Category Archives: Archie Brennan

An Abundance of Good

Posted on June 3, 2025 | 1 comment

It’s almost June, and I have been writing blogposts in my head for about two months. None of them has made it to reality here on this site. I am approaching the end of my 3 1/2 months at home before leaving to go back to Pandora in mid-June. It’s almost time to go again. Somehow, when I am living aboard it seems that several months at home will allow me to get a lot of things done. I envision myself weaving, knitting, creating every single day, but life always has other plans. Still, there has been a lot good over the past three months. In 10 days I’ll be on a plane heading to the Azores, where I will wait for Bob to arrive, unless he beats me there. There is a slight chance for that.

In spite of never accomplishing what I hope to do in any given period of time, I have experienced a tremendous amount of productivity and inspiration. I attended all the meetings I normally miss, and what an exceptional treat that was to be with so many other weavers who all have ideas worth noting. I now have a longer list of things I want to weave and knit, spin and sew. But before I can plan new projects I have to finish the ones currently on my looms, currently on my knitting needles.

This is the project I put on my Baby Wolf shortly after I returned home after taking a zoom class on double huck with Cally Booker in January, when I was aboard Pandora with no way to weave. It’s Finnish linen, single ply #8, which I think is about 2400 yards per pound. To start I set my warp at 33 epi, which is only 16 epi for each layer of the double weave. I wove two samples and washed them. I think they are both too loose.

Cally suggested I try 1/2 units of huck alternating with 1/2 units of plain weave before I decided to re-sley. It didn’t help.

I re-sleyed at 40 epi (20 for each layer), and I like what I’m getting now.

So I’m on the real project now, a cowl, with 3-4 colors in both layers of the warp, but only two colors in the weft. I may add more colors in the next cowls after this one. Of course, now I’ve decided that I want to take this with me on my summer travels. So the heat is on! I leave in 10 days.

And of course I wanted a new sweater to take with me for the windy, chilly Outer Hebrides that I’ll visit in July. I have now finished the 2nd sleeve and will sew it in later today. This is a design by Martin Storey called “Skylark,” for Rowan yarns. I bought this yarn years ago for a different sweater which called for two versions of Shibui yarns, “Fern” which is a soft organic cotton yarn, and “Twig” which is a fine linen yarn. That sweater required holding the yarns together, and of course that made it quite expensive. I thought it would look better in this design, even though this sweater “Skylark” calls for a wool yarn from Rowan. So of course this meant I was play a game of ‘yarn chicken’ which I detest doing! And I knew I was going to lose, which is why I decided to do the front bands in three strands of 16/2 linen from my weaving stash. You can see the front bands are a darker color. Then came the mistakes! Although it doesn’t show (to me) there are significant decreases after the cabled ribs at the bottom of the sweater. When I knit the right front (on the left in the photo) I forgot to do that! When I was almost finished with the shoulder shaping I realized that this part of the sweater was WAY bigger than the other front. I had to rip all the way back to the top of ribbing. Not fun, especially since it’s all stockinette stitch. Then came the next big mistake: I did not notice that I accidentally carried the front band yarn all the way across that second front until I was sewing the body pieces together. Can you imagine how frustrated I was when I realized I had another major mistake? I decided I could not face ripping back and knitting again–all that stockinette stitch. This unsightly stripe is on my right, and since I usually wear a cross body bag when I am out and about, the bag will hide most of this problem. If I get really inspired (unlikely) I could duplicate stitch with the darker yarn in various other places to continue the look. I often find that if I wear something before I consider it finished I never go back to do the embellishments I’ve planned. I am going to wear this sweater on Friday, complete with the cross body bag disguise. I’ll probably never do the duplicate stitch. It is what it is. And I won’t even mentioned that in spite of using a different yarn for the front bands, I had to go on long, deep internet search to find one more skein of “Fern” to make the 2nd sleeve. This sweater had its challenges.

A few weeks ago I found some beautiful linen fabric on Etsy. It is printed linen from Finland. I seem to be on a roll with materials from Finland. How could I resist this?

I made a simple top, except that at my level of skill that neckline was not so simple. I didn’t get the two sides of the V-neck the same, even though I re-did it three times. When I tried this on the first time I realized it needed darts, and I did manage to put those in after the fact. One point for me!

I decided to ‘decorate’ the neckline based on sage advice a weaver once gave me: If you can’t hide it, decorate it! I made some crocheted cord that is used in Romanian lace, but that only accentuated the uneven neckline. Then I tried some decorative edge embroidery, but that also drew more attention to the problem. Last ditch effort was to go through my vast scarf stash. Bingo! I found a scarf made of manipulated ribbon that I made in a workshop with Sally Shore, almost 2 decades ago! I have never had just the right top to wear this scarf, so I am thrilled that almost 20 years later it’s just the right accessory.

