Art Archives - Page 20 of 27 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Category Archives: Art

Weaving and experimenting

This is what I’m working on right now, and I already think I’m going to have to dye some more yellow. Plus, I made a design error, at least according to my drawing. After going back and redrawing the design, I elected to continue rather than take out four inches of weaving. Wonder why!

I’ve also been experimenting on the Baby Wolf. Part of the current weaving is going to have a rectangle, and I want it to look kind of like a shadowy door. I’m embarrassed to show these pictures, but I guess I have no shame. First of all, the Wolf doesn’t get enough tension for this purpose, but it is just a trial and error, so I continued. Originally, the little square was woven by itself. Then I went back in to weave the parts on each side. The sides were then stitched together just to see how these different techniques would look next to the background. The stitching is really messy, but that’s not the point. I’m still not sure what I’ll do when I get to that section of the weaving, but I do know what I don’t like.

Filters

Tangled skeins are what I’m dealing with

In the process of prepping the skeins for dyeing, they were soaked in the washer with Synthropol. When it came time to actually do the dyeing, I turned the dial to spin, or at least I thought I did. It took me a few minutes to realize that the washer sounded all wrong. Turns out that I had moved the dial to rinse and these yarns were being agitated. And oh what a mess of tangled yarns.

Tangled mess

While balling up many tangled skeins of yarn–and tangled yarns take a really long time to ball–I suddenly realized that I could demonstrate the red and green filters.

Magenta-ish yarns

Magenta yarns with red filter

Magenta yarns with green filter

These aren’t good pictures, but the idea is shown. Above are the yarns in their natural state. On the left are shown the two filters. It’s probably obvious which is which.

Greenish-blue yarns

Below are some greenish/blue/turquoise yarns, even though they don’t look like it in this picture. Even farther down are pictures showing the same yarns with the green and red filters. In theory, these filters are supposed to “remove color”, making it easier to see value among the yarns. The instructions say that for most people, the red filter is best. However, if you are looking at reds, switching to the green filter may be better. And the reverse–looking at greens, the red filter may work best. You be the judge. I think you can also do the same thing with a black and white photo.

Greenish-blue yarns with green filter

Greenish-blue yarns with red filter

Value

Ruby Beholder

Magenta yarns

Black and white of the magenta yarns

In a rag weaving workshop, I remember the instructor saying that when you don’t like the colors in a design, it most often is because of value. And that’s the first time I heard of the Ruby Beholder.

Usually you just know if a color doesn’t go with the others, there are other ways to check the value in the colors we choose. I took a black and white photo, thinking of the gray scale, but you can use an actual gray scale finder. Still another way is to use red or green filters. The handy tools come to us mostly from the world of quilters.

Filters

Gray scale

While looking at my magenta yarns again the other day, I decided to get out the color wheel. When I pulled open the drawer that held it, I found something better, the 3-in-1 tool by Joen Wolfrom.

Color Tool

Color tool contents

This tool has separate pages for lots of colors, from yellow green to aqua green, with all of their variations on little color rectangles on each page, AND there are also two filters, both green and red. If you want to read a bit more, all of the tools can be found on Amazon here.

What’s going on

The stove has been working over time in the studio

Yes, it was 29° here yesterday. Yes, I did some dyeing. Yes, my brain must have been frozen because I really messed up this session. Instead of the sort of ochre color I was aiming for, I weighed my dyes without changing the weights back on my scale. That means instead of putting in, say 1 gram of magenta, I put in 11

Mustard and magenta yarns

grams. Not really a disaster, but I needed the ochre color. So, to try and spread the dye love, I added two skeins that were already dyed mustard. I can’t tell that it made much of a difference.

The two on right were mustard

So now I will rethink my plan for the next weaving. At least I tied on the warp and am ready to go, and I got out the small loom to prepare for warping. I made a spreadsheet for the warp calculations–I was probably trying to delay the warping, but it does come in handy, and I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

As I was looking a photos of the yarns I found another one that I took on the day of the natural dyeing program. It is of the wall in the restaurant where we went to lunch. I love the patterns and texture of this wall. What do you take pictures of? Patterns? Colors? All of the above?

