weaving – Page 14

>Maine Fiber Artists’ Open Studios

August 11, 2010 | 3 Comments

Well, it’s another beautiful summer in Maine, and I’m so lucky to visit other amazing fiber farmers and fiber artists’ studios!

This year’s plan was a bit more involved than previous years, and it was a fun adventure! My husband wanted to attend a rendevous for the Seven Seas Cruising Association on Islesboro so we worked out a plan to take the ferry to Lincolnville on two of the weekend mornings. The first morning we hitchhiked partway and got a cab partway to get back to our car in Rockland. Then, at the end of the day, I left the car at the ferry terminal so it would be handy for our second day of sightseeing.

This is the eating area of the snack bar at the ferry terminal on Islesboro. It’s about 7am, and the fog bank is rolling away to reveal the Camden Hills and the beautiful day ahead! It took two hours from the time the ferry left ‘til we had our car, although the ferry ride was only 20 minutes! We also got picked up hitchhiking a lot faster than when we waited for the cab in downtown Camden!

Day one of fiber sightseeing included Eolian Farm where no one was home, too bad for me!

These photos were taken outside Swans Island Blankets on Rte. 1, just outside of Lincolnville. What a stunning 18th century farmhouse they use for their showroom! We saw the looms as well as the dyeing room.

Two Sons Alpaca Farm in Damariscotta was the farm highlight of the weekend for me! Owner Ricki Waltz was very happy to talk about her animals to us, a fascinating blend of alpaca husbandry and tales of the various personalities in her herd. The babies were adorable and had quite distinct personalities right from the start!

Timberdoodle 2 (alas! no website!) is a lovely studio overlooking the water near Cushing. It’s a tiny, perfectly appointed showcase of Kathryn Woodstock-Lynn’s lace spinning and knitting! Using traditional Shetland techniques, learned from such venerated knitters as Gladys Almedro, Sharon Miller and others, she knits lace shawls and wraps of her own design. Her spinning is exquisite and so is her dyeing! There were two large hatboxes of yarns for sale, each with enough to make either a shawl or a scarf. One box held natural colored yarn, the other was full of her hand dyed creations. She blends acid dyes into a stunning array of colors. I dearly wanted a ‘red’ but did not have the pocketbook for it this summer. I did buy a Shetland/Oxford mix dyed an indescribable mix of pink/lavender/tan ….just a small ball that will make a lovely scarf.

Katharine Cobey. When I entered this studio I instinctively knew that I was in the presence of an artist, and that her studio was probably going to be the highlight of all our travels this summer! Her studio and its setting along the water is as artistic as Katharine herself. The wall of glass that faces the water must provide an ever changing inspiration to her spinning and knitting. When I entered Katharine was reclining in an overstuffed chair with ottoman, knitting away on a current project. Her large Rio Grande ‘sitting great wheel’ was nearby, and one of the first things she did was give me a demonstration on how it works! I’ve always wondered how one could sit and spin at a great wheel, and after seeing Rachel Brown’s simple technique which Katherine does so well, I am awestruck by what a simple feat it is to change from spinning off the spindle to winding on without stopping the wheel. Thank heaven for Rachel Brown! Katharine made it look utterly simple, but when she encouraged me to try it I quickly learned that I’d need several hours (or days!) to get the hang of it!

Part of Katharine’s studio is a showcase for some of her work. There was a display of knitted mantles arranged in a circle and exquisitely lighted called Ritual against Homelessness. They were beautifully moving. There was also a wire-knitted form on the wall that was wonderful. The form itself was interesting and was greatly enhanced by its shadow. The combination of real form and shadow were terrific together.

On leaving, Katharine handed me one of her postcards which is when I realized I knew of her! I had seen Boat with Four Figures at the Portland Museum a few years back, but didn’t realize she was the artist! I’m thrilled to have met her!

>The Price of Eggs in China, aka Talking Pears

July 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment

I did finally take an afternoon to weave while we were anchored in Hadley Harbor, on the Island of Naushon just across from Wood’s Hole.

I’m working on a small tapestry that was an assignment from a workshop that Archie and Susan gave to the Wednesday Group several months ago. They called the workshop “Talking Pears.” For the workshop we were to bring two Bosc pears, our sketchbooks and pencils, and a variety of colored papers.

For the morning, we arranged and drew our two pears several times. After our lunch break, we took the sketches we liked best and used them as ideas for making several paper collage designs. The nature of the paper collage designs being so graphic led to other ideas.

At the end of class we lined up our paper collages and discussed shapes, arrangements, and color choices.

This may be more than you want to know about the “price of eggs in China,” but I’m certain that Archie and Susan carefully chose this workshop as a clever way to make us start thinking in the language of tapestry rather than in the language of pure image. Many of us are often intrigued by an image first and foremost, and we attempt to make a cartoon that will be weaverly.

Here, the relationship of our pears as two shapes coming together, along with the relationship of the surrounding area, and the colors we chose to use took precedence over the image itself. The simple paper collages we made prevented us from creating shading and contours.

This simple exercise has allowed each of us to focus on how to create the shapes of the pears and the surrounding areas. I’ve never paid so much attention to my curves and slopes! I’m usually too busy also trying to create light and shadow. I had a lot of fun choosing the colors for this little project, and with only six colors I really concentrated on the relationship between them.

Here you can see the frame that Bob made for me to hold my copper pipe looms. This frame allows me to adjust the loom up and down so I’ll always be weaving at a comfortable height.

One Wednesday Grouper has already woven eight small tapestries! Several others have already woven two. This is my first one, and I do hope to weave another. I’m so slow that two will probably be my limit!