I no longer have any clue how we made these ribbon scarves. They were entertaining to make, and I don’t think it required as much sewing as it looks like it did.

In 10 days I leave to meet Bob in the Azores. He left home in late April and has been sailing ever since. He started in Trinidad, which is spitting distance from Venezuela, and stopped in St. Maarten and Bermuda. He got a change of crew at each stop. On May 31, he left Bermuda with two new crew members to head non-stop to the Azores. He hopes to get there by mid June, which will mean he’s been sailing for 6 weeks with no rest. He’s had technical problems and health problems along the way. He has mostly taken it all in stride, but I have not. I have to admit that I seriously thought we needed to rethink these plans. But he’s on his way, and the passage is going very well so far. The prep for this passage certainly didn’t.

I will fly to the Azores on June 15th, and just in case Bob hasn’t arrived, I have booked five days in what i hope is very comfortable hotel, right on the harbor, walking distance from a scrimshaw museum, a knitting store, and a fine craft gallery. I hope I find something wonderful to buy for Bob’s 70th birthday which is Sunday. We are missing being together on both our 48th anniversary and his landmark birthday. But he chose to do this trip so I know he’s doing what he loves.

In mid-July I will fly to Scotland to spend 2-3 weeks doing some very exciting things with a good friend whom I have traveled with numerous times. We travel well together and always have a good time. And this is when the abundance of good is going straight into the stratosphere. I have an appointment to see the tapestries that Archie Brennan’s family has given to the National Museum of Scotland. I believe they have in the neighborhood of 100 of Archie’s tapestries. They are in storage now, but I hope there will be an opportunity to display them. We all got cheated for his retrospective exhibition when it took place in July-August of 2021, when it wasn’t yet safe to travel. Maybe there is another chance for a big exhibition of his work.

After that I have an appointment to meet the current director of the Dovecot Studios. The last time I was in Scotland, and so looking forward to visiting the Dovecot, it was closed for renovations. Now is the time. I am so thankful. I’ve been asked to give a talk about Archie, so I am preparing for that, and yes, I am very nervous. The Dovecot is where Archie learned to weave, and where he established his career as a tapestry designer and weaver. He is a legend there. Here he is, age 16, in the center front, with the other weavers from that time. It is 1947 or ’48.

It’s going to be an exciting summer, full of an abundance of amazing opportunities. When I leave Edinburgh, my friend Kari and I will visit Stirling Castle to see the reproduction tapestries of the “Hunt for the Unicorn.” While I was studying with Archie and the Wednesday Group, we met the weavers from the UK, who visited the Met Cloisters in order to study the originals. Now I will get to see their finished pieces. And we’ll visit Galashiels to see the “Great Tapestry of Scotland” which is an embroidery on a vast scale, like the Bayeux Tapestry. As luck would have it, earlier this year I met three women who either worked on this monumental piece or are related to someone who did. What serendipty. Then we’ll head to the West Coast to do a sightseeing excursion through the Outer Hebrides. I’ve got a few mills and other textile places on my ‘must see’ list. I have to wonder if I’ll ever have such a textile rich trip again. It’s an abundance of good.

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Posted in Archie Brennan, holiday, knitting, sailing, sewing, tapestry, Uncategorized, weaving

Incredible Connections

Posted on April 23, 2025 | 2 comments

One week ago yesterday I visited the Collections Department of the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City, to see the entire series of Archie Brennan’s “Dersu Uzala” tapestries. I have seen them before, both numerous times in Archie and Susan’s (Susan Martin Maffei) home studio, and the last time in an exhibit in Garnerville, NY. In the exhibit the 12 tapestries ran along one long wall in the large gallery. It was my first time to see them all together, and it was exhilarating. The gallery is in an old textile warehouse, a brick building that I remember having dark brick walls in the gallery. I might be wrong about that. Perhaps some of the walls were white plaster. Odd thing, memory.

Here are the tapestries, carefully wrapped in archival tissue with an outer wrapping in something that looked like acetate, nestled in two boxes. I’m not sure I can put words to the thrill of watching each one get unwrapped and laid out on the viewing table.

The light was bright and diffused, a combination I have rarely seen, before being in that room. Between the quality of light and seeing the tapestries laid out horizontally, it was quite a different experience.

Such a thrill to see his techniques up close, the letters, the shadows on each streak of falling snow.

