Blog Entries – Page 145

What’s it going to be?

I think after more than 40 years of doing what I’ve been doing, the most often asked comment I hear is, “What’s it going to be?” or even better, “What are you going to do with it?” I always smile, because, actually, I haven’t a clue. I acquire. It is an art form in itself. Raw materials come my way, or I turn something into a raw material. Old work becomes raw material, hand me downs, ‘willed’ stash (as in stuff you get when someone dies or de-acquisitions), and of course, whenever there is a big sale. These are all ways of increasing the stash. I’m really cheap. It would never occur to me to purchase a cone of something for a specific project. I am of the “Make it Work” school of creativity.

I got a couple letters today asking what I’m going to do with this fleece I’ve been dyeing in the crock pot all week. The answer remains, “I haven’t a clue”. I could spin it, and I can spin, I have two wheels. (One was ‘willed’ to me.) But spinning doesn’t grab me as something I want to spend a lot of time on. I taught a jacket class a couple of years ago, for the Felter’s Fling, which is every couple of years in Massachusetts at the end of the summer. Although I didn’t initially grab felting as my new technique du jour, I have an appreciation for it since, well, it is cloth, and I sew. What’s not to like. I think the making of felt is tedious, and hard on the body (I’m talking big sheets here for making clothing), but then again, the same could be said for threading a loom and weaving the cloth. I had a number of felters encouraging me to get into felted cloth, and one generously gave me a substantial amount of a gorgeous carded dyed wool. I did make a beautiful bag with it, with an inkle woven band as the handle. It didn’t get accepted to any of the shows I entered it into, but I think it’s a damn fine bag. Anyway, I’d like to make some felted panels to make a jacket or vest. And I am toying around with the whole boa experience of last weekend, and needle felting some dyed locks onto the bands, especially since I own a needle felting machine. But largely, I’ll just feel my way along, and for now, I’m happy turning a very dirty fleece, that won’t dry in my garage, (dirty white fleeces do not inspire me), into piles of beautiful colors of wool. Now they will inspire me. I don’t know what they will become, I don’t even know what medium I’ll use them with, but for now, piles of colored fleece, is better than a large dirty white one. (Today’s color is a pretty orange…)

This must be long lost friend week. First my friend Rita resurfaced, and we went to the Allentown Art Museum together on Wednesday, then yesterday I got an email from someone I had lost touch with, saw briefly at a church function a couple months ago, and then suddenly, they were in my life again. Email is a wonderful thing… Anyway, Jill is a poet among other things. Another creative soul, whose views of life, the universe, and how things work, keep me fascinated for hours. We had lunch today, and two hours just flew by. I love those kind of academic dialogues, I don’t have a lot of people in my life I can have them with, and this was so stimulating, I’m looking foward to the next time we can meet.

I updated my keynote address for the conference next week. I’m giving the opening address at this conference, no pressure, and once I get out the first sentence, the rest just flows. But there will be the usual sleepless couple of nights worrying about it, that goes with the territory. Since I largely do these kinds of talks extemporaneously, I need to have the visuals all lined up, and then the images become the outline so I stay on track. I have the sequence all laid out and printed, so I can review at my leisure over this next week.

For all of you living in the States, Happy 4th of July. A couple of months ago, I saw a very powerful production of 1776 at the Papermill Playhouse, which is about the four days leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The original Continental Congress voted that all thirteen colonies had to be unanimous in its decision to sign the Declaration, otherwise it would be a no go. It is hard to imagine, that those diverse 13 colonies found common ground on that particular day to totally change the course of history, and now, more than 200 years later, we are 50 states and a few territories, instead of those original 13 colonies, and it is a daily challenge to find common ground on anything. That’s what’s so great about this diverse country. But for one brief moment, July 4, 1776, our representatives came together to make the impossible happen. So, here is to common ground, and diversity. Long may she wave…

Dreary Day #37

Well it seems like it anyway. The headlines of the newspapers talk about how much rain we have had for how many days straight. It starts out promising in the morning, but by mid afternoon, thunderstorms, dreary rain, what else can one do but stay inside and play? 🙂

This was a great day for just laying low, and doing a mindless but necessary project. My goal now is the conference next week, I leave for the New England Weavers Seminar in Massachusetts on Wednesday. And I’m teaching an unusually large number of very different seminars, all needing specific prep. There is the Inkle Weaving class, and though I will have students rent looms from WEBS , they may not have enough, and I need fifteen anyway for the following weekend when I teach a class down at the Jersey Shore for the Shore Guild. So my daughter helped me out with that one. She is quite the assembler… Now they are all lined up across two of my looms, like little soldiers waiting for active duty.

