Artists Archives - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Category Archives: Artists

Why?

Lots of butterflies

Why?

Why do I start these multicolor projects? In frustration! I had intended to do some dyeing for the next piece, but the weather did not cooperate. Ice, freezing temps, rain–lots of it! It’s like there was a line drawn from north to south, where just west of me there was extreme icing, huge broken trees, no power. I missed it this time.

At any rate, with all the time spent indoors, I had to have something to do, plus there are all these churro club yarns lying around. So, here we go.

It’s a big deal to me!

See those buds on my orchid? Those are the first ever that I have had with all the orchids that I have had over the years.

First buds ever!

Just in case you have ever wanted to weave with wire, Christine Miller is teaching a class in Dallas this summer. It will be at Cedars Art House. I have no idea where that is in Dallas, but I’ve heard this is a great class.

About that retreat

Drawing on Meg’s envelope

Wow! It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted here. BUT I have been busy with studio stuff. First, I want to go back to the retreat idea. I have spent a bit of time on that. My first day was spent in the library, not the one closest to me, but in one a bit farther away. Why? Because it has individual study tables that are conducive to not being disturbed. I did a bit of studying, sketching, and researching. I found a design book by Miró that was interesting, and some books on prehistoric art.

Because the weather has been so bad, my outside hikes with sketching have not happened. Soon I hope. The few good days we had were spent outside preparing beds for planting later, something that is good for my soul.

One of the things I wanted to explore was the idea of variations on a line. I’ve played with this before, but the post by Meg Nakagawa revived this interest. When I commented on Meg’s post about the book creations on this page, she sent me an actual book! The back of the envelope is depicted above. Lines!

Contents-the book is in the center left

Book kind of unfolded

I have a whole folder of line ideas, so it’s time to focus. As I consider that, I have been weaving on a Baby Wolf loom in a strictly experimental way. One of the things I wanted to do was use wire or sticks as part of the weft. That experiment was a failure, but one I haven’t given up on. The others have been experimenting with hatching and color, just doing what ever with yarns on hand, and using a bunch of what I consider neutral, boring colors. More on that next week when I take that warp off the loom. By the way, a black warp is difficult.

One of the results from a few years past, experimenting with variations on a line :

Headin’ Home, 43 x 30 inches Private collection ©Sherri Coffey

Continuing education

Before I go into my new learning experiences, here’s what my weekend looked like.

Hanging on Thursday

Even for one wall, it takes a lot of time to hang a show. This is from my local art group, Fort Worth Art Collective. We were participating in These Are My Friends art party put on by Art Tooth. This was five hours on Thursday night.

Working on Saturday night

Then there was 3.5 hours working the “booth” on Saturday night. A group of interesting and eclectic people attended the party.

Then, finally!

I removed the ikat tape from my dyed sections.

My most of the day Friday

Here’s the way it looks with all the different colors of ikat tape removed.

Lessons, lessons, lessons

One of my goals is to end up with multiple colors instead of just two. So far in my ikat career (very loosely described, believe me!), I have started with one color and overdyed with another that is compatible with the first color. In other words, start with blue, tie a section, overdye with black. Eventually I will start with white, tie and dye, tie again, untie, etc.

In the piece this time, I started with a yellow/orange. You can see the results below. I like the colors except the green. If everything had started as white, I could have had red/orange, red, and blue–or another such combination.

I measured the bouts in sections of one woven inch, which is part of my learning experience. You can see where the green joins the red/orange that there’s a bit of yellow showing up. That doesn’t really bother me right now, but with some future project, it would. Next time I will measure in sections that weave up to be 1/2 inch–7 picks vs 17 picks.

Untied!!!!

Here’s what it looked like earlier.

If you want to compare this to untied

And I’m weaving!

Shuttles filled with ikat-dyed yarn ready to go

School suppliesMonday I went to a store that I seldom go to. Among the things on my list was a re-positional glue stick (I hear there is such a critter out there somewhere). Unfortunately, I found other supplies that just happened to make it into my basket.

School supplies

Where to start

Where do you start when there’s really nothing to say. The typical summer weather has arrived, so it’s hot; that makes it necessary to get out early. There’s been something to do daily, including weekends, which means I actually have to get dressed in real clothes.

Last Saturday

Sculptor at Art Aid Expo

The local art center held its first Art Aid Expo 2017, and the guild was asked to participate as an art group. We brought looms and examples of work. We had lots of folks stopping by and a couple of teachers who would like to do fiber-y things with their students. That’s something I would be interested in working with.

