaff to visit my son and daughter-in-law. On my first morning, I woke up to snow! Yes, snow covered the ground, and it was beautiful, but I’m not a big fan of snow, especially if I might have to get out in it. However the streets were wet, so it was not a problem. It snowed big, wet flakes off and on all of this windy day. Besides the government shut down, we now had weather to affect what we might do. Plus, my concern was getting back over the mountains to other parts of the state.

After Flag, I drove to Tucson. While driving, many more plants got my attention. I knew that I wanted to go to Bisbee and Tombstone, so that came next. Then I worked on the plants. Of course, the Saguaro National Park was closed, but Tucson does have the Sonora Desert Museum nearby where many of the plants are identified. They also have an art institute there with lovely art by local artists, plus many pages of government drawings and informational pages that were done by government scientist in the early 1900s.

I did absolutely nothing yarn or weaving related in the usual sense. However, I did take pictures of native pottery in the Museum of Northern Arizona, where I made my suitcase much heavier with the purchase of a large book on horse masks. I also took lots of pictures of plants that I found interesting. I think those will end up in some weaving at some point, not as a pictorial piece, but in some abstract way.

Bisbee with its buildings on the sides of hills

Those will come later–I’m still mulling those over. In the meantime, here are some typical tourist photos.

Wall in Bisbee

Love this–Sweet Sin

Spooky eyes in the second floor windows

Tombstone–where else?

1000 steps–no I didn’t climb up

What’s on the loom (almost)

It’s been an interesting week in a sort of bad way. I went in for a crown on Monday, the dentist discovered another broken tooth, then a trip to the oral surgeon on Wednesday. Oh well, at least the directions say to do no strenuous exercise for a few days. Wonder if that includes mowing?

Squirrel cage with yarn on board. Yes, it’s a bad picture. The white sections top and bottom are because I straightened the picture.

Weaving is not too strenuous, and that’s what I want to do anyway. Above is my ikat weft on the shuttle ready to go. It’s interesting how these wefts look like absolutely nothing until the weaving begins. This particular warp had to be redone several times to get the width correct. It’s ready to go now–the first color before the above section has been balled up, ready to go on the bobbins. I am reminded again how much I like my squirrel cage from Hockett Would Work. The shuttle above is also one of his, which you can see better here. You can see a picture of his squirrel cages here. They are on the right at the back wall. I may have to check out the foot-powered skein winder next.

Busy, busy

Color aid papers

Illusion

The latest piece was cut off the loom yesterday and I plan to start the finishing of warp ends today or tonight. Force myself. I have started a series of yoga classes and hurt my back last week. I have no idea what I did to cause that because nothing hurt or felt bad during class. Plus, I seldom have back issues. Today, on the way home, I had a long list of errands to do. That idea was scrapped quickly. I was trying to do these things during the lunch hour– on a FRIDAY! Fridays are always crazy. What was I thinking!

This afternoon I plan to play around with color, since that was successful for me before. Gettin’ out those Color-aid papers. Who knows? I may even cut them! Above is the finished result. When I look at this photo, though, I realize all over again that I need to get to the photographer. Or get some lights. Or something…

White pens

How do you do design work? I use several ways, but mostly a sketch and if I like that, I go to graph paper, and in the last year or so I have then been scanning the graph paper drawing and playing around with color in Photoshop. Sometimes though, through all of that drawing on graph paper, I might ink it in and realize that the scale is off or a motif is in the wrong place. That’s when I want a white pen. It’s easier to get those stray marks out of the way before going into Photoshop, at least for me. Maybe my fine motor mouse skills are just not very good. So, Monday I went to our locally owned art store and checked out the white pens. And, boy, are there a lot of them since I last looked. A few years ago, the only thing I could fine was a really big one, maybe to use for your graffiti or something. I bought a couple of fine point Sharpies and two different brands with medium point. I really like the fine point pens, all of them. The only pen that I didn’t like is the very last one on this list. It has two different “brushes.”

So, back to designing—those who do designing—how do you do it? I’d really like to know.

