Pictures at an Exhibition November 2, 2009

I had forgotten about Emerson,  Lake and Palmer’s Pictures at an Exhibition until I walked into the lobby of the Circuit Playhouse in Memphis, Tennessee.  Though the theater is located on Poplar, one of Memphis’ busiest main streets, walking through the front entrance takes you into another world.  The lobby is a small enclosed space with dark burgundy walls, and there seems to be an other-world presence once you enter the building.  The theater’s manager did confirm that there is a resident ghost.  We were there around the time of Halloween but not for ghost hunting.  Several artists with Memphis Association of Craft Artists (MACA) were hanging an exhibit of their work in the lobby area to be viewed by theater goers until the end of December 2009. But while we were busily at work, hanging and positioning items, all that I heard was Keith Emerson playing “Pictures at an Exhibition” on the Hammond organ.  The environment was perfect for it.

Clay, wood and fiber pieces

Woven tapestry, Metal and Clay Sculptures

Fiber, metal and clay pieces

Art quilt and handwoven tapestry

Silver and dichroic glass jewelry, small clay sculptures

These artists are represented in this exhibit:

Barbara Olive, pottery     

Jennifer Hyatt, metal sculpture

June Kramer, tapestry weaving

Agnes Stark, pottery

Michele Price, woven clay

Rick Cannon, wooden bowls

Marilyn League, art quilts

Deirdre Daw, clay sculpture

Mildred Schiff, precious metal clay and dichroic glass jewelry

Katie Dann, clay sculpture

Felicitas Sloves, handwoven scarves and shawls

During the time of the exhibit, Circuit Playhouse will be performing “The Toymaker’s Apprentice” and “The Seafarer”.  The artists represented in the MACA exhibit will provide the perfect background music to these shows.  As will Keith Emerson on the Hammond organ!

…..Lead me from tortured dreams,  Childhood themes of nights alone, Wipe away endless years, childhood tears as dry as stone.

Scarf Ace October 8, 2009

I’ve always loved those lightweight gauzy scarves that many department stores carry. They look so elegant and swing softly with the wearer, making  every movement look so graceful.  Very chic.  And they’re almost always imported from another country, sometimes India, sometimes Nepal or Thailand. Being a handweaver of scarves here in the States, I cannot bring myself to purchasing an imported scarf.  So when I was asked to demonstrate weaving on a rigid heddle loom for a community event, I thought it would be a good idea to warp something on the loom that might capture the feeling of one of those flowing and colorful scarves.

For the warp yarns, I decided to use two balls of Berroco’s Zen Colors.  This is a cotton and nylon ribbon generally used by knitters.  One ball was a bright multi colored variegated pattern of lime green, turquoise, orange and red. The other ball had stripes of pink and orange side by side.

Berroco's Zen Colors ribbon yarn

Also in the warp is a cotton/acrylic nylon yarn in light green spun with a multi-colored ribbon.  This is Katia’s Sonrisa.

Katia Sonrisa cotton yarn

The warp yarns were purchased online from Webs in Northampton, MA during one of their clearance sales. I threaded the warp yarns on a 24″ wide  Schacht rigid heddle loom and with an 8 dent heddle. I have several of these looms that I use in my weaving classes.  They are true workhorses. – built sturdily with indestructible wood.   As I understand it, Schacht is no longer manufacturing these looms, but rather concentrating on their line of  “Flip”, a folding rigid heddle loom, and the “Cricket”, both excellent looms, and more portable than the ones that I have.

I warp my rigid heddle loom using the direct warping method. That is I do not use a warping board or reel to wind a warp chain first before threading the rigid heddle.  I thread the warp yarns directly from the balls or cones to the slots of the rigid heddle.  I believe that Rowena Hart was the first to describe the direct warping method in her book, The Ashford Book of  Rigid Heddle Weaving published in 2002 and recently reprinted.

While threading the slots in the rigid heddle, I started with the Sonrisa yarn and threaded every other slot, leaving the alternating slots empty for the time being. Once I finished threading with the Sonrisa for the width of the scarf which is 7 inches, I went back and threaded every other of the remaining empty slots with the pink/orange ribbon yarn, leaving the alternating empty slots blank for now.  After the ribbon yarn was threaded across the width of the scarf, there were still empty spaces at every fourth slot. These slots were the last to be threaded with the multi colored  ribbon yarn.  Unconventional?  You bet!  But the results were worth it, and the time saved by not winding a warp chain beforehand is priceless!

