Category Archives: Fine Craft

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Almost two years ago, I began transcribing Archie Brennan’s life story which I asked him to write, as well as his many essays and articles written over the course of his 60+ years of weaving tapestries.  He is an excellent record keeper, and going through his files is an exciting adventure!

Several years ago I edited and published a book which took a couple of years to assemble.  The “Archie Project” is considerably larger and is progressing nicely, with about 75 pages of text so far! I am committed to putting together a book about Archie that covers his life story, shares his probing, often humorous, thoughts on many aspects of tapestry weaving in various cultures, and showcases as many of his 450 woven tapestries as space will allow.

The blog is here! 

Two other Wednesday Groupers are helping with this project!  Barbara Burns is working on creating a retrospective exhibition of Archie’s work, and she and Sarah Doyle and I are also cataloging all of Archie’s photographed works into a catalog raisonne which will be an appendix to the book.  Hopefully, we can also create a DVD of works to be included in the book.  It’s a big project, and we are all volunteers! 

I’m seeking input, in the form of contributions of photos or stories, or advice or connections. Anything at all that you think pertinent to this project will be enthusiastically accepted.  Check out the blog and contact me! 

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At the Soul Collage meeting last night, my good friend who leads us read a poem by Rumi.  It was a breath of fresh air!  I haven’t had enough poetry lately, and actually hadn’t even thought of this poet in a year or so.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

— Jelaluddin Rumi,
    translation by Coleman Barks

Well, today my lodgers are all very boisterous, happy guests.  They are the spring dwellers.  My son’s photos of his Manhattan neighborhood capture them very well!  …even in New York!

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This is the cover of the program used for the Diamond Jubilee for Sister Bianca Haglich, who has served in the order of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary for 60 years.

Sr. Bianca is the driving force of a number of weaving groups, and, for me, most notably, the Wacky Weavers which started about 36 years ago.  We are a group of 10 women, many of whom (but not me!) began weaving as students of Sr. Bianca, during her tenure at Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY.  Our Wacky Weavers’ group gets together once a month, except in summer, to teach each other fiber-related techniques.  Over the years the group has witnessed the births, childhood accomplishments, graduations and marriages of our children; the deaths of loved ones; the births of grandchildren.  In recent years some of our monthly meetings have become celebrations of landmark birthdays since we are all advancing in age!

Sr. Bianca created this image for her diamond jubilee since water has played such an important role in the journey of her life.  She was born on the island of Lussin in the Adriatic (now part of Croatia), sailed across the oceans to arrive in New York as an adolescent, and has lived on the shores of the Hudson River for many years now.

In this photo Sr. Bianca is standing before her newly installed, large kuultokudos (transparency weave) for the “Mother House” in Bezier, France. 

Bianca is an amazing weaver! As a young woman with many artistic talents, she studied weaving in Finland,  and now she is fluent in so many facets of weaving I couldn’t possibly list them all.  She has taught many, many people to weave and has a beautiful studio in Tarrytown that includes about 20 Toika looms.

Bianca’s studio used to be on the campus of Marymount College and was called “The Center for Fiber Arts.”  Along with college art students she had a diverse following of adults who came to study.  With the closing of Marymount College (bought by Fordham Univ.) she moved her studio to a large, light-filled space on the grounds of her convent, and the studio is now called “The Weaving Center.”

Sr. Bianca in the library of her studio where the Wacky Weavers helped her celebrate her 82nd birthday in February!

A large segment of Sr. Bianca’s students are Jewish women who come to learn weaving in order to make tallithim(sp?) for their loved ones.  Truly, an ecumenical “Weavers without Borders!”

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I was thrilled to learn that the upcoming ATB8 (American Tapestry Biennial 8) will have three venues throughout the US.  I don’t know what they are, but I heard from a good source that one will likely be Lowell, Massachusetts which will mean I can see all these amazing tapestries for real!

I have just finished proofreading the catalog for ATB8 and am astounded by the works!  Four members of the Wednesday Group are in this exhibition, as well as other artists whose works I love! Then there are works from artists I don’t yet know! The catalog is a glorious feast for the eyes, and I’m so glad to have worked on it in the tiniest way.  I cannot imagine what it will be like to see all these pieces hanging together in one gallery space. 

Sixty-four pieces, in fact. Sorry to write about this without being able to show photos….   

forsythia taken by my son Chris.

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Time flies by so fast on these glorious spring days, when there are more chores than daylight!  The garden is calling, our boat needs attention before it splashes into the Chesapeake for another sailing season, and like the maple trees, my sap is rising so that I’m drawn to work longer during the longer hours of light!

I finished the loose-fitting, comfy sweater in time to wear it on several occasions before it gets too unseasonal.  Soon I will put it away until fall….or perhaps bring it along to Maine for the chilly nights when I want to sit on deck looking at the stars. (Turns out is it a Martin Storey design from Classic Knits for Real Women)

Here is the medieval spinner.  I’m really on the home stretch now.  A little praise goes a long way, doesn’t it? Yesterday I got some wonderful praise from Archie.  I wonder if teachers ever truly realize how much their comments mean to us students.  His comments thrilled me so much that hours later, at midnight, I found I could not get to sleep due to the warm glow I still felt.  There’s a famous quote I used to know about how our words to others carry far more weight than we realize.  Archie can’t possibly know how much I will cherish his input from yesterday!

I’m also carrying wonderful images in my head from yesterday’s gathering of the Wednesday Group.  We were quite a large group, crowded in spite of Susan’s generous studio space.  The diversity of the work was incredible!  Everything from a young beginner’s strikingly good re-interpretation of some Coptic designs, to a moving piece of autumn leaves floating behind the Robert Frost quote, “Nothing gold can stay.”  There was a vibrantly happy scene of frogs on lily pads, a very graphic interpretation of a bridge deck from an engineer’s drawing, a delicate (although large!) interpretation of a pencil drawing of a loved one’s head. 

