Sherri Woodard Coffey

While doing all the finishing of pieces this week, I decided—again—that I needed a tool box to keep everything together in one spot. I have a “dedicated” inexpensive drill so that I don’t have to find the correct drill bit for the screw holes in the hanging boards. I bought an inexpensive sander since I don’t seem to be able to cut the boards to size very well. (I thought it might be a little over the top to buy a table saw for these projects. Besides it won’t fit into the tool bag.) My little jigsaw fits into the bag. If there’s room, I’ll even store the Velcro and whatever else I can get in there.

A correction to a comment I made last week. I am basically a rug weaver, but nobody will put them on the floor. So, when I started making some smaller pieces, I made those to be hemmed, but continued to needle weave the warp ends in on the larger pieces. As I was doing the needle weaving chore on a couple of pieces last week, it hit me—these two will probably never go on a floor because of their awkward size! Oh, well…..it’s done now.

I love books and have a lot of them. I also have a Kindle that was given to me for Christmas several years ago. And then there’s the iPad that I bought a couple of months ago.

The Kindle is great for traveling because you can take lots of books with you in little space. If you finish what you have, it’s easy to get another. At the time I received my it, the Kindle versions of new books were cheaper than the regular printed versions. They’re not now. And the fact that you could easily get a new book on the Kindle could also be considered a disadvantage for some of us. However, there were reference books that I wanted, that came in a Kindle version, but the lack of color was a definite drawback. Then the iPad came into my life.

Although for regular reading, the Kindle is easier on my eyes, the iPad has other advantages. I love the fact that I can download a PDF or reference book in color. Then I can take that book to wherever I am working and follow directions at that location. The directions for warping the Mirrix come to mind—since I don’t do it often, I need directions. I also got a book about operating my smarter-than-I-am Nikon. It is so easy to look up exactly what I need and a touch takes me there.

I am grieving the closing of one of my favorite bookstores, Borders. Before they started to have financial difficulties, Borders was where I could find more esoteric books that I could not find and B & N. I was in Borders so often that the employees were like friends. I like books, but I also like to look at books before I buy them. It’s not the same, but with Kindle books, you can get a sample of the book to look at before buying. And for a little bit of trivia: I was always tempted to put an apostrophe before the s in Borders before I read that the couple who founded the chain was named Borders.

E-mags next…

I’ve been trying to divide my studio time between weaving and doing finish work. I REALLY don’t like the finishing! (You may have seen my whiney postings on Facebook.) I working on my attitude, but a finishing fairy would be much better. So, because of a couple of deadlines coming up, I sat down last night and made a list of all the details that need to get done in the next 10 days, then plugged those into my calendar. Sometimes it worries me that I am so visual and have to see things plotted out like that, but it just is.

I found an At-A-Glance paper calendar that I like, even though I love having my computer calendar and smart phone calendar. With the paper calendar, I can block out sections of time in that all important (to me) visual way. This particular calendar has a section on the right to make those to-do lists. Most of my list items carry on to the next week. I am trying to train myself to pick out three main things to accomplish the next day instead of having that humongous to-do list staring me in the face.

In the other structure-making part of my life, things haven’t gone as well this week. Not regression back to pre-structure-making, just not as well. It’s hard to get up at six when one does not fall asleep until one. Stopping all screen-related activities did not seem to help with the sleep, as I had read that it might. Will move on to Plan B, as soon as I figure out what Plan B is.

Peruvian Mask
Wool Tapestry
46.75 x 79.5
Private Collection

ZigZag I
Wool Tapestry
33 x 51
Private Collection

Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, R-I c4, 1968 Oil on masonite. JAAF: 1976.1.1852 40.64 x 40.64 cm (16 x 16 inches) ©2007 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York (photo courtesy of: www.albersfoundation.org)

I read an interesting post from Brown Grotta Arts. It mentioned Josef Albers and his Homage to the Square and featured the gallery’s artists and their depictions of red. This link will take you to the post. The collection of small thumbnails of red art is quite nice. If you click on each one, you are taken to that artist’s page for the gallery and are able to see more work. Since I seem to use a lot of red, I was quite drawn to this idea for a post.

In trying to find a copy of the Homage painting, I found other Albers “experiments,” mostly about the golden rectangle. I will need to go back and explore those when there is more time, but here is a link to one of them. The rectangles get progressively smaller, and the site is somewhat interactive.

So, how do YOU say red?

For a couple of years I have been thinking about doing something in browns and blacks. I tried some new dyes, made some samples, dyed some skeins with different formulas, all in the search for some browns that I liked. Some are good, some not. The not-so-good yarns will be overdyed with another color. Now that I have all these skeins, it’s time to do something with them. With that in mind, along with various other thoughts, I am now weaving with browns. I have also decided to work on a series after reading about taking a design you like and expanding on the idea with many designs based on the original one. That idea and geodes keep talking to me. Here’s the cartoon for the original idea. I’m going to try and push this until I get sick of it or bored, whichever comes first. However, I doubt I’ll stick with browns for long. I’m thinking malachite…

On the finding structure front—It’s actually going pretty well. While waiting in the doctor’s office, a health piece was playing about getting more sleep. I already knew this, but they mentioned turning off “screens” an hour before it’s time for sleep. That may be my next baby step. There are so many things that need improving, it’s hard to decide which one to go to next.

Big Sur
2000
sterling silver, eucalyptus leaves, wool yarn
14” x 14” x .5”
one-of-a-kind
collection of Tacoma Art Museum

Not a lot here about weaving today, but there IS some fiber.

I saw this piece by Sarah Hood in Ornament magazine and became fascinated with the work. I only skimmed the article, but her approach to jewelry seems very interesting. Now, since the above piece is made of what looks like dried eucalyptus leaves, it definitely is a display piece. What a tragedy to break one of those leaves! The above link takes you to a short piece about Ms. Hood. The physical version of the magazine has several pages devoted to her and her jewelry. I like reading about the process and evolution that happens to the art and the artist.

This particular issue of Ornament has many pages dedicated to prehistoric Southwest jewelry and their sites.

Above is a Visuwords illustration of the word structure. To use, just type in a word, click Enter, and the program does the rest.

Yesterday’s goals were simple:

• 15 minutes de-cluttering
• Tie on warp
• Begin weaving project
• Continue with maintenance on other items

I’m keeping them simple because the plan is to have success, to be able to cross those things off my list. And I outdid myself! The warp is tied on, prepped for weaving, the design is marked on the warp, and butterflies are made. The colors are in the order in which they will be used, AND, de-cluttering has been started. Yippee! I will not get too excited about this one day’s success—after all, there are many days ahead. And de-cluttering at 15 minutes a day could easily take a couple of centuries or two. That number will have to increase at some point.

Now, about that warp: it was a total mess. When I warp, I make a warp much wider than what I usually use. The extra warp just hangs at the front and advances as the weaving advances. Those extra warps have a tendency to wrap around the pegs for sectional warping. In addition, I double the selvedge warps. This piece will be about twelve inches wider than the previous piece, so those doubled ends had to be rethreaded and new ones made. Took me longer than expected, but it’s done!

Today’s goals are pretty much the same:

• Weave, weave, weave
• De-cluttering for 15 minutes
• Continue other already started goals
• Grocery store, post office, gas

I discovered today that the hunt for a new computer may have to happen sooner than expected. My scanner won’t scan, says there’s not room. I know there’s room, but …something else to add to the list.

Structure is all around us everywhere we look. It’s one of life’s great organizers. But for the first time in my life I have no structure to my days. When you think about it, for the most part, structure is provided to us by our parents, school, spouses, children, work, etc. This is the first time EVER that my structure canvas is absolutely blank. I am having to reinvent that structure, to provide structure to my life intrinsically, not from outside sources.Now that I don’t have someone to wait for, cook for, or spend my evenings with, those evenings are running into my nights which are running into my days, which are…… The only structure that I have is the self-imposed kind, which is not enjoying much success at this stage of my evolvement.

So, with all these thoughts in mind, I am trying to force some kind of structure upon myself. The alarm is being set. The calendar is being marked with planned activities. No, not the exciting kind of activities, but the kind that remind me to vacuum, to weave, to do finish work—you know, all THAT kind of exciting stuff. Today was my official Day One in my Learning to Structure All By Myself. If I could rate it, my hand would be wobbling back and forth in that so-so kind of way. I got up on time, finished all the chores in the time I had allotted, only to be flummoxed at the next stage. Although I did get the studio a little tidied up, the warp did not tie itself, nor did the weaving begin. Tomorrow. Is that Scarlet’s voice I hear?

Tomorrow’s goals:

• 15 minutes de-cluttering
• Tie on warp
• Begin weaving project
• Continue with maintenance on other items

How bad can that be? Trying to keep it simple so that I have some chance for success! My fingers are actually itching to weave, just gotta start!

Does anyone else have trouble with adding structure to your days? How do you structure your day?

I hate to complain, since so many parts of the country have had much more serious problems, but it’s hot! Really hot! Although the Texas fires may not compare with other fires in AZ and NM, and we haven’t had any floods in ages, I am still complaining about the heat. And drought. By the way, our fires in the North Texas area have started up again, and in some parts of Texas, they have never stopped.

Last night I realized that it really wasn’t cooling down much and that the AC seemed to be running constantly, so I checked the thermometer on the thermostat. 84 inside! And that motor was running all the time. Of course, it was too late to call the repair folks, so sleep was a long time coming. And it’s hard to make yourself work with balling up wool yarns when your dripping with, ahem, sweat. I called this morning, and they can’t come until tomorrow—no surprise there. They also said I should turn off the unit and let the Freon leak thaw out. They can’t work on it while it is frozen with ice. And I thought it was hot before!

Photo credit: Bradsmitchell

The Hotter ‘n Hell bicycle race is held in Wichita Falls, just a hop, skip, and a jump west of here. Since our summer heat started a month early this year, I think they should push up the date for the race.

Guess I’m having an unscheduled vacation.

I hate to complain, since so many parts of the country has had much more serious problems, but it’s hot! Really hot! The Hotter ‘n Hell bicycle race is held in Wichita Falls, just a hop, skip, and a jump west of here.