Ribbon and cotton yarn threaded on an 8 dent rigid heddle

Now to get that lightweight, gauzy effect, I decided to use a fine cotton yarn, 10/2 perle cotton in the color Oleandar by UKI.  This can be ordered directly from the manufacturer, www.ukisupreme.com.

10/2 perle cotton in oleander by UKI

The scarf is still on my rigid heddle loom, and this is what it looks like:

Gauzy ribbon scarf on a rigid heddle loom

I really like the way some of the ribbons twisted slightly during the weaving process, adding a bit of texture to the fabric.  The scarf looks a bit like gauze and it feels like a fine fabric.  I hope it will flow gracefully once it is off the loom.  I can’t wait to wear it!

The Big Muddy October 5, 2009

“Waist deep in the Big Muddy” – the lines from Pete Seeger’s Vietnam era protest sang has been playing in my mind for the last 24 hours. I was at the Pink Palace Craft Fair in Memphis, TN for the last 4 days. The weather was perfect the first 3 days.  On Sunday, the last day of the fair, the weather forecast had predicted some light rain and occasional thundershowers.  That turned out to be wrong. There were downpours all day long, and the visitors at the fair which was held in a city park had to dodge small rivers and floods around, and sometimes through, the tents. Several of us upon leaving became stuck in the mud and required the assistance of a front end loader or a couple of strong young men to become mobile again. It was an adventure! But needless to say, the faithful and die-hard shoppers were out in full force, and of course all the craftspeople and vendors were there to the bitter end!

My mud covered sneakers at the end of the day!

I shared a double booth with several other craftspeople from MACA – Memphis Association of Craft Artists. There were  potters,  jewelers, and I was the lone fiber person.

MACA's booths at the Pink Palace Craft Fair

Pottery and Jewelry in the MACA booth

Fiber and Jewelry in the MACA booth

Our group received several positive comments on the appearance of our booth, and most of us did quite well in sales. Of course, it was also a pleasure to educate the public about our group and our craft work.  And my booth partners and I will have something to talk about for awhile as we shared a leaky tent, a little flooding, a lot of mud and a lot of muscle as we all helped push each others’ cars out of the mud!  It wasn’t bad at all.

All Shook Up September 10, 2009

Legend has it that Elvis wrote “All Shook Up” after shaking up a bottle of Coke.  Actually, it was Pepsi. And it was the songwriter Otis Blackwell who wrote it on a dare by one of the owners of Shalimar Music.  Although Elvis did share the songwriting credit with Blackwell.

All Shook Up

This shaken up bottle of Coke is how I feel right now.  A little aimless  with bubbles bursting before anything can be enjoyed.  After 30 years of weaving and my attempts to eke out some semblance of a living as a weaver and weaving instructor, I’m facing a dilemma.  I’m getting increasingly frustrated  in selling my handwovens for  their true value and at the same time attracting  students interested in learning to weave.  It may be that I’m in the wrong place.  After all, Memphis is music, not fiber.

Case in point, I regularly donate my handwoven scarves, purses and wall hangings to local non-profit organizations with art auctions as fund raising venues.  My pieces always sell and the organizations are able to benefit from my donations.  It’s a win-win situation. This past year, I donated two rep weave wall hangings to one of these  non-profits.  Total value was for $300. No one assumed that that would be the highest bid, but it would have been nice to receive a little something with 3 digits for both pieces.  Each piece takes between 30 and 50 hours to design, prepare, weave, and finish.  Sadly, that was not the case, with one piece receiving only $25 and another only $30. And so my bubble was burst.  I just can’t compete with paintings which seem to be the most popular medium wherever I look.   There are many hobby weavers here in Memphis, but I’m one of just a couple of studio weavers, so there aren’t enough of us to educate the public and compete for their attention about our medium.  Certainly not in  the way that the  great number of painters are able to. Sad.

But I have another love, and that is in creating handbound books.  In my upcoming shows, I plan to test the local market and offer some of my book creations for sale.  These are blank books that can be used for sketching, journalling or photo albums.  Eventually I would like to explore sculptural books and create artists’ books.  I am currently taking an online class called “Creative Bookmaking” with Sue Bleiweiss of Two Creative Studios. I have been working on some fabric covered books, using either hand printed Indonesian batik fabric or dupioni silk fabric.

Blank book covered with Indonesian batik fabric. Longstitch/Linkstitch binding on spine.

