Category Archives: Art

More progress

10 more inches

I’m not going to take another photo until this sucker is off the loom. Right now, I have about 8 inches to go, and 20 butterflies going. Why? Who knows!

In other news

After working on a commission, I thought I would never use the color green again, but I have excavated for the excess yarns and overdyed part of them with blue. The “new” yarns aren’t washed yet, so that picture will have to wait. Next week. I did take a sample of each color so that I can compare, and there’s the picture below also.

Green yarn

Since I’m speaking about greens, how ’bout these pictures from Borough Market of green vegetables? I can’t remember what the swirly one in the second picture is called, but I love the pattern.

Although I’ll be dyeing some black yarns next, I’m thinking about overdyeing the rest of the green yarns with turquoise. Do you think those yarns would be able to play nice in a weaving?

Looking at these greens reminds me of Pantone’s color of the year, Greenery. If you go to the Greenery page, scroll down to look at their suggested color combinations.

Asparagus

Vegetables

Then there’s the sunflowers. I took a photo of sunflowers and used Waterlogue on it, thinking that some sort of blurry “painting” might make a good weaving. Hmmm….. maybe I should try the vegetable pictures with Waterlogue too.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers 2

The piece from ???

Original cartoon

The original

Above is my original plan for the tornado piece. But as I mentioned, this was turning into the piece from hell. Too many incorrectly tied sections, and it was VERY long. So back to the drawing board. 

The changes

From the beginning, I changed the color blocks, reversing the yellow and red in the weaving. When I went back to my drawing, I cut off the section (in the drawing) that I had tied incorrectly and changed the size of the yellow color block. In my head, yellow at the top indicates sunshine that returns after the tornado, and red at the bottom represents the destruction from a tornado. Believe me, here in Texas we have lots of experience with that destruction!

More changes

Then I went to the drawing board with my compass and tried to figure out if the length would work, based on dynamic rectangles. I hit a wall there because I couldn’t remember how to do them at first. A little research and I’m merrily making away at dynamic rectangles, when my compass would not go wider.

Changed cartoon

Another wall

I had to actually get out my calculator and calculate square roots and see if my calculations matched up with any of my drawn measurements. They did! The actually did!

Off the loom

Saturday afternoon was spent securing the warp and preparing it for needle weaving back into the body of the piece, all while listening to old made-for-TV movies of Perry Mason. What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

In the meantime, I have tied the warp back on and started weaving a totally spontaneous piece, a mystery even to me.

Again and again

63 inches and counting

What’s that quote about insanity and repeating actions?

I’m insane, according to that definition, because I’ve done it AGAIN! Now whether this is really a mistake in my ikat-tying or another kind of mistake, I’m no longer sure. However, a lesson has finally been beaten into my head…I have to do a better job with the cartoon to make sure that the wrong sections aren’t tied or not tied.

Label, label, label!

I haven’t quite decided what the best process is for that yet, but it has to happen. The cartoon above is for ikat. The one below is for a tapestry. As you can see, they are black and white outlines. Should I label the ikat ones with color ID like the one below? Or should I color in the cartoon with felt tip pens?

Cartoon with color ID

I could use some ideas for a prevention technique.  Or maybe this piece on the loom really is the piece from hell, and all will be better with the next one. Whaddya think? (And did you know you can actually find many Google entries for that word?) Or should it be whatcha think?

Self-portraits, remembrance

Spring flowers

Remembrance

Besides the arrival of spring, March is remembrance month for me. On March 6, 2011, a very important person in my life died. Every time this anniversary rolls around, I wonder if I shouldn’t do something special in remembrance, but the truth is, that not a day goes by that I don’t think about all of the good times. That’s how I honor him.

Photography

WSJ ad

I’ve given this some thought before, but today when I saw this ad again in the Wall Street Journal, I decided it was time to go back and look at my photography class self-portraits. I’ve mentioned this class before. It was one of those between semesters short courses, very intense, and I loved it! We had a key to the darkroom and developed our photos. Remember film?

Self-Portraits

One of our assignments was to take self-portraits as objects.

Books from school for a degree in Spanish and Education

Since I was in school, I think this particular photo is self-explanatory. The next one includes a Wedding Ring quilt made by my aunt, a Raggedy Ann made by my mother, jeans, perfume (something that I know longer have in my house), and a book on childcare. This was the other half of my life at the time. School and family.

