Sherri Woodard Coffey

I began my summer exercise program today, which consists of mowing at least once a week. Under normal conditions, it takes at least an hour to mow both front and back. One time I used a pedometer to count steps, or miles, but no longer remember the numbers.

For some reason the henbit is having a glorious season this year. Now, henbit is kind of attractive when it’s out in a pasture, and it looks like a wave of lavender. But when I have to walk through a crop that’s 18 inches to get from one place to another—forget it! It holds moisture and I get wet.

Every year, I am always surprised when I come across this little patch of muscari hyacinths. I didn’t plant them. They have bloomed every year since this house was put here, and every year, I wonder where they came from. And, yes, I do know about birds!

Something else that suddenly cropped up a few years ago is hairy vetch. This is a good plant in that it is a legume and enriches the soil. But it clings to everything, and I would be happy to let it go somewhere else.

Maybe you can tell from this post that yards with perfectly manicured lawns are not really important to me. In fact, I mostly think that they are a huge waste of resources. If I could, I’d plant a prairie of native grasses and wildflowers.

For another kind of plant harvest, go here. You can read about the willow harvest of Donna Kallner. Look at the sorting process here. Here is a portfolio of Donna’s work.

I will be weighing some skeins of yarn tonight while vegetating in front of the TV. I hope to mordant tomorrow and do some natural dyes. I have been inspired to do this again, after a long hiatus. There’s a big container of handspun and other “specialty” yarns that will be used for this project.

The vegetables are planted, except for the blackeyes, which require MUCH warmer weather. The henbit in the backyard needs mowing. The madder is coming back. One asparagus shoot has been discovered. Guess it’s spring. Yeehaw! I’ll be glad when it gets warm enough that I can start complaining about the heat! That’ll be when it stays at 102 for several days. The picture above has nothing to do with anything, just flowers because it’s spring.

I’m taking a sort of break from weaving so that I can get caught up on other things—like getting the plumber out, yard work, etc.

I went to a Redenta’s, a local garden store yesterday and found something I would really like to have. Not sure I can explain it, but it was made of willow, with crosspieces, designed so that it can expand or collapse, about 4 feet tall, to be used for vines. They told me it was willow, but the color was kind of coppery. Wonder if my plum thicket trimmings can become useful like that? The one in the picture above came from Gardener’s Supply. Any gardening going on out there?

If you’re going to be doing any traveling and like to find art stuff along the way, you might try The Arts Map. Or just look and see what’s listed in your local area. Here’s their Facebook link.

Here’s the current work as of March 24. I wanted to get a picture before the green went around the bend, so to speak. In the enlarged version, you may be able to discern a row of knots in the green section. Since this piece is fairly small (30 inches), I decided to hem it. The knots mark the line for turning up the hem. Below the real picture is the computer-generated drawing of what the design should look like. As you can see, I am working from top to bottom this time. You may also realize that I decided against doing these in weft-faced ikat. I wanted to get to work weaving right away, not wrap ikat first.  Below is a picture I saw that appealed to me—totally gratuitous—just like the picture.

On the drive to Johnson City, I saw my first wildflowers of the year! Very exciting after the winter we’ve had this year.

From the Wildseed web page, depicting what most of us call Indian Paintbrush.

Many years ago I went to a conference of the Florida Tropical Weavers Guild. I think I will forever have the picture in my mind of students in John Marshall’s class standing on chairs to dip their large pieces of fabric in a garbage can indigo vat. Later all of their wonderful variety of pieces were hanging on a line under the trees to dry. It really was a wonderful sight!

On Monday, I had the opportunity to take a one-day pigment workshop with John Marshall, and it was also a wonderful day. John is very generous with his knowledge and a very well-organized instructor. Most of us are probably familiar with his work, but here’s the gallery for his art. I only took these two pictures of the many pieces that he brought to show. Please click on the picture for a better look at the work.

We learned how to make soy milk, rice paste resist, and pigments. He explained about the way soy milk works to bind the color to the fiber. He is such a practical man, giving us pointers on what to do with the leftover soy beans, where to find materials more inexpensively, recommending feed stores and garden shops where appropriate. He also has many products on his website, which is especially helpful for hard-to-find items. And if he can’t get them cheaper, he has links to where items may be purchased. Here is his pigment page.

So that we could get started quickly on the process, we had two previously prepared pieces to work with: one for use with pigments and soy milk, the other for use in the indigo vat.