Inside cover and end page of Thai mango paper

The books I made have 8 signatures of a 32 lb. weight fine writing paper.  I followed instructions for the longstitch/linkstitch binding in Keith Smith’s book, Volume I: Non-Adhesive Binding, Books Without Paste or Glue. It was a little tricky as I had to drill the stitching holes in the spine between each of the signatures that made a pair rather than aligning the holes with each of the  signatures.  Stitching for each pair of signatures was done in the same holes for the long stitch part of the binding.  The link stitch looks like a chain stitch and it appears at the top and bottom of the spine.  Some more examples:

Dupioni Silk cover with Kaffe Fassett cotton fabric embellishment

Inside cover and end paper of Thai mango paper

Dupioni silk cover with Japanese cotton print fabric embellishment

Inside cover and end paper of Thai mango paper

Detail of Longstitch/Linkstitch on spine

And so this looks like the future of book arts and me in Memphis!  I will continue to create whether at the loom or the book bench, and we shall see what the market will bring.

My fabric covered handbound books

Off The Loom September 2, 2009

The rep weave wall hanging is finished!  Off the loom it measures slightly less than what I had planned:  29″ wide and 48″ long.  Still large enough to fill up a bit of wall space.  This piece will be included in an upcoming exhibit at Circuit Playhouse, a local professional theater group in Memphis.

Three Iris Blooms woven in rep weave

The wall hanging is woven with 100% natural cotton yarn. The ends are finished with a machine sewn hem.  It can be easily displayed with a wooden strip attached to the back of the fabric with velcro. My previous post described how the colors and design of this piece were inspired by van Gogh’s paintings of irises.

Irises August 27, 2009

When I lived in Massachusetts years ago, I had a good friend from Tennessee who used to give me gifts of  irises.  I learned that they were the state’s official  flower.   And for some reason I’ve always remembered that.  Now that I am a resident of Memphis tucked away in the far southwest corner of the state and bordered by the Mississippi River, I’ve come to truly appreciate irises. Especially in early August.  I never realized how many varieties and colors there were.

Map of Tennessee

Because of their rich colors and textures, irises have for a long time been a beloved subject for artists.  Though these irises aren’t from Tennessee, they were painted by an artist who shares my Dutch ancestral heritage.

Irises painted by Vincent van Gogh

And so this painting became my inspiration to create a rep weave wall hanging  based on the colors and design of van Gogh’s irises.  My weaving is not completed yet, but here’s a glimpse while it still sits on my loom.

Irises in Rep Weave on Loom

Instead of a field of irises, I designed three large blooms in three different shades of purple.   When completed, this wall hanging will measure approximately 30″ wide and 50″ long.  I wanted to capture a “prairie style” block design with a visual imagery of long columns and squared off blocks – a suitable pattern to rep weave structure. My warp is 5/2 perle cotton doubled and threaded at 24 ends per inch. I find that the doubled cotton strands cover the weft nicely when sett at this epi.  My weft requires two shuttles as the weft rows alternate thick and thin yarn, as is customary in rep weave.  The thick weft is comprised of two strands of 100% cotton, Peaches and Creme by Elmore-Pisgah. The doubled peaches and cream strands are wound around the ski shuttle.  The color is olive which is primarily seen at the selvages.  The thin weft yarn is a 16/2 cotton in turquoise that I just found in my stash. This is wound on the bobbin in the boat shuttle.  And so each shuttle is thrown alternately in successive rows to create the design in the pattern.

This piece is almost finished, and once the ends are hemmed and sewn , then I will post a photo of it here. But as with all my other work, during the weaving process I am always thinking of my next project.  And I so fell in love with van Gogh’s painting that I think that I’ll stick with the theme of irises.  But I may try to design narrower columns and smaller blocks  of color so that the finished piece will  more resemble an entire field of irises instead of just three individual beauties.

Basket Case August 15, 2009

I hit the wall this summer.  I was in a desert of creative ideas.  I played around with lots of media: book arts, silk fusion, beading, needle weaving and sadly spent little time at my looms.  My Macomber and Baby Wolf sat mostly empty. Only my Leclerc saw a little weaving action.  I managed to finish these few things which are now in my etsy store, MemphisWeaver.

"White Stripes" handwoven cotton scarf with warp floats

"Pretty in Pink" handwoven bamboo/cotton/metallic scarf with warp floats

"Purple Passion" handwoven bamboo/cotton/metallic scarf with warp floats

"Luscious Lavender" handwoven shawl in twill weave, cotton/flax/rayon/metallic yarn

All my weaving years I had been struggling with commercial vs. art. I wove scarves and purses in limited production to sell to those who appreciate a fine handmade object.  Though always keeping in mind price points that the market could bear. And so the time and expertise involved in the production  had to be largely ignored.  Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be weavers. (Thanks, Willie!) Doing what you love only to be under-appreciated is frustrating indeed.

