Sherri Woodard Coffey

The picture above comes from a NY Times article. I wish I could see the actual book, but I probably won’t have that opportunity. It’s an expensive set of books to buy without the advantage of seeing it first, although you can leaf through it here on the publisher’s website. I seem to have developed an interest in geometry, something that never took during high school. Euclid geometry seems so much more doable when in primary colors!

Which reminds me, I still need to get to the Amon Carter Museum to see a couple of exhibits, one of which is illustrated below. Guess I still have a couple of weeks…

Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s–50s

Featuring approximately eighty seldom-seen paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, drawings, and films, this exhibition juxtaposes the work from artists of the Americas, providing a fresh and innovative look at this dynamic and cosmopolitan period of modernism.

  Esphyr Slobodkina (1908–2002)
Small Abstraction in Tans, 1940
Oil on Masonite
© Slobodkina Foundation
Newark Museum, Gift of Jerry Leiber
Constructive 10

Now, for true whimsy, check out this article in US Today. They’ve found the best truck stops across the country. Instead of following old Route 66, just get a map and journey to the ten best stops and see what you see along the way!

Books-For those of you who love books (as I do), I ran across this blog about books. It looks promising, and I’ve bookmarked it for weekly reading for a while.

I am so glad that I went to the library before I got sick. My days have been like this: read, sleep, read, sleep, repeat as needed. As much as I like to read, this has become really boring! I always wonder if viruses hit us just to make us slow down and rest. Well, I’m rested, although stamina is not up to snuff yet. And it’s still hot outside. I considered taking a little drive to a small town I like and taking pictures yesterday, then I remembered: It’s still hot outside. We had one 96° day , but the over 100° days are back.

Been doing a little research for a couple of commissions coming up, but nothing heavy-duty. Don’t want to strain myself, you know! So, what you think about purple zebras?

I saw this posted from HandEye magazine blog, but have not done more than glance at it. From there, though, one can move over to a Turkish culture site, which will deserve much exploration, I think. It seems to have everything from architecture, music, nature, applied arts, to military. Something for another day, when I can stay up longer.

If I can stay away long enough, I plan to work on a design for a commission this afternoon. Hey, at least I made my bed today!

Achy all over, low-grade temp, just feel terrible in general

The last two days have been spent in bed, not warping the loom. When the achy stuff threatened to improve, everything moved to the tummy and involved nausea.

Goals for today:

• Take a shower
• Try to get a halfway decent meal down
• Be well!

The top two pictures are pieces that are based on gradations of color. I’ve been doing some playing with gradations and Color Schemer, using the snip tool to make little pictures of each possibility. The one above is purely gratuitous and does not fit in with the rest, but I like the middle colors. Sometimes the colors achieved in going from one color to the next are not exactly wonderful. Below are some ideas, starting with a pale yellow and moving all the way to the same yellow again. Maybe a total of four pieces? A big dyeing project but doable. I would have liked to put these side by side, but Blogger doesn’t like that, so here they are parading from top to bottom. Is there a favorite?Today is warping day. I am hoping that I can replace the counter that came on the warping wheel with one that I got from Grainger’s. If not, I will have to see if my brain will cooperate and keep up with the revolutions of the wheel. I couldn’t seem to keep up with the revolutions of the warp beam, which was the whole purpose of getting the wheel. A conundrum!

I may actually finish the ikat piece after about a week of weaving. Not all has gone as planned: warp is scarce, and the last weft color that I intended to use is also scarce. Rather than dye more, I think we’ll just have an asymmetrical piece. I have also made a decision about warp to use. I have several tubes of 12/9 Swedish cotton that I will use double for my usual sett of 4 epi. But by using this double, if I wanted to I could spread it out and weave at 6 or 8 epi. Now I will know if I like using this warp or want to continue to use the 4-ply wool rug warp. Instead of my 35 usual warp, this warp will be about 13 yards.

Now for the tapestry part of this post:

… for the first time since 1983, the Vatican hung the tapestries on the walls of the Sistine Chapel where they are thought to have originally been located

This came via Twitter and @weavespindye. The article can be found here. I am going to have to search for a better picture/s. More information about the tapestries can be found here.

A few weeks (months?) ago I mentioned bridges and how much the lines in them inspire me. Here’s some more pictures that I found thanks to Suzanne Paquette. Here are pictures of the Shanghai Expo, via Boston.com. Notice the woven material that is structure is made of. There are many images with interesting lines here. Love it.

A worker carries a construction material in front of the Spanish Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo site Monday, March 8, 2010 in Shanghai. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Website: http://sherriwoodardcoffey.com
Blog: http://sherriwoodardcoffey.blogspot.com
Twitter page
Facebook page

We get very upset by our modern graffiti, but it hit me one day that it’s been around forever. Think cave men, travelers long ago in a foreign land, etc. The illustrations below are from Wikipedia.

Ancient Pompeii graffito caricature of a politician.

The satirical Alexamenos graffito is believed to be the earliest known representation of Jesus.

