This is the archive for the ‘weaving’ Category

Exhibition

November 15th, 2021

“Places-Spaces, Exhibition of Painting, Stitches, Etc”, finally took place at iMPeRFeCT Gallery after being postponed last year! It was a crazy time getting things ready on short notice and with additional room to exhibit my work but it came together and I couldn’t be more pleased! Finishing work, framing, designing the space and hanging…Then I was interviewed on Germantown radio. It was very fun. And an artist talk—I was anxious but once I got going all was fine.

Image of Stitching
Stitching

Image of Exhibition-Front Room
Front Room

Image of Exhibition-Back Room
Back Room and Hallway

I showed stitching and a series of paintings in the front room, paintings in the back room, and smaller work in the hallway. Oh, and a group of found objects such as sea shells used as small tapestry looms and some of my Tea Bag Tales, they were the “Etc.” part of the title.

Image of Exhibition-Gifts from the Sea Image of Exhibition-Illustration
Small Tapestries and Tea Bag Tales

iMPeRFeCT Gallery is a wonderful gallery run by Rocio Cabello and Renny Molenaar in Germantown, PA. Over their nine years in Philadelphia they have featured an amazing group of artists, musicians, and poets. I feel so honored to be a part of all this and to have been invited to have my exhibition here.

Catching up…

June 1st, 2021

Here it is June, and I haven’t posted here for a while. I started a new Visual Journal with which I’m having much fun. It began as an old diary which belonged to my Gram – she didn’t really use it for much more than a folder of news clippings etc. so I decided to use its pages as a surface for mixed media/visual entries – I call it a daily journal and it is but I never said the days were consecutive… I’ve been posting pages on social media – it gives me a good start to the day to get working. Each day I try to use media and imagery with out planning and just react to it as it goes along.

Image of journal page Image of soaking tea bags Image of journal page
Three of my pages

I’m excited to have entered a painting, Tinicum Marsh” in the Da Vinci Art Alliance group exhibition. It will run from June 3 to the 22nd with a zoom opening on the 9th. It is open by appointment if anyone wants to stop by in person. After this last year it’s so good to be able to show work in the real world!

Image of Tinicum Marsh
Tinicum Marsh Ready to Wrap

I’ve also been busy making books and starting some paintings – continuing the theme of painting where I wish I could go. But now I can start going so that’s good!

And today I’ve gotten back to weaving on my found treasures – “found objects as Tapestry Looms”.

Fall 2019

December 11th, 2019

It’s December and Christmas is upon us—Cards are made, lights are up and gifts sent—now to concentrate of being with and enjoying family and friends and to get back to my painting—but first I wanted to make up for not posting for a while.

While in Maine this summer I worked on sketching trees and this fall they were combined with rusty bits found in Maine and Campobello. I have lots of sketches, photos, and plein air studies to inspire work from here. These rusty studies help get me going in the morning.

Image of Maine Tree sketches
Sketches mounted

Fall was busy as it always seems to be. After our trips I came home to a painting commission that was fun to work on and can’t be shown yet as it’s to be a surprise. Also began lots of work inspired by Scotland—Orkney and the Isle of Skye. First sketches and drawings and then on to paintings. I didn’t have time during our trip to draw and absorb as I wished but I do have photos as well as the images and sensations seared into me. I want to capture the sense of power and haunting timelessness I felt. I’ve just begun this series.

Image of Mountain from Elgol Beach
Evening view from Elgol

In Oct my studio was on an artist studio/house tour—that took a good bit of cleaning up and getting my work in order. So much fun to see people enjoying my work and in discussing it with them.

Image of Painting Studio Image of Work on wall
Mostly cleaned up

And, always fiber. I had purchased small bits of fleece in Orkney and spun and wove tiny tapestries with them as well as continuing to spin fleece from Flying Fiber for use in other tapestries that are in the works. When things get overwhelming, fiber work calms me down, puts things in perspective and I’m ready to go again!

Image of Yellow Handspun Yarn Image of small tapestry
Love my Fiber

Scotland

September 20th, 2019

It was a whirl wind tour of Scotland. Starting in Queesnferry so Bob could finally see one of his favorite bridges, the Forth Bridge, and a bus into Edinburgh to visit Dovecot Studio.

Image of Forth Bridge Image of Dovecot Tapestry Studio
Visit for each of us!

Then Skye—staying in Elgol for a boat trip and small hike to Loch Coruisk in the Cuillin Hills and in Dunvegan with hikes at Quiraing, and Neist Point.

Image of Quiraing Image of Neist Point
Hikes in Skye

After Skye, up the west coast staying at Inverkirkaig—hiked a bit—very windy—and found the most wonderful bookstore/cafe, then across the top to the ferry to Orkney.

Orkney: Ring of Brodgar at dusk, Skara Brae, the sun came out as we bought our tickets, sheep, wool and dye sheds, a tapestry gallery, a scotch distillery, and more wind. I love wind, but this wind could, under certain circumstances, drive one mad. For us, in our short time, it was part of the adventure.

Image of The Ring of Brodgar Image of Skara Brae
5000 year old Neolithic sites.

Ferry back and down the east coast and into Glendevon for a great dinner, another short hike and then the plane from Edinburgh. All I can say is WOW! Around every corner—more beautiful than the last—WOW, food and people—WOW, history, geology—WOW!

Image of Scottish Mountains Image of Heather
Beauty whether you look up or down

We had never been to Scotland and wanted to get an overview, seeing as much as possible in the two weeks we had. Bob did wonderfully driving on a different side of the road and on the many two way but one lane roads—with sheep on them! (There were signs.) He also researched and booked all our accommodations and to a one they were great! Three hotels and the rest B&Bs.

Image of Black Sheep Image of sign for sheep in road
Cattle grids in the roads kept the sheep in their area but not off the roads.
Some were very cheeky and would play “I dare you”…

We didn’t seek out castles but they were everywhere.

Image of Castle
Had to take at least one castle picture!

Didn’t hear a bagpipe but saw several guys in kilts. Stayed away from tourist sites as much as possible. Scotland is a very contemporary country and while I did want to see the Neolithic sites in Orkney I also wanted to experience Scotland today as much as possible in our short time.

Some how as I planned out our trip with post-its of where we would stay and what we wanted to see, I still thought we’d have time to hike every day and sit and sketch, and just feel where we were. Time doesn’t stretch that way so only a couple of quick sketches (one done in the car) and a few rather short hikes, but lots and lots of images and now that I’m home I wake up at 4:30-5:00 and hit the studio—so excited to download my brain into studies and paintings and spin the wool that I bought and just digest.

Learning to spin a fine yarn!

February 12th, 2019

WOW—haven’t posted since mid Dec. The holidays came and went. Cards were made and sent. Friends and family came and returned home. Gifts were given and received. Decorations went up and down. and then it was Jan and now it’s Feb.
A lasting allergy/cold/general malaise hung around for a long time, get better and then here it came again, BUT… now it seems to be under control—I hope—and I’m getting back to work. Have worked on the paintings of Ireland but they are still a work in progress, so I turned to fibers. My painting and my fiber work help each other.

Late summer/early fall I bought some carded/dyed fleece from Flying Fibers in Landisville, PA and have been trying to spin a finer yarn. I bought small amounts so I could see how things went. Previously I mainly spun for the joy of it and was happy to get a bulky, lumpy yard with which I could knit/weave bulky, lumpy fabric. I could get a rough control if need be but it was still anything but fine. and I wanted to spin a fine tight yarn to use as weft for small tapestries.

Image of Original roving with pre drafted fiber ready to spin
Original roving with pre drafted fiber ready to spin.

At first I tried just spinning from the roving as purchased but that didn’t work. Next I tried hand carding which defeated the use of the ready made rovings. Sooo, I did some research, lots of tests, and ended up pre drafting by hand—slow but I mainly want small amounts for small tapestries—and I find it very calming to sit and pull the fibers by hand.

Once my fibers were predrafted, I began spinning. I have an original Louet Wheel and was trying to gain some control of the twist. Before I would just spin away and my mood determined how tight the twist was. Now I’m trying to be conscious of the revolutions in each release of fiber. I’ve gotten better but have a long way to go!

Image of Samples of testing
Samples of my testing. Got better with practice. Some are finer than others.
Still working on it.

Image of handspun used in my test. Image of my finished test,.

After spinning, I washed the results, blocked them as they dried and wound them into little balls. You can see my earlier (thicker) yarns and the newer (finer) ones.

My spinning was getting better but I still wasn’t sure how this would weave. I warped my 6 dent Hokett loom at 12 epi and worked up a simple test design that could show a number of yarns. I’m pleased—some worked, some need work! I still want to get more control before doing a series of small weavings. Guess I’ll be heading back to Flying Fibers for more!!!

In addition to my fiber work I’ve been sketching, making marks with charcoal from my fireplace, and drawing my hands. All posts for another day. In the mean time my painting is calling!

Fiber Keeps me Sane

October 28th, 2018

This week the world has gone to the dark side or so it seems. So much hate and violence, fanned by those who should unify and comfort and put a stop to this. I can’t paint at a time like this with angry/sad thoughts racing through my mind. But the slowness of stitching, its zen like calming, focus on the task at hand—that’s where I burrow in and find some sanity.

This project has been in the works for a long time—first as the long green warp woven with Theo Moorman’s Technique. Much of it involved squares. Now it’s cut apart and I’m embellishing the squares to bring out their personalities—woven portraits of time and space.

It doesn’t fix the world but it allows me to gather the strength to live in it.

Image of Embelished Squares
Here’s a selection waiting to be finished and framed.
Some might still be worked on – they let me know.