Here is one of my favorite in the s eries. All that beautiful woven surface,the subtle color changes, the wonderful lettering and landscape turning green….the rain. Now let’s take a closer look.

I thought I’d go straight home and practice based on these techniques. Hasn’t happened yet.

Let’s take a moment to watch one the tapestries being unfurled from its protective coverings:

Here is the subtlety of “Dersu” woven into the snowstorm.

Are you feeling the enthusiasm? It is such a unique experience to see these tapestries at this vantage point. All credit for these images goes to my son Chris who is quite smitten with this series. We were both astounded that these pieces will stay in New York. Many of Archie’s other works have gone to Scotland, to the Dovecot Studios and to the National Museum of Scotland.

Let’s look at “The Ravens-An Omen,” which is certainly the most dramatically graphic tapestry in this series.

The imagery is so strong, the colors so saturated. The surfaces are so smooth, with perfect selvedges. Really, I almost needed a break to sit down and recuperate a bit! I was reminded of a statement by one of Archie’s early students, Cheryl Thornton, at the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in Australia (now the Australian Tapestry Workshop). She said, “I still think of him sitting at the loom and the ease with which he sat there. There was something about his presence sitting…there was no struggle.”

A piece with a meandering slit! How did he do that?

I’d place a bet that all of us want to give this a try. Like his Penelope postcard woven to look like it’s on an angle (Page 103 in Archie Brennan: Tapestry as Modern Art). Those selvedges on either side of the slit are a marvel. (The bit of weft showing near the bottom of the slit is just weft that needs to be pushed to the back.)

And here is a view from a different angle. Huge thanks to Christopher for getting these images with so many creative details.

Archie was one with the act of weaving. It seemed to be part of his body, part of his mind and soul. There certainly didn’t ever appear to be any struggle when he sat at the loom. Perhaps all that struggle took place when he thought about a new design, and when he did drawings to express his ideas. I just know that I feel such a sense of awe mixed with a calm contentment when I look at his work, especially at close range.

My son took more than a hundred pictures during our visit. I wish I could share all of them with you. But there is more to this story.

One week later, which was yesterday, I was at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, CT. My guild had an exhibit there for the past five weeks, and yesterday was the day that our hanging committee took down the works. We finished in record time, which gave me time to see another exhibit on view at the museum with a friend of mine from the committee.

This is an exhibition of artworks by the Inuit and Cree communities of the Arctic region of Canada in the far north of Quebec. The region includes Cape Dorset as well as Pangnirtung which sits right at the edge of the Arctic Circle, and is where Archie and Susan taught weaving at the Pangnirtung Weaving Center. Archie wrote a compelling essay about the life style of these people that you can read on page 186 of the book. Now, just one week after spending time with the very tapestries that Archie designed at this very spot, I was seeing all kinds of artwork done by the people of that area. Five weeks earlier I had helped hang our Connecticut State guild’s biennial exhibit without knowing what was on view in a nearby gallery of this museum. There were no tapestries on display in this exhibit, likely because weaving is not a traditional artform there. It’s a land without sheep, for one thing.

The exhibit has hand blocked prints, photographs, drawings, and carvings. I enjoyed all of it, and more so because of knowing that Archie had been in that very place in the early 1990s.

This is the only photo I’ll share from the exhibit. It’s a watercolor by the Canadian man who studied the works of this community, photographed them, and made a documentary about them. He very much reminds of the Dersu Uzala story, where Dersu was hired to be a guide in the Siberian forest for a Russian surveyor who was exploring the area on behalf of the Russian government in the first few years of the 20th century. It was a stroke of serendipity to find this exhibit so soon after visiting Archie’s “Dersu Uzala” at the Cooper Hewitt.

I find this painting particularly compelling. It reminds me of Archie’s “Spring Rain” where the landscape is turning green in blocky shapes, like the blocky shapes of this ice flow. And the mountains rise up as huge blocks of rock. I am pulled to weave this, but we’ll see.

On view in the gallery was one episode of a 7-part documentary called “Leaving None Behind.” You can read about it here. The documentary film was made by the Canadian man who contributed so much to this exhibit, John Houston. Here is a trailer for the series. The documentary is available to rent on Vimeo, which you can access from the trailer.

What a week! Bob and I are in the throes of getting him ready to fly to Trinidad to begin his long voyage north to St. Maarten and Bermuda, where he will meet up with the other sailors who are joining him to cross the Atlantic to the Azores. I have six weeks to get some weaving done before I join him, via TAPS airline (!), in Horta. I have a lot of fodder and good inspiration after the past week. Let me put these weeks to good use!

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Posted in Archie Brennan, tapestry