Meanwhile, the crock pot is still going. I gave up drying anything outside, and found two lovely pans that would keep my floor neat and avoid using all my bath towels. So I’ve got a lovely green cooking in the pot, and the blue and a pinky taupe color are drying on the floor. The burgundy from Monday is finally dry and in a bag. I tried carding a little bit of the burgundy color and it is a really nice fleece. I think it is a Corriedale cross.

While all that was happening, I worked on the Photographing your Work Seminar, and in this particular version, workshop participants are sending images of their work ahead so I can load them into PowerPoint and then critique the images after the main presentation. I have a great group of images to work with, but they all had to be sized and popped into the PowerPoint slides. So that’s finished.

I’m also giving another Color and Inspiration Seminar, like I did in Iowa last Saturday. All those little quills of yarn I dumped on the table for the students to play with, are in a horrid jumble and really needed to be rewound onto the quills and refilled. Students added to the pile, and those little reelings needed to be put onto quills as well. I use to just carry a suitcase full of little balls of yarn, but those got just as unruly and it was a huge waste of space in my precious luggage allowance, so I got the idea a couple of years ago to wind off yarn onto bobbins. There are too many to waste my plastic shuttle bobbins, though a fair amount of my plastic bobbins were in the bags. I really needed to empty them. I started by making paper quills from business card stock, but it was my daughter who came up with the idea of drinking straws. They slipped perfectly on my small shank Swedish Bobbin Winder, and weigh almost nothing. I’m all for weighing almost nothing…

So I sat today, for a number of hours, untangling, rewinding, refilling, and organizing a massive mess of yarn, carefully onto skinny plastic drinking straws, and turned the above disaster into this lovely organized bag of color. I still have another bag to go, but tasks like this are what make my mind still and my creativity soar. It’s like refolding fabrics neatly on a shelf, organizing fat quarters by color, or sorting buttons. This is meditation for fiber enthusiasts.

In addition, I finally got to vacuum my poor house. I seriously thought about bringing in the heavy artillary, a rake, but my old vacuum did the job, and I filled a vacuum bag with all the debris, tracked in crud from all the drenched blossoms and tree detritus, tracked yarns and threads from my studio, and general dust. I’m a bit grateful we no longer have a dog, that would have really added to the mix. Then I would have definitely voted for the rake…

Maybe I should become a travel editor…

I know it seems like I’m doing a lot of sightseeing, and not getting a whole lot done in the studio, be patient, that will come, but I do want to take advantage of having my daughter home at the same time I am, since she will be off to camp next week, for all of July, and I’ll be traveling all of August. She is such a great travel buddy, and I love seeing exhibits with her, she sees things I completely miss, and she is great about reading all the cards and storyboards, and asking questions and looking at details that allude me…

Before I get into today’s adventures, I want to share with you the fortune I got in the fortune cookie I ate that came along with the Chinese take out from the other night.

“Begin…the rest is easy.”

Isn’t that just the best and most appropriate fortune for a creative person? It couldn’t have been a better one, and it is actually getting taped to my computer screen, and I am not one for bumper stickers, etc.

Today my 16 year old daughter and I headed west, out RT. 78 to Pennsylvania. Along the way (she drove) we stopped and picked up an old friend who I had lost touch with, who reappeared in my email box earlier in the week. Rita is a weaver too, I first met her when I was pregnant with my daughter, in a class I was teaching. Our sons were a couple years apart, and they were so much alike. We drifted apart as sometimes happens, a few years ago, but as we sat in the car to Allentown, we chattered away, as if there was no break in the relationship.

Our destination was the Allentown Art Museum, and an exhibit called Fashion in Film: Period Costumes for the Screen. This exhibit was incredible. I loved the ability to get right up to the clothing, and see almost all the way around the garments. The Period costumes, worn by screen legends like Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Drew Barrymore, and Madonna (from Evita) were loaned by the renowned London costume house of Cosprop Ltd. There was a dress worn by Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth, pictured right, and one worn in the miniseries Scarlett (pictured below). Many were created with vintage textiles, and all gave the illusion of the period for the few minutes they were used on screen. And of course there were a number of garments from various Jane Austen films, including a garment worn by Colin Firth, as Mr. Darcy.

Who knew the Allentown Museum has a 1914 Frank Lloyd Wright library from the Francis W. Little home in Minnesota? The living room from the same home lives at the MET in NYC. And in another small alcove, stood the most magnificent thing I’ve ever laid eyes on, a hand embroidered screen created especially for the 1915 San Francisco Panama Pacific Exposition, by embroidery master Kiyoshi Hashio. The waves and water in the screen are all created with thousands of fine silk embroidery threads in hundreds of watery shades, every time we leaned in too close, we set off the alarm! I took the photo from the Allentown Museum Website, I did sneak a couple photos for the fashion exhibit, but I wanted to respect the age and fragility of the screen so I refrained from trying to sneak my camera out of my bag. It is on view until July 18th, apparently it was gifted to the museum, but it isn’t on view often because of its age.

