In Celebration of Elvis

No, I’m not going to weave a tapestry of Elvis, but in honor of Elvis Pressley’s birthday today, KLUV will be playing his all of his hits from A-Z.  Maybe it will be possible to listen online.  Gosh, he would’ve been 75 years old!  I only know about this because of an article in the local paper, which made me do a little research…

image This picture comes from his official website, where there seems to be all sorts of Elvis stuff.  Who knew? 

Here’s a post from the Huffington Post blog about Elvis meeting with President Nixon.  And since this is not something I’ve ever read before—again, who knew?

And, for your listening pleasure, may I present:

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Back to weaving now.  Oh, and by the way, my right arm is very sore.  The only thing I can think of that might have caused this:  carrying heavy loads of new firewood that’s not rotten, thus heavier.

Great weather for weaving!

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I know, I know…For folks who live in the northern part of the country, this kind of weather forecast is nothing.  For us here in Texas, it’s severe.  Pipes freezing, water-main lines breaking, etc.  At least we’re not expecting much of anything in the way of precipitation, but winds up to 30 mph!  Now that I’ve got some really good firewood stacked up, I plan to stoke up the stove and weave.  Have a new bag of birdseed for the feathered friends, too.  These temperatures mean leaving the water dripping at night, staying in,  and green chile stew in the Crockpot. 

By the way, I used the snipping tool in the Windows Accessories to get that small screen shot above.  I’ve used it for screen shots of work on my computer, but not from a website.  Works pretty well.  Everyone probably uses that all the time, but I’m just now getting familiar with it.  Pretty nifty.

Progress

As I look at this picture, it appears to be an optical illusion in a couple of ways.  What’s most visible, of course, is the yellow shape in the middle.  In “real life” though, it is the violet/blue crosses that are most dominant.  Also, the crosses appear to have a black outlining line around them.  That has a term in the color world, but I’ve forgotten what it is.  They don’t actually have that line.  We have progress here though.  Yeah!  That warm fire and 3 hours of weaving…  There are two more crosses to go, then a couple of inches of yellow, and, voila! Done!  The crosses are gradations of deepening shades of blue violet.Crosses_progress

Speaking of color optical illusions, look at this website.

Back to creativity… I mentioned the Compost and Creativity blog.  I looked last night and there was a doodling/writing exercise to stimulate creativity.  I can’t wait to play with that this evening.

The fun stuff for this day includes a mammogram.  Yippee! she says sarcastically.

A Mixed Bag

 Bags_Vogue I’m going to have to either get a cover/bag for my new Kindle or I’m going to have to make one.  Today I looked at pattern books for the first time in ages.  I finally ended up buying Vogue 8407, thinking that the journal cover might work for the Kindle.  In this picture it is in the upper right corner.  Think what you could do with some of your handwoven scraps with these little bags.  Or small pieces of leftover, fabric handwoven or not.  Now, whether I can resurrect my sewing skills to even attempt something like this, well, ….  And, as I am asked when I go off on a tangent like this, “Is this a good use of your time?”  Maybe a cover from Amazon or even these cute ones would be a better use of my time.  I’ve never bought anything from an Etsy store—should I go for it?

Today firewood is being delivered, so a warm fire and weaving is in the future.

Art and Weaving

Beck_Toucan

Toucan, Beck 2009

I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but I’m familiar with several painters and their working processes.  It always amazes me that artists can finish a painting in 1-3 days!  I know they prep their canvasses, and then there’s varnishing and/or framing, so that probably brings it up to a week.  Like all artists, there’s also the incubation period.  When asked how long something took to produce, some weavers I know respond with “All my life.”  That’s kind of a conversation ender to me, but the same could be said for the work of any artist.  All that we are goes into the inspiration, training, etc. of producing any art.  I mention all of this because of the slow nature of weaving.  Each of my pieces takes about 3-4 weeks to finish the weaving.  That’s not counting the actual finishing of the piece—needle weaving ends in (or hemming), heavy steam pressing, and preparing the hanging device.  (Right now I have three pieces that need finish work done.)  One thing that has been surprising to me is that the weft-faced ikat takes about the same number of days to complete.  While measuring the ikat yarn and wrapping with the tape, I feel like it’s taking FOREVER.  But when I look at the dates of the last finished piece to the date of the next time I cut off a piece, it’s about the same number of days.  Even if it does take about a month to just get something off the loom from beginning to end, I love my job!

I am trying to spend some time daily with my sketchbook and either collage papers or pen and pencil.  I’ve never done much with collage, but it might be a springboard to some new designs.  Although, instead of tearing, I may need to use scissors and cut out shapes of some sort.  But, I promise, I will experiment with both methods of collage.

The picture at the top of this post is by my grandson.  He’s a great little artist.  Both the boys seemed to appreciate the new sketchbooks they received.  There is a variety of drawings filling the pages of their books, everything from the Star Wars Clone War characters (Cartoon Network) to anything else that comes to mind.  If you look at the Cartoon Network site about the Clone Wars, can someone tell me what’s up with these sick-looking female characters?  I don’t have cable, so have never seen the actual show, but the drawings look absolutely…what?