Then there it was. I was reaching for yet another medium, this time my knitting, when I noticed what my unfinished projects were sitting in:

Handwoven Papago basket

Handwoven Papago basket

Papago Indians live mostly in the northern desert of Sonora and Arizona.  They are known for their narrowly coiled baskets made from yucca splints. More of their baskets can be seen here. One of my best friends in college is originally from Tucson, and over the years, her family has given us these beautiful baskets.

The simple yet striking designs of these baskets reminded me of a weave structure that I favored in many of my wall hangings, but that had given way to the demands of the fashion accessories market. The weave is of Swedish origin, known as ripsmatta and often referred to as rep weave by American weavers. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed weaving this structure as the actual weaving takes very little time.  It is the designing and dressing of the loom that is most time consuming – but that is the weaving component that appeals to me most.  A few of my earlier wall hangings done in rep weave:

"Turkish Kilim" handwoven wall rug woven in rep weave

"Night Crawlers" handwoven wall rug woven in rep weave

Untitled handwoven wall rug, woven in rep weave

"Moonshadow" handwoven wall rug woven in rep weave

"Nesting" handwoven wall rug woven in rep weave

The Papago basket designs in their simple beauty will inspire me to weave more of these rep weave wall rugs. After revisiting my handwoven pieces, I see how much fun I had designing and weaving them.  My three looms are empty now, but not for long.  Rep weave wall rugs will be the next sensation!

Weaving Redux July 28, 2009

Everything old becomes new again as a recent trip to the Intergalactic Bead Show in Memphis reminded me.   Some years ago, I wove a series of beaded pendants.  I used a needle weaving technique on graph paper mounted on foam board.  This technique was described in great detail first in 1993 by  Diane Fitzgerald and Helen Banes in Beads and Threads: A New Technique for Fiber Jewelry.

Beads and Threads: A New Technique for Fiber Jewelry by Diane Fitzgerald and Helen Banes

Then in 1996, Donna Rhodes and Kathy Stachowicz published a monograph on the subject – The Fine Art of Pin-Weaving:  Creative Variations

The Fine Art of Pin-Weaving: Creative Variations by Donna Rhodes and Kathy Stachowicz

When I first started weaving these pieces in the late 1990’s I was a bit overzealous with beading!  The excessive nature of the beads seemed to overpower the tapestry like qualities I was trying to capture in the needle-woven pendants.

Needle woven pendant with jade beads

The beauty of weaving on a foam board and using “bank pins” to anchor the warp is that any shape can be created.  I really like the triangular shape of this piece.  Bank pins are a heavy gauge steel pin favored by taxidermists.  But if you’re not into stuffing dead animals, you can get them here.

Below are a few more of my handwoven pendants needle-woven on foam board.

Abstract design handwoven pendant with lapis lazuli beads

Geometric design handwoven pendant with jet beads

Handwoven pendant with metallic threads

Abstract floral design handwoven pendant with dyed fossil beads

These two pendants were woven on a floor loom and the excess warp threads became the necklace strung with beads.

Loom woven pendant with bone beads

Loom woven pendant with dyed fossil beads

After using both the needle woven and the loom woven techniques, I decided that needle weaving on a foam board was more flexible as it offered more choices as to shapes and dimensions for the finished pendant.

Here is a needle woven pendant that is in search of a “hanger”.  It’s a rather large piece, so I think to do the pendant justice, the  necklace part will need to be quite long.

Handwoven pendant with feather charms and clapper beads

This last piece is actually my favorite and my most recent creation.  I like the simplicity of it and it has only a few beads woven into the design with some simple charms hanging on the ends.  The “hanger” is a simple rattail satin cord secured to the pendant with an elegant swan closure and clapper beads.

Handwoven pendant with jewelry findings

My friend Nysha has suggested that I weave more of these as the simple and elegant findings seem to accentuate the tapestry like qualities of the pendant.  And that in fact is the effect I am trying to capture!  Not to mention the fact that I consider myself a handweaver and  not a bead artist.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes July 9, 2009

Yes, David Bowie is a genius.  But don’t we all know that everything changes, becomes transformed?  And so it goes with the world of fiber – weaving, silk fusion, book arts.

My last post showed this handmade silk fusion piece with inclusions of skeleton leaves, angel wings, and angelina fibers.

Silk Fusion with soy silk, tussah silk noils and inclusions

And this is how the piece transformed.