We had lunch in a downtown brewery, The Allentown Brew Works, recommended by the museum staff. The food was delicious and the company great. We all retrieved the car, and headed back to NJ, stopping in Clinton at the Hunterdon Art Museum, and old Grist Mill on Lower Center Street, right on the water. There we caught an exhibit of Barbara Schulman’s work, she is a fiber artist who “collects and collages evocative contemporary objects”, like credit cards, fabric labels, X-acto knives, and embroiders them onto industrial felt. The colorful pieces have a narrative quality, especially one from credit cards, fractured and re assembled like a mosaic, in a vessel format, with X-acto knife blades stitched onto the inside like a purse lining.

I’m tired… I need to start focusing on preparation for the next conference, this one at Smith College in Amherst MA.

I did though, make a list of some of the movies I need to add to my wanna see list.

Portrait of a Lady with Nicole Kidman, 1996, directed by Jane Campion

Hamlet with Julie Christie, 1996 directed by Ken Branagh

Howards End with Emma Thompson, 1992, directed by James Ivory

So many movies, so many fabulous period costumes, so little time…

And my studio floor is covered with colorful drying wool from the crock pot…

NYC!

I love living near New York City. I will admit, that for many years, I’m embarassed to say how many, I avoided going into the city, working myself into a state, finding all kinds of reasons why I was too busy, but in the last couple of years, I have discovered two very important things.

NYC is an amazing place and like anything in life, you just have to practice.

It is critical that I get out of my studio and see what’s happening in the world if I want to be a player in art or fashion.

So, my daughter and I boarded the bus this morning from the transit center which is 5 minutes from my house, and within 40 minutes, we were in Port Authority Bus Terminal in mid-town Manhattan. $12. round trip, you can’t beat it. The trip is usually faster but there was a particularly large amount of traffic this morning, summer tourism I’m thinking…

First stop, Columbus Circle via the C train, uptown, express. The new digs for the Museum of Art and Design (MAD Museum) are just gorgeous. They have space, their exhibits are classy and interesting, and they have a fantastic permanent collection of fine craft. The exhibit we wanted to catch is leaving July 5, so we made that a priority. The exhibit was titled Elegant Armor: The Art of Jewelry, featuring innovative pieces from the permanent collection, dating from 1940’s to the present. Fortunately the website has a great selection of images from the show. And I was thrilled to see a couple of pieces from craftsmen I use to exhibit with when I did craft fairs in the 1980’s, like Tom Mann, and Bob and Loes Pfuelb and Arline Fisch, yep, that Arline Fisch who wrote the book Textile Techniques in Metal. We really loved this exhibit, and there were drawers full of additional pieces we didn’t have time to open. I would have loved to have gone back, spent the day with a sketch book, so I’ll do the next best thing, I already have my order ready to go on Amazon for the catalog. The pictures are gorgeous.

We left Columbus Circle, continuing uptown on the C train local, and got out in front of the Museum of Natural History at 82nd Street. My intent was to find the entrance to Central Park, and walk across the park to the MET, but there was a huge sign hanging outside the American Museum of Natural History that said Extreme Mammals and Bri turned to me and said, “Oh Mommy, I really want to see this…” So in we went. This is a real kids museum, they have all the great dinosaur skeletons, and the place was packed. The exhibit cost extra, in addition to the entrance price, but it was a really terrific exhibit, Bri was so thrilled, she suprised me at how much she knew about living and extinct mammals and marsupials, and said, “You know, I’m thinking I really need to go into a career that involves animals. I work in a kennel, I am fascinated by all aspects of animals, and I think I need to go to school and become a zoo vet.” Bri is at that age (16) where she will need to come up with some kind of direction for college, within the next year, which is so ridiculous, but her skills are all over the place, and she is having so much trouble focusing on any one thing. As it should be. Last year it was Biomedical Engineering, and two years ago, it was Jet Propulsion Engines. Meanwhile, she sat in my studio the other night making Temari balls…

So, we left the Natural History Museum, and walked across Central Park, the weather was perfect for a summer day, not too hot, and we came out the other side of the park, and into the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My most favorite place in the world. I could easily live in that museum. Since it was well after lunch, we grabbed lunch in the basement cafeteria, one of my favorite places to eat in NYC, the food is great, and reasonable for NY, and then we went up to the second floor to see the Exhibit, The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion. “This exhibit focuses on iconic models of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras.” The exhibit runs through August 9, so there is still time if you are planning a trip to NYC, and I will say it was a blast back in time, following fashion and those famous faces we all remember, through the 50’s, 60’s, (remember Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton), 70’s and the supermodels of today. This photograph by Alex Hills is from the MET website, there are all kinds of images of the exhibit including ones “behind the scenes”. It is so frustrating not to be able to take photos in any of these exhibits, but fortunately they are all just a click away!

