I seem to have taken a break from weaving for the first few months of the year. There were family issues, back issues, winter issues – whatever. I just didn’t get out to the studio much. But spring has come, we have events coming up, and I am more in the mood to get some projects going.
Also I needed to clean and organize my space. Rick and I have signed up to be in a show at Confluence Gallery in Twisp that opens July 1. It will be called
Methow Artists’ Studios Close up
Through a Photographic Lens
July 1 – August 5
Photographs of Methow Valley artists working in their studios displayed with the art they create.
The photographer is Mary Lou Harris, a commercial photographer from Seattle who is also a Methow part-time resident. Her website is ML Harris Photography. I believe she came up with the idea of the show and is working with a gallery curator. Anyway, she wanted to come photograph us in our studios about 2 weeks ago and thus came the impetus to clean things up a bit!
Also, last Saturday we hosted a quarterly event called “Artist to Artist” sponsored by the Confluence Gallery. Borrowing from their website: “These events are hosted by an Okanogan region artist in their working studio… Local and visiting artists are invited to attend Artist to Artist gatherings. The events provide educational and networking presentations which foster creativity, business skills, dialogue and collaboration within the local artist community, but also for an evening of socializing!”
There were a lot of other events going on that day and evening (not unusual for the Methow!) so we only had about 15 people come, some of whom we knew but also some new faces. I wound up giving a “Weaving 101” demo as many people really did not know how a loom works at all, much less the process for measuring and winding on a warp, threading, sleying and getting it all ready before you even begin to throw the shuttle. Anyway it was a fun evening, as well as another reason to clean and organize my space.
As far as moving projects forward goes, I finished 3 more rugs a couple of weeks ago:
R308
R309
R310
Finished the sampler from the Kathrin Weber workshop I took in Seattle at the end of February on using painted warps:
plain weave with a thin and then a thick weft
(center) repp weave with alternating blocks and stripes
(left) turned taquete in 2 weights of weft, (right) twill
I have enough warp left on the workshop loom to do at least a couple of table runners. I think I will go with the repp weave for those. The fun thing is that the warp colors change all along the length of the warp, so the next pieces will be different in color at least.
I also put a new warp on the 32″ Mac for some scarves I have been planning. They blend several ideas. There is a gradual color change based on an article in Handwoven magazine last year. I wanted to try out WEBS 2/10 merino/tencel and bought some last fall when it was on sale – black for the warp, and a variety of colors for the wefts. I found a point twill pattern in Strickler’s 8-shaft pattern book that looked interesting (pattern #98 I believe).
Here is the sample after washing. The fabric really bloomed after washing (well, soaking really – no agitation) – it became a lot softer and more drapeable as well.
“front” side – what I see when weaving
“back” side
I wove the first scarf in these colors, then started another one where the 2 colors are closer in value. I think I like that one better as it is less stripey.
I am working on the third one now and will then take them off the loom and do the finishing work (twisting the fringes, wet finishing, etc). So there will be more photos of finished scarves to come!
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