It’s quite hard for me to believe that I have not written a post in more than six weeks now. I have been working like a woman with her hair on fire….and that usually goes hand in hand with having a LOT to say–or write. For some reason I’ve been strangely mute.
Finally I have turned my attention to a project that has been lingering on my big Toika loom for several years. I managed to move that loom with the warp on it when we relocated here in Connecticut, and I’ve managed to play with it for short bursts over the past few years while we’ve lived here. Suddenly I want it off the loom and on the wall! That’s always a good motivation!
I’m chronicling the 40+ years that Bob and I have known each other. The piece starts with a row of autumn trees to represent our first outing together: a walk in the woods, in the nature preserve called Devil’s Den in Weston–back in 1972! What do you think of my boundweave loom? I can’t take credit for drawing that gem. It is Karen in the Woods’ design which she posted on Weavolution. I learned to weave in 1976.
The past couple of days I’ve worked on wedding rings, sailboats and kitties.–wish you could see their green eyes. I’m now in the early 80s.
When I settled down to weave this project I could not concentrate until I completely picked up and reorganized my studio. There was way too much clutter everywhere I looked. Now that I’m in the thick of boundweave my studio has become messier than it was when I couldn’t stand it any longer. Funny how that happens. Now I cringe a bit when I enter the room, but I really had to pull out all that yarn out for picking the colors and the softness I need for my little boundweave figures.
It was a beautiful summer although, aside from the linen tote bag, I did not knuckle down to any floor loom weaving until August. There was SO much I wanted to do–I won’t bore you with the list….
We had more hummingbirds than we’ve had in previous years. One of the females would sit on top of the iron plant hanger and chase away all other birds who came to feed. I grow lots of red flowers on the deck to keep everyone happy. The hummingbirds were constant companions for us.
In September I was invited to give a presentation on tapestry weaving to the Rhode Island weavers’ guild. There are several women in that guild who are also in the CT guild so I already knew a few members. They are a dynamic group who do some amazing work. You can find articles that various members have written in back issues of Handwoven. There are some well known weavers in Rhode Island: Antonia Kormos, Norma Smayda, Jan Doyle…. I could certainly learn more from any one of them than I could possibly teach them!
For the presentation I collected images from all the tapestry weavers whose work inspires me. I was impressed how willingly each of these weavers shared their photos with me so I could share them with the RI guild. Such beautiful work!–Joan Baxter, Tommye Scanlin, Jon Eric Riis, members of the Wednesday Group, of course!–along with Archie and Susan.
And in the afternoon an adventurous group of guild members tried their hands at weaving on chopstick looms. Sally’s husband made the looms, and he did such a stellar job that it made all our Wednesday Group looms look pathetic! I’m not going to give out Henry’s last name or he might be inundated with requests for these beauties!
Here are some of the portraits, all well woven!
In August, after the wedding, Bob and I spent a week sailing on our new Pandora, all the way to Nantucket and back during the most mild and beautiful week of the summer. I’ve got a new stash of window box and front door photos from all the pretty houses there.
Maybe I’ll post more of these another time, as a ‘postcards from summer’ type entry. I can’t help myself when it comes to gardens, and there were a lot of wonderful gardens on Nantucket….and I visited the oldest house on the island for the first time.
I’ve got warp ideas filling my head, and hope to get at least two of them on looms before we leave for the winter. Lucienne Coifman is in my guild and has just published an intriguing book on Rep weave. I bought it after also borrowing it from my guild library.
This is the project that is calling me! I think it would make wonderful placemats and runners (in a different colorwary) for my son and his wife’s new dining room. Naturally, I don’t have any 5/2 cotton which is the weight I’d like to try for a rep project. So it looks like a big order is looming….ha ha! I hope I can get it all together before I leave. I know from experience that it is a wonderful thing to come home to a loom just waiting for me to sit down and weave!
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