Silk fusion in woven form

I cut the silk fusion paper into strips and mixed them up a little, then wove the strips to form a square . This piece was mounted onto handmade Thai unryu or kozo paper.  I think it looks a little more interesting and dramatic than the original piece. Definitely more frame worthy!

Here are some randomly arranged strips from another silk fusion piece which I made and then managed to cut.

Randomly arranged cut strips from silk fusion

I think I may loom weave the strips as weft with a fine cotton warp.   The contrasting shape and texture of 10/2 pearl cotton may pull the piece together into a more pleasing visual image.

Don’t know if I should do anything to change this silk fusion paper that I made with soy silk, tussah silk noils, gold flakes and gold metallic fiber.

Silk fusion paper with gold flakes and gold metallic fiber

It reminds me of an abstract painting.  I may just mount it on some handmade paper and frame it.

And here is the last transformation.  If you’ve been following my blog, then you know that I am a huge music fan, and that I listen to almost everything, or so it seems.  So I  have found myself with a small collection of old 45 RPM vinyl records.  I don’t have a record player anymore, and in fact can’t seem to remember the last one I had!  And I felt a need to transform these records into something.  I didn’t think I could easily weave with them, so I decided to make a prototype of a blank journal with two records as the front and back covers.

front cover of blank journal made from a recycled 45 RPM vinyl record

I then bound the signatures together using painted tyvek tape and the herringbone and kettle stitch combination I learned from the workshop I took with Daniel Essig.

My stitches and signatures are a bit funky, but it’s a prototype.  With a little bit of practice I think I can polish this concept and figure out how to make the center opening more appealing. It’s a start.  I see it as a transformation in progress.  Ch-ch-ch-changes…..

Silk Degrees June 16, 2009

Remember Boz Scaggs’ breakthrough album, “Silk Degrees”? It came out in 1976, and it was just about the sexiest thing I ever heard.  The recent sultry days in Memphis brought back the memory of his seductive voice from that album.  And believe it or not, that was what inspired me to do some work with silk which is something I rarely do.

I made two pieces of silk fusion paper by layering some carded tussah silk noils between two layers of soy silk roving. I added embellishments to each piece to give it color and texture. Most of these were  items that I had in my stash:  cochineal  dyed Lincoln wool fiber, angelina fibers, gold metallic flakes, skeleton leaves, angel wings.

Handmade silk fusion paper with cochineal dyed Lincoln wool fiber

Handmade silk fusion paper with skeleton leaves and angelina fibers

So, you’re asking, what is silk fusion?  Silk fusion is silk paper fused from silk roving or sliver  using a textile medium or adhesive.   Treenway Silks has a good description of the process as well as a little bit of history. A good source offering instructions for a variety of silk fusion projects is Kath Russon’s book, Handmade Silk Paper.

Handmade Silk Paper by Kath Russon

Here is a free tutorial on making your own silk fusion presented by Sue Bleiweiss. A project can be completed in a very short time.  The longest part is actually waiting for the silk fusion to dry as that takes 24 hours.

The two pieces I made will probably become covers for blank journals.  But I am hoping to experiment more with 3 dimensional silk fusion such as masks and small sculptures.

As far as journals, I have been working on those as well.  I made one with some left over Kaffe Fassett fabric.  For this I made two covers with Peltex sandwiched in between the fabric. I used a zig zag stitch all around the edge of each cover. To attach the covers to the signatures, I used a double needle coptic stitch.  That is, each binding station required two needles, and as there were 3 stations in this binding, I was sewing with 6 needles at the same time. That beautiful handmade Thai mango paper that I love so much makes its appearance again as an end paper here.

Journal with fabric covers and double needle coptic stitch

Inside cover of Journal with handmade Thai mango paper as end paper

Now I still had some covers left  that I had made a few months ago using the handmade Thai mango paper. I decided to try out one of the stitches I admired in Keith Smith’s book, Non-Adhesive Binding Books Without Paste or Glue. This one is “long stitch with chain” found on page 164 of volume I.  My book didn’t have a spine cover, so instead I used sewing supports that were cut from ultrasuede fabric, then the supports were glued to the inside covers of the book. I used a gold 5/2 pearl cotton that I rubbed on a block of beeswax for the stitching.

Book bound with long stitch with chain

I like the effect of the long stitch alternating with the chain stitch.  It adds a decorative element to the spine. I can see after doing this, that long stitch can probably be used together with several different stitches to add some interest in the binding.

Still hot here in Memphis, 96 degrees is what I hear it is.  But I am still hearing that luscious voice whispering in my ear: Three a.m. its me again and wouldn’t you know things would have to end this way…..