Weather permitting, I always take a quick ride up to the roof of the MET whenever I’m visiting, there is always some wonderful installation, and the views of Central Park and Manhattan are the best around. Roxy Paine, an American artist, created a 130 foot long stainless steel sculpture for the museum’s roof, called Maelstrom. It is pretty amazing. Here are a couple of shots, the first is one with my daughter Bri.

We left the MET and headed downtown on the M4 bus, which picks you up right in front of the MET. It heads all the way down 5th Avenue, past all the grand windows of the best stores in the world, to Penn Station at 34th Street. We got out there, and walked down to the Museum at FIT, I can’t say enough about this museum, which is totally free, they have the best fashion exhibits anywhere, and an unbelievable textile collection. The latest exhibit, in their spacious basement gallery, is Isabel Toledo, Fashion from the Inside Out. This exhibit runs until September 26. Opening next week, in addition to this show, is one called Fashion and Politics. I’ll just have to go back later in the summer to see that one as well. But I wanted to see the Isabel Toledo exhibit, and I will say, I am on sensory overload. OMG! I felt like I did when I saw the Ralph Rucci exhibit there a couple of years ago. Who knew anything about this designer? Remember Michelle Obama’s lemon grass dress and coat combination she wore at the inauguration? It was designed by Isabel Toledo. Mostly Isabel makes her garments from basic shapes that fall over the body in the most amazing ways. There are a few of her garments pictured in the press release for the show. The catalog for that show is already on pre-order through Amazon in my little shopping cart… What I loved about this show, besides how close you could get to the garments and how well it was lit, was the little illustrations below many of the garments that showed the actual layout when the garment sections were flattened. Origami is just the beginning. Like this apron dress from her 1997 collection in silk chiffon.

We left the museum at FIT, and headed for the long walk uptown to the Port Authority. The skies were getting very dark, and the wind was picking up, blowing grit in our eyes, and it was definitely looking like a major summer thunderstorm was brewing. We walked as fast as we could through the rush hour crowd, and made it to the door of the Port Authority just seconds before the skies opened up. We boarded the bus the second we got to the platform, no waiting, and off we headed back to NJ. When the bus exited the building, we were hit with torrential rains, all the way to NJ. When we arrived back at the transit center to pick up the car, the rains stopped, miraculously!

Remember my wool cooking in the crock pot yesterday? Before I left for the city this morning, I carefully rinsed it, a beautiful shade of burgundy, and laid it out in the sun to dry on the back balcony. Silly me. I forgot to check if there were any thunderstorms predicted… So when I got home, there was my completely drenched wool, so I went to plan B, and I used the rack in my dryer to dry the wool out. I have more wool cooking, this time a lovely navy blue.

Tomorrow, a trip to the Allentown Art Museum…

The morning after…

It was a productive Monday, I did my laundry from the week away, and started to “find” my house. All of the members of my family are quite comfortable in their clutter, sadly I’m completely opposite, I find I can’t concentrate when there is clutter everywhere, and I can usually keep the clutter monster at bay while I’m home on a daily basis, but when I leave for a trip, the clutter monster comes out from hiding and well, lets just say I always expect to spend a couple days “finding” my house, once I return.

I got all the banking done, made a deposit, did my bookkeeping, and got all the bills in order to be paid. I dusted the upstairs, and tidied the kitchen. I stayed busy, answering emails, updating my website, and I proofed my article for Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot on the Challenge project from 2008. Look for that in the next issue.

Look what’s cooking on the floor in the corner of my studio. I grabbed a handful of fleece from the garage, and stuffed it into the crock pot this morning, threw in some water and sprinkled in some Cushing dye, a burgandy color, it was the first color I pulled out when I reached into the box. I poured in some white vinegar, and turned the crock pot on to ‘low’. It cooked all day, and I turned the pot off this evening. I’ll look at it tomorrow morning, and rinse the wool before I head into NYC to catch some fiber shows with my daughter.

I had a number of conference attendees tell me how much my gallery talk at the Small Expressions Exhibit meant to them, and others tell me they were so disappointed to have missed it. Since I had actually written up the talk and put it onto PowerPoint and emailed it ahead in case I didn’t arrive in time last Wednesday night to actually give the talk in person, I decided to just convert the whole file to a PDF, and post it in the “extras” section of my website. The gallery talk was titled “Parallel Threads that Parallel Life“. Anyway, enjoy the presentation, mostly I’m known for my garments, but there is an artist in there, who has something to say, and I really appreciated all those who listened to my talk and said such kind and supportive things to me afterwards.

I’m off to NYC tomorrow, and I’ll report back tomorrow night with some more fiber overload!