This has probably been the longest stretch between postings that I can remember. Partly because there has been a lot happening, and I’ve not been in the studio much, so not on my main computer to actually process photos and post a blog, but I think this is more about processing the events in my life of the last couple weeks, and not knowing quite what to say.
I touched down in Newark a couple of weeks ago, coming from Oregon where I taught for a week (see previous blog) as my son was deploying with his unit to the Middle East. Or rather my husband drove him and one of his Sergeants to the armory so he could begin the process. It is tough booking jobs a year or sometimes two in advance and not knowing what kinds of family events will crop up in direct conflict. Fortunately there was a family celebration send off at Fort Dix, in NJ two days later and we all were able to attend as a family. The day was hot, probably a lot cooler than where my son is headed, but there were news teams everywhere and I posted a bunch of photos as they were happening on Facebook, good for immediate events with little words.
I was fine until the very end, when we actually had to say goodbye. I completely lost it. I sobbed most of the way home. I held onto my knitting in the car like my life depended on it. And it sort of did. I was not completely functioning on all four cylinders for the next couple days. I felt like I lost a part of me, which I sort of did metaphorically, and wasn’t sure how to move forward. By the weekend though, I had processed through everything and knew instinctively how important it was to keep busy, even if it was just sorting through 40 years of magazines in the studio with my daughter. I was truly grateful she was home working for me this summer, it helped a lot.
My son is doing what he needs to do. He will be stationed at our Air Force base in Qatar. It is not a combat assignment, rather a security detail, he volunteered for this. It will be hard not to see him at all for probably a year, but I know he is doing what he wants and he will come home a little bit more grown up and a little bit more in charge of his life. At least that’s what I hope for him. I wish him God Speed…
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I immediately went into my next teaching stint, which was local actually, at my favorite place in the world, where I have spent countless hours this spring rehabbing the weaving studio, at Peters Valley [3], in northwestern NJ. Part of the charm of PV is the buildings, very old, mostly historic properties, each with issues of course, but I live in a house that is more than a hundred years old, and there is an energy and spirit, or sometimes actual spirits that you don’t find in newer or commercial buildings. The history of the building surrounds you, for better or for worse, and I’ve always found the students, staff and fellow instructors and the location and buildings to be a huge source of creative ideas and inspiration.
The Friday night instructor’s slide show in an historic old church in constant stages of restoration, is something I really look forward to when I teach at Peters Valley. There were seven instructors that Friday night, and all were amazingly talented and showed tremendous bodies of work. Of course, anyone who has ever tried to take a photo of me while I’m lecturing knows it is like nailing Jello to a tree, there is no way to get a shot of me without a wacky expression on my face…
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The space where the workshop was held was an old Greek Revival Building, built into the side of a hill, and the two glorious rooms, were bright and breezy, and we had lots of room to spread out, and it was a real pleasure, especially when it was mealtime and we only had to walk across the lawn to the dining hall.
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I had a very small class actually, only four, and two things stood out for me. They were all young, two in their thirties and two still in college, one undergraduate and one graduate student, roughly my daughter’s age. They all wanted to fill in their missing education in garment construction, none of them had Home-Ec in grade school, or if they did, it certainly didn’t include the fine art of making clothes.
[9]The other contrast was only one of the students had a significant background in textiles, no one had handwoven fabric or any kind of fabric other than commercial. Krystine was finishing up her Fine Arts degree, with a concentration in Textiles, but not much information about weaving for clothing or clothing construction. She was adorable to work with, so eager and picked a quilt fabric for her jacket. She learned so much in such a short time, and I spent a lot of time with her personally going through my design book studying drafts and complex structures for handwoven cloth, and it will be interesting to see where she takes all this.
[10]My other college age student, Kelley is finishing up her graduate degree in Fine Metals. We almost had her convinced she needs to buy a loom and learn to weave… 🙂 She is very tall and reluctantly, only at the very end, finally hemmed her sleeves, she was so excited to finally have a garment that fit her arm length! Her fabric it was discovered, was from JoAnn’s, and is part of their fall “Plaiditudes” collection. She hadn’t thought about having to match a plaid when she bought it… Fine Metal workers don’t usually have that issue… 🙂
[11]Rachel, who was the fibers assistant last year, had a vintage pattern from the 70’s and some vintage polyester doubleknit she got from a local shop last year, and though I remember making that actual pattern in the 1970’s, there was lots of exclamations of, “That’s so cool!” from the 20 somethings. I just smiled…
[12]Jen is expecting a baby and it was interesting predicting how her body will turn out once she returns to a pre-pregnancy state! The jacket, from a boiled wool, will be very serviceable this winter. She was so much fun to work with, we ripped out a lot, but I think she truly learned the most! And we had lots of discussions on rearing kids… A fun thing to do with a group of 20 somethings…
Both Kelley and Krystine had time at the end to do some samples of closures. I’d say they came out pretty well for first attempts…
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And there was Jesse, the fibers assistant, also in art school, who sat in on all my lectures, and cheerfully continued work on sorting and reorienting more than 10,000 heddles for the loom restoration at the weaving studio.
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Yesterday I took my daughter back up to the Valley to help install the rest of the aprons on the looms in the weaving studio, I had precut and hemmed the rest while I was there teaching the week before, and she and Jesse the fibers assistant made a great team going along behind me installing rods.
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And now, nursing a wrenched back, which I got turning wrong at the grocery store this morning, I will go to the kitchen and start figuring out what to do with all the produce coming in from the gardens. Refrigerator pickles, more Taboulleh, and some cabbage slaw sound like the order of the day…
Stay tuned…