Personal Archives - Page 6 of 10 - Sherri Woodard Coffey

Category Archives: Personal

Making a decision

The taupe is too yellowy in this picture.

I went to Cutting Corners and bought taupe and gray linen on Monday. I’ve written about Kirsten Glasbrook’s book before and her method for mounting and framing a small tapestry. I have decided to try her method, except for the blockboard, I am going to substitute archival foam board. I now have the new linen colors and the black I already had on hand. In Glasbrook’s book, she mentions using watered down acrylic paint on the linen. If I don’t like the colors I have, there may be some painting happening around here.

By the way, I love both the whimsical and more serious tapestries that Kirsten weaves.

In the meantime, I suddenly remembered these boots that I bought on sale at DSW. They are Chookas, although they are now to be known as Snake/Fireant Protectors. Not as comfy as my New Balance shoes, but right now these boots have the advantage.

What to do

From Instagram

Yarn shelves in the studio

According to rainfall charts, our previous highest rainfall total was in 1982 with 13.66 inches. We have now surpassed that and have over 14 inches, and the month of may is not over. Wettest May on record. From drought to flooding. Wichita Falls previously had no water in its lake, only cracked soil. It is now above level. Water everywhere. Squishy yard. As one who usually enjoys rainy, cloudy days, the weather is now affecting my mind. Sunshine is reason to go outside and dance!

My grand plan to work outside has been hampered, even though really difficult weeds pull up easily from the saturated soil. Of course, before tackling those tall weeds, I first poke around with a rake because this weather has flooded out usually hidden critters. Like snakes.

So I have been weaving (halfway finished with the big loom project) and getting slightly frustrated with my yarn storage solution. I already had these locker baskets when I bought the shelves. I had the baskets hanging from picture hooks close to the ceiling all around the studio, and others on makeshift shelves. I decided to consolidate all of these baskets. The problem is that the baskets are slightly too wide to put four on a shelf. Hence, the frustration when I try to pull out a basket. Time for a trip to the Container Store, pretty much my favorite place ever. You can see the red line of the first basket I checked out. I would need to buy lots of those or the black boxes in the pic below. One is see through (an advantage) and one has a lid (an advantage).

From Container Store

At this point, instead of spending money, I may just reduce the wire baskets to three per shelf, hang the extras back on the wall, and be done with it. See what an exciting life this is?

Changes, flux, etc

Wari, private collection

Do you ever feel like everything is in flux? That’s where I’ve been for weeks, or maybe months. I seem to flutter back and forth between doing the weft ikat and tapestry, between wider sett and closer sett, between linen, cotton or wool warp. Why can’t I settle down to one thing?

Although I like the heft of the linen warp, but I don’t like working with it. If I stick with 4 epi, I will go back to wool, which also has problems. The Swedish cotton sitting on my shelf is 12/9 and 12/6.

Because of some ideas rolling around in my head, I am thinking of cutting off the linen and putting on a new warp of cotton. Kind of silly, but … Now to decide which sett to use.

By the way, the British dictionary definition of flux: continuous change; instability. Yep, that’s me. I don’t even want to think about the medical definition on the same page.

Do you ever go through these indecisive times? How do you solve it?

Working like mad…mostly

The weaving of four pieces simultaneously is over. It seemed like it continued. And continued. They’re cut off, but as usual with these small pieces, they didn’t quite turn out like planned, but that’s my fault. I wanted them to be square-ish, but they’re not. I will make them that way.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Kimbell for a program called Precious Adornments: Figurines in the Ancient Andes. Since I love the ancient cultures of this region, it was a must do. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this is the description of the program:

This talk will focus on small-scale humanlike figurines from early pre-Inca cultures along the western coast and highland Andes of modern-day Peru. These anthropomorphic figurines—created in clay, wood, stone, bone, or shell—range in size from miniature pendants to doll-like effigies. Some of these precious objects were worn, and some were adorned with textiles, shell inlay, or precious stones, thus reflecting differences in their function, value, and meaning.