In El Morro National Monument, there are over 2000 signatures. Here is a quote:

Paso por aqui . . .A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a sandstone bluff made El Morro (the headland) a popular campsite. Ancestral Puebloans and Spanish and American travelers carved over 2,000 signatures, dates, messages, and petroglyphs for hundreds of years. We invite you to make El Morro a stopping point during your travels.

There are more pictures here. I remember the second time that I traveled to New Mexico and we went to some of the places that are slightly off the beaten path, I was so excited to see both the petroglyphs near Albuquerque and the signatures on the sides of the boulders in El Morro. To think of the people who wrote on these walls and the fact that their writings and drawings are still visible today, is astounding.

Take a look at these huipil purses from Handeye Blog. Aren’t they wonderful? Maybe something to do with your various scraps of handwoven fabric… On these, I love the strings. Here’s a quote about the folks responsible for these beauties.

Their latest Sololá collection celebrates the colorful artistry of Guatemalan weaving and the talents of local artisans with the creation of hand-worked fashion accessories that bridge two worlds.

I have always loved molas from the first time I saw a one. Check them out here at the Textile Museum of Canada. 

I’m trying out the new camera, hoping I can learn all its bells and whistles as I go on a need-to-know basis. Below is the vase picture taken with the old point and shoot camera, which I wrote about earlier. Below is the picture taken with the new Nikon dSLR camera. I should have looked at the original photo and tried to recreate the exact picture by filling the frame, but I was so thrilled with actually seeing all of the colors, I went straight to the computer!

This is what Amy said:

I have just finished one of the 2 little cell phone bags I am making for my daughter and my hairdresser to donate to their Breast Cancer 3 day walk auctions. There are a lot of hours put into this one but I do love the Mirrix. Part of why I like it is because I can carry it from room to room or elsewhere. I have a hard time sitting in one room for long hours. I need a change of scenery quite often.

Reading about how Amy likes a change of scenery makes me think of the new contest that Mirrix is having. Read about it below from their Facebook page.

Mirrix Tapestry and Bead Looms Claudia’s Birthday Month Contest! Ends August 30th, 2010. “My Mirrix’s Day Out. A Contest.” One of the great things about the Mirrix family of looms is their portability. Even our biggest looms can be picked up and thrown in the back of the station wagon.

Mirrix Tapestry and Bead Looms The smaller looms were designed to be so portable that no one would think twice about taking their Mirrix to the beach or a soccer game or that workshop across the country. We want to know where you’ve taken YOUR Mirrix.

Mirrix Tapestry and Bead Looms Take a picture of your Mirrix somewhere fun and exciting (on top of a mountain, on a sailboat, at the top of a famous landmark, at work… you get the picture) and email us that picture with a short description of the location. We will choose one winner and put all our contestants pictures in an online gallery.

Mirrix Tapestry and Bead Looms The winner will receive:-Everything to make a beautiful bead cuff bracelet-Ten small but beautiful skeins of Claudia’s own and-washed, hand-dyed, hand-spun tapestry yarn. -Two inspiring books: “The Sea” and “Myths and Folktales” (Check out our store for more information on these fantastic books.)-15% off your next order of $100 or more (you will receive a special code)

The Cube

You may remember my attempts at weaving a box. I am embarrassed to show this, but it’s finished. I promised warts and all! It’s very lopsided. Below are some while-in-progress pictures in which I tried out various line techniques.

What to do differently:

1. Have a template of the square
2. Know in advance how the edges will be stitched together

Possibilities

1. Weave in silk or mercerized cotton
2. Line box
3. Plan for a lid and fastener

I have missed my loom. Much time has been spent on other things lately. One of those “things” involved preparing ikat. As I have said before, with ikat the prep goes into the front end and the weaving goes faster than with tapestry. Then, after tying the warp to the front, I realized that there’s really not much warp left of that 33 yard warp that I had put on previously. I took one of the extra warp threads that was hanging past the width of the current piece and unwound it from the warp beam. Hmmm…only 4 yards. Guess this will be last piece until I re-warp! I also made a few adjustments to the design, just in case I made another miscalculation. I thought I was very carefully entering in the amount of warp used, but evidently that didn’t happen every single time I completed a project. As the say, live and learn. I may put on a warp piece by piece until I decide for sure what I want to do about warping. I have been using a 4-ply smooth wool warp that I like, but it limits me to 4 epi. I have been considering using a 9-ply Swedish cotton warp set a little closer, but that may mean a change of weft. Always decisions!

In the picture above you can see what’s on the loom. I wanted these ikat ovals to have contrast, but not too much. As I weave, I can see how this is a possible problem. It’s hard to keep up with where the design is. I overdyed the red sections again because there was more contrast than I wanted. Will that now be a problem in weaving? Stay tuned.

At Convergence I took an all day workshop presented by Gregory Case. This is going to seem so dumb, but I found out on my little point and shoot camera that there is a place to change the exposure! Duh! So, while I plan to get a new and better camera soon, I am playing with exposure. That little graph-looking thing—well, you can look at that and know whether to adjust the exposure or not. A couple of other things about taking pictures are the issues with color and color calibration of the monitor. More on that later, but we all know how important color is to us!