Category Archives: Personal

Thursday through Monday

©Sherri Coffey-Sine Wave ©Sherri Coffey-Sine Wave

This is what I’ve been doing for the last few days, just a few notes that I made at the end of each day. I’ll post more later.

Thursday–May 2, 2013

  1. the wind is blowing 45 mph and it’s 50 outside. Cold. It’s May!
  2. hotel key cards can be de-magnetized by a phone in a pocket with the key card
  3. my car is so full I can tell a difference in the way it “feels”
  4. set up tomorrow should be fun–see #1
  5. have I mentioned that it’s cold?

Friday–

  1. much better day today, warmer, b Burned-trees ut not quite as cold
  2. set up my booth, learned a few things, added to my list of things needed
  3. walking, walking, walking–lost my pedometer, too bad because I really wanted to know how much walking I was doing
  4. drove past a section of wildfires two years ago, totally depressing, but seeing the houses nestled in amongst the burned trees, a miracle for those folks
  5. when they say that booths are 10 x 10, it’s probably really not, there are leftover pieces Pieces-in-basket . Had room for 9 inside the booth
  6. Tomorrow’s the day! Booth-Fayetteville-2013

 

 

 

Saturday–

  1. Wow! Turns out to be a great day!
  2. Discouraged earlier-lots of people wandering into my booth, saying very complimentary things about my work, finally someone came back to look again. Sent pictures to her husband, he said she has to choose. She did, one of the larger pieces-Sine Wave, shown at top. I hung the piece vertically because of space, but maybe it should be hung horizontally. What do you think?
  3. Booths close at 5, artists wander to the old hotel across from the square, awards ceremony, barbeque dinner
  4. Awards ceremony–ceremony is too formal of a word, I won two awards! One for Best of Show and another a “just because I like it.” Monetary awards! Total surprise!
  5. After a couple of years of dealing with grief, estate stuff, house stuff, my creativity had gone out the window. It’s been back for a while, but this helps, believe me! Kind of like validation that this is a good track to be on.
  6. Even before the awards, I had already decided to try fro this show again. The people are nice, it’s a small venue, lots of really good art, many knowledgeable visitors.
  7. This means I have a goal of 9 new pieces. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?
  8. I’ve really got to track time weaving. It IS the perennial question, you know.

Sunday Purple-coat-shopper —

  1. easier day today–shorter day, fewer visitors
  2. One of the other artists said I should put my Blue-Ribbon blue ribbon in my booth. Lots of people noticed it and congratulated me
  3. the eccentrics showed up today Really-tall-lady
  4. bought a painted bunting from Melanie Fain
  5. sent six pieces with Karen Vernon for gallery
  6. Allison and Tony helped with take down
  7. donated From Above
  8. dinner with Allison and Tony at Roadhouse
  9. Arts for Rural Texas puts on ArtWalk. They provide arts for the communities in the area, three counties. This is not just the visual arts, but also symphony, plays, etc.

Monday–

  1. Why does driving make one so tired? Exhausted after four hours or so on the road
  2. Went to Hill Country Handweavers, bought some silk straw, what, is that called yarn?
  3. Drove to the churro farm, picked up two fleeces, saw the lambs, ewes, rams (see below)
  4. Drove, drove, drove

Ram Black-ewe-lamb Ewes-lambs

Miscellany

mis·cel·la·ny

/ˈmisəˌlānē/
Noun
  1. A group or collection of different items; a mixture.
  2. A book containing writings by different authors.

It’s probably time for me to really give up on this idea that I can have a somewhat balanced life. In an ideal world, I would weave, work on other projects, take care of the housework, etc, all in one day. So far, that just doesn’t happen. Instead I spend the day weaving, then guess what’s waiting for me to do. Yep, housework! But it does feel good to weave! And something else I should do–reallythink, while I’m designing, about how many butterflies will be needed at one time. Geez! They get all tangled up, there are so many!

Several weeks/days ago I read about an art exhibit that sounded interesting. It’s called Drawn to Nature at Wave Hill. Several artists’ works are exhibited, each with a different take on their inspiration from nature. Because I’m a dyer, this quote from the NY Times article caught my attention.

And for a last bit of miscellany, this just shows you how crazy we Texans are about our bluebonnets. This year has not been a banner year so far, but it’s also been cold still. We had 37 this morning, but the drought is the biggest culprit. People stop anywhere to get a picture of their kids sitting in the bluebonnets. Nuts! They hop fences, take no notice of private property (but that’s a topic for another day), even sit on cows. And those fields of bluebonnets get smushed. But I have to admit, when I see the first bluebonnets in the spring, I feel like everything is going to be better, that life is good.

 

 

 

The right tools

One of the things I’m doing this week is cutting more boards to hang pieces on. The boards are 1 x 2s and have to be cut to fit their respective pieces. I have asked in the store for a small, easy to use saw. The men always just say doing it by hand. I explain that cutting by hand doesn’t work for me. They really don’t understand that. I do have a big electric saw, but I hate to bring that out for these itty bitty projects. I’ve been using a jigsaw, but even that’s not the most successful for straight, clean cuts. The other day I was in the big-box home store buying more boards and looked again in the saws. Dremel-Saw This Dremel was displayed. It says that its maximum cut is 3/4 inch, the actual size of my boards. I looked it up online, and there are attachments to help with sawing evenly to size. This saw is also expensive. What to do? Think about it more. Any ideas?

A reason to blog

YarnsDyedApril-2013

Yarn and more yarn

Yes, I was pretty excited about having some newly dyed yarns, but after starting the weaving yesterday, I realized that I will need more of some of the other colors. When I first sorted the yarns that I was going to use, I just eyeballed them instead of actually weighing these leftover bits and pieces. Not a good practice! So it’s off to the dye pots today! While the yarns are doing their thing, I will be mowing, stopping only to do a little stirring. I set my time to remind me that pots need attention. I love seeing those colors coming out of the dye pots!

Record keeping is not one of my strengths. I keep really good records of the dyeing and the warp left on the loom, but not of the finished pieces. Late last year, I started putting a date in the spreadsheet I keep for finished pieces, but that means many pieces on that list are unattached to a year. Recently, I was asked for a date on a piece, so what did I do? My memory certainly was not going to help! Blogging! Did a search, and, yes, there it was!

Crazy weather

Crazy weather It seems that all over the country everyone is having crazy weather. We’re used to extreme temperature drops here, but not in April. Yesterday when I watched the local news at 6 pm, it was above 100 in south Texas and below freezing in the panhandle. Where I live, the temp has dropped from 70s to 40s. And it’s raining! We need it! Rainy days make for perfect days to work in the studio. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do right now!

But first, a few pictures that are interesting to me. The one above comes from an article about an auction of Hopi artifacts. Check out the slideshow for other nice pictures. I love these pieces!  Orange-Fabric And I know that there are all kinds of issues with this auction, but that’s the kind of thing that’s better with an in-person discussion.

These two pictures were taken with my phone in Joann’s. (Maybe I should check out Instagram some day–in my spare time.)  These are fabrics for, I don’t know…prom dresses? The pic at the bottom is a close-up of the other red/orange pic. They are all three dimensional. Don’t know about sitting on those flowers though….Thoughts? And what’s your weather like now?                                               Purple-fabric Orange-Fabric-Detail

 

DFW Fiber Fest 2013

Overall So, how do you go to FiberFest and come home with a spinning wheel? You try it out and get hooked. Saturday my sister and I went to FiberFest DFW. She bought yarn
(we spent lots of time in the Madtosh booth–gorgeous yarns!) and I was feeling rather proud of myself for not buying any.The Madelaine Tosh yarns are wonderful! Creatively dyed, great fibers.

Then I tried out the Country Country-spinner Spinner. Even though this wheel is designed for bulky yarns, it worked just fine for finer yarns that I want to spin. And the bobbin holds over two pounds of yarn! spinning-wheel I bought the wheel from Gritty Knits, a vendor located near Houston. Since this wheel comes in a box, I am grateful that Natasha has been willing to answer questions. spinning-wheel-parts2

Aji-de-gallina On the way home from our outing, we stopped by a new place to both of us, a Peruvian restaurant called Ñusta’s Café. Because G and I used to like to try out new places, I would put possibilities in my Evernote file, making them handy when we were out and about. Mariscos The food was delicious! We’re going to go again to try other menu items.

Today I am sorting through colors of already dyed yarns so that I can make a list of what colors I need to dye for the next project. I also have to go back to Fedex because the enlargements they made for me are all the wrong size. It was written on each page what the size should be. That’s what I get for leaving them there instead of waiting for them. Such a waste of paper!

CCC

Bastrop

Last week our local newspaper had an article about the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC is important to us still here in Texas because so many buildings, roads, dams still in use. But the members of my family have another connection–our father was in the CCC. At a very young age, he took the first trip, perhaps out of the state of Texas, and went to the “wilds” of California. When he talked about those times, he mentions how hard things were then (and believe me there are a lot of those kinds of stories) and how what a great program the CCC was. The boys were taught skills and most of the money they earned was sent home to help their families. He later returned to Texas and helped build the buildings at Bastrop State Park. In 2011, the state of Texas was besieged by wildfires. Below is a quote from the park site.

In September2011, Bastrop State Park and the surrounding pine forest were stricken by wildfire that affected 96 percent of the park. However, firefighters were able to save the historic cabins and facilities that were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The park is recovering from the fire, and most trails, campsites and facilities have reopened to the public.

I do understand that other places deal with fires even worse than the fires of 2011, but it was a new experience for us here in Texas. I became so obsessed that I carried certain keepsakes in the car, just in case I needed to evacuate. And in case you’re wondering about the piece at the top, it was part of my obsession. And if you have time, read the newspaper article about the anniversary of the CCC. There are some good pictures of some of the projects they built and black and white photos taken on the various locations in the 30s.

 

 

 

Two years…

Two years. It’s been so long and then not so long ago. I was thinking of ignoring this day, but realized I really can’t. I need to appreciate not ignore. All it takes is passing a certain location or hearing a certain something, and the memories are there. Actually I’m grateful for the memories because they are good ones. Good memories are always good to have.

 

 

Well?

I have yet to weave this week. What’s going on here? It’s not that I’m sitting around eating bonbons (what are those anyway?). I’m just doing other stuff. Like shopping, something I do every ten years whether I need to or not. I bought a pair of shoes. I went to Coldwater Creek and bought a few things. I’ve been to Target and Dillard’s. I needed sleep stuff ‘cause, like I said, it’s been 10 years and the others are worn thin. And, how can this be? But in the time that I wasn’t shopping, things have changed! They no longer make the underwear that I like!

I’m going to make seed balls and went on a search for dry terra cotta clay. Made a spur-of-the-moment decision to drive to Dallas yesterday to get some. Found it at Trinity Ceramics, a very interesting place. All kinds of pottery supplies, huge selection of books.  I avoid Dallas at all costs, but yesterday’s trip only took me to a warehouse area on the western edge of Dallas. I now am the proud owner of 50 lbs of dry terra cotta clay. Seed balls will be in my future for the next 50 years!

It’s really still too damp outside, but I’ve started mowing the pasture that I sometimes call a yard. Spending 30 minutes daily until I get it done. Of course, at that rate, it’ll be time to start again. I’m meeting a friend today for a short lunch. Tomorrow afternoon will be spent visiting parents and investigating a loom with a new weaver.

So, now it’s time to wash my hair and weave until time to leave for lunch. What’s going on? Dreading trying to figure out where I am in the current weaving project. It would be really nice to get this off the loom and ready for something new.