I forgot to mention in my last post that Rachel Brown’s book was the first weaving book I bought, and I still think it’s a great book.
I also have not mentioned that my mother took this trip to Convergence with me. For a different perspective on this same trip, you can find her words here. My mother has a real way with words, so her account is enjoyable even without the perspective part. I was afraid that this trip might be exhausting for her, but I think she returned rejuvenated. We crammed a lot into a few days! We went our separate ways in the vendor hall at Convergence, but I caught a glimpse of her looking and listening with great interest as someone was explaining how a shibori scarf was accomplished.
We only went to a couple of galleries in Albuquerque. I really wanted to see Kathe Todd-Hooker’s tapestries at Village Wools, and they were just as amazing as I thought they would be. It is so hard for me to imagine weaving with sewing thread, but Kathe does it. Considering my fascination with line in tapestry lately while working on the Mirrix, I really loved seeing Kathe’s use of line in her work. I’ve got a long way to go before my lines will be worth seeing in public! I am so glad that Kathe’s Convergence piece won first place.
Moving on to Santa Fe: First of all, I have to ask—Do people who live in Santa Fe ever get out of their houses and go somewhere? Every time I have ever been there, the traffic is horrendous, and parking? Forget it. But we did manage to do a couple of things in Santa Fe.
There were two galleries that I wanted to go to this trip, both on Canyon Road: Jane Sauer and Chiaroscuro. I wanted to see Gugger Petter’s newspaper tapestries again, since I just read something about her recently. I have seen them before, but they are still wonderful.
There is a special traveling exhibit of the abstractions of Georgia O’Keeffe at Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. The colors of O’Keefe’s paintings are wonderful, so vibrant and exciting. I was itching for a box of pencils, watercolors, or even crayons after seeing that exhibit. Maybe I will actually try to expand my weft-faced ikat to tying sections that will be tied, untied, and then over dyed multiple times. Will take some planning, so that won’t happen any time soon. All the way home, I played around in my head with ways of dyeing and weaving with a couple of ideas gleaned from the exhibit. Then we ran into rain storms with beautiful, dark clouds over the mountains. That finalized the direction of the design. I’m sure it will take weeks, or even months before the design coalesces into a final form. One lesson learned though—a better camera is needed! $$$$$
Wednesday is grape-picking day! This will be a hot and sweaty activity this year, with the humidity right up there. Then back home for washing, cooking, and straining grapes for jelly. The last time I picked grapes, I froze a couple of gallons of juice for making jelly later when I had more time. That may happen again this year.