I am also going back to tracking studio hours for a while.  I need to get back on track and back to routines. 

A Container for My Jewels—or Whatever

 Bead_box

Notice the design for the bead weaving

Yesterday the perfect Christmas present arrived in my mailbox.  After much futzing about to get it opened, I discovered a wonderful surprise.  My daughter-in-law Tina is a bead weaver, and has many creative ideas about how to use her work.  I received a fabulous fabric–covered box with a very special bead weaving on top.  Notice how it looks like a rug—design, fringe, and all.  It is perfect in every way. Perfect colors, perfect design.  How she has the patience to weave with beads, I’ll never know.  Of course, that’s what they say about tapestry weavers, too! 

Bead_Box_interior

Interior of box

Tina also does really great jewelry.  Many years ago she gave me a brooch that I really love to wear at the neckline of a blouse.  MyPin And then there’s the pizza made from beads.   Pizza And these hairclips are wonderful, too.  HairclipsBoth Tina and Chad are entering fairs in their area.  You may remember the Yarn Guardian, one of the critters constructed by my son.  Yarn-Guardian2

 

 

 Orange_Critter

 

 

 

This year he gave one of the critters to his grandmother, who was absolutely amazed by the zipper he’d inserted in the base.  And all of the cousins had to check out the glow-in-the-dark eyes he makes from Fimo clay.

Fiber in All Places

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Transformit’s Fabric Sculpture at the EPA

The picture above is from the Textile Source Blog.  The link will take you to their blog, where you can find many more textile pictures and innovative designs.  I love this picture, which is from a company called Transformit.  Go to their website for even more ideas, some brightly colorful, some more subdued but still exuberant in their design.

I was reading Daryl Lancaster’s blog this morning, which stated my feelings exactly about the New Year being the end of the party/social season.  For me, that means I can finally begin to get back into a routine of creativity and productivity.  Daryl mentions a couple of blogs about that, one of which is Compost and Creativity.  Reminded me of ways I can go about jump starting my creative juices.

I haven’t looked at this list thoroughly, but though others might appreciate the opportunity to look also.  As I poked around in the new-to-me blog, I ran across Donna’s Amazon list of books.  This will need more study, but already it is tempting.  I have the Holly Brackman book on Surface Design and maybe others that I haven’t gotten to yet.  Holly is doing a workshop for our guild April 30-May 2. I think the workshop still has some openings, if anyone is interested.

 

Centrifuge

imageYou can tell I’m really desperate: I picked up a Threads magazine—actually two because there were articles that interested me in both issues, and, no, they weren’t on sewing.  One article was about pin weaving, something that I keep thinking I will do for those times that you just want to vege out in front of the TV.  The pin weaving illustrated in the article looked somewhat like tapestry, thus appealing to me.  If you look at the Table of Contents, it is listed in the Embellishment section.  There is also an article about constructing a jacket out of double knit wool which has been felted—and, yes, I know that technically the fabric has been fulled—really, really fulled!

imageThe other magazine has an article called:

THE MAGIC OF NUNO FELTING
by Linda Veilleux
Mix silk and wool; add water, and blend

There is mention of a centrifuge, including a source.  imageSeveral years ago I seriously looked into getting one, but all I could find was industrial ones, which is overkill for my situation.  This one sounds much more doable, great for the after-dyeing process of the yarns.

Look at the pictures in this article, if you pick it up, and notice how big the plastic pattern needs to be to make a seamless jacket of felt.  Because the felting shrinks the fabric so much, the jacket pattern has to start out almost as tall as the person is in real life!

Nyquil Blues

It will be a week Friday since I began coughing.   The cough then turned into a bull-blown cold. I finally broke down and took some Nyquil two nights ago, which brings to mind this old Alvin Crow song.  Here he is playing at the Broken Spoke in Austin, Texas, a pretty famous honkytonk (in certain circles).  Reminds me of some good times listening to Alvin at the White Elephant Saloon in the historic stockyards area of Fort Worth.  Warning, if you go to the site, make sure your sound is down.  I tried to look at the history part, but was bombarded with a telling of the story.  This used to be a locally owned joint, but I’m not so sure if it is now.  Seems way too commercialized now.

I know I keep saying this, but, really, tomorrow has to be a weaving day, right?

Okay, I give up…plus aboriginal art, and other stuff

I am totally giving up. The cold has won!

Contemporary Aboriginal Art

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Collection of John and Barbara Wilkerson

The Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting article about aboriginal art in Australia this month. I don’t quite know why, but I am always inspired by art from any indigenous group. The picture on the right especially appeals to me, perhaps related to that spiral thing again. There are many more pictures of the collection in the online article and in the magazine.

I am going to try and embed a video here and hope that it works. If not, there will be a huge blank spot, but you can go to the web page and see it here instead, if you’re interested. It’s about installation work made from found and natural materials. You might want to be somewhat close to Dallas if you want to apply. I saw some work similar to this idea when I went to Omaha last May. Good idea, lots of possibilities.

Now, back to my napping, and all the other activities that go with having a cold.