If the ice on the streets disappears, I will go out and get a saw and miter board. An experiment to see if I can make better cuts.

Piddling

Seems that it’s almost impossible to get focused right now. I think part of the problem is that I’m trying to find a direction that I want to take next. Maybe some really small things? I may attempt that, but it means finally getting the small loom set up. One glance in that direction, and I walk off, although it would be really good to do, if only because it has a raddle. I’ve never used one before.

In the meantime…it’s winter again. My new-found embrace-the-weather attitude is being tested. So what do you do on a cold winter day? I played with apps. One it called Waterlogue. You can take one of your photos and the app will turn it into a “watercolor.”

I also was the program for a really nice group of garden club ladies. They asked me to do a program on natural dyeing, since, after all, they are gardeners. I got out the projector to make sure everything worked, when I discover that I have no way to connect the projector to my current compute

Rescued!

r! Yikes! I got changed for a trip to town, when I thought about my accordion folder for all things computer, including printer info, etc. Now I’m not usually so organized, but this time I was. In one of the pockets were several wrapped items, and lucky day! One was a dongle. Rescued!

More about focus later. One day it’s there, next day it’s gone.

Mid-week musing

Yes, this is still what’s going on around here. Stoke the fire, weave, walk around for a few minutes, weave, stoke the fire….. I’m actually using a timer and trying to walk around a bit every 30 minutes. The design was changed fairly drastically, and when it comes off the loom, I’ll know whether that was a good idea or not. I do think the selvedges are getting better with this weft-faced ikat, so that’s an improvement. I am taking careful notes, including information about the dyeing.

In the meantime, I’m getting antsy to weave something with a bit of tapestry and lots of color. Have several ideas, and therein lies (is that the correct form? I always get those mixed up.) the problem. So many ideas, so little time. Does this happen to everyone? More ideas than you know what to do with?

Treating myself

Artistic endeavor???

This week has been really big week for me so far. Not only am I having lunch out with friends twice–yes, two times!–my first workshop in the new studio space at the Kimbell was on Wednesday. What fun! As usual, the docents took us in small groups to view selected pieces, pointing out special details that they wanted us to notice and giving us information that we might not know about the artist or the work. All of the work that we viewed were in the exhibit Picasso and Matisse, and all related to collage. The works were not actual collages, but looked like a collage, probably having been constructed as an actual collage and then painted. Then we returned to the studio, which is absolutely marvelous. There are three studios, each with built in cabinets designed by the education director to include amenities that have been needed. Before, there was not even one room for studio creating. All was done at tables in the lobby as patrons walked by.

There were painted canvasses of various colors, but of course, I chose red. There were many interesting papers to choose from, stencils, and paints. What I found most interesting was that I started out with an idea that morphed into another idea entirely. I’m pretty happy with my work of “art.” And it was fun.

What does that tell me? Probably that I need to get out more, but also that playing around with new forms of art is good for the soul, that I need to do more experimenting with art at home, and let myself play without that critical voice saying a darn thing! Try something new!

Museum visit

Instagram picture from the back of statue at Kimbell

As a reward for all the experimenting with food and ikat I’ve been doing, I took myself out on a date to the Kimbell Art Museum, where there’s an exhibition from the Chicago Art Institute. It’s called The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from The Art Institute of Chicago. This exhibit covers a span of time from 1903 almost to World War II. As you can imagine, a great deal of different art categories are included in this span, from Picasso’s blue period to surrealism from Dalí. There were several paintings that stood out for me, but since the collection does not belong to the Kimbell, no pictures allowed. Instead, I have

