Daryl's Blog

After some housework, I spent the day studying the Adobe Dreamweaver manual, trying to learn this new web design software.  I took on the job of web master of the Frances Irwin Guild’s website, and I want to do a new presentation/seminar on web design to coordinate with my Photographing Your Work seminar.  I believe I am debuting the Web Design seminar at the Michigan Conference in August.

Speaking of Conferences…

This is the summer of the regional conferences, if there is one close enough to you, consider attending, great opportunities to exhibit, to learn, to serve, to benefit from hanging around a group of really creative people.  I’m sad I can’t attend my own regional conference, because the one in Colorado is the same weekend, and I am scheduled to teach there.  I’m going to try to add the list of conferences where I’m teaching in the Upcoming Events Widget on the side bar, meanwhile here is a brief outline…

June 22-27, 2009 Midwest Weavers Conference, Grinnell, Iowa http://www.heartland2009.org

July 3-6, 2009 Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, NJ http://www.petersvalley.org

July 10-12, 2009 New England Weavers Seminar Northhampton, MA http://www.newenglandweaversseminar.com

July 30-August 2, 2009 Intermountain Weavers Conference, Durango, CO http://www.intermountainweavers.org/

August 4-9, 2009, Michigan League of Handweaver’s Conference 2009, Holland, MI http://2009workshopsandconference.mlhguild.org/

August 22-30, 2009 Felters’ Fling, Williamsburg, MA http://www.blacksheepdesigns.com

September 20-25, 2009 Sievers School of Fiber Arts, Washington, Island, WI http://www.sieversschool.com

In the meantime, you can visit my website to see what I’m teaching (I’m working on updating that as well) or visit each venue to see their complete offerings.

If you are looking for an early fall retreat, a trip to Sievers School of Fiber Arts in Wisconsin is about the best you will find.  Once you are on Washington Island, you can only leave by ferry, you forget life, and dive in head first, and it is one of those experiences that will bring you back every year.  It is the only place I offer a full five day garment construction workshop, first time students will make my classic jacket, but returning students (and there are quite a few) can bring their own patterns and agenda and really immerse themselves into the sewing experience.  This is open to all, not just handweavers.  Check out the other course offerings as well, they start classes in mid June, and run through mid October.

And finally, a BIG call for help!  I alluded to the fact in my blog from Thursday, that I was voted Vice President in charge of programming for the Jockey Hollow Guild for 2009-10.  Sharp reader Nancy noticed it right away and commented, she had the distinguished job of program coordinator for the Ann Arbor Guild, and did a fabulous job coordinating my trip there last fall.  As a matter of fact, over the years I have been in awe of how organized and enthusiastic all the program chair persons have been in coordinating my workshops for their guilds over the past 15 years or so I have been teaching and traveling.  So it is with great trepidation that I attempt to follow in their footsteps, and come up with programs and workshops for my guild.  Any ideas are really really really appreciated.  What was one of your favorite programs?  I’m especially looking for ones that can be done locally with guild members.  Is there a site or blog where guilds can share this sort of information, like, “Wow, we just had the most interesting program!”  Sounds like a job for HGA…  For now, feel free to click on the comments section and share your memorable programs.  (Am I cheating by asking for help?)

I worked all afternoon, after a great lunch with my Thursday Philosophy Club (a group of great women who have been gathering for lunch on Thursdays since I was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago.)  I finished the dresses, and I will say that I really enjoyed the experience, and was glad to have the extra income.  I learned so much, and know I need to practice more with the narrow rolled hem foot.  I will deliver them all on Saturday, check the fit, and see if there is anything else they need done.

I didn’t work on the dresses at all today.  This was a catch up day, fueled mainly by the guild meeting tonight.  So I finished the handwork, so I could show my newly finished coat and dress for show and tell.  There was a lot going on tonight, since last month’s Jockey Hollow meeting was cancelled from the snow.  Bri baked pound cake cupcakes on Tuesday night, and a key lime pie, since we were responsible for the desserts for this meeting, and new officers were being elected for the 2009-10 year, (guess who was elected vice president in charge of programming….), and we had to exchange all our wefts for the placemat exchange.  And on top of that, I was the speaker for the evening, giving my presentation on the challenge project I blogged about on January 16th, Project Six. I spent most of the day reviewing the presentation, copying it to my laptop, making last minute changes.  Since this was the first time I’d given this presentation, I had no idea how long it would take.  I’m pleased with the way it went, got lots of compliments on the presentation, and I came in at an hour and a half.  Which for me is good…

So I’m hoping to get some response from the HGA, granting permission, and then I can offer the disk to any guild who would like to offer it as a program, I think it stands fine without me, and the guild can project it as a PowerPoint presentation, on the year long collaborative process of designing an ensemble for the runway, with yarn you didn’t pick, in colors you wouldn’t ever wear, unless you lived in a tropipcal climate, and working with someone you’ve never met.  It is a great story and I’m really proud of the result.  Stay tuned…

I’ll keep this short.  I am very tired!  Only seven more dresses to go…

This has been an amazing experience.  Never again will I look down on lowly alterations.  It is challenging, and I am learning to use some of my cool machine feet, like the rolled hemmer.  I haven’t used that in maybe 35 years?

I am working with fabrics I never ever use, tafetta, lace, chiffon, velvet, beads and sequined fabric.  This is like a crash course in formal wear.  I even had to dig out my needle board for pressing velvet.  Mine is so old it has actual needles, not the velcro hook kind they sell now.

First, an update on the 27 dresses….

I will say, for all my complaining, I am actually enjoying this, I’m learning a lot, since prom gowns are not my specialty, I’m fascinated by what industry uses as stiffening agents, and I’ve discovered heavy gauge fishing line can be sewn into the edge of ruffles to make them stand away from the body.  Who knew…

Believe it or not, I’m just about to the half way point of the alterations.  It has gone much quicker than I expected, and without having to make everything perfect, I’m actually enjoying speed sewing!  Again, who knew…

But the BIG news came today in an envelope from the HGA.  First, some background…

I have applied to exhibits off and on for most of my professional career as an artist, and I can wallpaper my bedroom with the amount of rejection letters I’ve received over the years.  That goes with the territory.  It makes you thick skinned, and more determined, and that also goes with the territory.  I probably shouldn’t say the letters are rejection notices, because they aren’t.  They are letters that say your piece wasn’t selected, and in a show of 35 pieces, where 350 people applied, chances are pretty good your piece won’t be selected.  But you just keep on sending in those jury fees and hope that someday your lottery number will come up.

Last year, for Convergence 2008 in Tampa, I was determined to push myself to get more of my work exhibited, and in shows I wouldn’t normally have placed my work.  Convergence 2008 had eight different exhibition opportunities, of course the Fashion Show, and others that had themes like felted, home furnishings, accessories, basketry, etc.  Among the exhibits was HGA’s annual Small Expressions.  I have applied to Small Expressions a number of times in the past, and of course, haven’t been selected.  But I keep on trying.  Out of the eight exhibits for Convergence this past year, and I applied to all eight believe it or not, I got accepted into six of the exhibits.  I was really thrilled, mainly because I managed to apply to all eight exhibits, making work specifically to fit the themes.  But I was really disappointed that I wasn’t selected for Small Expressions, for that is the show that meant the most to me.

The Visual Art Center of NJ held their members show a couple of months after I was rejected from Small Expressions 2008.  I had done a new piece to enter into Small Expressions, two dimensional, that I thought was pretty powerful in content, and a bit difficult to look at, and very graphic, but it took more than a quick look to grasp the message.  I decided to put the piece, “Survivor” into the members show at the Visual Art Center, among 200 other works of art, mainly photography and painting.  It was the only hand woven piece in the show.

I received a phone call from the Art Center two days before the show, they needed to talk to me about my piece.  I was terrified they were going to say that the piece wasn’t good enough, or wasn’t up to their standards, OK, I admit, I can have a pretty thin skin and low self confidence when discussing my work…  Anyway, they wanted to know if I would be attending the opening because I had won an award.  That caught me completely off guard, and I assured them I would be attending the opening, and I nearly fainted when I arrived at the opening and saw that out of 200 other works of art, mine had taken Best in Show.  It was a very validating experience, the same piece that had not been accepted a couple of months before, was give a Best in Show, and some very nice ink in NJ’s largest Newspaper.  That all happened last May….

The Economies of Scale exhibit at the Phoenix Gallery in NY, which I wrote about in a previous blog, just closed this weekend, and one of the pieces in that exhibit contained the same imagery as the Survivor piece I just described above.   But I rewove the piece in a smaller scale, about the size of a post card.  It is part of my Personal Post series.  I entered this year’s Small Expressions, 2009, using the Personal Post Suvivor piece, and two others, one of which I’ve pictured here called, The Spouse.  And today, in the mail, came a packet from the HGA, with acceptances for two of the three pieces I entered.  It is a proud day for me, I will bask in my success for a day or two, because I know tomorrow, the same works can just as easily not be accepted.

If you click on the February 24th Small Expressions Exhibit over in the Upcoming Events Widget on the right, you can see both The Spouse, pictured here, and Survivor.  I chose to put the Survivor piece, because of its graphic nature, over in the Events Column.

If you go to the blog entry of December 20th, there is a detailed description of how I did this piece, basically the image is printed onto silk, cut into strips, and rewoven back together in a Theo Moorman inlay technique.  The gray background is the ground cloth woven at the same time as the image.

Back to altering prom dresses…