Playing around in Photoshop

Puppet warp. Never heard of it. Until I saw something about puppet warp on Lynda.com’s Facebook page. Hmmm, sounded interesting, and I really wondered if it was available to me because I had never seen it. Well, it’s there, but missed it. There’s a little video explaining how to improve a photo, in this case, remove those love handles. I’ve been experimenting with variations on a line (see the result of the drawing on the right here), and had something I kind of liked with circles made of dotted lines. I decided to use this drawing and play with this. The first step is to “lasso” it. Then you make another layer and go to puppet warp. It makes all those little triangles all over the design. You then put in some dots that are going to be the places where you drag to change the design. From there you push and shove and play around with those dots until you finally think you’re done. When you go to “save as,” you are asked if you want to apply the changes. Below is my final result, not great, but there are possibilities. From what I can tell, not being much of a really good user of Photoshop, the puppet warp gives you more places to make changes than does “free transform.” Fun stuff to think about, though.

Towels

The Fort Worth Weavers Guild show is hanging, as mentioned before. Several items caught my immediate attention, but alas, they already had red dots and were sold. These towels were already sold, but there were more at home. Yippee! These and the next two pictures

show towels woven by Margaret Humphries.

Both sets of towels are part of her drink series, as in Tequila Sunrise series and Margarita series.

I love handwoven towels and use them daily, but I also buy them for gifts. Those of us who use them, like to think and acknowledge the weaver each time we use them. It’s nice to have Margaret in the kitchen with me–and many other weaver friends.

Below are three towels that I picked up at the guild sale.

This picture really does not do them justice, because the weave structure is not very visible. Click on the picture to really see how beautiful they are. These towels were woven by friends Lynn Smetko and Nancy Berger. As for Margaret’s towels–I bought the ones on the right in each picture. And they’re gorgeous! Just like the others.

Inspiration

The Fort Worth Weavers Guild biennial show is hanging now at the Fort Worth Community Center. For Fall Gallery Night, the crowds fill the halls and galleries, looking at the art and participating in the various food (and drink) offerings for opening receptions. There were many beautiful and interesting works to see, and I got a nice surprise. First, I should explain that in all the guild shows until the last one, there was no judge and/or critique. We started having a judge with the last show, with an emphasis on the critique part. No prizes. I had actually forgotten about the judging, and was very pleased to find that both of my pieces had wonderful handwoven ribbons hanging next to them. The theme for the show is In the Eye of the Beholder. Everyone was expected to turn in an inspiration photo when their work was delivered. Many times the pieces were made, and then there was a desperate search for “inspiration.” This time I was able to follow the directions exactly. Both of my pieces had inspiration.

For “The Zebra in My Head,” I used a really bad picture I took at the zoo. “Zebra” received the HGA award. The other piece, “Headin’ Home” was inspired by all the times I have seen birds either flying out in the morning or heading home to their roosting spot in the evening. By the way, this design is the result of an online class Working in a Series that I took with Lisa Call. I was thinking about the many variations of a line that might be possible, thinking dotted line, and so evolved this design. In fact, I don’t think I’m through with this idea. For the guild show, no work could be larger than 1440 sq in–an unusual parameter for me.

I think about inspiration a lot. Sometimes inspiration comes from a picture, or colors in a painting, a feeling, etc. For me, sometimes inspiration is as mundane as a desire to experiment with a technique. More on that later.

By the way, for a really beautiful tapestry with birds flying, look at the American Tapestry Alliance’s website. There’s a piece by Evelyn Campbell, who won the ATA Award for Excellence in Tapestry. Beautiful!

What’s your inspiration? Or an artist that you admire. What was the inspiration? How was it translated into art?

Lessons

You know that old rock and roll song, There’s a Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On? Unlike Jerry Lee Lewis, I need more than one take to get it right. Around here, it’s been a whole lotta learning going on. By the way, the link above takes you to an NPR program, and a really clear recording of the song. Get your energy level up!