>Where will you weave this summer?

June 14, 2010 | 3 Comments

Yikes!….I wrote this two weeks ago and somehow didn’t post it….

A successful few days of weaving while on board our sailboat, Pandora, has me thinking about where other weavers work during their travels. What comes to mind first is a wonderful travelogue tapestry by Susan Martin Maffei that chronicles a train trip she took from New York westward across the country. It’s a multi-panel work with 2” x 2” tiny tapestries mounted on the panels, depicting the landmarks and landscapes of her trip. Susan has also brought small copper pipe looms on airplanes and woven while in flight!

I imagine many weavers must bring looms on vacation (floor and table looms as well as frame looms for tapestry), and I’d like to know where you will be weaving this summer! If you read this, please consider leaving a comment of where you plan to weave while you are away from home! I’d like to picture all the wonderful places where weavers will be working on their projects. I might make a map (if I can figure out how!) showing all the vacation weaving places I hear about. Or if you plan to blog about your summer weaving, send me a link!

I have just returned home this morning from a trip along the Chesapeake. It started in Williamsburg (by car!) with a visit to my parents and some friends, and ended with a week of sailing in the Chesapeake. For my part in this summer weaving list, I can say that I worked on my current tapestry in St. Michael’s harbor, Maryland, and at a lovely anchorage off Gibson Island in the Magothy River, also Maryland.

St. Michaels harbor on the eastern shore of Maryland.

>A Weaver’s Legacy

May 11, 2010 | 4 Comments

An amazing turn of events last week brought three weavers together after three years…

About three years ago, a good friend of mine died from complications related to breast cancer. She was a very artistic woman, someone I admired. She wore her handwoven clothes with enviable flair, and she knew how to accessorize. When she could no longer sit at the loom she continued to knit accessories that were as striking as her woven items.

(Well, this is not the best photo to demonstrate Bonney’s fashion flair, but do notice the t-shirt on the sheep commemorates National Spinners and Weavers week!)

Her daughters held a sale before selling her house, and I got some precious items which always make me think fondly of Bonney’s friendship. I have two shirts, commerically made, that look deceptively handwoven, a sterling jewelry pin of a castle-style spinning wheel, and Bonney’s 8S Baby Wolf.

When I got the loom it had samples on it, lovely samples of what looked to me like a ‘Sharon Alderman’ fabric. There were several small samples, separated by unwoven warp. The warp looked like 20/2 mercerized cotton in a medium grey. The weft was the same size cotton in ‘rust’ or ‘burnt sienna.’ The color difference between the warp and weft made a lovely iridescence in the fabric, giving the finished cloth the look of silk.

I thought of weaving off the rest of the warp, but when I went searching for what the treadling might be I did not find this pattern. Also, I did not have the weft. Eventually I cut the fabric off the loom so that I could warp it for a weaving workshop. I thought I might serge the fabric samples and give one to each of Bonney’s good friends in my guild, keeping one for myself.

But I never did it. The fabric has lain on top of my serger now for three years….

During these three years my path has occasionally crossed the path of another New Jersey weaver from the Jockey Hollow Guild. I heard her name numerous times through mutual acquaintances, and I finally met her during her guild’s holiday sale last December.

Last week when I had again warped this loom in readiness for a weaving workshop from the Jockey Hollow Guild, Sally was the organizer, so our paths crossed again.

At one point during the workshop Sally offered to tweak my loom into better working condition. I mentioned that this loom had belonged to a good friend who had left this life. I asked if she had ever known Bonney, who had on occasion attended meetings at Jockey Hollow.

Well, Sally did know Bonney. In fact, some time before Bonney’s final days, Sally had visited her to weave off some samples that were part of an exchange (indeed, a Sharon Alderman design). Shortly after that visit Bonney died, and Sally did not know what became of the samples or of Bonney’s loom. The participants in that exchange never got the samples.

Isn’t it interesting that I had wanted to give those samples to some of Bonney’s friends, but I just never could bring myself to cut them apart and serge the ends?…. and equally interesting that I kept hearing about Sally from a couple of friends. I, too, had visited some meetings of Sally’s guild, but I did not met her until recently…. And it is interesting that we did not get to the subject of Bonney and her loom on our first meeting, but obviously it was meant to come about at some point.

I think Bonney knew it would happen, all in good time, and I think she smiled when it finally did. I will miss seeing the yardage in my studio, but I’m immensely happy that it will go to the recipients who were always meant to have it. It’s a lovely length of finely woven cloth. Good weaving endures, friendship endures. It’s all good.

>Making a list…

December 29, 2009 | 2 Comments

The winter holidays always bring out the list-making, goal -oriented part of my personality. Here is this year’s list of goals, all unrealistically slated to be accomplished during the week between Christmas and New Year!

1. Texsolv tie-ups to be applied to my 60” Toika loom

2. Choose pattern for napkins which will be woven as test samples for future tablecloth project on the Toika . Warp the loom!

2. Taka dai to be made by Bob according to Rodrick’s plans. Naturally I will be turning out my first braid within hours of the taka dai’s completion.

3. Dyeing with my avocado pit brew which has been steeping for almost 3 months now. This means spinning some white wool to dye.

4. Weave the small test tapestry for the medieval spinner with the wonderful wools that have arrived from Renaissance Dyeing in France.

Won’t I have a busy week! And somehow I imagine myself sharing delicious meals with my visiting family, lounging on the sofa reading all the fiber magazines that never got opened during the course of this year, continuing to knit my handspun Fair Isle sweater project, and starting a new baby sweater for the upcoming Feb. birth.

I need a dose of reality!…but then dreaming is so much more fun!