Prepping for October

I am a regular user of Weavolution and the annual HalloWeave challenges are getting set to start at the beginning of October. As I don't have school, or regular work, I am feeling all ready to jump into the deep end. Per normal, right?

I have joined one group which is all about daily weaving- doing something & being accountable. I have high hopes for this one as I have a decently long list of projects which have been languishing.

And then what did I do? Yep- I decided to create another group. This one is about three-dimensional sculpture. I just posted it, so I am now all a-twitter thinking about what I might want to make for this group. Here is a link to the page of the group I just created, Mad Scientists.

In actual work, I have pulled out my rigid heddle loom to make some placemats. There is a bit of rusty orange rug warp on it from a project I didn't like. I will continue to use that and just add more of it, plus black. I am going to do rep weave and the weft will be black, as I just don't think I can get the sett of the warp close enough for lighter colored to work well. I should have some progress to report on that front soon!

Apparently I am in acquisition mode. I can blame the season right?

I knew I would be getting at least a bit of tapestry stuff from a guildie today, but I wasn't expecting to want all her books and video and little sampling loom.

PLUS other guildies brought boxes and bagsof yarns they needed rid of. I ended up bringing home a "bit" of that too. All wool, some commercial, but I am pretty sure that pink is a handspun.

Time to make things I guess.

New toy. Because. Oh, and a bit of yarn, but that doesn't seem to need as much justification as the sock loom. :)

My annual post, apparently: August 2014.

Not much new in the fibery world I live in. Last year was my final year at Evergreen and I got into a fantastic program studying Ireland, culminating with a 2 month stay in Ireland. I am not sure that I have quite digested all of that yet. I did buy a few fibery things: woven blanket, knit sweater, a bunch of Brigid's Crosses, some cones of yarn ends and some knitting stuff. I learned to knit a bit more. And then I got back and had to face the real world, with demands of husband and family and just time to stop and think. So I reorganized my work space!
This is the current iteration:

- The triangle loom is finally approaching finished- less than 50 pegs left to go. And I have a plan for getting it finished in the next week. Amazing. I will miss that massive loom when I return it. But at least I will be able to get to all the stuff I have stashed behind it. And then I can start on the massive list of my to-do.
- I still have my little 4 shaft Bergman CM upstairs, and it still has the blue/black overshot to be finished to recover a stool.
- My 8-shaft Harrisville jack loom still has the sampling from the conference in Bellingham last year, as does the rigid heddle loom.
- My mother in law in Montana. gave me a small 2-shaft table loom, a bit stouter and bigger than a Brio. It needs a bit of work, as it was in a dirt basement. I also got a small tapestry loom. I need to make a floor stand for it, but as soon as the triangle loom comes down, it is getting warped and used!
- The quilting stuff will soon have it's own storage and access. I have all the parts to the knitting machine. I have space to see all my stuff. The big storage wall is expandable, as it is an IKEA Stolmen system, so I could add to it if that seems necessary.
- I have a list, I have some goals, I am weaving some most days, and I may actually start using all the machinery and fibers I have accumulated. But even if I have to postpone due to other events in my life, it is well organized and not scattered about all over the place.
- When the guild starts up again, I plan on starting basketry.

ANWG Conference 2013

I am in Bellingham, WA on Western Washington University campus at the 2013 NW Weavers Conference. I am tired! But it is fun. I have met some great people sharing what they know with in the weaving world, and already learned quite a bit from my first class.
In this class with Kay Faulkner, we are learning sotis, the West Timor name of a warp faced weave structure she found on textiles from southeast Asia. It has a nice pebbled surface, like the more familiar Andean pebble weave. In order to translate this traditionally backstrap woven structure to a multi-shaft loom, it requires is a fairly complex warping sequence, as well and doubled and trebled threads in the heddles. As it is warp faced, it is also quite yarn intensive. I am weaving at 96 epi!
Actually, I am not weaving yet- that starts today. So I have no pictures to share. But I do have a picture of the view from the cafeteria here on this lovely campus.