While weaving the last piece, my beating seemed to be a bit off, like maybe 1/4 inch from one side to the other. I looked at the notches where the beater hangs and all seemed fine and good, both sides in the seemed to be in the same notch. So, I got out some string and attached to pieces diagonally in the frame. I made sure to mark exactly in equal places on both strings. When I untaped them and compared, they were exactly alike. This was very puzzling, but then I looked at the notches for the beater bar from the side. This is what I found. You may be able to tell that the bar is not actually resting in a notch, but behind the notches. This is what it should look like.

In my ikat world, I am doing some cross shapes in varying shades of rust to be over-dyed. After making the cartoon, I remembered that I am measuring this in what will be 1/2 inches of weaving. Therefore, all the vertical elements of the design needed to be stretched. Added to the cartoon. Then I ran out of one of the rusts that I was going to use. I had some samples of rust that were exactly what I wanted. These are baby skeins that I had experimented with several years ago. This photo doesn’t do the colors justice. Anyway, I dyed some skeins in the same formula. Believe it or not, both photos are of the same yarns. You can see the tied part. Next to it is the skein that should match the left skein in the sample. So lots more dyeing had to be done. I think I’ve got it now, and have decided that I don’t care if I don’t. So there!

Who do you admire?

Who are the people you admire? What’s the first name that pops up?

I haven’t thought about this in a long time, but today I was listening to a recording about creative blocks. One suggestion, before getting to the actual blocks, was to be clear on what your idea of success is for you. Who are the people you admire? Used to be, that when I was asked that question, my immediate response was Margaret Mead. I’m not even sure how I knew of Mead, except that I have a vague adolescent remembrance of reading something about her or by her in a magazine. Later, I could even tell you what I admired about her, even though I didn’t actually know if it was true. I admired her independence, or what I perceived as her independence.

Back to the recording–I have now added Georgia O’Keeffe to my very short list, and again, I think it is because of her independence. And again, I’m really not sure how independent she really was. To me, living in New Mexico the way she did, away from everything, persuing her art, seems independent, even though we know she had relationships and people visiting her in the desert.

Fact of the matter is that I really know practically nothing about either of these women. Maybe it’s time to change that–read a biography, watch a movie. I’ve put on my wishlist a DVD from Amazon about Georgia.

Who do you admire? I don’t know what it means that the first names that pop into my head are dead, but so it is.

Links:

A series of unfortunate events

The colors of the piece that needs its finish work finished. 😉

Friday did not go as planned. Nor did Saturday. The plan had been to finish the finish work, take a picture, and plan for September. Instead, events went differently than planned, starting on Friday, and ending (I hope) Saturday afternoon.

My car is a 2006 Prius, which I love. There have been absolutely no problems (knock on wood!), even though it’s got somewhere around 130,000 miles. It’s been to NM several times, and lots of other places. And now for the saga….

Friday, after leaving a yoga class, the car showed an unusual display, but I thought that I had not done my usual whatever-it-is-that-I-do before starting the car. Move forward to afternoon…I take my mother to the doctor, we go back to her house, I work on her computer issues for a while, go outside to leave, and I can’t get into the car. I thought it was just my key fob needing a battery, so I called the Toyota folks, they directed me to remove the emergency key and unlock the door with it. When I started the car, I got that same strange message from the morning, so I called the service department again. They told me that the message sometimes comes on when the battery goes out and that I should get a jump charge. Jump start? That is the first time I had heard of a second battery! A starting battery! After the jump, I was able to drive home. I backed the car into my carport, you know, just in case. Yep, next morning it was even deader than the day before. My driveway is almost invisible from the street, a kind of country narrow gravel kind of thing, with trees on both sides. Two service tow trunks later, my car was jumped and on the truck to get its new battery. An expensive weekend, but if you amortize the expense over the 7 years of life the battery gave me, not very expensive at all.

Sunday was then devoted to the finishing, steaming, photographing, planning for the next week, and NOT going to the movie at the Modern Art Museum. Oh, and laundry, the usual housework, etc. I am already behind for September, but hey, I am taking yoga again!