Tag Archives: Lisa Call

Habit

ZigZag

Just off the loom. Colors are way off in this pic, taken with phone.

Not perfect, but improved

The real color

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems as though habit, either good or bad, has been a constantly running theme for me. We all have them; they’re necessary for accomplishing anything. It took me a while to develop my studio habit of working consistently and not getting up and doing something just because it flitted through my monkey brain. Keeping a notepad handy and writing down the thought helped with that. I have read books, listened to books, thought about articles…you know how that goes. Plus, and I’m really excited about this, I am doing the finish work on pieces as soon as they’re cut off. This is a really big change for me–patting myself on the back.

One thing that seems to be consistent with habit change is to identify the cue and to substitute an new activity for the old one. The habit that I am working on now is to walk and work in the yard on a consistent basis. I have been setting the alarm, getting out of bed, getting dressed, and walking out the door every morning. 6:15 and I’m on the street. Every night I ask myself if I really want that alarm to go off so early, but I know that if I miss one day, that will be it. No more walking. I’m such an all or nothing person! So the alarm stays.

Before heading outside, I do allow myself to have my coffee and newspaper after my walk. But the shoes do not come off, because that will mean that I don’t go outside and do whatever Brush-tarp tasks I’ve set for myself. Coming up, my outside chores are to learn how to use a chain saw. The tree branches overhanging the roof have been trimmed, but the wood is too good not to cut up for firewood. To say nothing about how heavy they are to drag anywhere! My makeshift wagon is a tarp, on which I pile the smaller brush and drag to the street for disposal. Why didn’t I think of this years ago!

I first heard about the book, The Power of Habit from Lisa Call. She has some great online workshops. I’ve also done a little Googling about habit:

Adiós, farewell, goodbye

Pottery-Barn-Indigo Yep, we’re here again. Time to say adiós to anther year. Farewell, 2013, to all the good and the not-so-good. And you know it’s a new year when you start getting huge catalogs, like the left. Of course, this one REALLY got my attention. It’s funny, I don’t even shop at Pottery Barn.

I don’t make resolutions or choose a word for the coming year. But I’ve made my to-do lists for 2014, and as usual, they are long, long, long. They are broken down into categories: House (outside and inside), weaving, dyeing, etc. Having these lists would seem overwhelming, except that I have a history of crossing through 75% or more of the items.

One of the things that I want to continue and improve, is my systems, something started in the class with Lisa Call. I always had systems, just not in such an organized way. Now I have my dyeing, ikat, and finishing procedures written down and in a binder. I can note any improvements or changes for next time–and find them! Phone-cases

I didn’t have anything better to do (ha ha), so I played around with telephone cases on CafePress. I thought these looked pretty good. However if you go to the link, you can’t see them, so here’s a picture of the other iPhone cases that I played around with. 2014January

Raging At left is a beer label from Flying Dog brewery. From the name of the brewery, you can see that this label is not made to be offensive. Ha ha! I think it’s banned in a couple of states, though. Love the label. The beer? Not so much. They’ve also got Snake Dog and Underdog. May have to try those and others that they brew. I’m not much of a drinker, so those tastings will wait a while.

2013 was actually pretty good to me. What about you? Do you make resolutions?

Starting again

From Above
Tapestry, Hand-dyed yarns, 23.4″ x 37″, ©Sherri Woodard Coffey

After starting the current weaving, you know, the one with slits, I decided that I really didn’t like it and wasn’t going to waste anymore time on it. So I cut it off. I like the colors (kind of like the ones above, but brighter), so I may just weave a stripe until I can finally decide on what to weave. How long does one stay in a state like this anyway? I am reminded of a video about Susan Rothenberg (which came to me via Lisa Call). She says how important it is to go into the studio each day, to do something, even if it’s wrong, even if it’s changed later. That so makes me feel better! The video is below, but there’s text with the link above.

While I try to figure out where to go from here, I will clean my studio. Exciting stuff! I ordered new warp today-on sale at Lone Star Room. I don’t need it right now, but there’s not a whole lot left on the warp beam. Since that’s the case, I switched out reeds from a 4-dent to a 6-dent. The big concern with that is whether my two strands of weft will cover the warp. I sometimes weave with three strands at 4 epi, so surely two strands will cover at 6 epi, right? So now I want to know–how do you get out of the doldrums, the creative slump? Hints, anyone?

Watch Memory on PBS. See more from ART:21.

More about working in a series

Earlier I posted about Matisse and the exhibit at the Met–something I would really like to see. This exhibition clearly demonstrates Matisse’s series work. I recently completed a Working in a Series workshop with Lisa Call. You can go to her website and see my comments and a few of the designs I came up with. I am not through with the design process by any means, but it’s a start. Matisse was one of the artists that Lisa wrote about as part of our education.

I started out thinking I would do a series about layers, something I’ve been thinking about for a few years. (A trip through the mountains will do that to you.) The piece above was woven with that in mind, so I took the bones of that piece and started to expand on it. I didn’t like anything I did. Nothing! Finally I just took that wedge shape and expanded on it.

This is what I came up with. Still not loving it, but it’s acceptable. And this is what I used to get myself weaving again. At least it’s something! What I have found is that as I sit there weaving, more ideas are coming. Funny how that works, isn’t it? More on wedges next time.

Who weaves in a series?