There was such a wide range of emotional content, creative vision, and wealth of weaving techniques to convey these images, that I left feeling powerfully stimulated!  That’s the real strength of weaving in community.  Most of us weave in solitude, and I relish these moments with others!

Unfortunately I have no photos to share of these amazing works in progress.  So, instead, a shot of new growth in the greenhouse and the endless parade of amaryllii!

Albutilon (flowering maple) in the greenhouse. This is our most prolific amaryllis with four flower stalks! To springify the house I’ve brought in cut branches of forsythia, quince and pussy willow.  Outside the first daffodils have opened, surrounded by their earlier pals, the crocus and winter aconite.  Hoping for new growth and full blossoms myself this spring!

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the energy of our best days everyday!  I can’t seem to manage that.

I’ve made good progress on my current sweater, a design that I cannot give proper credit since I’m working from a photo-copy given to me by a friend.  It’s a cute design that has been fairly boring to knit.  Lots of stockinette that luckily I churn out quickly, but also lots of fiddly small items that had to be knitted separately and sewn to the sweater.  I’m almost there!

The button bands are knitted separately and sewn to the body (a task I detest). After I sewed on the first band, I sewed on the buttons. Then I made button holes in the 2nd band by

buttoning on to the first band as I knit in order to get the spacing just right.

Also, I’m up into the headdress of my medieval spinner.  I’ve been looking forward to weaving the intricate shapes of her headdress!

My friend Willa had an art opening this week, and her energy inspired me!  She is part of a group of women exploring their cultural heritage through their line of female relatives, all of whom immigrated here from other parts of the world.  The exhibit is called “Ah, Motherland!” 

Willa’s heritage is Japanese, and she found inspiration from the many noren (entrance curtains) on display at the Serizawa exhibition that we visited together back in early February.  She made her own set of noren and painted images significant to her grandmother in her unique, painterly style. 

My own head is full of ideas I’d like to pursue that were generated by seeing the Serizawa exhibit.  I wish I could work as quickly as Willa does!

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The second amaryllis to bloom this year is ‘Apple Blossom.’  It’s almost my favorite!  I cannot remember the name of the one that opened first this year.  It was a variety that I had to search out at the Philly Flower Show a couple of years ago, and now I’ve forgotten it’s name (no label in the pot either!)…

A few signs of spring in the greenhouse! 

More amaryllis in bud

Color in the greenhouse:
peach dragon wing begonia in foreground with peach blooming albutilon (flowering maple) just behind it. A few magenta geranium flowers in background, and a purple flowering bromeliad in the upper left. 

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It’s St. David’s Day, soon to be followed by St. Patrick’s Day! My English friend sent me photos of yellow aconite blooming in a church yard near her village in Cambridgeshire.

We are currently buried in snow with damaged trees all over our yard, but the house is unscathed.  Right now I’d relish the chore of cleaning up all our broken trees just to get outside, but that chore will have to wait until the snow melts. Our new view of the neighbors:

I saw my first robin this morning, in spite of the fact there is no ground showing for him to find food! He was hopping about on the snow!

May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine upon your window pane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near to you and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

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I have to interrupt my weaving and knitting updates to comment on the weather.  What a lot of snow we have gotten this month!  Supposedly it is going to snow here for  three days straight.  I’m not sure that has happened in my lifetime!  It snowed heavily all day yesterday, and is snowing lightly this morning.  Will it really continue through tomorrow?

When my husband uses the snow blower, he loves to make a wall of snow.  Can you tell he is quite proud of his creation?

I’m looking forward to staying home today, nestled in to weave! Meanwhile, spring arrives in the house with the first of the amaryllis in bloom!

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I cannot count the times I’ve heard or read a reference to tapestry that has annoyed me because it is obvious that the author of the statement has no idea what tapestry is.  Ugh.

But now I think I need to put pettiness aside and relish every reference to this ancient technique because it is not a given that it will stay in our vocabulary, which might mean the real activity might also, someday, disappear.

A couple of years ago on public radio I was listening to the program that Patricia O’Connor hosts about language. Someone called in to ask her what ‘tow head’ means.  They had been called this as a child, and the caller had always presumed it to be an insult. He wondered if it had something to do with tow trucks.

Ms. O’Connor actually didn’t know what the term meant.  I remember I was driving in my car and had to find a place to pull over so I could call in to set the record straight.  My call was taken, unfortunately after the show had ended, so the man never heard from me what the term meant.  I hope he knows by now.  Ms. O’Connor and I had a lovely conversation about phrases that go out of use. Interestingly, she noted that if an idiom is based on political or social situations it stays in use longer than if the phrase is domestic or agricultural.  Our domestic situation has changed so drastically in the last hundred years, and here in the US, very few of us have any notion of farm terms.  Idioms from these areas have passed into the forgotten. Personally, I didn’t know that ‘tow head’ was out of use.  I don’t hear it often, but I still do sometimes, as well as corn silk, to describe blonde hair.  My husband is a tow head, and I briefly had corn silk hair when I was young…

So, while the word tapestry is being misused a lot in recent times, at least it is a word that continues to pop up in descriptions and conversations.  I am thankful for that!

Here is what’s happening on the tapestry front in my studio this week:

Yesterday I had my monthly visit to Archie Brennan and Susan Martin Maffei.  That always gets my creative juices flowing, and here is the result of my work today:

Slow, but steady, work on Rob: