Totally Enchanted

The license plate doesn’t lie, New Mexico is truly the Land of Enchantment. My trip was only a week, and packed with visits to exhibits, Convergence, and the ATA retreat, so I didn’t have nearly enough time to explore. I will definitely be back! I arrived in Albuquerque in the early afternoon, and was pleasantly surprised by the lack of traffic, and ease of driving. (OK, if you can drive in RI anything else seems easy).

The airport is only about 15 minutes from downtown. After checking into the remarkably inexpensive Hotel Blue, I called Donna Loraine Contractor and invited myself over to visit her studio. She gave me an important clue about finding my way when she said “Follow Central Ave east, that’s towards the mountains.” AHA! Central Ave is also Historic Route 66, and features some lovely old buildings, like this one, the Kimo Theater.

Sadly, my photos of Donna’s studio seem to have disappeared, except for this one. You can see her tapestries on her website, and read about her latest adventures on her blog.

This photo of Donna taking my picture in her studio shows her amazing AVL loom, and some of her many collections. As a glass collector myself, I’m jealous of the wonderful window that shows off her glass.

The next day, my friend (and roommate) Marcy and I drove to Taos, because I felt the need to visit Weaving Southwest. This is a wonderful gallery that also sells hand-dyed yarns, and looms and spinning wheels.  It was the brainchild of the legendary Rachel Brown, who opened it in 1985 as a market for her Rio Grande Looms and Spinning Wheels. Even though the drive was incredibly scenic, I was a little doubtful about driving for 3 hours just to see one store, but when I walked in the door, I was overwhelmed with delight: totally worth the trip.

The walls are covered with tapestries, and there are racks full of handwoven rugs and tablerunners. And yarns, many many yarns.

After spending lots of time and money at Weaving Southwest, we walked a few blocks to LaLana Wools,  a small shop just packed with plant dyed yarns and fibers.

More oohs and aahs, and more exercise for my credit card!

After a very late lunch, we hoped to get back to Albuquerque in time for an opening reception, but it started raining so hard we couldn’t get back to the car for almost an hour!

Of course we were prepared, with a raincoat and an umbrella…..in the car. All the way back to Albuquerque we could see lightning off in the distance in every direction, and occasionally had to slow down for more torrential rains.

New Mexico has the most amazing clouds, particularly during this “monsoon season!”

We missed the opening reception, but the drive was spectacular.

 

Stay tuned, there will be lots more about New Mexico.

Technorati Tags: Tapestry Weaving,New Mexico

American Tapestry Biennial 8 Catalog

I received my complimentary ATB8 catalog recently; that’s because I am one of the lucky ones whose work was accepted for this, the Cadillac of tapestry exhibits. I know, it’s a weird analogy, but my father worked for GM his whole life, so humor me.

I don’t want to spoil the surprise for those who will see this exhibit or buy the catalog, so here is a TINY image of my tapestry. It’s Chaotic Fragments: Part 3, 14x14”

In the past, the American Tapestry Alliance’s prestigious, international juried ATB shows have opened during the big biennial summer weaving conference, Convergence, but this time a gallery could not be found at the conference venue, Albuquerque, NM. So the exhibit will open September 20-November 15, 2010, at the Elder Gallery, in Lincoln, NE, in conjunction with the Textile Society of America conference.

It will also travel to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA, January 22-May 1, 2011.

It’s really too bad it won’t be showing during Convergence, since so many weavers will be in Albuquerque, and I remember gallery sitting at past ATBs, where many conference attendees told me it’s always their favorite exhibit. They will miss it this year.

Meanwhile, the catalogs have already been printed; they will be available at Convergence, and can also be purchased online or by mail through the American Tapestry Alliance website.

It’s an excellent catalog. Technically it’s perfect: no typos, no errors, layout and print quality are perfect. 53 pages of tapestries in full color, YUM!

The front cover is a slightly cropped version of “Riverroad” by John Nicholson. The back cover is a detail from “Peggy” by Joanne Sanburg, and I have to confess, it’s one of the funniest tapestries I’ve ever seen, while irresistably sumptuous in color and texture. Tempted to buy the catalog?

The juror, Rebecca A.T. Stevens, is a renowned scholar with a deep knowledge of tapestry, and Consulting Curator of Contemporary Textiles for the Textile Museum in Washington D.C. Her essay is thought provoking. A second essay is by Paula Owen, president and CEO of Southwest School of Art and Craft. She writes about her 10 favorite tapestries from this exhibit.

I was very nervous that maybe the photo of my tapestry might be out of focus or something. In the past I have seen catalogs where one or two of the photos were not clear, but I was quite relieved to see how nicely my photo printed up.

I have entered this show many times before, but this is the first time I’ve been accepted. Submitting all the catalog information caused me a few moments of anxiety, because after all, once it’s in print, it’s permanent!

So I agonized over writing the artist statement and the brief bio, and which photo of myself to submit.

Here’s the original photo that I cropped to show just my face.

It’s me and my old 9th grade best friend, Dagge, when we reunited in northern Sweden last September. 

It makes me happy to know that she was standing next to me when the photo was taken, even though you can’t see her in the catalog.

 

It’s as if she’s there holding my hand and keeping me company.

I chose the other one for the catalog because it’s more flattering, but I love this one with us laughing together, just like old times!

Technorati Tags: American Tapestry Biennial,ATB8,Tapestry Weaving

No More Homework, No More Books

No More Teachers’ Dirty Looks!

My last tapestry class finished up a few weeks ago, so I guess it’s really summer vacation!

I’ve had a total of 14 students since January. The classes were 2 hours a week for 4 weeks, and were planned that way because people have a hard time committing to more than 4 weeks at a time.

After the initial 4 weeks, most students opted to do another 4, because there is so much to learn.

It sounds like a cliché, but it’s really true: I did learn as much as the students.

For example, because it’s so difficult to weave a circle (and on these looms they only have 24 warps to do it on) I discovered it makes more sense to try a half circle first!

I’m looking forward to next fall when I can plan some more classes.

 

 

The hardest part is scheduling. Everyone has so many other demands on their time.

Here are some photos of tapestries by the students in my last class.

All are samplers, in which students practiced weaving the basic shapes, rectangles, triangles and curves, plus stripes, pick and pick, and hatching.

The detail on the left includes an ancient Coptic dolphin.

Can you see it?  

Hint: it’s swimming in blue water!

Technorati Tags: Tapestry Weaving,Tapestry Classes

It’s All About the Flowers!

This is the worst time of year to weave. How can I stay inside with so many flowers blooming?

True, my tapestry diary for May was woven in all the sickly sweet flower colors!   So I’ve been out photographing my favorites.

I love foxgloves, but would not have them in my garden when my kids were little. They are quite poisonous, unless of course, you have a heart condition that requires digitalis, then perhaps they’d be  good for you?

At our last house, I found them in the garden and observed that there were some with pink flowers and some with white.

Since I like the white ones best I began to cut off all the pink blooms each year, so that only the white ones would set seed. (Foxgloves are biennials)

It worked, but you always get a few pink ones that come up anyway. So I have  pink in my driveway garden, and white far away in the front yard next to the stone wall. This year there was only one pink among the white. I cut it down right away, even though it was a very pretty pale pink.

The roses are all in full bloom, but with all that hot weather we had  2 weeks ago (one day it got up to 99F!) the earliest ones bloomed like crazy all at once, and will go by very soon.

This red knockout is humungous, it has swallowed up the salvia and a bunch of daylilies.

If you have a large space to fill, this is your rose!

Sadly, no fragrance, but I guess you can’t have everything.

For fragrance, I love “Topaz Jewel,” the yellow Rosa Rugosa.

The flowers are gorgeous too, but talk about thorns! It’s covered in vicious thorns right up to the flowers. No picking these without leather gloves!

The buds are tinged with pink. This rose blooms early and then again in the fall.

When we moved here 5 years ago, the “Foundation” plants on  either side of the front door were overgrown and ugly, so I tore them all out (except for 2 giant, ancient white azaleas, which I radically pruned) and planted new.

My two Endless Summer hydrangeas, on either side of the front door are getting so big I can’t get to the faucet anymore. They are about 5 feet tall and wide.

Everything is so well established I guess I won’t have to water them anyway.

I love these when the flowers first come out and are just starting to turn blue. A week later, they are almost solid blue and getting nice and round.

These plants bloom on old wood, like other blue hydrangeas, and also on the new wood, so even if you have a brutally cold winter you have flowers.

If the buds make it through the winter, as they did this year, then it will live up to its name and bloom endlessly! Did you know that hydrangea means “water loving?” Perfect for our yard, which is very very wet.

Next to the hydrangea is a pink knockout rose, which is also getting a bit too big for its space. I’ll have to prune everything this fall.

I love the simple flowers, like wild beach roses, and the buds are absolutely adorable. In front of this rose are small Stella D’Oro daylilies. When they are all in bloom, it’s blue, pink and yellow. So pretty. The first daylilies just opened up a few days ago.

Despite all these modern, carefully bred and very well-behaved plants, one of my favorites is this wild daisy.

I rescued one of these from the lawn at our old house, and once it was in the garden, it flourished and reseeded. I have as many as I want now, and forever.

Another weedy plant that I love is feverfew, with its smaller daisy-like flowers. They pop up everywhere, and I enjoy seeing them bloom between the cracks in the driveway! I don’t mind plants like this as long as they are easy to pull out, which these are.

This weekend I hope to finish planting annuals in the few spaces left in the gardens, and in pots for the back porch. Sadly, I also have to eradicate hundreds of poison ivy plants that pop up every year. If only the neighbors would control the giant seed-producing vines growing up their trees….sigh. Between the poison ivy and the Lyme Disease-bearing deer ticks, I have to put on my hazmat gear every time I work in the yard.

Hopefully I’ll have time to do all this, AND watch the World Cup match between USA and England on Saturday.

Handmade Weaving Implements

I thought I had already posted something about these lovely shuttles my husband, Kim, made for me, but now I can’t find it.

Kim has made me many frame looms over the years. One is very small, and I use it on trains and planes. I find it difficult using my fingers to pick up the warps and make a shed, when the warp threads are so small, so I asked him to make me these.

They are based on the tongue depressors I used in my classes with school children years ago, only much smaller, and much nicer. They are about 3 inches long, and made of hardwood.

I discovered that, in addition to using them like a yarn needle, with the weft just threaded through the hole, I can also wrap the weft around like a bobbin.

Used like a needle, I can pick up the warps to make a shed, and used like a bobbin they are good for just passing the weft through the shed.  They are good with the Mirrix, which makes a shed, but a very narrow one; these fit much easier than a bobbin.

I have also made weaving tools myself, from the various sizes of wood craft sticks I’ve bought at Michaels craft store.

I bought myself a small electric drill, because it’s very hard to drill a small hole in a small tool with a large heavy drill.  The shaping is done with coarse sandpaper, then fine sandpaper smoothes them out. This photo shows the scale, Kim’s shuttles on the left, my own on the right, with my favorite ruler. I bought this for $1 at an antique store. My favorite antiques are those I can actually use!