The vendor and guild booths and juried shows open today, so I will have LOTS of pictures in the next post. Including a bit of what I have been doing. And I am here until Sunday.

Some tools

I have less than twelve hours to complete my papers and portfolio for the end of this school year, so I thought I would distract myself and post pictures here!
There are some tools I made during spring quarter, things to help me in weaving.

First is a nice long wooded hook, useful for triangle loom weaving.
Second is an extra long, double ended sleying hook / reed hook made of brass.
Third is a set of wheels (rollerskates!) for my Harrisville floor loom.

Now, I must get back to editing the final papers. And self evaluation. Gah.

   In keeping with my tradition of forgetting to post things, I have forgotten to post pictures from Winter Quarter. I may remember to post pictures of completed work at some point, but we are halfway through Spring Quarter now! 

   I am not in any assigned studio practice this quarter. Instead, I am working on two internships. The primary internship has me working in the Archives at Evergreen, which is fascinating, to say the least! I am processing and sorting the papers of an anthropologist who taught here, and is still working in the area. I am also working with the Olympia Weavers Guild doing photo documentation variety of archival work, so it is related. Explaining it all sounds exhausting, so I will leave it at that. But I am earning a full load in just this archival practices internship. 

   I also have a number of projects in the works personally, and I have made it into both the metals studio and ceramics studio, plus pulling together some tools in the wood shop. I ought to pull together all the practical things I have made this quarter for a photo shoot too.

   By the way, the number of books for the quarter: 22. That sounds exhausting too. So to avoid both exhausting issues, which I brought up, here are some pretty pictures from the beach. (It was over 80 degrees out this weekend, so we ran away.)

Winter quarter 2013, metal smithing

At school, the Winter quarter of 2013, my program has me in the fine metals studio, as I was a couple years ago. I am learning new things, and building on skills with every day I work in here. Fine metals is much more interesting and appealling to me than I believed it would be.

During this middle portion of the quarter I am focused on learning the fundamentals of Smithing. Basically, that is hammering metal into a shape. Think Paul Revere, the silversmith. But silver is ridiculously expensive, so we use copper. I have done some minor hammer shaping in the past, but this time she has us starting a bit deeper into the process.

-

First: take a sheet of copper. In our instance, it is 12 gauge, or about 3/8 inch thick.

But to get to that nice circle, you have to cut it out of a larger sheet. With a teensy-tiny jeweler's blade. (I know, there must be something easier. But we are learning all the steps. Charming, no?)

Then you make the metal nice and soft, by heating it up.

Then you hit it with a hammer. A lot. Over and over.

Then you heat again. And hit some more. And repeat. After a few rounds of this, that nice flat sheet looks like this.

Eventually, the nice sheet of metal will grow up into a bowl like my classmate's here. And my arm will fall off. But it is fun, I promise!

I hope to have a finished smithed object to share sometime within the month. LOL

Scarf for my grandmother

Just a quick snap of a scarf I pulled together at the last minute yesterday so that I could gift my grandmother on her 90th birthday. Because obviously, I didn't have enough time to prepare ahead of time. But who needs sleep!

The warp is a very soft wool/silk. I got it in a brown-bag swap, so I am not sure of the actual type, but I would bet on it being a Jagggerspun. It was 12 wpi, and I set it at 12 epi. The weft is a curious yarn I found at Yarnia in Portland, OR. It is a ply of one strand cotton and three strands of rayon, resulting in a very loose, and shiny fiber. There was a tag inside from Brentwood Yarns, which I have found no information on. Oh well. It wove in like a thick and thin, resulting in some nice variation in this undulating twill.

I am sorry I didn't get more photos, but weaving a scarf all in one day, and staying up that late... Well, photography was not a priority! Lovely drape though.

This was the first time I did any weaving on my new-to-me Harrsiville loom. Delightful! She is an excellent little beastie. It will take me a few more warps to learn her likes and dislikes, and get familiar with the friction brake. I need to make a few things as well: a tray for the top to keep tools, some easy on/off wheels for when we go to classes. That sort of thing. But a wonderful first. 