Wari magnet

I wish there were pictures, but there aren’t, so I’ll have to resort to one I’ve posted earlier. this is a picture of a magnet that I bought during the Wari exhibition. Hard to believe he’s only 4 inches high. He’s inlaid with shell and stone. A better picture is here.

I plan to get to Peru within the next year or two. Just as soon as my knee is better. And since I’m on the subject of Peru, did you hear about what Greenpeace did? This was so totally unbelievable to me. They put huge letters along side the Nasca hummingbird. No one, not even presidents, are allowed to walk along the Nasca lines, yet these idiots went in there and laid out these huge letters trying to draw attention to the environment. Yes, the environment needs attention, but this? The Nasca lines are a World Heritage Site. Geez! Okay, rant over.

Actually, not a lot of art is being done at the moment. I always have a hard time balancing all the personal stuff/chores, the weaving, and the art biz stuff. It seems I do one or the other. I always plan out my week on Sundays, but it never works. Even though all my appointments are in my phone and online, I still keep a paper calendar book for my everyday planning. So, I get out my phone, look to see what’s on the calendar for the week, plug those in on paper, and work around that to get my to-do list in place. Someone mentioned they use a color coded spreadsheet, so I decided to try that on my usual calendar. Using colored pencils, I lightly colored in blocks. It looks good, but will it work? Who knows. And even if it does, how long will that last.

For a great 2015

Winter Stripe, hand-dyed wool yarns, handwoven rug, 65" x 36.5" ©Sherri Coffey all rights reserved

The title for this piece seems appropriate for the weather this New Year’s Day, although I really do like the colors. This striped piece was woven soon after the Summer Stripe piece, which made a title very easy for me. And maybe I should say this, but both pieces were woven because I had no idea what I wanted to weave next AND to use up yarns on hand.

Does everyone know about the tradition here in Texas to eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day? Frankly, any black-eyes that aren’t fresh just doesn’t cut it for me, so I was lucky that I had some fresh ones (with snaps!) in the freezer. In case you want to try out some for yourself, the local newspaper had an article and recipes from the Cowgirl Chef (Ellise Pierce) to help. Below is a quote from the article preceding the recipes. The boldface is mine, but you can see the mindset in this part of the world.

Every New Year’s Day, my mom calls me in the afternoon and the first thing she’ll say is, “Have you eaten your peas?” Because by then she certainly has — along with jalapeño cornbread made in a cast-iron skillet, just like always.

Last year, I didn’t eat a single black-eyed pea, and I had one of the worst years I can remember. I lost someone I once loved, I lost someone I still love, and in the middle of it all, I packed and unpacked and moved around four times — all while trying to find a new place to live on the other side of the world.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/living/food-drink/article5169771.html#storylink=cpy

Time-a few minutes here, a few minutes there

I add the image on the side, just in case you want to waste a few minutes. Remember Spirograph? It’s a toy that I could never do quite right because I would always skip a cog or something, and being the perfectionist that I am (in certain areas only), that did it for me. Here’s a virtual one. No skipped cogs!

No weaving has been done during this past week, just a family bowling trip, the new Hobbit movie (my first Hobbit anything, not my favorite genre), seeing the Mythbuster exhibit at the museum and family time.

Watercolor and Inktense pencils have been discovered, along with basket weaving (not a success, but it was fun painting the paper, a la Jackie Abrams). There’seven a Pinterest page for Inktense.

So, now you have a few more ways to waste a few minutes by clicking on all the links here. Because, really, don’t you need to relax with nothingness for a while?

That busy time

We all know how busy this time of the year is. No exception here, especially now that my house is full of extra people, but I am so fortunate that they are able to fly here and stay for ten days. My house is not decorated for Christmas and not many decorations will go up at all. It’s all about the family time and enjoying the moment. Of course, I have done a bit of Christmas prep. In the buying gifts department.

These scarves are felted with alpaca on silk and come from Deanna Curry-Elrod at Sapphire Sky .

