inspiration – Page 5

Mid-Spring

May 31, 2013 | 1 Comment

Is there anything with as much promise as mid-spring? My gardens, my projects, my whole world is all hope and possibility.

I’ve completed pear #4 in my ‘Trail of Pears.’ Each pear has brought harder color decisions, and #4 caused me to call on the advice of both my husband and younger son. I had every shade of gold in my yarn palette out and none of them worked. Chris helped me let go of my preconceived notion that the pear had to be in the yellow family. That pear is a tan that I would never have considered if not for Chris. Now it’s finished and soon the background around pear #5 (the final pear) will be finished as well, which will mean making the final pear color choice. I plan to be at my Wednesday Group class next week so I can get some input from all the weavers there. Whew!

When I’m not weaving the pears I’ve been spinning some silk. Does anyone remember Carol Weymar who called herself the silk worker. I can’t find her anymore! I used to buy her handpainted silk roving, so I have a little collection of them. I always wanted a bit more than 2 ounces from her, but she never had more than that of any given painted way. I took this as a challenge to me to learn to spin finer, hoping to get 1,000 yards out of that 2 oz. Well, I still can’t do it!

So, to the latest colorway which I will call ‘mid-spring’ (all the colors of a spring garden, except blue) I am adding a strand of luscious 50/50 merino/silk. The merino is a warm natural color, something I might call ‘almond,’ and the silk is a shimmering white. Spun together I’m getting a lovely shade of cream and I hope it will be stunning plied with the 100% painted silk from Carol. I’d like to start plying right now, but I will force myself to let the newly finished merino/silk set overnight. Boy, I can’t wait for tomorrow!

It’s 90 degrees outside today, one of those abnormally hot spring days we sometimes have. My basement studio is a cool respite on a day like this, and the view cool and green.

Have I mentioned that I live on the edge of a large nature preserve? May offers up so many beautiful sights there…. lady slippers are in bloom and we found a robin’s egg on the ground! There are dragon flies everywhere, and the hummingbirds arrived. I’ve seen eagles soaring above our house.

Yes, it’s all hope and promise around here.

Perfect May

May 20, 2013 | Leave a Comment

This wisteria vine is growing along the walk I take most days. This and the azaleas and the spring green of unfurling ferns are what lures me outside each day.

I will enjoy playing with these two images for a tapestry cartoon, even if I never actually weave them. Back at home I discovered a few mushrooms from the recent damp weather. I’ve cut them and brought them in for identification.

I think they are Agaricus arvensis which are very common gilled mushrooms. Part of identifying a mushroom involves getting a gill print on white paper (or black paper if the gill print is white). This gill print is a deep grey tinged with purple, very similar to the color of the gills themselves as you can see in the photo above.

This mushroom mostly gives tan, beige and grey in the dyebath; not too exciting since wool naturally comes in those colors. But if I mordant with tin (and yes, I do have that) I might get a golden brown. I’ve got 12 oz. of mushrooms, so it is a bit tempting…. and I actually remember where my dye pots are!

And there is news of Bob today. The wind continues quite favorable for sailing, and he is now in the Gulf Stream so that current is pushing Pandora to speeds over 10 knots. He is WAY offshore, but roughly the same latitude as the southern part of Georgia. That’s a lot of ground covered in 48 hours.

Time Warps

May 18, 2013 | Leave a Comment

“Time Warps: Textiles from Today’s Weavers.” What a catchy title for the biennial exhibition of works by the Connecticut Guild of Handweavers.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this exhibition since I got the first announcement back in March. Nothing like cutting it close, since I am going on the last day it is on view! Whew!

This is from the Connecticut Historical Society’s event page on their website:

Time Warps: Textiles from Today’s Weavers

April 20, 2013 – May 17, 2013

This juried exhibit of handwoven goods displays the work of contemporary weavers who use both historical and modern techniques and designs. The Biennial Show organized by the Handweavers’ Guild of Connecticut includes articles of clothing (scarves, shawls, jackets), decorative pieces (wall hangings), and household items (table runners, rugs, towels, blankets). The work is produced by members of the Handweavers’ Guild of Connecticut, an organization of handweavers, spinners and fiber artists from all levels of experience who are dedicated to the education, preservation, and promotion of handweaving and spinning.