Looking at tree trunks and shadows

trees from the courtyard and some links. One of my favorites was Spanish Dancer by Nathalija Gontcharova, although I thought the painting depicted a bride until I saw the title. The lace in this painting is beautiful. Are you ever amazed by how painters can paint with the shadows and lights of something like lace? Reminiscence of a Cathedral by Frantisek Kupka is also interesting. I’m not sure this was the intent of the artist, but to me it looks like a church tower with the stained glass on outside. An offshoot of Cubism, Orphism? I still don’t understand, except for the most part I’m not fond of Cubism. Or Surrealism as depicted by Dalí. But I do enjoy Miró–go figure! Klee’s Dancing Girl (1940) and Sunset (1930). Music was inspiration for many of these painters, but from what I’ve read, not just an appreciation but a knowledge of musical composition–something way beyond my understanding. I’m glad that Klee’s sense of humor was mentioned in the description of Dancing Girl, because she certainly looks exuberant to me. His signature at the bottom was made with a monogrammed handkerchief. Fun! And just because I’ve only mentioned a few pieces of the art doesn’t mean there weren’t others. And the color!

Experimenting, part 1

Experimenting with one thing after another seems to have taken over my life. They seem to be in these categories: food, weaving, and the to-do list.

Vegan????

I’m experimenting with food in an effort to eat more healthfully, not that it was too un health, but there’s room for improvement. Also, my doctor said that I might consider a vegan diet to help with inflammation—you know, the arthritis thing. I’m investigating veganism, but I’m not sure I could give up cheese and eggs. And that one cup of coffee in my espresso every morning.

New foods

This week I have tried polenta, quinoa, and meatless crumbles. I have to admit, each of those was quite tasty.

I made a pot of pintos with onion and Ro-Tel tomatoes and served it with polenta.
Meatless crumbles
I had the quinoa with stir-fry vegetables (I meant to add some leftover chicken, but forgot). Actually, the only vegetables used were green onions, mushrooms, and snap peas. I think that’s what they are—no peas inside, just the flat pod itself.

Verdict

I actually liked the quinoa. For something so tiny (before cooking, you have to rinse it in a fine sieve), there was a little crunch to it. I’ve heard that the popularity of quinoa here has made it difficult for poor people where it is grown, to afford it now. Of course, there seems to be a difference of opinion even about this.
The polenta was pretty good with the beans, but next time I think I’m going to used coarsely ground cornmeal instead of the instant polenta.
The crumbles were great with a little spaghetti sauce and whatever else you want to add.

I’m not sure I can keep up the pace on trying new things. Maybe just one new thing this week.

Have you tried a new food lately? I’m looking for ideas!

Just because

My Christmas cactus seems to prefer blooming in January. Here’s one of the blooms.

What to do…continue or not?

This is what I’ve been weaving the last few days, off and on. I’m not happy with it, but can’t decide what to do. Cut off? Continue? Unweave and try again? What I may do is weave this half of the first section (up to the top of the lines drawn on the warp) because that will give me another number to develop a formula for MY ikat measuring. The drawing on the right is what this section is supposed to look like. I realize the colors aren’t the same, but obviously, improvement needs to be made, either in the ikat itself or the weaving. So, maybe go back and weave this as tapestry?

Tera Muskrat is a New Mexico artist who paints large pieces inspired by Mexican calendar girls (or New Mexican). I think only certain generations will know about calendar girls, but maybe I’m wrong. For some reason, the name Jane Russell comes to my mind, but maybe I’m wrong about that too. Marilyn Monroe, even not from the 30s, might be another example. They may have also been called pin-up girls. I have to admit that one of my favorites is is a woman holding a Chihuahua against here bosom. I also like Channeling Georgia. Maybe the attraction is the humor in her paintings, I don’t know. I would have bought one, but they are large, and I don’t have a place for a large painting. So, I did the next best thing–I bought her calendar for 2014 on Etsy. I like that it’s in Spanish (I’m really hoping to refurbish my Spanish this year–not using it plays havoc) and has large pictures for each month. The page below is for Octubre. The text along side it is La Viuda, the widow.

Tangled skeins are what I’m dealing with

Vegan????

New foods

Verdict

Just because