weaving – Page 4

Antigua, Ho!

November 19, 2017 | Leave a Comment

My trip to Antigua went smoothly. Once I arrived at the airport in Baltimore, I connected with another sailing friend, Judie. We made our connection in Miami, and even enjoyed a couple of leisurely hours in the American Airlines member lounge! There is a saying among sailors that “nothing goes to weather like a 747.” It’s certainly true! While Bob had his easiest passage this year, there was still one long day when he and his crew had to schlog through 20 squalls. My passage was much shorter and much smoother than Bob’s! His journey took 9 days, 23 hours. He had estimated 10 days, so how’s that for accuracy on something as hard to predict as sailing conditions and boat speed?

It is shockingly hot here, but lush from all the rain during hurricane season. Antigua has had little damage compared to its close neighbor Barbuda whose entire population has now been evacuated. We spoke with a waitress who is from Dominica who said that the rainforest, the best in the Caribbean, has been flattened. No one here has gone untouched by this year’s violent weather.

I have made things as cozy and homelike as I can for the moment. I’ve put out the little woven table mat that I bought from Chris Hammel during the Greater Boston Open Studios a few weeks back. It is just right for our dining table aboard Pandora. I hope she knows how much I love it! Bob got fresh bougainvillea for the table to greet me when I arrived, as well as a vaseful of pale pink oleander. He knows I love flowers!

The day before I left home I visited the Hartford Artisans’ annual weaving sale with my friend Jody. We both bought some great treasures, and I bought this kitchen towel to put onboard to help me remember fall at home….there are no naturally occurring autumn colors in the Caribbean, so this feels a little like New England in November. It’s the towel on the left.

Our mascot, the little sailing mouse, French Louie (who came from a shop in St. Martin, but is originally from Denmark!), has a new hammock. My friend Mary made it for me when she was trying out her skills at net making. She did a fine job, and Louie and we love his new spot for relaxing! Thank you, Mary! Sadly, we will not be visiting St. Martin this year due to the hurricane damage suffered there.

Before he left on the long passage, Bob made a lot of entertainment plans for the boats arriving here. There has been cocktail party one night, and a ceremony by the Antigua and Barbuda Royal Navy Tot Club last night. We were guests at their daily meeting, where in historic fashion one of the members reads from the logbook various events that took place on this day over the past 700 years or so, then toasts enemies and lost friends (Thursday’s toast-there’s a different one for each day of the week) and the health of the Queen, and THEN we each take a tot of rum, all in ‘one go.’ For men, a tot is an 1/8 of a pint. That is 1/4 cup of rum, straight, all in one go! For women guests the tot is half that. Well, let me tell you I failed at getting it down all in one go, and I decided not to attempt the rest of it. I gave it to Bob, who was successful at his own full tot. Sheesh!

Here is Bob in the white shirt at center, thanking the Royal Tot members for their hospitality in hosting us for their daily ceremony. It’s a beautiful setting in the Copper and Lumber historic site that is now an inn and restaurant.

Tonight, Saturday, Bob has arranged another dinner, the first of three. Tonight we will be having fresh sushi, Caribbean style. There is a traditional Caribbean dinner coming up on Monday to welcome the rest of the arrivals–boats who had various equipment problems and boats that are simply slower or had weather issues getting here. One of the restaurants here in Falmouth Harbor is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday for all of us who will not be home for that holiday. There are plenty of English and Canadians in our sailing group who will join us for this holiday dinner. Other boats in the harbor are flying home port flags from Sweden, Holland, and France. As the weeks go by there will be more and arrivals from many other places.

For the moment Pandora is in Falmouth Harbor, where we spent a few days on the dock, enjoying the ease of stepping ashore for me, in addition to being plugged into electricity so that I had some air conditioning to help acclimate to this tropical climate! Now we are off the dock and anchored out in the harbor. There is plenty of breeze, but it still takes some getting used to!

This lovely water garden is near the entrance to English Harbor, just a short walk from Falmouth. I would love to add something similar to my own garden next summer. I know I’ll have to settle for something far less interesting than this giant iron pot that might have been in use when Lord Nelson was stationed here.

My last post had a photo of Pillars Restaurant where we had dinner after my arrival. Pillars is equally beautiful before the sun goes down.