I discovered her scarves while in Golden. I bought one similar to this one and have received so many compliments, that I wanted one for my daughter. My sister also wanted one also, so Deanna was kind enough to order the silk and create two ones for me. Now if they’ll just get here by Christmas!

The towels here were woven by my friend Margaret Humphries. Aren’t they beautiful?

The one on the right is from that book that folks (weavers that do this kind of thing, certainly not me!) have been talking about, Echo and Iris. These towels just make me smile. It will be hard to give away even one of these!

A wish for everyone is to be able to spend time with loved ones.

October 6-12

ZigZag II, hand-dyed with natural dyes, wool yarns, tapestry, 33.5 x 58 inches, private collection. ©Sherri Coffey-ZigZagII

A lot of things need to be done this week. In fact, ever since I hurt my knee, my life has been a quagmire, at least after I could walk again. There were physical therapy appointments, appointments to get shots in the knee, and eye appointments. All but the eye appointments are over with. The last surgery on my eye is tomorrow, then two more follow-up appointments, and I’m done.

In honor of fall, here’s a snippet of a Color Thesaurus by Ingrid Sundbird. You can see the whole thing here. It goes from white to black and all the colors in between, really quite interesting.

The weather is getting nicer and I’m feeling more energetic, although we are expected to have more days in the 90s this week. So, in addition of doing my knee exercises and walking, goals for the coming week are:

Studio

Finish work on Rain
Warp baby loom
Clean studio

House

Organize carport
Make a donation run to Goodwill
New toilet installed

Tasks

Eye operation
Post op appt
Attend two events on Friday, one at 4:30, other at 6:30

Back in the swing of things, sorta

Air walking

Air sitting

I went through pictures from our “vacation.” At the pool, the boys like to create “optical illusions” with their cameras.

The list was made, the week organized…when that happens, you know what happens next. Yep, unplanned events interrupt the carefully planned week. Much on the list remains for next week. I did finish the mowing, picked tomatoes and eggplant in the garden, weeded, and finished what was on the loom. The next project is planned and the yarns labeled for dyeing, along with the dye spreadsheet with formulas. I also did a dye inventory and ordered dyes. What I haven’t done? I have not tackled the envelope of receipts for all the things the boys and I did. I think there is an element of denial working here. Nor did I start cutting the brush on the south. Next week.

Close-up

Spotted rays

We went to the World Aquarium in Dallas (no lost child this time, nor a missed train).

For some reason I noticed patterns on the animals this time. Do you do that? I especially liked the rays, shown swimming in the pool above. It’s not very noticeable in the first picture, but the close-up shot shows how some of the spots are surrounded by spots. Kind of interesting.

Summer

There’s something wrong with this picture. The younger, smaller brother is on the bottom.

A busy time around here, so this post is mostly pictures. I have two boys staying with me until June 27, and you know, it’s easy to forget how much space children take. My grandsons always come for the Posse Rodeo, which is held in June. Every year I ask if they still like going to the rodeo, and they say yes. I keep hoping…

Being a long-distance grandmother, I work hard at doing things with them and exposing to many types of things. Some are just a given every year, some fall out of favor, and things are added. The swim party at my sister’s is one of the givens. When the boys were younger, the older cousins could throw them across the pool. That’s no longer possible, as the older brother is now 13 and 5’10”–hard to believe. Swords

We saw the Samurai exhibit at the Kimbell and a film there about making and using Samurai swords. I’m sure you know what they wanted to do when they got home. We went to the Museum of Science for Reel Adventure and the Indiana Jones exhibit.

My small Indiana Jones

Today I drove them to visit south of here. Seeing the flowers in bloom Liatris was good for the soul. I don’t think I’ve ever seen liatris like this before. Even though we’re in a drought situation, these flowers are really Pasture showing off. I love the pasture of Indian blanket and liatris.

And there is the fairy church–no not a church for fairies, at least I don’t think so.–but for the almost-ghost town of Fairy, Texas.

We’ve also tried out a little spinning (ahem!), they got to do some welding with their grandfather, and a little gardening.