New year

All Squared Up

Wool tapestry

34 inches by 34.5 inches

The fresh calendar is out, dates are marked, everything is fresh and new. Unfortunately, the to-do list is not fresh, many items have been carried over to the new year. But at least there IS a list and I know where it is! Further good news (for me) is that there is a plan in place. Before I was floating with no destination in mind. Implementation, of course, is another critter all together.

Floating in a Deep, Dark Sea

Weft-faced ikat

34.5 inches by 56 inches

Technorati Tags: Tapestry,Contemporary tapestry

Pencils

The bowl from Monday’s post reminded me of the pencil sculptures that I’d seen. The first time I saw pictures of her pieces was after hearing of my grandson’s effort to try and sharpen his pencil to have the shortest one. I immediately realized that he was destined to be a great artist like Maestre! You can see Jennifer Maestre’s work here. More information about her process is here.

As I was trying to find Jennifer’s website (sorry, couldn’t remember her name), I found this:

A larger picture can be seen here. This is a sculpture by Dalton Ghetti. There is a post, complete with pictures, about how he makes these sculptures here.

Tools

My go-to hand beater from Weaving Southwest

Weavers use a lot of tools. I once had someone tell me, after seeing my studio, that “You have a lot of cool tools!” We all use them in different ways, some of us use tools that others don’t and vice versa. This brings me to a very interesting idea:

Mark Lindquist, Dowel Bowl, 2011

The Tool at Hand brings together artworks resulting from an unusual and slightly eccentric experiment. Last spring the Chipstone Foundation invited fourteen contemporary artists to break from their usual practice and make a work of art with one tool alone. This exhibition presents these works, and the tools used to craft them, together with short, explanatory videos produced by each artist. This exhibit is at the Milwaukee Art Museum. And again, I wish there were more images of the works.

Tis the season

May all your weaving days—and others—be shiny and bright.

I can’t believe it’s tapestry

That’s the title of the page from where this information came. I absolutely love these tapestries! What do these pieces remind you of? Go here to read more about how this Australian exhibit came to be. If you click on these pictures to enlarge, you will see that there is a designer (or two) and a weaver. Somehow, that kind of disappoints me, as I’d like the designer and weaver to be one and the same, but it does nothing to detract from these wonderful pieces. And you really need to see the beautiful flowers here.

Then, moving back to North America, there is the Woven Bridges exhibit at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte, Ontario. I think the pictures included with the description is a montage of various pieces, but I’m not sure. There are no other pictures to see, but it does look interesting.

In my own small part of the world, progress continues on the current weaving, although it may turn out to be an oval instead of a circle by the time I finish. I’ve been considering bubbles—champagne, anyone?

No, they don’t have anything in common…

MEXICO CITY.- A 67 year-old debt has been paid with the opening of the Tlatelolco Museum, whose plans to be built go back to the 1940s, and now are a reality thanks to the efforts from two fundamental Mexican institutions, the National Institute of Anthropology and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In this image: Female tlacuache. Photo: Meliton Tapia/INAH.

Disclaimer: These two topics have absolutely no connection whatsoever.

I saw the photo above in ArtDaily, and since I seem to like all things pre-Columbian, I like this also. Reading about the new museum made me want to hop on a plane, which then brings me to the sad state of Mexico. I love Mexico. I have been to places in Mexico that had no electricity or running water, where we took the soaked corn down to the community mill to grind it into masa for the daily tortillas cooked over a wood-burning stove. It makes me so sad for all the regular citizens of this country fro what they are enduring.

For the second topic of the day, have you seen the community Facebook page about the weaving of the tapestry The Graduation Party? Pretty amazing. As usual, I love to see process, but more than that, the weaving itself is fabulous. I clicked through all the pictures last night, seeing some that I’d missed before, so it’s also kind of a “day in the life” selection.

Women rug weavers in Turkey and…

I saw this article about women rug weavers in Turkey and then ran across this article about women artists in Turkey in the NY Times. Makes for some interesting thinking, a nice juxtaposition—well, I don’t know what—maybe ancient and modern?  There are lots of pictures on the rug weaving site, but the newspaper article only includes two pictures of the works/artists mentioned in the article. I would really like to see more.

Yapi Kredi Collection

Aliye Berger’s ‘‘Sun Rising’’ was her first oil painting and set off a controversy when it earned first prize in a painting competition in 1954.

Optical Illusions

Do you see the wheels moving? You can read more here. This is from a National Geographic interview with a brain researcher. I am somewhat fascinated with some optical illusions and often thought of weaving one—only the simplest, though.

I did not weave my unintended design—sorry, Donna. But I am thinking more and more about breaking out those spiro tools and try one more time. I spent yesterday weaving in the morning and working with the organizer in the afternoon. After about two hours of organizing, I’ve had enough! Progress is being made, though!