Before I left I had three wonderful days with our son and his wife, and our adorable granddaughter Tori. She is getting cuter and cuter as well as bigger and bigger! I’m so glad we will see her again over Thanksgiving weekend.

In fact she will be our Princess Tori when she has her christening day on Sunday after Thanksgiving. And speaking of royalty, we have been hearing for days that Prince Charles will be visiting Antigua today as part of a tour to see the hurricane damage among islands that were once British subjects. I am keen to see him! Wish me luck!

Internet Shopping

November 8, 2017 | Leave a Comment

Boy, have I had fun shopping in cyberspace lately. Remember the old days when the ‘modern’ thing to do was ‘let your fingers do the walking?’ This is lightyears beyond that!

Internet shopping is hardly new, but the wealth of websites devoted to weaving/spinning/lace making/sewing….etc…etc has expanded into a galaxy of wonderful places to shop!

A couple of posts back, pre-christening dress dilemma, I wrote that I had ordered a tape loom on etsy. Well, it arrived! And it was beautifully packaged so that opening the box was like a well choreographed dance. I enjoyed every moment of unpacking this treasure! I hope I can get a warp on it, and figure out how to get it to Pandora, now that she sailed away with Bob–OR rather, Bob sailed away with her.

The woman who made this loom and all the accessories that go with it calls herself HandyWOman. What an attention to detail! My loom has images of England and Scotland branded (?)/burnished (?) into it on all sides, inside and out! The accompanying bag (sold separately) is so well made– it shows the kind of sewing expertise that I am trying to attain in my classes! Just take a look!

Here is the box with the first bit unpacked. She made the drawstring bag that holds some small items you’ll see shortly!

I enjoyed the unpacking process and had to document it! The rigid heddle is embellished with a Tudor rose.

The set came with this little Scottie dog comb–adorable!

Everything unpacked and displayed on the kitchen table! I wish I’d gotten a better shot of the London skyline on the side of the loom that is being blocked by the instruction papers.

You need to see a closeup of the tote bag that holds all the pieces with plenty of extra room for other stuff. Note that HandyWOman’s logo has been machine embroidered on the top of the bag. What a great touch! I’m finding it hard to believe that she can be such a good wood worker as well as such an accomplished seamstress.

I can’t wait to try weaving on it!

Going back a couple of weeks now: my lace group made a trip to the Windham Textile and History Museum in Willimantic. My friend Mary descends from some mill workers and foremen, so she has particular interest in this time period. She was searching the internet for some mill related information and found the clothing designer Carolyn Denham (of Merchant and Mills) who makes timeless yet modern clothing with a nod to the mill workers of years ago. I couldn’t resist ordering this pattern, and today I found it in the mailbox! There’s no time to make it now, but hopefully I can tackle it in the spring when I return. In fact, I hope Mary makes it while I’m away so she can give me pointers on the process!

Last week I went to an extra sewing class on a day I don’t usually go. There were students there I hadn’t met before, and lots of projects to sigh over. One woman is making her granddaughter a quilt out of large and small panels of woodland animals drawn in a wonderfully graphic style. I love the owl and the fox and think that Tori would love them too! So, of course, I had to go hunting for them, letting my fingers do the walking so to speak, across the keyboard rather than the phone dial of old….and they were easy to find! They also arrived in my mailbox today! (The panels are from fashionable fabrics)

There are actually four animals in this set. I’m smitten with the owl and the fox so that’s what I’ve photographed. There are also a bear and a bunny. I bought the coordinating fabrics at the top of the photo at a local fabric store in Glastonbury called Close to Home. I’d never been there before, but I will be going back in the future. I just love the addition of that kiwi green and hope Tori will too.

The arrival of these treats could not have come at a more opportune time! It’s post-christening dress trauma and just in time to plan things to work on when I return home in the spring!

So Late….So Little!

October 3, 2017 | Leave a Comment

There is only week left to see this exhibit! That’s bordering on cruel and unusual treatment for me to write about this so close to the end. Sorry! I loved the exhibit and just didn’t get to my computer in time. Two weavers, Norma Smayda and Jan Doyle, have a beautiful display of work at Hera Gallery in Wakefield, Rhode Island. It’s a women-founded, artist-run, non-profit endeavor that started over 40 years ago.

