Guild show and sale

I’m making slow progress on making stuff for the guild sale. But I will have a few things there. And I got a brainstorm on how to combine my two little Structo looms (the real ones) into one that will weave multiple post cards for the Personal Post Series for my art work. More on that in a later post.

Meanwhile, if anyone who lives in the northern NJ area is interested in attending the Jockey Hollow Handweavers’ Show and Sale in November, here is the postcard. There will be all kinds of hand crafted items, many suitable for gift giving for the upcoming holiday season! Support your local craftsmen! (And women!)

The Dog Ate My Phone…

Yep, this morning I got to sleep in a bit, in my own bed, home safe from my great weekend with the Hudson Mohawk Guild outside of Albany NY. I got up to make waffles, and when I returned to the bedroom to make the bed and get dressed, the dog had gone to my bedroom, hopped up on the bed, and removed my phone from the nightstand. And the rest is history. Oddly enough, the phone still works, but I’m annoyed, and now I have to replace my phone, because I don’t want to walk around with a phone that looks like this…

The new dog is a kleptomaniac, he steals anything that’s not nailed down, usually on the floor, which is sort of funny, a great way to make my family pick up their shoes and stuff off the floor, but I was shocked he stole my phone off the nightstand. Needless to say I wasn’t a happy camper this morning.

But the trip to Albany was great. The drive up the NY Thruway was gorgeous, the leaves are turning, and if I wasn’t driving I would have stopped to take all kinds of photos, and gotten up to the guild way too late!

I gave a seminar on Thursday night, in the Theo Moorman technique that I use to weave the art pieces I do, it is an unusual way to apply this technique, and there seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm and excitement for the lecture. The meeting was certainly crowded. On Friday I taught a workshop in color and inspiration, I gave the participants some color exercises, and we played with wrapping yarns. At the end, the participants used a calendar or magazine photo for inspiration and did warp wraps to coordinate with the photo. Here are some of the end results.

I wish I could see what they end up doing with the wraps. I think they were all gorgeous.

Friday night, one of the guild members graciously directed me on a driving tour of historic Saratoga Springs, the mineral baths, the race track, the gorgeous old Victorian homes.

On Saturday I taught a one day seminar on Closures, this would be various ways to close a garment, and we start the morning learning how to do the bound buttonhole, and a triangular variation. Once the students get to try these techniques, we move onto easier more interesting closures, and now they have no more excuses for garments that don’t close!

The drive home Saturday night was easy, and I sailed down the Thruway, listening to my audio book through my iTouch, which connects through my car radio, and the sound quality is excellent.

After my debacle this morning with the dog and the phone, I got ready and headed south to Morristown, to my recorder consort rehearsal. We are working on Elizabethan dances, the Pavana and the Gallyard. One of the members of the consort has a degree in Early Music, and she researched the dances and we all tried them. It really helped to get a feel for the timing and the speed of the dances. Of course, I wasn’t dressed to dance an Elizabethan Pavana, I was in boots with 4″ heels, but I persevered!

I raced home and picked up my husband and we headed off to the Art Center of Northern NJ which is in New Milford. I had a piece accepted to their 18th annual National Juried Show, which runs until November 2. The judge was Clare Bell, formerly the associate curator of Prints and Drawings at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in NYC. I found out when I got to the show, that only 10% of the works that were submitted were accepted. I felt privileged to have been included in the show. There were 23 states represented, and 66 works total in the exhibit.

I was even more excited and felt even more privileged to learn I received a Merit Award for my work, and a nice check for $200. (which will pay for my new phone…) There was a little ceremony announcing the winners, and because there were works from so many states, only two of us who got awards were present, and we got the opportunity to talk about our work.

This is really an unusual thing for me, not to talk about my work, I do that all the time, but to talk about my work to an audience of painters, sculptors, photographers, and mixed media artists is unusual for me, and I enjoyed the experience, the questions were so different than those I get from handweavers.

I spoke about the metaphor of handweaving and how the process is so critical to the work I’m doing. The idea of taking personal images and cutting them apart, weaving them back together into a whole image, especially in the case of my piece, “The Survivor”, which is a celebratory photo depicting a breast cancer survivor, printed on silk, cut apart, and woven back together. The imagery and the process are critical components of the work.

So now I’m home, not completely unpacked, but I did manage to get the rest of the houseplants in, there are frost warnings tonight. My daughter is off from school tomorrow, so she can work on teaching the dog not to steal our things, (only the socks and shoes that no one puts away… ) 🙂

It’s October and you know what that means!

