Fine Craft

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From my son Chris, who was on the roof of a building at school.  The tower is Riverside Church.  Click to enlarge, and you’ll get a good view of those interesting planes!

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What a confluence of astounding events occurred as I delivered my little tapestry.  My drive into NY was full of portent if I believed in that sort of thing!

Driving down the Palisades Parkway right along the western edge of the Hudson River, the two large V-22 Ospreys came into view!  They were flying up the Hudson in what seemed like slow motion!  I’ve never seen them before, and they certainly look like a strange mix-up of helicopter and plane!  Those rotors were so gigantic!  The traffic on the Palisades almost stopped as all eyes were focused upwards on those amazing planes!

I’ve never been tempted to take photos while driving until that moment! Why didn’t I open the sun roof and stand up and get that shot? I didn’t do it (damn!), and now I can’t find any photos on the internet (really, how can you have news coverage without photos??).  So I’m posting this because it was such an awesome experience for me….even without pictures! (Though you can always count on YouTube!)

It was a brilliantly clear day so the view of the Hudson was magnificent, and I’d forgotten that Fleet Week was starting.  People were lining the walkway on the bridge to photograph both the F-18 Hornet fighters and the Ospreys as well as all the ships coming up the Hudson.  It was quite a celebration!  I drove into Manhattan down the West Side Highway, which is right at the eastern edge of the Hudson (just the opposite river bank from the Palisades Pkwy), so I had great views of the ships for the entire ride.  The park at 125th was also filled with people, all excited to be watching these events!  Such a different mood than the last, unnanounced, flyover!

My son and a few friends knew how to get on the roof of their building at Columbia Univ. (which I will not name since it’s supposed to be inaccessible!), and Chris got photos of the flyover, as well as some great shots of the city skyline on a perfect spring day! He hasn’t sent them to me yet!

I then spent then next hour and 15 minutes looking for a parking place!  It was also graduation for Columbia College students, and it was an incredible log jam!  Roads were closed, out-of-towners were everywhere, and even the parking garages were full! I won’t say I wasn’t in a high state of frustration, but I did enjoy seeing all the young faces in their blue mortar boards!  I finally settled for a spot with 1-hour metered parking, and Chris ran back to feed the meter at the end of the first hour!

After a lovely lunch with Chris, celebrating the completion of his first year of physics doctorate, I headed uptown to deliver that tapestry along with our funky group piece called “Not Gone for Baroque.”

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Booyah! I’m finished! Hemmed and mounted before 11 pm today!

Well, there is a flaw I must fix, but that must wait ‘til tomorrow. It would have been better to fix it before mounting, but I was too tired to see it. On the left side, in the first long branch of leaves behind the boat, the sky dips down too low into where the water should be. (Don’t tell anyone, but I’m going to needle weave it to fix it.)

Must sleep now…

zzzzzz……

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Time flies. My historic tapestry reinterpretation should be delivered next Wednesday, officially five days from now. I’m not done weaving, but I’m close. Unfortunately, weaving is not the only thing left to do. It has to be hemmed and mounted. Mounting involves stretching heavy linen on stretcher frames that I have not yet bought. Meanwhile, I am hosting an instructor at my house for a guild workshop. Do you think she’ll mind if I just weave? No chance of that!

There is progress on the Hudson River piece also, which is not ‘due’ until July 1. I will take it on board next week for a little weaving on the water….. a little plein aire weaving.

This week Jennifer introduced me to TED (Technology Entertainment Design) which has free videos of lectures on many subjects. Being a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat, Pray, Love, I particularly enjoyed this lecture she gave on creativity. And as an aging classics student who never gets to talk about the ancient world, I was thrilled to hear Ms. Gilbert talk about creative genius!

I never posted this last week. Now I am just about finished with the historic piece! I think there is about 2 more hours of weaving, then I hope it will be hemmed and mounted in another 24 hours!

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Doesn’t that sound like a loaded question?  And I guess it is.  If there weren’t so much on my to-do list I’d be driving to Connecticut this afternoon to see this documentary on women in the arts.

With regret, I have decided my time is better spent staying home to work on my tapestries and some other unfinished business.  Ah, well….  I have left my name on the website on a list for future DVD sales.  Hope it won’t be too long! My interest is piqued!

If you want to check out if you can see this film locally or get on the list for possible DVD go here!  Aha!  Planned DVD release for November, 2009!