Coming up

Another teachers group has asked up to participate in an in-service type thing, where we will do a bit of hands on again. Plus, the art group that I belong to is suddenly having meetings! Real meetings! I’m glad about that, but like I said, putting on real clothes.

Weaving/studio

This is early in the piece. Another progress pic soon.

The piece on the loom is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month. I’ve calculated about how long I will need to sit each day on a hard loom bench to finish in time.

Rabbit Holes

Along the way there have been a few rabbit holes and I sent an extra email to my newsletter list because they are the first to see new work. If you’re interested, you can sign up here. The studio insiders get to see new work first, sometimes with special pricing before it’s published on my website.

And a rabbit hole: It’s a video a Facebook page called Tallercito de la Autonomía about dyeing with natural dyes in South America. Scroll down to find Process de elaboración de tejidos por artesanas Mink Chincher, June 12, 2016. It’s really quite interesting.

What’s new?

So, this is happening…

Studio open house

Carolyn Bernard Young and I are having an Open House in her studio on November 19. Send me your snail mail address if you want one of these postcards. There’s a little encouragement to bring your card with you when you visit the studio.

And then there’s this…

Working

I started weaving this stripe with some of the Churro Club yarns that I had, but I really don’t like it much. So, what now…cut off, continue, or add something different to it. I decided on the latter. There may never be a picture of the “add something different” version, but I’m going to experiment.

And there’s also this…

Welcome to Golden

I spent several days in Golden, CO at Art Biz Breakthrough last week. It’s an amazing event with artists working in all kinds of mediums. (I looked this up before using that s). There was lots of enthusiasm, laughter, some tears, dancing in the aisles, inspiration, planning, advice and help. It’s over for this year, but if you think you might be interested, sign up for Alyson’s newsletter: http://artbizcoach.com/.

And then there’s more spirals

More spirals

What is it about spirals? Certain shapes just call my name over and over. Picture from across the table in a restaurant, waiting on dinner with a group of artist friends. Design fodder.

I took my little loom, hoping that in free time I could get it warped and start weaving. Hah! No free time, or if there was a bit of time, I needed to process and/or rest. That means it was a great get-together, right?

Happy Halloween from the Ghostletts

Ghosts

Halloween Ghosts

I still like these guys that I made 10 years ago. They popped up on my Facebook page to remind me. How does ten years go by so fast?

We’re having the warmest October ever. First it was since 1950, but now it’s ever. My Shasta daisies are in full bloom. Not just one plant, all of them. Does this mean they won’t bloom in May when they’re supposed to?

Final Day

Reminder #1-Today is the final day of the Fall Sale.

Fish Amok

Yesterday was spice dinner day. Those seem to be coming up much faster also. I was a little worried because it was a fish curry from Cambodia. Just didn’t know how that would go over. However, it was very successful, one of our best–no leftovers. Always a good sign.

Small Loom Weaving

Reminder #2– Registration opens tomorrow for Rebecca Mezoff’s small loom class. I’m taking it and can’t wait!

Trying something new

Lottery tickets

Well, it’s obvious that my word of the year, abundance, did not carry over into the lottery. I seldom buy lottery tickets, but I had to buy gas, and there was all the talk about the Power Ball, so, okay, I succumbed. Don’t judge me.

I have been interested in the four-selvedge technique of weaving a tapestry for quite some time, but when I read the directions, nothing clicked. Maybe my brain just wasn’t ready or whatever, but finally I have read some directions that make sense to me. Of course, the fact that there are lots of pictures available helps. Sarah Swett has a great tutorial on this technique on her blog. Check it out and read her other entries. She is not only a great tapestry weaver and artist, but she also writes quite and interesting blog. There are also some other posts here and there about four-selvedge tapestry. Two are on the Archie Brennan and Susan Martin Maffei website here and here. Here are some links to posts on Tommye Scanlin’s Tapestry Share blog.

Maybe someday I’ll some pictures of my own efforts, but I think I need to make a jig for measuring the warp. Or find something that I can use in that way. Hmmm….

Have you ever done this? What are you working on? I’d love to hear.

A bit of travel

First morning walk. I always love bridges.

View from parking lot. Just ignore the cars and enjoy the mountain.

