Sherri Woodard Coffey

Have five wrappers finished with sleeved tubes to go with them. Haircut and errands finished the rest of the day. Dental appointment changed to 8 (ouch!) in the morning, but then will work on the hanging boards and re-steaming everything before wrapping and stacking these 5 pieces. Trying to decide whether to put labels on pieces—kind of defeats the idea of a rug when it’s not reversible, but most folks won’t put them on the floor anyway. Hey, I might even be forced to do some housework! Nah…I’ll work on finishing the latest piece or tying on the warp…anything to avoid housework!

Well, at least the weaving is finished. Picture soon. Have five sleeves completed and two wrappers wrapped around their precious cargo. Maybe the prototype size has finally been worked out. It will take 2 yards of twill tape for each piece, a 36 in. piece to tie in the middle and 18 inch pieces at each end. At the rate of 72-yard bolts, I can make the ties for 36 wrappers! Wow! Haven’t really decided if I should close the sleeves on one end or not, mainly because I don’t know how to do it.  Still musing on that. The opposite end should have access so that the hanging board can be inside the tube. What? No more frantic searching for all the bits and pieces for a show?

The twill tape arrived yesterday in the post, discovered today when I went out to get the newspaper and the mail. I had to order in 72-yard bolts, but I’m happy with the choices and its very quick arrival—I ordered on Friday. No excuses for not working on those wrappers today!  I also received notice that the 1 1/2 inch sew-on Velcro has been sent. So, I’m in business.

It’s excruciatingly hot here right now. 104 yesterday, but the weather forecasters are holding out hope for a little cooling by Friday. We should be so lucky. Thinking about a little road trip to Taos, but even there it’s 90 during the day. But less humidity.

Off to weave for a couple of hours, then to more of the boring part. And meditating on the next piece…

Today  has been spent with the boring, finishing part of weaving: painting the hanging boards, making sleeves for the cardboard tubes, rethinking my plan for the wrappers. It’s also been a somewhat frustrating day. First I had to make a trip to Lowe’s for more Velcro tape and a longer board. Then to Joann’s for more muslin. Then I couldn’t find my jig saw to cut the board. But when I found it, the blade came out, and I spent a long time trying to figure out how to get it to stay where it’s supposed to. And I bought the wrong kind of paint for the boards, but finally found spray paint to use.  The boards are painted and ready to be Velcro-ed. Also made tubes to fit some of the wider pieces—yeah for duct tape! Then got sleeves on the tubes so you can’t even tell. I’ve decided the wrappers need to be wider, so will sew 18 inch additions to them tomorrow. Five pieces will be wrapped on sleeved tubes by the end of the week.  And I DID get a little weaving done! Only 10 more inches to go to finish what’s on the loom.

Here’s the yarn while ikat wrapping was in progress. Below is the actual piece being woven—at last!  I’ve spent most of the week either at the dentist, in pain, or groggy from pain meds. In the top picture, the colors are truer, but I’m not taking the trouble to fix color right now. 

Also went to Kinko’s to enlarge a couple of designs I’m thinking about doing.  Can’t decide…another ikat piece, but more complicated, or tapestry. 

I think if I can get back to working without tooth pain, this magenta piece could be finished and all the wrappers, hanging boards, etc, could get finished this week. I finally found a source for twill tape and 1 1/2 inch Velcro. Who knew those were things that the local Joann’s wouldn’t carry? When they both arrive, I’ll know how that worked out.

There’s still at least one more visit to the dentist and a much-needed haircut coming up this week.

I love my studio since I moved the loom. I used to have a Glimakra, which never moved as I wove, probably because of the rubber shoes that it wore. My Cranbrook creeps up to me until I feel crushed while sitting on my loom bench. I may have solved the problem. Those little rubber doorstop wedges. Lift up the leg slightly and stick one of those under both rear feet. It’s working so far.

It’s hot, hot, hot here. Dyeing the ikat-wrapped yarns outside, but not in the sunshine. Planning on WEAVING by Sunday or Monday!  Or maybe tomorrow if if the dyebath cools down enough by tonight so they can be rinsed and tape clipped.

Putting these two pictures together tells the whole story. The top on is by my photographer, the bottom one is what I took a couple of weeks ago.  The colors in the professional photograph are so much more richer.  I’m really kind of surprised, although I don’t know why. David does a good job.  Back to tying ikat now…

Señor Fish is going for a ride today–gonna have his portrait made. Here he is wrapped up in his protective clothing. I spent most of yesterday and much of Monday, making sleeves for the tubes and the wrappings for my pieces. There are two other wrappers lying just above Señor Fish. I would love to hire someone to do these wrappers, especially now that I have the details down about how to do each one. Not sure this is the best use of my time, but it is something that needed doing. The labels are on the outside of the wrapper so that you can tell at a glance what’s inside. Now on to more fun things, like wrap more yarns for ikat. Well, not fun exactly, but at least it’s connected to getting some weaving done.

Today I have been making the “blankies” for wrapping around my pieces and the sleeves for the cardboard tubes around which they are wrapped. Using muslin, hemming all around, twill tape for tying, making notes as I go, for this is the prototype for all future blankies. I steamed a hem on one of the fabric labels that I made previously. No running of ink! Yippee! Now I will stitch one of the labels on the blankie so that I will know what is wrapped inside. I’ve made the blankies before, and wondered about some way to label, but did not know about the fabric labels until Mary Zicafoose showed them to us in the workshop. G frequently asks me, “Is this the best use of your time?”, meaning am I better off weaving or … ? I have to admit that making these blankies is probably not the best use of my time. Maybe I can hire someone to do them. Hmmm…

Now it’s time to shower, do a couple of errands, go to the dentist (AGAIN!), and help my mother with computer stuff. Where does the time go?

I live on about 3/4 acre, and things have been getting away from me lately. For a while, it rained almost daily, and when it was dry enough to mow, I couldn’t because of other things on my calendar. Some of the weeds are higher than my waist now. So, today I decided to dedicate only 30 min. to mowing. I did get a small swath cut through the jungle, but it’s going to take 30 min. a day for a week to finish up. Did I mention that we’re in the middle of a heat wave now? Mowing will be done early, perhaps even before 7 am. At least once it gets mowed, it won’t be growing for a while! This is my exercise. Instead of going for a walk, I push a lawn mower for a while.