Norma’s and Jan’s work hang well together, with Jan’s signature large, mantle-type coats in each corner of the room, while Norma’s undulating wall hangings flowed across two long walls. Jan works in a traditional Finnish double weave, and she had some smaller pieces on the walls along with her impressive coats. Here is Jan standing in front of one of her garments.

Up close…look at all that work. I can’t imagine how long it would take to weave this. It is stunning!

Here is another one of Jan’s coats/mantles wtih a self portrait on the wall nearby. Now that’s a double weave masterpiece!

Norma has been working with an ondule reed for several years now, and she has experimented with various weave structures while also writing a book about this.

Norma’s book should be available in November.

So, as you can see this mix of works made a striking exhibit.

Back at home, I’m nearing the end of the lace I’ve been making for little Tori’s christening dress. Bob and I will be visiting our son’s area later this week to participate in some of the events at the Annapolis boat show–in specific Bob will be presenting what he has put in place for the long distance sailors when they arrive in Antigua in November–so, after that, we will be spending most of the weekend with our family.

Today I made a mock up of three different sizes for the bodice so I can try them on Tori to see which size is the closest match for her. Hopefully, there won’t be too much to adjust! I dragged the ironing board over to my lace pillow to see what the lace (still attached to the pillow!) would look like. I am happy!

I tried out the narrow lace around the neck, and the wider lace for the bottom of the bodice and for the hem of the dress.

Here is the petal sleeve that comes with this pattern. I don’t know if Mom likes the sleeve yet. I think it is SO sweet!

My rather obscure title refers to how late I am in writing about the weaving exhibit and how tiny little Tori’s dress will be, whichever size ends up fitting her. It’s a challenge for me to sew on that small a scale! Hence, so late, so little! Off to Banksville Fabric on our way south tomorrow to hopefully find a beautiful white fabric for this dress, since the white linen I bought at Britex did not get chosen.

Nordic Tapestry in Washington Depot

August 24, 2017 | Leave a Comment

The day after the eclipse marked one month left until the vernal equinox. We are on the downward slope of summer. These next few weeks will hold the last of summer’s wealth….

Last weekend my friend Jody joined me in visiting the opening for the Nordic Tapestry exhibit in Washington Depot. What a lovely town that is, and the venue for this show of works was quite beautiful, which made a great backdrop for the wonderful tapestries. The artists are a group of students of Helena Hernmarck, mostly from Sweden, with one from Iceland and a couple from the US, who organized this event to honor Helena during her 75th year. What a great birthday present! ….and well deserved.

This is one of the Swedish weavers, Stina Fjelkner-Modig, standing in front of her “Poppies in a Wheat Field.” She has certainly done wonderful things with Hernmarck’s technique for creating texture.

This may be my favorite tapestry from the students’ exhibition. It is “Autumn” by Anneli Forsberg. Jody and I enjoyed talking to her about Sweden and working with Helena. It’s stunning, right?– with the same marvelous use of floats and thick bundles of weft.

A few other works of note…..

“Lighthouse.”

“Longing for Summer,” by Hugrun Runarsdottir

Two of the artists/weavers admiring the crocus. The artist for this tapestry is on the left.

Both exhibit spaces were on the green in Washington Depot. This is the building where the students’ exhibition was on display.

In the back is a lovely sunken garden where they served refreshments. By the time Jody and I found this spot the opening was over and the clean up had started.

At the other end of the green was the display of Helena’s work. I loved the setting and the way this building is open to the outdoors.

The last time I saw Helena, at her studio, this piece was newly finished. It is double woven with a layer of plastic strips on the back. When it is hung in a way that allows viewing on both sides, it has a luminous, transparent effect. The plastic on the back side creates a sparkling effect on the front. On the back side the effect of the woven plastic strips is very glossy and dazzling.

One of my all time favorite pieces is Helena’s “Anemones.” Her use of floats and big bundles of weft is what makes her dramatic use of focus and out of focus effects. Looks like I had trouble focusing on holding my camera straight!

Here’s a detail shot….

At the end of our visit, dear Jody got a photo of Helena and me together. I treasure this!

It was Jody who thought to take this fabulous photo of two of Helena’s works together.

This was the BIG event of my summer, and I’m looking forward to seeing another work of Helena’s at the “Plunge” exhibit in New Bedford, later this weekend!

Backtracking a little, I made contact with one of the award winners from the juried exhibit at NEWS. The basketmaker, Barbara Feldman Morse. I’m rather certain I saw another of her baskets awarded two years ago. Now this year she gilded the lily by also weaving a liner for her latest basket. Brilliant!

I had no way to contact any of the weavers whose works I admired, but I happened to stumble on Barbara on Facebook, so I tried contacting her through FB messenger. Well, it took a couple of weeks for her to see my message, but when we connected at last I found a most interesting woman!

Over the 40 years that I have been weaving and getting to know other weavers, I’ve often found that weavers lead fascinating lives. They are often gardeners, artists in tw0-dimensional techniques, like painting, and often good cooks too. Many weavers seem to love cats. It turns out that Barbara loves to cook and in particular she bakes madeleines! What wonderful little luxuries! She has published a cookbook on madeleines and her madeleines were sold at Ghiradelli’s Chocolate in San Fransciso, at local Starbucks, and they have been used in films. All that baking success is quite a feat on its own, but she is also a master weaver and accomplished basket maker. I am happy that I have crossed her path. You can read her here and also get a few madeleine recipes!

And summer marches on …. Bob and I participated in a “Conquer the Current” paddle on the Connecticut River last weekend. He did the conquering and I kept cool and out of the sun by holding my umbrella. Bob rowed 9 miles down the river! We put in at the Haddam Bridge (think Goodspeed Opera House), and ended at the Connecticut River Museum, in Essex, where the museum staff treated all participants to a wonderful Sunday brunch on the grounds of the museum–even me–who didn’t do a thing!

The gardens I see along my walks are just beginning to show signs of slowing down, but are always still a wonderful part of any venture outside. It was a hazy August day-after-eclipse that I took these.

The eclipse seemed to have an oddly productive effect on me. Before it started I dug out some linen fabric that I had eco-dyed last summer, unsuccessfully. Actually, I eco-dyed it twice and still did not get a pleasing outcome. So on eclipse morning I brewed up some French marigold flowers that have been stashed in my freezer from last year’s garden. I simmered the linen fabric for about an hour, then let it cool in the dye bath for the rest of the day.

This photo is about as hazy as my garden shots above. The color is actually darker and quite interesting. The fern prints from eco-dyeing that barely showed up now stand out considerably more! Win, win!

First the marigolds, so you can see the color of the flowers.

And here’s what I got…although darker than this photo.

After the eclipse I brewed up a batch of peach jam. That’s a lot of productivity for me in one day….. it had to be some lunar/solar energy vibes.

It’s been a good week in my little world. I hope it’s been good for you too!

Summertime Weaving and other Arts

July 30, 2017 | Leave a Comment

This is the summer of regional weaving conferences all over the US, and I enjoyed a day trip to Northampton, Massachusetts a couple of weeks ago to visit the exhibits and vendor hall of NEWS, the New England Weaving Seminar. This is always a great way to rekindle and rejuvenate my love of weaving. There are so many weavers, even just in New England, who are doing inspiring things!

One of our Connecticut guild members, and a good friend from my local weavers’ group, has made a fabulous doll this year. This is not her first miniature figure, and she is definitely honing her skills as time passes! In her travels she acquired a porcelain doll head of a Japanese male. She and her husband began sculpting hands and feet out of polymer clay to go with the head. Then they began the daunting task of making a soft-sculpture, pose-able body for the figure. And then came the weaving! This fellow has a full set of traditional Japanese undergarments in white, all handwoven! His kimono is a dark indigo plain weave, and his obi is also handwoven–even the thongs on his handmade shoes are woven!–in the same pattern as his obi. It’s an amazing piece, and I’m so glad it got such a prominent place in the gallery. Being in the front window you could easily view from all sides.

The lighting is challenging for getting a photo that shows the details of his woven garments. He is holding an origami crane, also made by Sally. Really, isn’t he fabulous?? I doubt the judges knew what to make of this! And I wonder if they opened up his kimono to see his handwoven undergarments.

