Fine Craft

It’s a month later, and the summer has only gotten better!  I have been to Convergence in Providence, RI;  I have finished weaving and sewing the lunch tote and napkin for my guild project, and I have started a tapestry class for some of the members in my state guild.  All good!

Unfortunately, I have very few photos of Convergence.  Photos weren’t allowed at the HGA exhibits.  The photo I regret NOT getting most is me standing in front of my tapestry in the gallery exhibit.  In hindsight I’m certain the powers-that-be would have let someone take a photo of me in front of my own work, but I didn’t ask.  Sigh…

Here is my favorite piece from the gallery exhibit:  “She Can’t See the Forest for the Trees”  No, I did not take this photo since photos were not allowed.  But I can usually find images online, and this image is from Jenny Schu’s blog, where you can read about the processes she used to make this incredible wall hanging! (Wed. grouper’s first reaction being:  “after all these years of weaving on copper looms, why didn’t any of us think of hanging our tapestries from copper pipe???”)

Along with the HGA sponsored exhibits in the Rhode Island Convention Center, there were numerous outside exhibits to see throughout Providence.  The Complex Weavers’ exhibit at Brown University was quite a highlight for me.  And the best exhibit of the whole conference for me was the ATA sponsored “Small Format/Unjuried” show on the Feinstein Campus of URI.  Such wonderful small tapestries that covered the gamut of every subject imaginable!  Pure fun….there were small tapestries of bugs, small self portraits, small landscapes….if you can imagine it, it was probably there!

Two friends from the Wednesday Group came to stay with me during Convergence and we made the daily drive to Providence.  On the last day we drove to Brockton, MA, to the Fuller Craft Museum to see the two shows on display there.  First was “Game Changers:  Fiber Art Masters and Innovators.”  What an impressive list of well known fiber artists were on display.  It was a brilliant show!  And so was the other exhibit on display, “Small Expressions.”

Archie Brennan’s “The Lady and the Gypsy” greets you at the entrance to the “Game Changers” exhibit.

Susan Martin Maffei’s Silk Worm tapestry actually has golden silk cocoons woven into it and is embellished with crocheted caterpillars.  …so naturally, the weft is silk.

I have some great photos from “Small Expressions” as well, but I neglected to get the names of some of the artists!  So I will just share Barbara Heller’s recent work, which has a very interesting mix of techniques.

All in all, Covergence was quite an inspirational event.  There are always hitches to having a conference setting in a convention center, but I would still say the outcome of this year’s event was positive!

 

Well, there are lots of good things about weaving at any time….but in the summer here, when the middle of the day is a bit steamy, and the nights are cool and breezy, we often don’t turn on the air conditioning.  That’s not necessarily my choice, but for the sake of marital harmony I conceed that it’s only a few hours in the afternoon that are too hot, so we have yet to turn on the AC.  And besides, I can go hang out in my almost-too-cold studio.

My studio is in the basement, and unlike my last house, this is a nice basement.  The whole back of my studio is above ground and even has a terrace, which Bob made last summer, for sitting outside.  The light is wonderful through the windows and the glass door.  When it’s too hot to be tempted outside I can enjoy the views of my gardens and the nature preserve while getting some productive work done.  It’s a win-win situation!

During this first hot spell of summer, I am making good progress on the huck fabric for the lunch tote.  This photo was taken a few days ago, when I reached the end of the yard of fabric for the tote.  Now I’ve woven two of the five napkins that are also on this warp.

And I’ve finally had a space of time (without visitors!) when I could concentrate on my chopstick portrait.  This is a recent idea of Archie Brennan.  At our monthly Wednesday Group meetings we get Chinese take out after class on the first day.  Over the years this has added up to a lot of chopsticks.  He and Susan have washed and saved all the chopsticks, and Archie was wondering how they could be re-purposed.  He ended up making little chopstick looms for each member of our group, and he set an assignement to weave a portrait.