Miscellaneous objects

More self-portraits

Another assignment was a self portrait as a member of the opposite sex. Hmmm…these could be a bit Freudian.

Tractor

Hammock

Now obviously, at least to me, I don’t plan on weaving any of these images, but the one about objects that represent ourselves is an interesting thought to pursue. Going back to the WSJ ad…can you envision the outline of a head with images of objects that represent you? What would they be? Could color represent those things as well as the actual objects? What about various shapes? 

What objects represent your life right now? Think about what would have represented you in various decades of your life. How have they changed? Have any remained the same? I’m curious and would really like to know.

 

Thinking about color and green chili stew

Basket made in guild program

Color! Isn’t it wonderful?

The dyeing of yarn is almost as good for me as the weaving. Almost. There’s just something magical about pulling those yarns out of the water and seeing beautiful, glorious color!

The other day I read about Tien Chiu’s experiments in what she calls cube dyeing. She has quite the project going, something that I admire, but also know that I would never have the patience to conduct. Really, go check it out.

Quilters like color too

Tien mentions Carol Soderlund, who teaches what look like great workshops on dyeing. Some of my quilter friends have gone to Nancy Crow’s Art Retreats, and that’s where I first saw anything about her workshops.

Facebook strikes again!

Red

Ever take one of those quizzes on Facebook? I succumbed the other day, and although I really don’t agree with the analysis of my personality, I like the color shown. A weaving of some sort? I’ve actually been thinking of a series of tapestries based on color. You can see what color you get here.

And then there’s the finishing

I’ve got these itty bitty 5-inch pieces that need to be finished, several of which are in shades of blue. As I was pinning them to a press cloth thingy for steaming, I thought about stars. So, I played around with pin heads.

Sky

And now for green, as in green chili stew 

My friend Claudia True publishes a calendar each year with copies of here paintings and recipes. If you sign up for her newsletter, you receive a free mini cookbook. At some point, I received a recipe from her for Green Chili Stew. My son and daughter-in-law have developed their own recipe for same, so I adapted parts of both recipes and made my own. Now it seems to be a small compulsion. I have two quart jars in the fridge, so that’s what I have each day for lunch. Maybe I’ll be sick of it soon and move on to other recipes. What’s your winter go-to recipe?

Finally, weaving again!

Ikat yarn drying. Why do those whites look so yellow? 

Finally

Yep, section 3 has been measured, tied, dyed, balled up, loaded onto shuttles. Let the weaving begin! I did try a few picks, and it works! Here’s hoping all the other sections are correct. They were when I checked, but who knows if my brain was in the correct place. My only other news is below. Been a dull week full of “have-tos.”

Amarylis

Frustration, new starts, plus clouds

Section 3-again

Big roadblock

The piece on the loom was moving along at a pretty good clip–until I hit a speed bump! Section 3 of the ikat yarn was next, but it just wouldn’t work, no matter how I tried to manipulate it.

Darn!

So, I got the cartoon out and compared the yarn to the cartoon, and guess what? The positive and negative spaces were totally reversed. Black was white, white was black. Believe me, I tried everything before reaching the conclusion that it would just have to be done again. No getting around it. I checked sections 4 and 5. Yes, they are correct. So, I started measuring the yarns.

While waiting …

The measuring and tying is done, so dyeing is next, maybe today. (I actually had a social event on Tuesday). But while not weaving on the big loom, the small loom inspiration is coming together in my head. I have several ideas to work on, including a few that go with a series I’m planning.

And then there are the clouds

Last week I was driving home after visiting my mother, when I looked up and noticed these really wonderful clouds. They were like waves across the sky, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I took the next exit and stayed on the service road so I could take pictures. Having not mastered the panorama setting on my phone, I just took individual shots and pieced them together in Photoshop, very obviously.

Wavy clouds

Then I took one bitty section and made it black and white.

Black and white clouds

And played around with ridiculous colors. 

Color, anyone?

Can this be turned into a weaving? What do you think?

Ikat yarn

Ready for shuttles

When I’m not weaving, I take a break and wind balls of ikat yarn. I always think these yarns look so interesting when they’re balled up like this. These yarns are just waiting to be put on the shuttles. Notice the labels? The ones on the inside of the ball say #3 top right. Substitute #? what  ever section it is. The top right label indicates that that is the one to start winding on the shuttle first because that is woven last.