The piece at the top is in the process of being “painted” with pigments. The newspaper is to catch anything that bleeds through the fabric, shown at the bottom of the picture.

 

Pigment-painted pieces are hanging to dry.

The next pictures are of the indigo vat. We used instant indigo for our work.

Thanks to Deb McClintock for organizing this workshop! She did a great job of putting everything together and is an inspiration herself.

Maybe I have a fixation for butterflies. Hmmm….You may remember the butterfly jar from several weeks ago. Actually, there are were two jars AND a basket full of these butterflies.

My friend Pat makes masks by weaving on a small loom and then embellishing them with buttons and/or whatever other found objects she has on hand. She is absolutely one of the most creative people I have ever met. I think Pat could find multiple uses for just about anything you handed her!

Ziti Mask, Pat Souder

A couple of weeks ago I gave Pat some of my butterflies for her to try out. She really liked the way the wool wove up, so today she came out and we sorted through butterflies. She ended up taking five pounds of yarn wound into butterflies! Who knew there were 5 pounds in those various containers? I have to admit, I felt a little sad to see them go. Silly, but I did.

Below you can see them spread out on the table, roughly in color groups.Here are some of her masks, still unfinished. The first one is the one she wove of my hand-dyed wool yarns. It’s not finished yet, and no, I don’t know how she does the shaping, but I do know it will turn out to be a beautiful, interesting mask.Below are more of Pat’s masks. She has been experimenting with many different types of yarn.

None of them are finished. It takes as long for the finishing as it does for the weaving. That’s probably the case for all weaving products.

I love the bottom one with the pink hair, although pink is my least favorite color!

Here’s Pat’s contact information: psouder@alterity.com.

Slideshow of the grand re-opening of Weaving Southwest here. I wish I could have been there. It looked like a “grand” party and a “grand” space.

That’s what they’re talking about on the news around here. I can’t wait to go outside to cover my newly planted garden in this cold, windy, rainy day-Ha! I hear, that as winters go, we are number four in the nation’s list of worst winters. That means a winter in which the deviation from the norm is so great. The cities are:

1. Miami
2. New York
3. Washington D.C.
4. Dallas/Fort Worth

This will be another day of weaving with a warm fire going in the snow. After all, I did go out in my babushka and gather twigs so that I can start a fire with ease. Every time I do that, I picture those old black and white documentaries depicting women foraging in the desolate countryside for anything to help their families survive. As you can see from the firewood pictures, I have used a lot of wood this year.

I am ready to start a new project. I had thought that I would do an ikat piece first, but have changed my mind. ‘Twill be another tapestry.

Path to the Sun, Wall Gallery

This should have been finished at least two weeks ago, but here it is, warts and all. I’m going to tie the warp back on so that I can be ready for the next project, whatever it might be.

Ancient Symbols II, wool tapestry, 22″ x 3752.5″

Ancient Symbols, wool tapestry, 22″ x 46.5″

I’m thinking ikat, at the moment, the same approximate size as this one. I’m continuing with the crosses from the previous pieces, except with weft-faced ikat.

Later, I have some zigzag designs and/or some designs incorporating squares. Zigzags will probably win out.

I’ve decided to play with design elements until the well runs dry—either permanently or temporarily.

If you do an image search for St. Patrick’s Day, you will find several for Google. Above is the one that is being used for this year, so it occurs to me that there must be a lot of pressure to design a new and unique one for every year. As weavers, we know that there’s really nothing new under the sun and, most likely, nothing that hasn’t been done before. But it’s still fun to try, right?

As I worked outside on Saturday, I was surprised that I actually got too warm in my long-sleeved shirt with a tee over it. Wow! it’s been a long time since that happened.

I planted my one of my garden beds—the other one is still just a vision in my head. Many years ago, I had a really big garden every year, and either canned or froze the extra veggies. The former garden area has become overrun with weeds, so this is an experiment this year with weed-control cloth. And when we get our dog days of summer, we’ll see how much I still care about gardening. That’s the time when it’s hard to keep everything watered, and the squash bugs breed like crazy. The paths in between the beds are to be 12-inch pavers, another grand experiment. I think I will use extra cinder blocks to make anther bed eventually.

Weaving still continues on the same piece. At least I only have about 9 inches to go, so there’s hope that it will eventually cut off the loom.