I decided to attempt a face from ancient Greek red figure pottery.  This particular face happens to be Artemis.  In the image of her on a 5th century BC, lekythos, she has drawn her bow and is focused on her target.

The main reason I chose this portrait was to have fun with the hair! So I put in Ghiordes knots every pass and a half which allowed for the knots to be on alternating warps.  Then I braided the long strands and played around putting her hair up in various ways.  I did not want to sew her hair in place, but that may become necessary.

This project was so much fun I want to make another…..another Greek subject in honor of Archie…. wait and see!

Yesterday I spent the day sewing a mock up of the lunch tote so I’ll be ready to sew when I finish this fabric….the fabric is on hiatus until after Convergence where I’ll pick up one more spool of 16/2 linen for weft from Lone Star Looms.  That’s a story not worth repeating….but suffice it to say that I have made three attempts from two different sources to get enough weft for this project!

Naturally, I could not find any fabric that was a spot-on equivalent to my handwoven linen.  I opted for a heavy cotton duck fabric.  It’s considerably more tightly woven than my huck fabric, but it should be pretty similar after I fuse interfacing to the back of my fabric.  Hope so, anyway!

This is the lining, with pockets…..turned right side out for a better view.

And here is the almost finished bag.  I’m still hunting for the purse snaps that are well hidden somewhere in my stash of notions, before I stitch the final top of bag together….

Now that I’ve worked out how the bag will be sewn (and hopefully made all my mistakes!) I am looking forward to making the ‘real’ tote out of these fabrics.

These days, when I’m not weaving (or sewing), I am working on the “Merle” sweater with Jared Flood’s “Brooklyn Tweed” yarn that I bought at Harrisville on our recent trip.  At this point it’s just miles of stockinette, so I haven’t taken a photo.  ….Or I am in the garden!

June has flown by in a series of glorious days filled with gardening, weaving, and even a little jaunt to Harrisville, New Hampshire where I did get to touch the wool and see the colors of Jared Flood’s Brooklyn Tweed yarn.  (I bought the color “Button Jar” and have started the sweater design called “Merle.”)

I’m not sure I have ever had such a wonderfully long spring.  It is the last day of the month, a full 10 days since the solstice and the start of summer, but the weather is still very spring-like.  Since spring is my favorite season, and this year it has lasted its full three months, I am about as happy as can be!

The roses along my stone wall are certainly happy this year.  You cannot see how many yellow roses are in the border; for some reason these bright pink landscape knock outs are stealing the show with the camera!  There is a pale pink  miniature rose just below the camera lens…

The garden and the lovely weather has been quite distracting to working in my studio!  And so was our trip to Brattleboro and Harrisville.

June has brought a lot of visitors to our house, so that I feel like I’ve been running a B&B most of the month.  In fact my oldest friend calls my house “B&B’s B&B.”  It was certainly true this month, and the guests continue until the end of the July 4th celebratory weekend.  After that I intend to be very selfish with my time.

So, I haven’t gotten much work done on either the colorful huck weave fabric or my large tapestry of the Flax Spinner.  But on the tapestry front, two issues of VAV arrived in the mail today (issue 1 and 2 that were forwarded elsewhere while I was away).  Both issues were wonderful, and, better late than never, I have learned about this book!

I don’t know how I missed hearing about it when it came out a year ago, but I’m very glad to know about it now!  Hopefully it will arrive in time to share with my newly formed tapestry study group which will meet at the end of July.

Convergence in two weeks!  Lots to celebrate this summer!

 

 

 

 

The crazy, colorful huck lace fabric is almost ready for weaving!  All I have to do is tie on the warp threads to the front beam.

In fact, it would have been done already, if I could just remember how to get the cloth bar back on the loom!  Actually I can’t even remember which way the bolts go in to secure the breast beam.  It’s been too long since I’ve used this loom (since before I left New Jersey, two years ago).  A quick search for the gigantic manual that comes with AVLs didn’t work.  (Yes, I know the manual is online, but it’s so cumbersome to use.)  I think I’ll wait ’til Handyman Bob returns home in a few hours.

