Slides to Digital

In addition to moving, I am also getting ready to fly up to the Handweavers, Spinners & Dyers of Alberta Conference , May 9-11. I am giving the keynote address at the banquet: Traveler By Loom. I have to take a little time off from sorting to arrange the images for my talk in addition to putting the supplies together for my workshop: Wrapped Silk Brooch. Although I will have this talk be a slide presentation (I keep saying this will be my last slide-show), I am slowing testing the waters having my slides converted to digital. Boy, they look great! Below is a very early wrapped brooch (late 80's). I can tell because I used to paint gold each individual matte board shape.

I just discovered something interesting. Since I no longer make brooches for sale, I removed the Jewelry Gallery from my website. When I went to the HSDA website to see what they had to say about me, I found this link .
I don't really understand why or how it is possible to see this, but it makes me wonder about anything and everything ever put on the internet---kind of like plastic bags---they never really disappear.


Kaz had some truly delightful purses on her blog. It made me think of these little bags I made back in the mid-90's. I called them my low tech purses (draw-string) as opposed to the high tech purse (zipper)

Now I am just procrastinating as you can tell. Back to sorting and packing!

Next Steps

These pictures are all slightly out of focus, but then so am I.
For all of you who think my studio is so tidy, check out this closet. It really was much worse than this, but I have already hauled out stuff. A weaving friend came by yesterday and purchased ALL the remaining yarn I had for sale!

Yesterday I tackled the kitchen cupboards and the pantry. This is all the stuff I no longer need or want. I am about to post on freecycle.org, a new experience for me. Some of the more interesting stuff I will save for the yard sale. As soon as I complete emptying the storage unit, I will have room to store more stuff.

And Grace waits patiently for a little attention. (really out of focus)

And then to top it all off, I just received a package containing 10 cashmere sweaters! I am delighted---especially with the precious purple.


I plan to post other things besides sorting and packing, but if you see anything you can't live without, let me know. (grin)

Change is in the Air

Here is the extraneous sheets and blankets from the linen closet.

And here is the closet now. The pink basket on the left is my dirty laundry (full disclosure)
TMI!

Well, Valerie you asked. I'M MOVING

I must have read Sandra's blog too closely. And where are my weaving studio clones when I really need them? I have lived in this condo for 18 years and have gotten just a little too comfortable. I have spoken at length about dematerialization, so now I have a chance to put my words into action.

Where am I moving to, you might ask? I don't know is the current answer. I have a 5 year plan to find the place where I will live out my days. Moving now will give me the opportunity to get rid of a lot of "stuff", so it will be easier to make the "real" move. Once the energy gets stirred up, the next step will be revealed, at least that's what I am counting on. I plan to stay in the neighborhood for now, so I will continue to shop in the same stores and have the same phone number etc.

Now I am off to tackle the storage unit in the garage. It is packed to the gills with empty boxes and all the stuff that didn't sell at last year's yard sale. I am going to haul it off today and donate it (since I will have lots of new yard sale items)

I plan to weave a little everyday to keep me sane.

At the Plaid Llama

I did well at the sale this year. There's nothing quite like clearing the decks. Once I get started...
Change is in the air...

I came home with many less boxes, and today I got a call from a woman who is coming Sunday to pick up the remaining 50 lbs of cotton yarn.

This evening I tackled the linen closet. How many sets of sheets does a person need?

Plaid Llama Sale

Every year or so, the Seattle Weavers Guild hosts a Plaid Llama Sale (something like a White Elephant Sale). Here is my extra yarn, or at least the yarn I am clearing out.


And finishing up a bamboo horoscope weaving.


CHANGE IS IN THE AIR!
Stay tuned for a report

INSPIRED BY BONNIE

My Horoscope Shawl always draws admirers. It is fascinating to see how my birth date (1/20/47) is transformed into a beautiful range of colors. I wear this "unique" shawl more than any other accessory in my wardrobe, because it goes with everything. Bonnie's Color Horoscope Warp workshop introduced me to two new concepts: winding three ends (in one pass) on the warping board ......and using 12 colors in one weaving (some colors I have never used before).

I took my first weaving lesson from Bonnie in 1972, and she has been inspiring me ever since. Irene Monroe

Hi Bonnie. You may remember that I was interested in applying your ikat technique to a rep rug. I finally managed to do it!

Here are a couple of pictures my Turned Weft Fake Ikat . I used spaced dyed yarn for the block patterns in the warp, and set up the weft as you taught us.

Great fun!

Linda LaMay

Thank You Curious Weaver!

I had such an OMG experience on Saturday I wanted to wow you with fantastic pictures, but alas these pictures do not begin to do justice to these magnificent aprons. I knew I couldn't wait until I got the perfect pictures, so here goes.

Perhaps I will be able to do justice in words. Here's the amazing story:

On Feb. 11th, Kaz of Curious Weaver posted some lovely aprons that she had made. I wrote to her and asked if I sent some cotton fabric (enough for her to make an apron for each of us) would she make a couple for me?
I had a bunch of Guatemalan ikat
And some fabulous Indian double ikat.

I shipped it off to Australia enough fabric to make 4 aprons. Lo and behold, these unbelievable aprons arrive in the mail! I asked Kaz if it was OK for me to show off her aprons. She didn't hesitate to say yes although I warned her, she will probably start receiving apron fabric from all over the world. But then I thought that wouldn't be so bad.

