The computer gods smiled at me today…

I spent the last couple of days really focused on the guild website I’m building, wanting to get it put to bed so I can concentrate on getting this yardage done.  I am not proficient with the software at all, the learning curve is huge, and I find that I occasionally get something I just don’t know how to correct.  That happened last night.  I actually had the whole site created, and uploaded, and when I checked the web pages, I just couldn’t get rid of the ugly blue active link boxes around all the little menu buttons.  I knew I had to code the fix somewhere in the CSS, but I went to bed frustrated and depressed, and not sure how I was going to fix the problem.  So of course, no way to shut my little brain off.  I really didn’t sleep at all last night…  🙁

I got up this morning, determined to figure this out, or redesign the whole website, and my wonderful buddy Sally tossed me an email that said, why don’t you query the problem in Dreamweaver online help?  Duh (she says as she smacks herself on an already bruised side of the head…)

And of course, Sally was right on target.  It took about 45 seconds to find the little piece of code necessary to fix the problem, which I embedded and viola!  I had a site that looked the way I envisioned.  Now I’m just waiting for feedback from the group, typos, missed links, weird things happening with obscure browsers, and whatever else they can come up with.  Check out the site if you are curious…   Frances Irwin Handweavers

So the computer gods were my friends today, and after a frustrating week, I’m happy with the final product.  And I made a big ceremonious cross off my to do list on that project.  I still have to build the gallery, but I don’t feel so pressured on that part at the moment.

ReginaMeanwhile, I got a couple of calls/emails today from former students, just checking in on how much my workshops meant to them, and one of them Regina Novotny sent photos of what she’s done with the information from the class.  Regina wove the fabric for this coat, and tailored it from the pattern we used in the jacket class. Talk about a great big vote of confidence.  I felt really proud of my students, and how they’ve taken what I’ve given them, and run with it.  Two of the students who called today, want me to come and do a private session at their studio in the mountains of West Virginia in June.  I’m really really looking forward to that…

cutting tableSo, having a huge smile on my face, and a finished website, I turned to my cutting table which was completely unusable and cleaned it off.  There is nothing like a clean workspace to get the muses dancing…

MSU3On Sunday, I attended the opening at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University, for the Art Connections 6 exhibit.  I have two pieces in the show.  The opening was packed, hard to see the work, which was hung salon style, filling the walls floor to ceiling, and of course, one of my pieces was near the floor.  We all had stiff knees after squatting down discussing the imagery and iconography of the piece.

I had one of my smaller Personal Posts pieces there as well.  It was sort of lost between two bright and colorful pieces, yet there were a lot of people peering close to really see what was happening in the piece.

MSU2MSU1I met a couple of women I hadn’t seen in more than 25 years, one of them I went to art school with in the mid 1970’s.  I love the connections one makes at these kind of openings, and lots of business cards were exchanged.

So, now I’m going to focus on getting this fabric off the loom before the end of the month, so I can get it photographed and entered in the Convergence yardage exhibit.  I would have liked to have submitted more than one piece, but that’s not going to happen…

loomweavingfabricThe fabric is weaving pretty well, the sticky springy cotton lace is still giving me a bit of grief, but I just ignore it and build up a rhythm.  I’ve finished about a quarter of the yardage, and I’m hoping to blow through another couple of yards tomorrow.  It is so pretty to weave, each time the cloth is advanced a whole new color section reveals itself.  🙂

Not a great start to the year…

OK, true confessions… I’m a baby when it comes to getting sick. I’m miserable, cranky, and very whiny. Fortunately my husband is on the other side of the world, and my son is safely in Boot Camp. That means poor Brianna has to listen to my misery…

This hit me like a ton of bricks, and I never saw it coming. As a matter of fact, I kept blaming my not feeling quite right on all kinds of stupid things like the jalapeno pepper I put in the cole slaw yesterday, and overdoing it at a new yoga class last night. Truth is, I’m sick. There is no denying it. How long I’m sick for, and what actually I have, remains to be seen, but I am achy, feverish, and have a deep rattling cough. Bummer…

I’m guessing that my body did what it had to do, got through the holidays, got through the New Year, got my husband off to Israel, and my son off to Boot Camp. I cleaned out his room, and his car (it would take a blog post by itself to describe those adventures, but I’ll be kind and just say, everything is now clean, beds are properly made, and nothing is currently growing or unidentifiable in the downstairs refrigerator.) 🙂

And now I’m sick… 🙁

I did manage to finish sleying the reed with the new marble inspired warps, and I did manage to update my sister’s website, but it was painful. Everything on me aches. I had to cancel attending the guild meeting tonight, which was tough because I was one of the panel speakers. Brianna is driving, as I write, to Mendham to take over for me as program chair, for the Jockey Hollow Guild meeting tonight. She is a trooper (and I think she welcomed the excuse to get out of the house since I was so cranky…).

I have to say I’m really really lucky. I can lay low. Other than dropping off my work tomorrow in Montclair at the George Segal Gallery for the Art Connections 6 exhibit, I have nothing on my calendar requiring me to be out of the house, and I can hopefully sleep it off. I have a slew of deadlines, but it is more important I get over this thing quickly, so I’ll cave and be a good girl… And I just started an 800 page book, the final installment of the Outlander series, Echo in the Bone, by Diana Gabaldon though I hear it really may not be the final installment. This is book 7 I think… It was a handweaver in Connecticut who turned me on to this series, many many years ago when I stayed with her.  So I’m off to curl up in bed and read, and hopefully sleep…

pulling_thread_from_crossHere are the photos from my loom adventures today.sleying I slowly but surely worked my way across the reed, pulling the appropriate amount of threads from the cross on the appropriate warp bundle.  I loved the colors, and it was peaceful to just sit and thread, but I sure wish I didn’t ache all over…

sleyedHere is a tip, I found this out the hard way of course.  If you are using hand dyed warps, always save a couple of extra threads, or wind a couple of extra threads to include when you are dyeing, in case one breaks while you are weaving.  You’ll always have a way to correct the break with the right color.

heddle_countThe next step is of course, threading each of those warp ends, one by one through the heddles in the shafts.  Here is another tip, one I also learned the hard way.  Check how many heddles are on each shaft BEFORE you start threading.  My loom is the type where you can’t add heddles once you start.  You also can’t remove them.  And I’m going almost the full width of my loom.  So having a bunch extra squeezed on the sides, or heaven forbid not enough, can make the most easy going handweaver resort to hair pulling…

So I used my handy dandy computer drafting program (I use Fiberworks PCW) and it gives me the heddle count for each shaft.  Now I just have to pull each of the eight shafts out of the castle, and lay them on my cutting table, and add the correct amount of heddles.  I keep my heddles stored on knitting needles, so they just slip on the heddle rods effortlessly, checking first to make sure they face in the correct direction.  🙂

knitting_needlesdetail_heddlesThis process takes time.  And I really don’t enjoy this step.  But it is an important one, on most of my shafts I had to add at least 100 heddles…

Now they are all back safely in the castle, fully loaded with the correct number of heddles, and I can start threading tomorrow.  If I can get out of bed…heddles_in_castle

All my children and roller coaster rides…

What a week!

EricFirst, my children are of the ages when roller coaster rides seem like canoe trips on a lake…  My son, who wore camouflage  his entire third grade year, has finally signed on the dotted line and joined the military.  He leaves for basic training for the Army National Guard on January 4th.  I’ve been asked by a number of friends, how do I feel about this?  Honestly, no one knows where life is going to take them, he parties hard for a 19 year old, and his motivation for anything involving work is pretty low.  I adore being around him and his friends, who seem to be living in my basement on a full time basis now, eating me out of house and home.  He is entertaining, kind, interesting, and I know I’ll really miss him when he grows up and goes out on his own, but I don’t see that happening without the structure of something like the military.  So, I’m OK with this decision, and pretty proud, he did this all on his own, gathered all the paperwork, medical records, and he is pretty excited about the future, for the first time in his life.

layoutIsland_DressMeanwhile, he has a roll in the musical Once on this Island, at the community college where he attends, and happily volunteered me to help the frazzled costumer, who has to come up with island/Carribbean costumes for 40 cast members.  My stash proved to be quite useful, where do I find these things?, and my first assignment was to copy a Hawaiian wrap dress out of a vintage handscreened handwoven silk from Thailand.  That was a fun 3 hour diversion.

I attended the rehearsal again last night, and now have a suitcase full of alterations to do today on top of finishing up my article for SS&D.  Shades of 27 dresses

ShelfThen there is my daughter.  My lovely adorable interesting and very capable pink haired daughter.  She is still in HS, and in between her honors physics and calculus classes, she has a class in Woodworking, Cabinet and Machine woods to be exact.  She loves the class, the only female, and fortunately it is her first period class and makes her mornings actually bearable.  This is the age of complete connectedness to your children, for better or for worse, and though it isn’t really permitted, the kids text blindly under the desk on a regular basis, so I know what goes on at school way more than I should!  Usually I get texts like, “Mom, the Yankee Candle order forms and money are due today.  I forgot, can you bring them over to the HS right away?”  But yesterday morning I got a text that just said, “Finished”.  Attached was a picture of her latest project in cabinet woods, a gorgeous oak shelving unit.  I know she will want to put it in her room, but I think I’ll fight her on this one.  It is beautiful!  I want it for me…

Later on in the day, I got a text that said, “I’m inspired… do you have any of that clear plastic fabric?”  This is always problematic, because when my daughter gets an idea, she runs with it, and doesn’t stop until it’s done.  Which means taking over my studio for an indeterminate amount of time.  She ended up making a tote bag, (inspired by my tote bag adventures) out of duct tape, saved candy wrappers (who saves their candy wrappers?) and clear plastic vinyl sheeting (which I did have in my studio).  She needed a small tote for her Japanese books for the Japanese class she is taking at the community college.  I’ll send along a photo when I can.

So this was more than a roller coaster week, aside from my children.  Back at the end of September, I applied to three exhibitions, where I thought my work might be appropriate.  They were all running during the same time frame, so it was quite a juggling act to see which of my artpieces I would send for which exhibition applications.  Once the applications are sent, it is a nail biting waiting game.  You’d think by now I’d be use to this.  I don’t think you ever get use to the waiting game, and ultimately the rejections that come with them.  Two of the notifications were suppose to be released on October 15th.  October 15th came and went, and nothing.  One of the applications was done online through Juried Art Services, so the notification would be online as well.  Either a green checkmark, or a red X.  Very personal.  I checked the website about every half hour for about 5 days straight.  Suddenly, there it was, two big red X’s.  And the accompanying note, if you actually clicked on the X’s read, “Thank you for your submission. We regret to inform you that your work was not chosen for this year’s exhibition.”  🙁

OK, so there were still two more applications out there, and I kept checking my snail mail, with eager anticipation, until the next notification popped up in my email box.  I hadn’t actually expected to hear from this exhibit quite this soon.  “Thank you for your submission.  It was a very difficult decision- making process as we received many applications. We are sorry to inform you that your work was not selected this year.”  🙁

OK, so there was still one more.  I was only out about $100 in entrance fees, and I had just won an award at an exhibit a couple weeks ago, so the roller coaster feeling of being high and then crashing down to the ground and rethinking your entire body of work, is all in a days work.

Then came the final notification, suddenly, in my inbox, a week overdue.

“Congratulations!  Thank you for your submission to the George Segal Gallery for Art Connections 6. This year over 175 artists submitted work for review with a total of over 750images to be juried. The quality of the work was outstanding, which made the selection process very challenging. The juror chose 182 works from 118 artists. You are one of those artists!”  🙂

This exhibit is actually at the new gallery that is part of Montclair State University, where I got my art degree in 1977.  So I sort of feel a little thrill at finally being able to come back and say to no one in particular, see what I did with your degree?  Like I said, this week has been a roller coaster ride.

fusingstashI did manage to make up that tote bag I started last week, I didn’t actually start it, more like laid a pile of the table of stuff that sort of related, and waited to see where it would take me.  I got the handwoven fabric laid out pretty quickly, but the companion complementary fabric just wasn’t working.  I rooted around in my stash a bit more, and found some raw silk I had used for sampling some fabric paints and stencils.  So I dug out my fabric paints and stencils and painted the rest.  I chose to do a more complex binding, which involved yarn and bias strips, and it took way longer than I could ever sell the tote bag for, I really find it hard to do inexpensive and simple, but I had a blast, and love the results.  I used one of my silk sari’s from India for the lining, and it made for a totepleasant day being one with my sewing detailmachine while the world rained chaos around me.  🙂