It wasn’t until the afternoon session, though, that I realized that I had not woven anything for a hem on this piece. More needle weaving in store for me. Bah! Humbug! In my head, at least, I have decided that anything that is of the wrong size to go on the floor as a rug, will have a hem. Like I said—in my head…

Unintended design

Does anyone remember this toy? It’s the Spirograph. I played with one about a kazillion years ago. I would always about halfway finish my design, then something would slip and the design would be ruined. Several years ago, I bought this book from Klutz at one of the art museums, thinking that surely I could do this better now. Wrong! I would still get so far in the design and something would slip. Must be that I can’t do the contortions necessary for completing the design. And why am I mentioning this at all? I mention this because my warp looks like a spirograph. After marking the design on the warp, I realized that it was upside down. So I turned the cartoon to the correct direction and marked again with a different color. Then I decided a correction needed to be made and went back to the cartoon-drawing table. Then there was a third color. My warp is actually very attractive. Maybe I should weave the unintended design.

By the way, Klutz has lots of really interesting and fun books, and even though they are supposedly for kids, there are others that I’m tempted to buy. I’ve been thinking for years about the knot book. They can also provide extra supplies in case you run out of the original included supplies.

Chaos in life and tapestry

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever searched for an image of chaos? Most were mythical creatures, perhaps from video games. The ones above are the only ones that made any sense to me. And, as I look at them, I kind of like the one on the right. Hmmm…what does that say about me?

So, why am I searching for images of chaos? Because that’s my life right now. I’ve mentioned before that I am designing a new life for myself, and it’s definitely a work in progress. The hardest part seems to be in finding new routines. For the first time ever, there are no routines that come from outside sources, unless you want to count night and day.

I am a great list maker and can plan a project with a multitude of steps, but implementation is a problem. So, I have taken a big step—called a professional organizer. The hope is that someone else will see the first string to start pulling. She will come out weekly until we finish the areas in most desperate need of help. One of the most helpful things she said to me was that most people who work from home have some of these same issues about routine. I am not alone!

Now for some GOOD chaos--Janet Austin has written about her series of tapestries called Chaos. In this blog post, she writes about all of them and includes pictures of each. I would really like to see them in person. If you’re close by, you can see the one above at the East Greenwich Free Library until January 6. You can see all her tapestry photos grouped together here. Fascinating—I love seeing how people work! There is also a Kilim tapestry series, which I don’t remember seeing before. 

Thank goodness for tape

For years I have been using a method to tie on my warp called the Nyquist method. I wrote (and included pictures) about it here in 2009. Now, when I do a search for the method, I found a book by her which is open for all. That method worked fine while I was using the 4-ply wool warp, but the last time I warped, I put on 30 yards or so of 12/9 Swedish cotton doubled. While weaving with the cotton, some of the warp threads in some of the bouts, were getting loose. That means going back to the ol’ tried and true traditional way of tying on the warp, but that cotton is tough and hard on the fingers. Thank goodness for Johnson & Johnson and their tough tape. Maybe my fingers won’t have blisters now. I have heard tapestry weavers talk about about seine twine, and I have no idea if this Swedish warp is the same stuff. Next time I warp, I am going to try some linen.

Week in review

Wait! is it December 5 already? Can’t be!

Midnight Fire

29.5 x 48 in.

The past week has been pretty busy. I got the fire piece finished, all those many warp ends woven in. It has been shipped. Did I mention how obsessed I was with the wildfires this past summer?

Pieces were also shipped to the Ann Street Gallery in NY, where I was honored to be asked to participate in a tapestry exhibit, Woven Stories: Contemporary Tapestries. If you click on the gallery link, they’ve got an amazing slideshow of tapestries. I am always amazed by the works of tapestry weavers. Work that I can’t even imagine doing.

And, speaking of tapestry weavers, I just read the latest issue of Tapestry Topics from American Tapestry Alliance. It’s all about wedge weave. If you aren’t a member, please consider joining. The newsletter is great! The website as undergone some substantial improvements that are just wonderful. Check it out.

The very occasional, once-in-a-great-while newsletter went out, AND I figured out how to do real sign up links. If you look to the right column, you will find a place to put in your email address. Then, in six months or so, one of those newsletters will arrive. I also added buttons on my website and Facebook page.

On the home front, I got firewood delivered, so now I can have a nice, warm fire in the studio while I weave. Saturday I got new cartoons enlarged, so now I’ve a couple of options about what I weave next. I go to FedEx Office for that. I’ve noticed that there’s a big difference between the ease and turnaround time in getting these enlargements done, depending on the available employee. Dare I say it—the women seem to get this done much more efficiently. The last time I had this done (by a male employee), I got home and half the design was missing. So, just as I was ready to get to work, I was driving back to town instead.

Poster-sized color wheel

This poster is double-sided, but the side above is my favorite. It can be found at Dick Blick or Amazon. This is a close-up of the poster. As you can see, for each color, the possible ideal color combinations are shown. The opposite side of the poster shows the colors illustrated with quilting fabrics.

It is by Joen Wolfrom. She has many quilting and design books, plus this handy color tool. And, if nothing else, the poster really brightens the studio!