The guild exhibits were quite good this year. The space was light and large so that each guild table could be seen well from multiple directions.

Maybe it was not the most creative use of space, but the displays themselves were quite inspired. Very enjoyable. This is the display for the Weavers’ Guild of Boston.

It was a wonderful day for me, and far too short. By the time I caught up with friends and had a dash through the vendor booths it was past time to head home.

My favorite place in the vendor hall is upstairs, where Vav Stuga and Pro Chem share a space. I always find way more than I meant to buy in these two booths. This year Pro Chem had a deep basket full of stamps for printing fabric, and Vav Stuga had a bundle of past Vav Magazine calendars at a discount. Who could resist either of those? Not me!

There was a new vendor this year, Lofty Fibers from New Hampshire. On top of selling some wonderful linens and the Jaggerspun wool/silk blends, they have developed a small gadget called a “Tempo Treadle” that keeps track of your treadling sequence and will alert you if you make a mistake. Isn’t that a handy thing to have? I would like to have one for my AVL mechanical dobby, which has a very bad habit of not lifting all the shafts that are pegged or lifting one too many. It’s a mysterious –and pervasive– problem, and I would love to have an alarm system for this! Barry said he’ll look into making one for AVLs.

There was a wonderful 3-woman exhibit of works by Norma Smayda, Jan Doyle, and Antonia Kormos. All three women are Rhode Island weavers, although my small area group in Connecticut claims Tony too, as well a number of other Rhode Island residents who regularly come our meetings. Tony is in her 90s and still doing fabulous work in many complex weaves as well as bobbin lace.

Changing gears a bit, but still celebrating inspiring works of art, the next photo is of a gift that Bob and I recently gave each other. Back in June we celebrated our 40th anniversary. Pretty amazing to both of us! We enjoy looking at art together, although we are not wealthy enough to actually as much art as we’d like. We count ourselves lucky to have some accomplished artistic friends….because of that we heard of an artistic exchange between the US and Russia, where a group of Russian painters came to the US last spring to paint plein aire along the coast of Maine. Bob and I sailed coastal Maine for 16 years before we started sailing in the Caribbean for our winters, so images of Maine bring back some wonderful memories of summer travels during our increasingly long marriage (I mean that in a good way!).

One artist in particular captured one of our best memories with this depiction of a lobster pound near Stonington, Maine. Almost every summer we would stop and anchor near Stonington, just off from Billings Marina. We’d take our dinghy ashore and walk into town, which included walking right by this very spot. It’s the still water of the pond that just undoes me. It looks wonderful close up and at any distance. We have hung this in a spot where we can view it from close up as well as all the way to the other side of the house, and we love it from all the vantage points.

The artist is Olga Karpacheva, and she has an impressive background of achievements in Russia. She has work in five Russian museums, and I found images of her work online that make me think she has special ties to the Volga River. She is also well known for her work in restoring art.

But this is the best thing I found about her online! –a photo of her painting the piece we bought! She is on the left. What a thrill for me to see this!

The summer offers a couple more exciting venues for seeing artwork, both woven and not woven. Here is my list!

I regret not posting this before the opening….but it’s still on, so try to get there! It was quite a thrill to reconnect with Helena after six or seven years. Her students included about a dozen Swedish weavers, one Icelandic, and two US weavers. No one lives near Washington Depot, so it was impressive that these students organized the event from so far, and almost all of them managed to get to the opening. The exhibit has been at two venues in Sweden before coming to New England, and the students organized these exhibitions as a tribute to Helena. What a wonderful event, and I’m so glad I was able to attend.

It was there that I learned of this exhibition, currently at the New Bedford Art Museum.

The couple who own Brown/Grotta were at the tapestry opening. They are quite excited by their current show of works which you can read about here. As luck would have it, Bob and I are visiting the New Bedford area in a few days, so it will be easy to add this to our itinerary. Yes, I feel lucky!

And I also met a pastel artist at the Nordic exhibition who shows work annually at the Lyme Art Association during their annual pastel exhibition. It’s interesting that I’ve seen this woman’s work for several years before now getting to meet her. The opening for the Nordic Tapestry Group was a convergence of how interwoven our artwork and relationships are. Lucky, indeed!