There is plenty to do down here until that time.  The place is more disorganized than it’s ever been, considering I have only lived here for two years!

Meanwhile, I can’t get my mind off the new pattern book from Jared Flood, Wool People 7.  There are some gorgeous designs in this book!  ….very classic, very chic.  I might have escaped knowing about it, except that my knitting sister Lesley, who has such exquisite taste, couldn’t resist the urge to tell me she had seen it and is know knitting “Pente.”

I am in love with Merle…

….and with Arabella.

Wow!  Right?  I bought both patterns which are downloads so I had instant gratification.  Then I began looking at the beautiful colors of Brooklyn Tweed “Loft” which is the yarn used for each of the Wool People 7 designs.

I am always looking for a soft wool yarn that I can wear right next to my skin.  I have yet to find one.  Models are always shown wearing sweaters right against their skin, and I wonder how they do it.  Are these sweaters photographed in colder climates (like north of the Arctic Circle) where where everyone is so cold they can’t feel how itchy the sweaters are? I don’t know….but I’m hoping I find a good candidate for softness in “Loft.”  I’m planning a trip to Harrisville in a couple of weeks so I  look forward to seeing and handling “Loft” in person.

Meanwhile I might cheat and use a Phildar yarn that is 50% lambswool and 50% acrylic. Hopefully in just this color.

Which brings me to another question:  Why is it so hard to find Phildar in the US these days?  I used to see it all the time in the 80s and 90s.  I date myself… Are Americans too in love with natural fibers these days?  I know I am, but sometimes I also need just the right yarn to make a beautiful sweater that doesn’t require a turtleneck to protect me from the itchy wool.

I have so many unfinished sweaters, I’d be horrified if I counted them, so I know I am a fool to be dreaming about making Merle and Arabella right now.  Still, I am the type of person who dreams about knitting while I’m weaving, and then dreams about weaving while I’m knitting.  Go figure.

Well, you knew (didn’t you?) that I’d have to find those two Connecticut houses that are older than the house at Bushnell Farm….

The oldest house (and it’s magnificent!) is the Henry Whitfield House in Guilford.  That’s just down the road a bit so I am looking forward to a visit! According to Wikipedia, it is not only the oldest house in Connecticut, built in 1639 right near the town green in what would shortly become Guildford, it is also the oldest stone house in New England.  This house was opened to the public as a museum in 1899.

Maybe my dear friend, who loves old houses and lives in a 1795 house on the river about an hour north of here, will join me for the visit.  Well, I’ve done a bit more ‘googling’ to find the 2nd oldest house, and instead of getting an answer I’ve just become confused.  If this sort of thing interests you, take a look at this.  So, who knows…. there are several houses on that list even older than the Henry Whitfield house, and more than two that are older than the Bushnell house.

Back to weaving!  Here are a couple of photos of my linen warp in progress. This is one section of warp (2″ width) wound on my AVL warping wheel.  I had no idea how much this section would look like the Bahamian flag!

Ask me if I’m a bit nervous about these bright colors!  (yes!)  But…. I forge ahead.  Hopefully the black linen weft will tone it down a bit. Here, I’m winding on section 4 out of 9 sections that will make up my 18″ wide fabric.

Right now my studio is about as messy as it’s ever been, so I was careful to exclude as much of the mess as possible when I took these.  Normally I make a huge mess when I start a project…..all kinds of materials are out for consideration, lots of things get tossed about.  But by the time I get down to work I need everything back in its place so I can work in visual peace.  Whew, boy!  Not this time!  I’m feeling such time pressure to get going on this that I’m just trying to wear virtual blinders while I’m here.  I’ll get to straigtening things up as soon as I can!

The sections are all different since the number of threads per inch does not match the number of threads for a repeat of the huck pattern.  I had to be more careful than usual with my counting to make sure that each stripe has 45 threads in it no matter how it fits into the 2″ warp sections.  Now I’m ready to start threading!