That’s right, it is the month of fundraisers! Seems like every day my daughter has brought home yet another large envelope bulging with the catalog of all the wonderful things I need for my house, my bathroom reading basket, and my freezer. Let’s see, I have one here for Yankee Candles. That would be the HS Junior Class fundraiser. Did I mention I am terrified of burning my house/studio down with a candle accidentally left unattended? My ADD is too severe to stay in the same room and watch a burning candle. I have a hard enough time remembering to shut off the iron… (My studio iron is an industrial…) At least I can get wrapping paper…

And, do I support the PTO, or the Girl Scouts, both have magazine subscription fundraisers on my desk… Alas, we get about 20 magazines or more a month, but the bathroom reading baskets are always entertaining and educational. I think I won’t renew Martha Stewart Living this year, I stopped looking at it when she had an article on the well organized garage and it had four things in it. Hell, I can organize four things… I want to see Martha do an article on organizing a garage with real people using it…

And the yearly music department cheesecake order brochure is coming in tomorrow I believe. We still have frozen choco chip cookie dough in the freezer from last year. I know, it’s pathetic. No time to even make a batch of frozen cookies. But the cheese cakes are pretty good and they are already cooked!

Excuse me while I go spend a few hundred dollars in useless things I don’t need…

So, I took a look at my to do list, which is a pretty cool strip parked next to my now well functioning Google Calendar. I’ve successfully moved my calendar off my Palm Pilot, and now it syncs with everything I own that’s sync-able… (I’m sure that has to be a word…) I leave Thursday for my last trip of the year, two workshops and a lecture for the Hudson Mohawk Guild outside of Albany NY. I’m driving for this one, so I’m not worried about luggage or weight. I am going to try to bring a loom too.

That means it’s monograph/handout printing day! Oh joy… My poor laser printer gets quite a workout, and I get to spend hours at the binding machine. I’ve got my daughter working on this mega task tonight so I can blog and attend to other things! 🙂

Meanwhile, yesterday was the Frances Irwin Guild meeting, and my trusty Leclerc “Stucto” wannabee, and I learned all about Double Corduroy, and how to do it on the loom. For the non weavers reading this, it is a popular pile rug technique, done on a loom. The idea is similar to corduroy fabric, the wales are cut once the fabric is woven, and in this case, the pile is creating by cutting apart the long floats. I’ve done a few pile rugs in my past, and the technique I used was rya, tying small pieces of wool around the warp threads with a Ghiordes knot. Tedious…

Here are two images from my vast archives, I did these two rugs in 1976. They are about 3’x5′. Tying individual knots is much better for achieving imagery, which was critical in these two rugs. But the double corduroy goes faster, and makes more of a flokati look, and less of a precise color placement. It was fun and I’m amazed what I can do on this little loom that fits in a tote bag…

While I had to sit all day and babysit the laser printer, I decided to look ahead on my long range to do list, and the first thing that popped out at me was to make another tote bag, the ingredients were just falling off my shelf into my hands. The scrap in the foreground is from the sandstone jacket I finished in the spring. On the left is a wrinkled cotton sari from India, I love the wrinkled quality, and I might fool around with trying to capture that in the tote bag.

Meanwhile… I am now offering a workshop, a two day class, in making a vest. I’ve done this vest as a pieced class, similar technique to the tote bags I’ve been working on, but students never get to actually make the vest in the class. They just get to do the piecing. Since I’ve had so many requests for a two day jacket class, which I can’t do in two days, I thought I’d try to have classes make the vest, no piecing, and I have about half a dozen bookings already. The next one will be at the Newark Museum in November.

The Vest of the Vest (I am not responsible for this title!)
with Daryl Lancaster
Vests are multi-purpose garments that allow you to go from
work to play. The vest is simple to sew, will have a lining
and looks fabulous in whatever fabric you choose for its
construction. The instructor will custom fit you to be sure
all looks good when you are done. Beginner/Intermediate
Friday and Saturday, November 6 and 7, 10 am –5 pm
Member: $153, Non-member: $170, Materials: $25

I realized when I used my vest pattern at Siever’s a couple weeks ago, that I really needed to grade down another size, I am starting to have really tiny women in classes, and I needed the next size down. So I took out one of my multi sized patterns, and following my grading schematic, I graded down to the next size. That meant of course, I needed a muslin. So I rooted through my stash to fine some fabric scraps that I wouldn’t be caught dead using for any real garment purpose. So, as odd as it looks, the vest above is the muslin for the smallest size vest I offer.

Now I need to actually make a really nice sample, one that I would wear. All the vests I have are pieced. So I want to make a vest I can use for the class, and do all kinds of cool techniques on it, and have it fit me, so I can actually enjoy wearing it a few times…

Off to search through the stash, my favorite thing to do…

This exercise netted me a large hunk from an old production throw (called afghan back in the 1980’s), from Harrisville singles wool in graduated shades with an alpaca weft. I had woven them for sale in four colorways. My Aunt had asked if I could make one of them into a vest for my Uncle, this would have been back in the very early 1980’s. I remember making the vest and finding out I made a major mistake in copying one of my Uncle’s vests, and had to redo it, so I had a huge hunk of a second throw just sitting on my shelf for 25 years. I liked this color combination, though I have to say, I never really liked the hand of the fabric I wove for these throws. (Pictured is the one in the blue/gray colorway and I know the wrinkled sheet is a big no-no, but that’s what I did back in the 80’s). So I decided I had nothing to lose by tossing the wool/alpaca throw in the washer and dryer. 🙂

OMG! It is gorgeous. The fabric is unbelievably soft and fluffy, and for all you weavers out there, take a scrap of something you made years ago, where you didn’t machine wash and dry a fabric, and see what happens! This is all part of a class I teach on washing your fabrics when they come off the loom, but I’m still surprised when I take things from the archives, that were washed, though not very aggressively, and run them through the washer and dryer and see what would have happened. I even found some balls of the original Harrisville singles I used for the warp. Wonder what I can do with that…

Anyway, I rooted some more in the stash and came up with some items that I thought had potential to work together. The wool challis in the upper right corner would be perfect for a lining, and in case I didn’t have enough of the alpaca throw, I did have a light gray wool in the stash, but I was pretty determined to make this small hunk of a throw work for the project.

I managed to cut out the vest, in my size, and got everything but one armband, but there was enough small scraps to be able to piece. And I had to cut it on the crosswise. I’ll add piping, so the conflict of grainlines won’t be so noticable but all I had left once I finished cutting this vest out, was a handful of dust! I love when that happens…

Enough creativity for one day, my brain is tired. I won’t get to make the vest until after my trip to Albany, I’m thinking of trying to do triangular bound buttonholes on the center front band, I need another teaching sample using this technique. Plus I still have the pile of stash for the next tote bag…

I’ve had a couple people request the text from the survivor’s statement I wrote that accompanied my photo in the Pete Byron exhibit at the Morris Museum, The Faces of Breast Cancer. So here is the text in case you couldn’t make it out from the photo.

Looking back over the years since my 2002 cancer diagnosis, I can honestly say that my diagnosis and the year of treatment that followed, though truly difficult at times, became one of the most life changing, positive experiences of my life. I learned to trust, to let others in to help. I learned to live without fear, living my life in a fuller way, grabbing at opportunities, not being afraid to try. This has completely changed the way I work and think as an artist. My own fiber artwork, has become more narrative, I have a voice now, and though my body has been altered, my scars are a road map of my journey, and I celebrate that journey.

I chose not to have reconstruction for the missing breast, partly because I just wanted to get back to work, to life, and to do what I love most and be with those I love most. And partly, I wanted to remember how life was before cancer, and the celebration of life now, without fear, with confidence, with passion, and with living only in the day.

— Daryl Lancaster

Fiber Arts Telesummit

2009 Fiber Arts TeleSummit

Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15, 2009

This unusual opportunity came across my radar a couple months ago, and it looks like everything is in place. I found out about this telesummit, and was recommended as one of the presenters by my fiber buddy Brecia Kravolic-Logan, from Southern California, a wonderfully creative fiber artist, who knows Eric Maisel, developer and promoter of the telesummit. I love the idea of being able to listen to, take a class with someone in the fiber field, without leaving your home, and apparently all the sessions are available for later listening, if you aren’t in a position to park yourself in your living room for an entire two days. I know that weekend is my guild show and sale! The roster sounds interesting, the only one on the list I know is Brecia, who is a fire ball of personality and creativity. I don’t get paid to do this, payment comes apparently from a percentage of the sign-up’s credited to me. Here is the marketing blurb from the website.

“Welcome to the Fiber Arts TeleSummit! If you love knitting, quilting, weaving, sewing or any of the fiber arts, this telesummit is for you. We have exciting presenters and wonderful workshops. All provided over the phone so you don’t have to leave home. With all the visuals you need to have a visual AND a listening experience.

These presentations will move you, teach you, and serve you. Our presenters travel around the world providing workshops and now you can visit with them (and ask them questions) from the comfort of your home.

Craft, Creativity and Career—all in one conference! For knitters, weavers, quilters, and textile artists in every genre. Learn from the best, including Daryl Lancaster (Weave for the Body, Weave for the Soul), Brecia Kravolic-Logan (Knitting Naked), Deborah Robson (Nomad Press), Donna Druchunas ( Ethnic Knitting Exploration and Ethnic Knitting Discovery), and many more. Join the first Fiber Arts Telesummit, making experts from around the world available to you in your own living room. Workshops on craft, creativity and career for textile artists everywhere.

You can choose just the workshops that interest you the most or, at a great price that saves you 50% off the individual workshops, get all 10 workshops live AND for repeated listening.

One great weekend in November. All at a reasonable cost. With no travel, no hotel expenses, no lines at the airport. And an array of workshops that you can’t find anywhere else, with top presenters from the world of fiber arts.

Early Bird Price $137 ($177 after October 15) Individual sessions $29.95 (The individual sessions option is still being worked on as of this posting.)

Sign up now and get the early bird bonuses, an offer good only until October 15th! If you use this sign-up link, I get credited!

OK, so I learned something…

I have something to admit. When my weaving guild, the Frances Irwin Handweavers, first announced their fall/winter line up for their programming, I was less then excited. OK, I admit, I was downright disappointed. I admit it. I don’t do rugs, I’m not interested in rugs, and ask anyone whom I’ve juried for, sadly I don’t really know anything about weaving rugs. (This is a bit embarrassing…)

So the programming chair thought a bunch of rug related programs would bring a consistency and longer term study to the meetings, and I will admit, that part was a good idea. Studying something for more than an hour and a half, is kind of a novel idea, as far as guild meetings go. Well, maybe it isn’t, I haven’t actually been a member of my two guilds for more than a couple years, I’ve been traveling to guilds all over the country for 25 years, but I’m the speaker. I don’t know what else they do during the year for programming.

When I got the September Newsletter, I was sort of surprised at how much effort the programming chair had put into this whole adventure, she figured out a way to put on a warp, 10″ wide, and with some minor rethreading (it is only 6 threads to the inch), you could use the same warp for all the fall programs including the December exchange. How cool was that? Not wanting to be a party pooper, and admitting that I don’t know everything, and I could really learn something here, I was a sport, and pulled my 4 shaft Leclerc version of the little Structo. I have a Structo, but it was a bit narrow for this project. The draft we were given could be just squeaked out of the 10.25″ width (I think the requirement was 10.5″). The loom set up quickly and I went to the meeting. I blogged about this back in September (it seems so long ago… do I have an out of control life or what? The title of that blog was “Overload”). Anyway, it was sort of fun. And the yarn I chose, some hot pink wool that matched my daughter’s hair, and some brown handspun both from my mother in law’s stash, worked out perfectly, though I found out after plying the yarns, they didn’t need to be that fat.

Sidebar: My daughter attends a night class in Japanese, at the local community college, once a week, even though she is still in HS. Part of a challenge program for gifted students. She is loving it, but, a) the local community college is 40 minutes away, and b)she isn’t driving on her own yet, so someone has to take her and pick her up. That someone would be me, unless I am traveling. So, I bring lots of busy work, drop her at class, wait endlessly for a parking space near the student center, and then haul all my busy work up and wait for three hours.

Two weeks ago, (last week I was traveling), I took my inkle loom, and attracted lots of attention, lots of opportunities to talk about weaving, and the weaving community. I feel like the weaving community’s PR person. This week, I took my trusty little Leclerc’ Structo’ wannabe (but better) and hauled it up to the student center in a big tote bag I whipped together from two freebies right before I left. That’s the green and purple thing the loom is sitting on. I just have to pull it down enough to expose the critical parts of the loom, and it acts as a surface protector as well.

So I wove. I had a woman come up who turns out teaches history in a home school setting, and we of course talked about how fiber can be used to teach almost anything, especially the history of the world. Every culture has some kind of interlacement process in their origins, and the United States especially, is full of them. The conversation would have continued, and I wouldn’t have gotten much weaving done, except a political science class came into the student center to watch the NJ gubernatorial debates on the wide screen TV. I won’t comment on the stupidity of the candidates in these debates. Except to say, what happened to our political process when the only way to get elected is to discredit your opponent while not committing to anything concrete you would like to see happen on any of the issues that matter. It isn’t good enough to just say, “We have to cut taxes…” Well duh… Everyone knows that and supports that. Duh… The question is how? No one, except the independent candidate will dare say how they intend to do that, including the incumbent… Ok, I’m off my soapbox….

What I’ve learned (besides the fact that I hate politics)…

Rug Weaving is sort of fun and uses a lot of yarn…
I found myself actually thinking I’d like to set up my large loom and weave a throw rug… (I’m actually not going to, I just thought about it.)
I love working on this little Leclerc table loom and think I might even warp up my little eight shaft Structo and see what it can do. I can actually haul a shaft loom in a tote bag and sit in a student center for three hours and weave. How cool is that?
I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge the fall programming choice for my guild. I’m learning a lot. Now I actually know what Taqueté is…
I’m really proud of my little sampler, and did a computer draft of the five treadling variations on a Summer/Winter rug.

Now I’m off to rethread my loom for the Double Corduroy program next week…

2009 Fiber Arts TeleSummit Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15, 2009

Early Bird Price $137 ($177 after October 15) Individual sessions $29.95 (The individual sessions option is still being worked on as of this posting.)

2009 Fiber Arts TeleSummit

Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15, 2009