Shuttles

High Desert Weaving shuttles directly from their website

Speaking of shuttles, I bought a 16.5 in shuttle from High Country Weaving. They are beautifully made, but use quills instead of bobbin. The shuttle comes with one quill with instructions and a pattern for making more. But, and this is a big but, I lost the instructions and the pattern. All of those balled up yarns would be perfect for this big boy. Here’s a quote from their website:

The 16.5″ shuttle will hold more than 45 yards of a bulky rug yarn, such as that sold by Weaving Southwest.

Now, after seeing all those balled up yarns, I have a concern that this piece is going to turn out way too big. But it has to be what it is because of the design. Gee! Another issue discovered while weaving!

Is it already Wednesday?

waste basket of untied ikat tape

 

Tied/Untied

Is it Wednesday already?

Seems I can no longer keep up with what day it is in the week. Yes, it’s Wednesday. Yes, my blog post should be ready. No, it is not ready. What’s going on here?

Ikat untying

Just in case you were wondering,untying ikat tape from the yarn takes almost as much time as untying it. And then there’s the winding onto shuttles. Over the years I have learned that I prefer certain shuttles for this, one called a poke shuttle. I always overfill them because there does not seem to be a good place to cut the continuous weft. 

Filled shuttles with section one

Labeling

Someone asked me about keeping up with which shuttle is which. It just requires labels, many labels. When I’m measuring the yarn for ikat, I label where I start with “bottom left.” When I end the section, I label it “top right.” When I wind onto the shuttles, I start with the top right end, so that I can begin weaving with the bottom left. You have to weave in the direction you measured the yarn, or the pattern will not match up.

You can see in the image below that I am using a ski shuttle. I really don’t like it very well for this, but my other shuttles were full, and there was still a bit of this section of weft left to wind.

Ikat in progress

Weaving ikat

The actual weaving part of ikat goes fast, plus it keeps my interest because it requires attention to matching the pattern and the selvedges. This means that quite a bit of the piece is already woven.

This is such a close-up that you can see how the edges of the color don’t seem even near the right spot, but when it is seen without enlargement, the edges look fuzzy, but not so extreme as this detail.

Detail

Maybe I’ll be finished by the next time Wednesday rolls around.

Disaster! Kind of

No, not a world, or even national disaster

Progress after the disaster. Find the broken warp.

This is my personal weaving disaster. I sat on my loom bench yesterday, only to discover a broken warp, and upon further examination, I discovered several frayed ones. Since I was really not willing to lose all the work on this piece, I slept on it before making a decision about what to do. I decided to weave to the farthest point in the weaving, hand beating rather than using the loom beater, then to advance the warp way past the problem and start the weaving again. Maybe I’ll end up with a triptych. Or not. An experiment of sorts.

Warp advanced past the problem

Listening and weaving

In this picture, you can see that the first section has been completed, and the warp advanced. Another piece has begun with waste yarn. Next step, some knots, a few shots of warp, some soumak, and the weaving begins. On the cartoon below, you can see where first section ends.

Stopped the first piece at the red arrow

While all of this weaving is going on, I am listening to Burying the Honeysuckle Girls. While listening, I am reminded of a book I read years ago called One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, a period piece.

Many details have flown from my memory, but someone came up with a plan to give 1000 white women to the Indians to appease them and perhaps stop the many battles. But where to get the women? From the insane asylums, of course.

This was during a period of history when the men (husbands or fathers or brothers) could commit women family members to an institution when those women did things that didn’t suit the men. Like not marry someone, or do something embarrassing, or … whatever.

The women were chosen for this project, and because of how women were committed, some were not actually insane. And the tale goes on from there telling the story of one particular woman, through her journals. Those journals are so realistic that I had to remind myself that they are fiction.

Back to the Honeysuckle Girls

This story switches back and forth from present day and the thirties. The setting for the thirties is in a rural area of the mountains in Alabama, where men would still commit their women when they displeased them. The present day setting is in Birmingham, Alabama, where the main character is trying to save herself by finding what happened to her ancestors. At first I wasn’t sure the girls were going to hold my attention, but as it progressed, it does.

Read any good books lately?