Last year, around this time, I traveled to Golden, Colorado for Art Biz Makeover. This year, Alyson Stanfield held a similar event called Art Biz Breakthrough. I can’t begin to explain the energy in the room, a roomful of artists, for this event. Amazing! So much energy, so much encouragement, so much understanding! It was wonderful!

One of many framed posters in the hallway of the hotel. Anybody know who Roy Rogers is?

Buffalo girls poster

After Golden, I drove to Denver to visit a friend and go to the Denver Art Museum. Not only did I get to see the wonderful tapestry exhibit there, but I saw the Native American art in the permanent collection. I’ve been to the Denver Art Museum one other time, and it’s a really stellar museum. Go, if you get a chance. Here’s the first thing you see when the elevator doors open. This amazing sculpture is called Mud Woman Rolls On by Roxanne Swentzell. The sculpture is 10 feet high and is very striking.

Mud Woman Rolls On by Roxanne Swentzell. Very impressive and large–10 feet high!

I didn’t get the potters name, but I love this. How many different fish can you think of? Can you see something like this as a weaving?

Masks–always a favorite of mine

Blankets stacked from floor to ceiling, each tagged–pretty darn impressive!

On Monday, I wrote about weaving the Christmas tree from Mirrix Looms. I took my small Lani loom, surrounded by clothes, in my suitcase. She traveled well, and was especially welcome at night as I rested before the TV in my hotel room.

Since snow and high winds were expected in Denver for today, I changed my flight to Monday–besides, I was just ready to go home. ;))

A week of new (to me) and old artists

Spider-a little late for Halloween

The free subscription to the Wall Street Journal is winding down to its final days. Although I will miss it, I probably won’t renew. When I first started reading this newspaper, I was surprised by how much art is covered. A few artists from the last few weeks include a furniture maker (Kevin Stamper) who dyes his wood, a fiber/glass artist (Ayala Serfaty) who uses her hand-dyed wool roving to to create furniture inspired by coral reefs and lights from tubes of glass. Then there’s this exhibition in Milan:

A Beautiful Confluence: Anni and Josef Albers and the Latin American Worldpresents the art of two of the greatest artists of the twentieth century in tandem with the pre-Columbian objects they collected passionately from the time they moved to America in 1933 until Josef’s death in 1976.

Since I love all things pre-Columbian and admire the work of both Anni and Josef Albers, this would appear to be a great place to visit. We’ve got time; it doesn’t end until February of next year! You can see more images here.

I don’t know where I read about or saw the work of Dianne Shullenberger, but here fabric collage work is amazing–and I don’t usually even go for this type of art.

And since I don’t want to violate any copyright laws, I have made a Pinterest board of the artists’ images here.

Practice, practice everywhere

Student doing some weaving on the Mirrix loom #weaving #tapestry #mirrixlooms

A photo posted by Sherri Woodard Coffey (@sherriwcoffey) on Sep 22, 2015 at 3:20pm PDT

So, trying something different here–embedding code from Instagram. Didn’t even know one could do that! Lately, I’ve been digging out all my itty bitty looms to experiment with. I have several and can no longer find directions. Thank goodness for the internet! Plus, I have been practicing on my Mirrix. And I need to practice, practice, practice! I’m just not as good on it as I am on the big loom. That is going to change, but it’s really hard to keep on practicing when I don’t like the way it looks.

Prairie Rain

Speaking of Mirrix, they are in the finalists for the Martha Stewart Made in America awards. There are lots of finalists to view and vote for. Evidently, you get six votes, so scroll through them and vote. Among the finalists are several weavers and other fiber folks. One of them is

One of the things on my list for this week is some ikat experimentation. I need a mathematician! It seems that I should be able to work out a ratio between the cartoon and the ikat that I tie with the actual woven piece. So far that is escaping me. And, since I’ve got some big projects in mind, I would like to get this down. On the piece that I just got through weaving (similar to the above Prairie Rain), I doubled the size of the cartoon, thinking that since I was tying in 1/2 inch segments, that would be appropriate. Wrong! I ended up with lots of tied and dyed yarn left over. The cartoon ended up about 108 inches. Since I was measuring my weaving, I stopped at 60 inches, after using approximately 66-70 inches of the cartoon amount. The experimentation will involve measuring the yarn in 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch segments and seeing how much is woven with each group. I am really hoping to get good information from this. Not all motifs have a place to just stop like the most recent piece. Some have to continue to finish the image. Plus, I also don’t want the motif to be squished. More practice. Sigh…