What they don’t mention is that Nancy Hoskins was one of the two jurors for this show. And what a wonderful surprise to see two of her pieces hanging in the show, both Byzantine portraits done in samitum.

There were two rooms of woven items, everything from tailored clothing, wall hangings, rugs, shawls, table linens, even a couple of wonderful soft sculptures. This is what greeted me when I entered the first room.

The rugs are particularly well displayed in these elevated cases on the floor. The items on the walls are displayed coming out of frames, which is a great idea, but would have been considerably better if the frames had been chosen to match the width of the items. Some of the shawls are ‘crumpled up’ in the frames, and I think that looks messy.

There are some wonderfully creative works on display. The two wonderful soft sculptures are Penelope sitting on a stool, holding her shuttles, with wild, jet black hair sticking straight out from her head and wrapped in yarn to make little pigtails. (I would love to show you, but I really can’t without permission!) The other wonderful soft sculpture is a felted owl standing on a perch. He is beyond description!

I was so inspired by the work in this exhibit! I’m not sure you can imagine what it felt like to walk through two rooms full of handwovens when I’ve been in such a very different living situation for almost 9 months. All that intense color and texture and fiber. It was a rush!

And tomorrow I will go to the last guild meeting of the year (my first and last this year). Bring it on!

Sunny St. Augustine

November 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment

We spent a lovely day ashore in St. Augustine yesterday. It was sunny, there were blue skies, and the temperature was in the 70s! Finally! This is why we headed south!

The Main Square on King St.

The oldest church in St. Augustine.

Flagler College

It was warm enough for an al fresco lunch at a Cuban restaurant!

Christmas in the main square. Yes, those are poinsettias planted outside!

…and the highlight for me was getting this shot from the fort of Castillo de San Marcos which I think might make a lovely companion tapestry to my “Terrace View from Skouros.”

We ended the day with dinner at Bistro de Leon as planned. Chef Jean Stephane Poinard’s menu was as delicious as we expected, and this years’ Beajolais Nouveau is quite good!

Day 78, November 27: St. Augustine, Florida

Beach Combing on Black Friday

November 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment

I couldn’t help thinking about all the folks who got up in the predawn today to hit the malls and start their Christmas shopping. Black Friday has become quite the American tradition to kick off the holiday season….and not a good one.

It doesn’t seem like it’s time to hang the wreath and put candles in the window down here. We left St. Marys for a short motor over to Cumberland Island which has the National Seashore. To get to the ocean-side beach we walked through a forest of live oak, Spanish moss, and palmetto that could have been Middle Earth.

After getting out of the forest you walk a bit further on a boardwalk above the dunes to get to the ocean.

The forest transitions into beach along the way…

And then there are miles of silky pearl colored sand to walk along, and millions of shells rolling to and fro in the surf. I picked up a lot of shells. The whelks and clams are so different from what I see in New England! I even found a lovely angel wing….although only one. I’m imagining a Christmas wreath made from these shells, a wreath covered in Spanish moss and shells.

We had heard that Cumberland Island is known for fossilized shark teeth. They come out of the river when the channel for the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) is dredged. The dredged debris is dumped in large quantities in a certain area on the island. Bob was on a mission for a shark tooth! He even found a sieve to help him in his search.

He was hoping to find one a little bigger these!…although he could wear these as earrings. I keep wondering if he’ll pierce his ear/s now that he’s a full time sailor.

Another exciting sight on Cumberland Island are wild horses. We saw a mare and two foals along our walk. They are pretty used to people so they are easy to photograph. They don’t let you get close enough to touch though!

And as if a fantasy forest of live oak and palmettos, inhabited by wild horses, and a
17-mile long beach isn’t enough, the final highlight of Cumberland Island is the ruins of a Gilded Age house that was the winter retreat of the Carnegie family.

This was the first day in about a month that we enjoyed clear skies and warm sun, so we stayed ashore almost all day to soak up as much as we could!

We were back on board in time for sunset and a lovely dinner with new friends who spent the day with us at the seashore.

It hardly felt like opening day of the Christmas shopping season…