16 New Faces

It really is amazing.

When you teach a group of motivated weavers the sky is the limit. In this case I was in Milwaukee teaching a 3 day workshop at Convergence 2016  and we were weaving faces. Sixteen (okay, 17 including mine) new personalities emerged and naming ceremonies were in full force. Diplomas were issued to all and the class photo is the proof!

Graduation Day, Convergence 2016

These weavers had a lot of skill. I'm interested that there was not a loom issue in the bunch, everyone warped their loom with ease consulting neighbors who shared advice. Weavers really are a generous,  sharing bunch of people.

Each day we stopped to look at our work....so important.

I provided plenty of color choice and coaxed folks to let the process guide their choices. Nancy suggested I do a sketching demo showing how I might draw out an idea and I was grateful for that; overcoming the fear of drawing can be very daunting. In the end you often have to let that idea adjust itself. Tapestry language is so very unique. Archie told us in a workshop to sit on your design.

all those cardboards....everyone saw what cereal I eat all winter.

Examples abound, each one different and reflecting the weaver's personality.
Most of all I was proud of these students who took a risk and kept going despite their uncertainty.

So often you hear teachers talk of how they learn from their students and this, once again, showed that to be true. I'm grateful and honored to have spent time with 16 new friends, taking advantage of the power of a group and the knowledge they share.

on to her second one!

May our paths meet again.

Thanks HGA, it was a marvelous Convergence.

Convergence Here We Come!

Summer is flying by. I looked at the calendar last week and realized I better hunker down on some of those post-its accumulating on the Convergence list.

The 3 day workshop is Expression in Woven Faces so first I gathered my bag of skin tones to see what gaps I needed to fill.

I promise I won't wear this outfit at the workshop.

Then I headed out the The Dye Studio (that left hand corner of the garage) and spent Monday dyeing and over-dyeing, my favorite way to get those tricky variations on orange.

Porkchop remains as enthused as ever.

Watching a couple movies gave me the stamina to wind and ball up all the skeins. I think I have a good range of values to choose from.

Today I was rooting through various face samples, plenty of those, some good examples of what not to do. Naturally I got distracted and started putting things in the yard to photograph.

Only a little more than two weeks until we all meet in Milwaukee. I'm throwing out these post-its but I have a feeling more will appear shortly.

What is Tapestry?

Well that was a wonderful Saturday last weekend. It didn't even matter that it was 94 degrees (thank you, there was a box AC unit in the window) , I was among like minded people making stuff. More and more I believe 'making stuff' might be the key to something anyway; those of us who work with our hands are the lucky ones.
But I digress.

Entrance to the Arts Center

Last Saturday I was back at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in the old (for WI) restored mining town of Mineral Point, southwest of Madison. Five eager weavers spent the day with me discovering what tapestry could do, four had never woven before.

The Potter's Barn

This is such a special place to spend a day in, complete with gardens, walking down paths from another time long gone. We worked together in a building called The Potter's Barn creating process driven landscapes, each very individual; start the piece, see where it takes you. Throughout this experience I tried to show my new friends what tapestry language was all about and if they choose to do it again, there's a whole wide world out there.

I realized at the end of the day I had no photos of their work (fire the photographer)! However this day was more about the experience of making and the discovery of possibilities, so I'm okay without the documentation.

If you ever get a chance to be in Mineral Point stop by and enjoy the view, walk around and take a class at the Arts Center.
Be good to yourself.
Make stuff.

Time for Dyeing!

Yes indeed the Summer 2016 dyeing season is in full swing. Porkchop remains unsure whether this is a good or bad thing.

I'm using my favorite approach, gradations. I love seeing the little skeins hanging in a row on my metal rod.

 After that comes the exhaust baths. These light colors can be so subtle and surprising. I have some light grey Norsk yarn coming from Sidsel any day now and I love to save that for the dye exhaust. So much fun ahead.

The great magazine Fiberart Now published a variety of studios in their latest issue so I figure I need to share a full view of my dyeing studio, my little corner of the garage. It seems to suit me.

Next week I teach a day class at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point called Tapestry Sunsets, today I dyed our treasures.

Yes I know....I'm a lucky person.

Ladies in the Garden

I'm so glad I read an article somewhere a few years ago that talked about the trendiness of taking photos in unpolished settings. Instead of a precise studio setup these objects in the magazine were in all sorts of weird locations. I promptly took my loom out to the yard and the title of my blog was born.

So here is a very tiny lady (the warp is only about 1 1/4 inches wide). She appeared today, in fact she posed for the summer plein air painter.

Don't ask me why I do this. I want to make this guy a little VISA sign, see if he can up his sales.

It was hot today, so later I found her cooling off in the iris.

She's a super tiny t...

Another piece I took to a show in town, so before I left I put her in the yard too. I know it's not right for everything, but it feels so liberating.

Embossed, Stamped, and Burnished , 10 x 20 inches, painted background

Happy Summer!

Unfinished

What to do, what to do...

Summer has set in (ok, not really but I'm feeling that way) which means more time for thinking. This summer I'm thinking about the perennial question: What do you do with a Tiny T?

When I have taught the occasional one day or even half day workshop we naturally end up with a very small piece of cloth. The inevitable question is asked: What do I do with this?

I have my own pile of tiny t's...and my own ideas. Just when I think I have solved this problem I become dissatisfied. Suddenly metal sectional frames just don't seem to be the right answer. Don't these pieces need something more interesting?

These days I often paint canvas and labor over the just the right value and shade. Do these two materials really go together? A few weeks ago I was sorting through a box of rejects and used an old teacup for the cover of my sketchbook. Why not, it was officially in the reject box...

I EVEN zig-zag stitched it to my watercolor paper with the sewing machine! Imagine that....as  my friend Kathe Todd Hooker would say, "the tapestry police are not going to show up". It felt liberating.

But I still struggle and probably always will.

What to do with her.....

And then that self portrait .... I've mounted the t and changed my mind 3 times . It's still unmounted.

Looks as though I have plenty to think about this summer. Any ideas?

The H Project

I've written other posts that tell of my love of the woven word, so when I read a note from Christine Rivers last year announcing a challenge from Archie Brennan, I knew that was the way to start 2016. I even had my word picked out. Then I realized that was a problem.

Christine describes the challenge this way. "Archie set us a project to go on a tapestry journey.  To thread the loom at 8epi for 1 1/2”, 12 warp threads.  Weave an “H”, then a vowel and as you weave, decide what word you want to weave.  It can be a word or a phrase."

I scrapped my idea for the Spanish word 'hacer', used a loom already warped at 8epi and counted off 12 warps. I chose a dark purple yarn for the letters and added to the journey by restricting myself to yarn lengths from my sourdough starter  (warm colors only).

I've come to refer to my leftover ends as 'sourdough starter'...there's quite a collection.

After the 'ha' (guess I could have stopped there) I felt compelled to write 'have'. 

'Have' didn't feel as though it could stand alone, so another day the rest of the writing came to me. I always have more questions than answers these days.

entry for The H Project, a question that brings a lot to mind...

Archie Brennan opened my eyes to possibilities. I went back to my journals this morning and pulled out 1990, my first workshop with him and read through those old notes. At one point I wrote 'Weaving By Osmosis', his advice to plan and sketch beforehand if you must but then put the drawing on your chair and sit on it. 

First Face, Woven by Osmosis....thanks Archie!

I'm so glad I participated in the H Project. Many thanks to Christine Rivers for taking this project on and further working on an Educational Article planned for the ATA website later this year. 

Now we can  look at all the journeys taken by tapestry weavers.