I am pretty certain Kaz has posted the pattern somewhere, or has the pattern for sale if you don't happen to be a "virtual seamstress" like me. By the way, I just noticed that Kaz has a new Etsy Store. Check it out!

A Virtual Quilter Tells All

My recent absence has been due to preparing a new lecture. I went through ALL of my images (slide, print, and digital) and pulled out everything with a quilty look or feel to it. The slides won, so I had my digitals converted to slides. After this, though, I am definitely going the other way.
Here are all of my show and tell set out and ready to go. My presentation was to the Contemporary Quilt Art Association, so I wanted to get as close to that "place" where weaving and quilt making meet. I was surprised to discover that I hang out in that "place" quite a bit. The talk was amazing and went over very well, if I do say so myself. My intention was to entertain, inspire and motivate, and I was assured I achieved my goals. A VIRTUAL QUILTER TELLS ALL has now been added to my repertoire. Now I will have to create a workshop to go along with the talk.

Here is what is on Grace, the loom.

Here is what is sitting on my table. The balls of yarn are recycled cashmere. The book I just bought today, The Meaning of Trees by Fred Hageneder---botany, history, healing lore, had been calling out to me from the window of Rainbow Remedies. The red weaving is the bamboo/cashmere piece I just cut off the loom, and the ikat is from my last towel warp. A towel from the same warp has made it over to Stef's blog as part of the towel exchange

Suddenly life is very busy. I will make every attempt to keep up both in the blog and out there in real life. Among other things, I am beginning the run up to a Wrapped Silk Jewelry Workshop and a Keynote Address, Traveler By Loom. I will put links to these things as I go along. Now to inventory my jewelry supplies.

In the Studio

Color Horoscope Weaving in Bambu 12 with a Woven Word weft stripe "JOY"


Woven Words in Bambu 12 with red recycled cashmere weft.

I don't know if I have ever talked much about Woven Words. Maybe it requires no explanation. Briefly, a color and number of warp ends (or picks) is assigned to each letter of the alphabet. The scarf above is the first in a series of healing scarves using words that sustain 4 friends of mine who are long term cancer survivors. The words in this scarf (from right to left) are LOVE, HUMOR, NATURE.

The Embodyment of Weaving Spirit

If you are looking to purchase a rug woven with tradition, magic and mastery, here is the place!

I accidentally erased this picture before, but I really like it.(both the picture itself and the fact one can see weaving signs posted along the road.

In the last post, I showed your Irvin's loom. This is Lisa's loom. It is set up in the main showroom.
In addition to rugs and hangings, they had a room full of these great coats. Looking back on it, I don't know why I didn't try one on. Next time, for sure.

I was so overwhelmed by the main showroom and my conversation with Irvin that I didn't get a really good shot of the space. There were piles of rugs everywhere, and the walls were covered with rugs ranging from traditional to contemporary designs all of which were filled with spirit.

Virtually---In The Studio

The most exciting thing happened today! Take a look here
All I will say is,"It is virtually as good as visiting my studio."
Oh, I just can't keep a secret. It is a 360 degree image of me x 3 hard at work.

EDIT: In case you want to know more about this amazing picture click here.

I cut this piece off the loom exactly 4 hours before the shuttle arrived to take me to the airport. As you may recall, this is bambu 7, sett 20 epi (with bambu 12 doubled for the weft). I washed it in the machine but decided to press it dry rather than dry it in the dryer. I wanted to minimize the shrinkage and to give the cloth an extra sheen. Bamboo yarn isn't as silky as tencel, but it isn't as wrinkly either.
Do you like the picture turned this way better?

Centinela Traditional Arts

For decades people have asked me, "Have you ever been to Santa Fe? There is lots of weaving there."

The only reason I can give for not having gone to Santa Fe before now is that I just wasn't ready.

Oops, I accidentally erased the first picture of the sign post for Centinela Traditional Arts, but I will put it in the next post since I have more pictures to show. Do check out their wonderful website though!

As we drove along the road (see tumbleweed), we passed a few other weaving places. My friends commented that we could stop there on our way back because they wanted to take me to the best one first.

When I walked into the building, I turned to the right into the weaving room rather than into the showroom. There were 4 looms. Pretty amazing! But the loom in the picture below was the biggest loom I had ever seen.
I backed away as far as I could, but I still couldn't get the whole thing into the picture. I believe it has a 12 ft. weaving width. When I finally tore myself away from the loom room, I passed through this entry space on the way to the main showroom.

This is merely a section of about 14 ft of ribbons, newspaper clippings, and historical information. I didn't take nearly enough pictures, but I had a lovely chat with Irvin Trujillo, the owner and main weaver. I believe he recognized me as a real weaver. At one point in our conversation, I proudly announced I had been weaving for 48 years. In his quiet and humble manner, he replied that he had only been weaving for 42 years and that he had started weaving when he was 11 years old. After I returned to Seattle and checked out his website, I discovered he was a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow 2007

If this doesn't make you chuckle, it certainly gave me a good laugh. It was like sitting next to a famous person on an airplane and talking with them the whole ride and finding out afterwards you had been chatting up the Queen of England.

The difference between New York City and Santa Fe: In New York when I told people I had been weaving for 48 years, they said "Do people still DO that?"

I am already planning my next trip to Santa Fe.

To be continued: