Personal Archives - Page 5 of 10 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Category Archives: Personal

Sorting and procrastination

Accordion book

Wow! The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day here. Cold, but beautiful, after days of cloudy and rain. Artwise, there’s only a tiny bit of new around here. On Saturday, I took a workshop on making an accordion book. It’s filled with watercolor paper, just waiting to be filled. I’m thinking this might be a good thing to do with my daughter and grandsons while they are visiting. It’s always good to have inside plans just in case the weather turns on us.

Front

So, what have I been doing? Sorting, going through stuff, emptying boxes, procrastinating. One might say that I am procrastinating right now, before I get back to the task of sorting, cleaning out closets, etc. You know when you get to the dregs? The stuff that has no home? The stuff you don’t know what to do with? That’s where I am. I did find one thing in the middle of some financial papers. This piece of notebook paper with my daughter’s drawing and wishes for a happy birthday from years and years ago. I like the dot dot dot added before the inside part.

Inside

And there’s this treasure found in the bottom of a sack. I had been wondering where all my embroidery floss was. Somehow I had a picture in my head of finding it more organized than this. Oh, well. It’s not, but I can still use this for some small pieces.

Embroidery floss

Now, it’s back to the dregs. Then on to cleaning the studio. How does that get to be such a mess during the weaving process?

What’s everyone doing?

Gearing up

Gearing up. Getting ready for December, even though it’s already here. The studio MUST get cleaned up, as well as the adjunct studio (AKA dining room). So, it’s a bit of this and a bit of that around here.

Newspaper

This is what I found when I went out for the newspaper this morning. I frequently find the paper in this position, but not usually floating in water. The water is because I have had 8.77 inches of rain beginning on Thanksgiving and ending on Sunday. Actually it’s surprising that it is still floating since it was so waterlogged. The depth of this ditch is really deceptive. If the newspaper is not visible from my porch, I get the grabber ’cause I know it’s in the ditch and I don’t want to crawl down into it. Too early in the day for that.

Grabber

Below is my latest effort at wedge weave. I will learn how to do this, I will learn how to do this,I will learn how to do this….. This was woven on the tiny Lani from Mirrix. I don’t have the shedding device on this loom, but might consider it later. Right now I’m just using tapestry needles as shuttles. As you can see, there are issues with this bitty weaving, but overall I am pleased. The selvedges are wavy as they are supposed to be. You can see too much warp the the “line” where the weft changes directions, which is not aided by the amount of draw-in–both solvable, I’m sure. Embroidery floss allows for almost infinite colors. For this I used the six strands as they came out of the package. I did blend colors on a couple of the Christmas trees I wove, which gave the color more depth. Once I feel better about weaving wedge weave, I want to try some silk. Gotta think about that draw-in. How do you fix that?

Wedge Weave, embroidery floss, 4 x 3 inches

I have had these inexpensive boxed bookshelves sitting on the floor for a while, but finally tackled the project. Yes, the instructions say it’s a two-person job, but I am just one person. The boxes are too big for me to move, so I cut one open and moved the parts individually. I am looking forward to organizing my art and weaving books. Maybe I’ll be able to find something more easily now. Have you heard of Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day? Bibliotaph came in the other day. Scary. I’m not going to think about that.

Bookshelves

This is the time of year that I get a new calendar, I guess like everyone else. Even though I use the calendar on my phone (and love it!), I still like to have a paper calendar. I have decided to try a new one this time. It’s called the Week Dominator from Neu Year. You can see the one I usually get here and here. What I like about the usual calendar is the yellow column on the right, where I can write down goals or whatever for the week. With the calendar I’m trying this year, you can write those goals down below the day but above where the hours begin. I also like the dot format as opposed to lines. We’ll see. I may go back to the tried and true.

New style calendar

My treat for myself this week. A workshop totally unrelated to weaving, except for what’s floating around in my head. We’ll see…. More about that later.

Working small

Silk yarns

Becoming obsessed with projects seems to be my modus operandi; I’ve worked for years to just accept it and produce whatever it might be. As we all know, those projects are either successful, moderately successful, or just downright ugly. Right now, my obsession is working small, especially as Shop Small Saturday is coming up. As ridiculous as it may sound, an “aha” moment hit me. I can work small with the same kinds of designs that I already like. Working small does not always mean a whole new set of designs, although it could. I like color, so I’m going to use color–lots of it! Plus, new techniques (to me) and ideas can be tried out. A kind of sampling, if you will.

From the website of The French Knot

Part of this experimentation is with embroidery floss. Think of all the colors possible there. They’re almost infinite by using a few strands of one color with strands of another (or two) color. At 14 epi, they work pretty well. I also have silks around that I have ~~begged~~ asked for from my silk-weaving friends. These are bobbin ends and amounts that are really not useful to them. Plus, I made a trip to the local needlepoint shop, The French Knot. Boy, this is not your mother’s (or grandmother’s) needlepoint shop! The interior is full of very organized kinds of small skeins of yarn, from cotton, silks, alpaca, and more. I concentrated on the silks, and even those were available in variety, but the shiny stuff got my attention. They’re all gorgeous! And, I don’t even want to think about how much these yarns might be per pound! A record of each yarn is being kept, with an opinion as to its performance: appearance, weave-ability, and whatever else comes to mind. Once I know what works best for me, I can perhaps dye my own small skeins in Mason jars. We’ll see. Or this current obsession may pass and be supplanted by a new one.

My newsletter went out on Sunday, if you’re interested, sign up here.

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. ;))

Prepare now

Mirrix Looms Christmas tree

I rarely prepare for Christmas early, but just in case you haven’t seen it, Mirrix Looms has a free e-book about weaving a Christmas tree ornament. They even have a kit for it that looks just beautiful! Including are the silk yarns, Ultrasuede for the back, cotton warp, and beads. Since I get a new ornament for each of the boys every year, I’m thinking this is the one for this year. Which means planning ahead. Take a look at the tree and get the book here. They have even got the tree kit/loom package ready to go. This will be a project for me to try out on the new Lani loom. And I am a distributor now, so contact me if interested.

Email: sherri@sherriwoodardcoffey.com

Phone: 817-781-1717

Address: PO Box 123305, Fort Worth, TX 76121

Whatever

Smoke in situ. Weft ikat, 60 x 28 inches

I keep hoping I will have something to say and then could write. This is what happens when you don’t do anything, go anywhere, live life on the edge. I really can’t put my finger on what I’ve been doing, but it feels busy. I have a bit of warp left on the Cranbrook, so I’m weaving some small pieces. Trying (again) to weave wedge weave on one of them. Not very successfully yet, but I’m persevering. The problem is that there are so many ideas floating around in my head, I don’t know where to start. And the house/outside tasks have gotten out of hand. Then there’s the mammogram, flu shot, etc. It was nice to go to the guild meeting and see people, something I need to do more. Working on it, Boss.

Why didn’t I think of that?

Fall on my mother’s hill

Although it’s 95 here, I am sure fall is coming. At least the mornings are cool. And I love fall. It’s also the season for all the grasses. I never really appreciated grasses until I studied the prairie system. The other day I was driving along a neighborhood street and saw one pink muhly plant in the flowerbed. Beautiful! All the grasses are showing off right now.

Pink Muhly

Unknown grass

So, my plan is to get in a bit of outside time in the mornings. After all, I did NOT resist the bag of 100 daffodils at Costco. Funny…I have no volunteers to help me plant them either.

In the why-didn’t-I-think-about-that department–I’ve been doing a bit of spinning and not really enjoying it. In fact I was thinking of selling my wheel and getting another one. As they say, duh! I suddenly remembered that this wheel has three ratios. I switched to the middle one (I was spinning in the largest one), and what a difference it made. That pound of bluish roving may go faster after all. Then I can move on to the burgandy-ish pound. Then I can start on the undyed churro roving. How great is that!

The weekend and less

Yarn wall

Gosh, I really wish there was something exciting to relate! Alas, there is not. The weekend was full of driving. There was a family event way up in the northern reaches of Texas, 30 miles from Durant, OK. Toll roads all the way–a love/hate relationship there. After our guild meeting, I hit the road, following wherever the GPS took me. Since owners of Fiber Artz are retiring, they were selling out everything. Naturally, since I would be in Bells, Texas at Willowood Ranch, I decided to drive the 30 miles farther north to see the sale stuff. And buy. And buy I did. After all, 1/2 price. Someday I will have to start spinning again because I bought roving.

Drawing for experimenting

Drawing for experimenting

Finding my way to Willowood Ranch via narrow tree covered country roads was a nice drive. The ranch is wonderful, quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. Quiet except for the auto racing that began at dusk. It was relaxing to visit with family around a table with plates of barbecue. It is Texas, after all. Plus, I am hopeful that my brothers-in-law have helped me solve my ikat ratio problem. After I dye and weave the above experiments (yes, I know, they are not very attractive), we’ll see if the ratio holds true. And what’s a Texas ranch without a cow over the fireplace?

Fireplace

Nothing much

Walkway into BRIT. I love shadows!

It seems that there’s not much getting done around here, but when I look back, I realize that’s not true. September 12 was Fall Gallery Night, so there was work to be done there. Fort Worth Weavers Guild had their biennial show at CAC, so that had to be hung. The Fort Worth Art Collective had a pop-up at BRIT, so work had to be delivered and then picked up at the end of gallery night. Plus, there’s weaving to be done, and somehow, real life gets in there too.

American Beautyberry-Callicarpa americana

The grounds at BRIT (Botanical Research Institute of Texas) are covered in native plants. Above is American Beautyberry. It’s so pretty this time of year. So, as I walked in, not only were the shadows from the walkway beautiful, but so were the plants. The grasses are in full seed-head mode. Too bad it’s hard to get good pictures of them with a phone. But the shadows–look at the ones on the pillars of the entrance, which I didn’t even notice until I saw the picture I had taken. The ones on the walkway were sufficient for my eyes. BRIT is located near the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, so as I was leaving, I had to take a picture of the plants at their entrance. I have no idea what they are, but I suspect some kind of lily. Is this the year I finally join one of the many garden clubs that meet there? Plus, I’ve been mulling over how to hang a couple of pieces that are horizontal. My first plan didn’t work. More on that later too.

Fort Worth Botanic Gardens

48 inches woven

So here’s where I start for the day. I’ve been trying to get 10 inches woven per day. Sounds like a puny goal, doesn’t it? Even though this ikat weaves much faster than tapestry, it’s not like just throwing a shuttle back and forth. Each of the design motifs has to match up before beating. With ikat, a new motif pops up, and it has to begin in a place that will maintain selvedges. Sometimes, sections have to be rewoven just to maintain those selvedges. At first, as I was weaving, I kept notes on the measurements and compared them with the cartoon measurements, hoping to find some sort of formula to use in planning future projects. Maybe a mathematician could do it, but so far I can’t. My next project, to finish off this warp, will be purely experimental ikat. More about that later. And speaking of warp, I’ve got some ideas about warping going around in my head. I need to take some pictures and get opinions from you. Will it work or not? That’s for later too. Right now, I need to finish what’s on the loom.

What’s going on in your world. Weaving? Personal projects?

Taking the day off

Today is declared to be a day off–after cleaning the studio. All of those bits of ikat tape are driving me nuts. If I would wear shoes, I probably wouldn’t find them all over the house, but …

Though, I say it’s a day off, it really isn’t, but it will be spent doing things other than tying ikat, which, by the way, is done for this project. I laid all the sections out in order to take the picture above and discovered that I had not done one section. You can see the cartoon on the left. Back to the ikat table and NOW I’m done. As for those other things, the list is a mile long, but maybe a visit to the book store will be added and crossed off first.

Spice of the month club

For Mother’s Day, my daughter gave me a subscription to the Spice of the Month Club. After rolling my eyes at this, my sisters and I thought this would make a fun once-a-month dinner for us to have at our mother’s house. We decided that five-ish on a Sunday would be good for all of us. I will cook the recipes that come with the spices, and everyone else would bring something to go with the month’s theme. We’ve done this once now and declared it good. As you can see from the picture above, last month’s theme was Jamaica. I’m not a huge fan of jerk, but this was used on fish, and surprisingly, everyone enjoyed it, especially with the mango salsa. This month I get to cook ribs for the first time in my life, and make ice cream in the ice cream maker I bought on sale and never used. The theme is Memphis spice. Spice ice cream, anyone?

Addendum: I have removed all links because I was receiving several emails per week about these links from the company. Sometimes more than once daily. Evidently they were broken, but the information contained here can no longer be found anyway.

There is a problem with this whole thing, however. These recipes can never be duplicated. You can’t buy the spices individually or even the grouping for the month. I asked.

The next dinner will have a Baltimore spice theme and include shrimp. Yum!