I seem to wander off for longer and longer periods. Oh well. I am still around, still making things. Just not documenting very well. I will have to post some photos from my Fall quarter when I was focused in the Ceramics studio. But for now, this is a picture of my first finished project for Winter quarter, where the focus is in the Fine Metals studio.

Amulet box, brass, agate.

Tablet Weaving loom

I made a loom today :)
I have been planning on making a loom I can use specifically for tablet weaving (aka card weaving), but hadn't gotten around to it. But when I suddenly had a free hour this morning, I ran over to Hardel's Lumber and bought my stuff!

It took about an hour to put together, and its pretty simple. And pretty! The red is the natural color of this wood, padouk.
To make it, I had the shop cut me a piece three feet long, then had them take off four pieces from one end: two @ 1.5 inches wide and two @ 2 inches wide. The 2 inch wide pieces became the uprights the warp is stretched across. They are attached with screws to the base. The 1.5 inch wide pieces are laying flat at the ends, with the wingnuts and bolts, and are the tensioning devices.
I am sure I will discover some "should-haves" as I work on it, but the simplicity should work in my favor.
The work that is on right now is a piece I started in a class with Linda Hendrickson. It is destined to become a leash for my pug dog named Zaboo.
Here is a close up of the end so you can see the gorgeous color of the wood!

Total cost: $27, of which about half was the cost for the wood. A piece of nice strong maple or oak would have been less spendy. But pretty!

And just because I took some pictures!

Here is my loom set up and working, with a pug in the background, of course.

And here is a bit of the overshot weaving I am working on. 

I forgot to post one of favorite things I made last year in my metals/printmaking program.  It is technically a bead, but it is large than the palm of my hand. 

This is a piece inspired by a spindle whorl and inspired by images and ideas associated with weaving from many cultures. The top is a stylized spider and the bottom is the plate I used to make the owl print in the last post. You can almost see the engraved owl in this bottom picture. The center post is not attached to the bead sides, allowing it to spin in my hands as I contemplate things.

So.
Apparently I am neglecting this blog. So be it.
I will try to post a picture from time to time. If you have a question, feel free to email. :)

Mid quarter production check in for my Visual Studies program during Spring Quarter of 2012. Samples and trial weaving and unfinished pieces.

What has been happening? School.

And I moved. 

But mostly school. And weaving. I have been combining the two as well, getting credits in school for independent studies in weaving. I love that I get to study things I am actually interested in and get credit for it. What an idea!

Here are some pictures from my Fall/Winter 2010 printmaking & metals program:

 

intaglio print of an owl

Brass sleying hooks. The assignment was to make an art tool, so I played with the idea of "tool to make art" vs "tool as art".

Reduction woodcut of meadowlark

During Spring quarter of 2011, I was able to pursue independent studies in weaving. Specifically, I studied backstrap weaving, rigid heddle weaving, and tablet weaving. And I did a huge amount of work studying the history of weaving, especially what we know about its origins.

from my rigid heddle loom

a tablet woven band

During the Fall & Winter quarters of 2011, I took a program called Equatorial Studies, which focused on our ideas about the equatorial regions- peoples, creatures, energy issues, cultures and all sorts of interesting things. I was able to continue my weaving studies a bit during this time too, looking at cultural practices and techniques from a couple places in the tropics. I didn't do any production.

BUT- this spring quarter or 2012, I am working in an SOS (Student Originated Studies) Program in Visual Arts and I am focusing again on weaving, especially Overshot. I will have some completed projects to share. Some day. 

And that is my whole past couple years, minus the grueling moving and painting stories. (Just a hint of the grueling: Hand painting an entire house with rollers takes FOREVER!)

Bye!

School days :)

OK- so going back to school... FUN!
(But first let's start with a gratuitous puppy picture of my doggies snoozing on the passenger seat of my car.)
Really, this is great. At this age, I am not partying, not dating and not hooking up. I have a regular sleep schedule, a lovely bed, I eat real food regularly and enjoy all sorts of other things younger college students don't. It makes the work load so much easier! Easier might have something to do with the intense project load I kept up with in work too... but I am having fun. (Except for the random moaning and whinging about expository essays. Essays at 35 years old! Give me something to analyze or a design presentation any day. Ok, enough whining.)
My program is called Arts and Religious Practice. (Evergreen doesn't do many individual classes. We take one program all quarter and get credits in multiple disciplines.) The Arts bit is in both Printmaking and Fine Metals studios with two very organized and focused instructors.
Printmaking So far we have focused on relief printmaking from woodcuts and intaglio from copper engraving. Here is a picture of one of my burins (engraving tool) plus some scrap copper for practicing. The close up of the practice piece and tip of the burin shows you how much more practice I need! These things make itsy teensy little scratches, but they all show up in the printing. The bottom picture is a print of a sample plate about the same size as this plate. Circles are hard! (I may just be stealing hubby's magnifier Ott-lite for that, but don't tell him.) We are just getting to the hard line etching now and aquatint is soon. Somehow, we are already past mid-term! Lots of bits & pieces in the portfolio for that one.
Metals The fine metals studio is non-ferrous stuff, nothing with iron, no steel. We work with mostly copper and brass and silver solder and fun stuff like that. I don't have any pictures of my samples in there yet, but soon. My current project is a copper spindle whorl- I have high hopes for it turning out nice & shiny. And usable.
So I guess since I am making things I will have to start taking pictures of them for here, now that I am past the simple, sampled not very attractive stuff, that is. Maybe I will post a picture of my first project from metals, a nameplate. Or not. This program is lots of work, lots of fun!
There is not much quilt-y or weaver-y. But I have a plan for that too. Maybe I will post pictures of that too. (Hey- Anything can happen! I posted in less than 2 months this time!)

Oops- I seem to have wandered off

Well... so much for good intentions about posting more often. (Now I must wonder how long the next break will be!) And seriously, I have no good reason. Except that I haven't been doing anything. At least not stitch-y anythings.
I have been doing a few things in a half-assed fashion. Like I started learning to spin, but realized I wasn't going to spend the time required to practice. Not right now. I will come back to that.
And since I have nothing pretty to share, how about a quick recounting of my life, because if I don't have a good excuse, I can at least make an attempt at a whine, no?

In the past month or so:
I moved my real estate license to a new firm. I am now at Abbey Realty, a locally owned company. It is a big change not to be part of RE/MAX after 8 years. But really, I have been progressing on a different track for my business anyway. And it gets me the best of both worlds, as they say. So big change #1!

#2 change is Zaboo. I found this sweet year old pug boy in a parking lot 2 weeks ago. But nobody has claimed him, after much posting and searching for his family myself. So I have a second pug! He is sweet and loving. But he is unaltered and has a few habits we are addressing. As you can imagine, Lilly thinks he is uncouth. Perhaps that will change after a certain surgery next week. But he gets on just fine with Bandit cat. Also, he is very nervous of large dogs, is very submissive and doesn't seem to understand doggy language/politeness real well, so we are working on the social bit.

And the Biggest Bit of Chaos: I am going to school! It all started back in March or April when I decided I really did want to go to school and needed to figure out how. I have been looking into it for a while. So I was able to decide that Evergreen State College is a good place, and I went in and was told, "Great! You have a week to get your application in." Panic! But I did it, and I muddled through the paperwork and had to write a "personal essay". And I got in. And I got financial awards to pay for it. And I am taking 16 credit hours!
Evergreen has this fantastic system, where we don't take individual classes, but one Program where we get credits in multiple disciplines. My program is called Arts & Religious Practice. We are looking at the objects and practices of medieval European Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And we make art. Fine metal work and wood cutting for intaglio printmaking to be precise. So that may be the pictures I have for posting in the near future. I am incredibly excited about it. Also nervous, fluttery, wide eyed, twitchy. But excited! And classes start in about 24 hours.
Not really sure how work will happen, but I will fit it in somehow.

Anyway, that is the main update. Other things since my last post:
Camping with my sister's kids and lots of family. Ocean with my aunt and her two grandkids. Fairgrounds weaving display showing kids the how-to. Lots of video game time. Some lawn mowing. Some walks with dogs. Work.
But no fiber work, no sewing.
Perhaps this was a transitional year.

First off!

First it was on....

And I have my first off-the-loom!
Just abit more work to do, cleanup of a couple spots on the selvage where the last thread wasn't picked up and then the fringe. And washing of course. But I get to have show & tell at guild this month!

How many looms does a new weaver need?

I think that is a question probably asked of all weavers...
But it is a useless question! Because the people who might know the answer don't care to answer it.
Instead, I shall simply show off my emerging studio. Yay for extra buildings.

(Yes, I do admit some good old fashioned rich-white-american guilt about using a whole building for weaving when I am such a rank beginner. But it goes away pretty quickly.)

First off, let me introduce you to the newest acquisition This is probably the last loom for me for a loooong time. (No more space see?) This charming piece of modern engineering is a Bergman Countermarche. Bergman is a well known and respected builder from the Pacific Northwest and I was basically gifted this loom. With tools!

And the under side of the Bergman.
It has 6 treadles, 4 shafts, string heddles and enclosed castle storage. And I am really curious to see how long ago this loom was dressed! There is old newsprint between the warp. (I will do a whole post on the discovery process.)

Here is a loom I am learning on. It is not owned by me. It is owned by my Guild. Lovely little 8 shaft Mountain Loom.

I have some 5/2 cotton dressed on 4 shafts here, and I am going to do a nice 2/2 twill for a lightweight scarf. The warp is a nice dark nubby green and that teal is mercerized so will shimmer a bit as is comes together.

I am making the scarf for a beginner weaver series my guildmates at the Olympia Weavers Guild have created just for us newbies! My guild is amazing... that is yet another post.

The tool case: aka old unused audio/video shelves. Perfect for showing off how often I dust. And a nice selection of tools, shuttles, bungee cords and the other accoutrment of weavers.

Please note the cheerful orange of the drill/electric bobbin winder.

I also now have 4 kinds of clamps to use for various things. Tools stores are fun!

Also note the lack of dryway...

I have such hopes to have the rest of the insulation and drywall in this room this spring. Because it is blasted COLD in the winter. Patience.

And that brings us to the wall o' fiber!

Thanks to a great many generous weavers and garage sales, I am totally stocked!

It is a good choice to take photos of your stash, as it makes it clear what your color preferences are. I can't wait to see how that changes as I start making things from a plan!

I did not introduce the Rigid Heddle Loom or the frame loom or the warping board, but they live in there too. I expect great things from them all!

Can't live without

I just need to tell everyone about these totally geeky half gloves. I think they are made for knitters.
I use them for everything!
I have arthritis in my hands and arms from various things like waitressing and keyboarding. And sometimes, especially if the barometer changes dramatically I get all achey and doing small motor skills things hurts.
But since I got these little nylon gloves, no more pain! (And I have been playing lots & lots of video games so I have definitely stress-tested them.)
Thanks, just had to share.
PS- Yes, they are turned inside out. I think it is counter productive to have the extra pressure of seams on my wrists.

I wandered away a bit...

oops.
It has been FOUR MONTHS since I posted!?!?
oops
I really haven't been doing much though... just workworkwork. I haven't even finished those baby quilts.
BUT
I am heading off for a weekend of sewing next weekend. And I just started the Weaving Basics course through my guild. Today was discussing loom types etc. We got a warp off the board and lots of time to discuss all 7 ways 5 different weavers do things lol
I swear I have been doing something creative in the past few monts...
I took a class about beading on fabric with Larkin Van Horn. Also, I am taking over the website for the quilt guild and helping with our auction. (Mark Lipinsky is going to be our auctioneer! He is also doing a seminar and a two day class. But I bet the auction is hilarious!)
I have been to the ocean twice.
My mom came to visit me over my birthday & Thanksgiving. Wish she lived closer :(
Not exactly creative... but engrossing: online gaming. Dungeons & Dragons online to be precise :)
But that's it.
Pretty pathetic. Oh well.
I will try to get at least one post a month up here. Promise! (with pictures)
(oops)