Where’s Bonnie?

Lost among the flowers, but soon to find my way out!

Upcoming Show Promo Image Quandary

As I prepare for a couple of shows in April, I am working on some promotional images. The first show is a group show at Hangin Art Gallery and Cafe and opens on April 4. I will have 4 pieces–scarves/shawls and am trying out 1 image to show off all 4. So Here they are:

1. Two hands and looking down

2. One hand and looking down

3. No hands and looking away

4. No hands and looking in the other direction.

The scarves are woven of cotton (center), tencel (to the right), and cashmere (to the left). Chenille scarf is not pictured. I will send images once they are displayed.

Three Shawls, One Color Horoscope Weaving Draft

I recently had the pleasure of visiting 3 Color Horoscope Weavings that live in Arizona. The first is a Color Horoscope Weaving is from 80’s

It was a 60” square that Carol, the owner, folded diagonally and wore as a triangular shawl until it got retired to live as a wall piece. I had forgotten that I had to add those edges to make it come out square. And I love that Carol painted the wall just to match the weaving.

Then in the late 90’s, Carol commissioned a replacement 60″ square shawl, this time in 30/2 silk (sett 30 epi) from Treenway Silks.

I used the same horoscope draft, but this time I repeat the horoscope 3 times and added Turned Weft Ikat bands to increase the width to 60″. This was woven in 5 panels and invisibly joined.

I am sure you will be able to see the join in this detail.

And then in 2011, Carol asked for yet another horoscope shawl. This time she requested bamboo, plus she wanted her horoscope in a neutral palette.

This was really fun AND challenging! I rounded up the most neutral colors I had in Bambu 12 from Cotton Clouds  and put them in a pleasing sequence—with the most “flow”. I also added an “Almost Ikat” striped border for each of the planets. I doubled the warp ends and sett at 24 epi.

It is hard to believe I used the same winding draft for all 3 weavings!

I was so inspired that I must now weave my own horoscope in neutral bamboo! And I suspect a neutral bamboo kit is on the way. Stay tuned!

Saori Weaving Down Memory Lane

2015 is the year I have taken on the ZYG challenge (Zero Yarn Growth). First I weave something from my stash, and then I buy some new yarn for my next project, then use yarn from my stash….etc. You get the picture. I recently saw an inspiring picture on the FB Saori Weaving page, a mouth-watering silk weft/cotton warp poncho. I had a just enough cotton warp left on my Saori loom to weave a scarf. It had never occurred  to me to weave with silk on the Saori loom. In fact, I hadn’t woven with silk in this century!

Into the deepest reaches of my closet I delved, and out came the silk stash. At the bottom of the basket, I discovered a bag of silk bits, slightly longer than thrums, but an extra warp end here and a leftover ping-pong ball size snippet there. Some of this yarn  dates back to the mid seventies!   Most of it is custom ikat-dyed by at least a dozen different dyers, Cheryl Kolander of Aurora Silks  and Michele Wipplinger of Earthues to name a few.

A Look at Woven Paper Collage

Way back in the 20th century when I was living in Seattle and at the height of my teaching “career”, I was searching for a hands-on activity  for weavers that could be accomplished in 3 hours.(the smallest block of time used by most weaving conferences). I wanted something that would also appeal to spinners, knitters, basket-makers, anyone really. I came up with a workshop I called “Finding the Color Within”.

Since my focus is color, I wanted to create a workshop that would strengthen creativity and to free up color experimentation. Here are some examples of those first woven collages.

I taught a bunch of workshops– even one at Convergence in Vancouver.
After I moved back to Montana, I taught, what I now call Woven Paper Collage, at Living Art and several other places around Missoula.

Over the years, what began as a color exercise continues to evolve. Stay tuned for the next chapter….

Another New Weaver on the Saori Loom

Just a short little post to show off a beautiful new weaving by a beautiful new weaver, Ruth.

Ruth tied together some of my thrums to create the weft for her first (and hopefully not the last) weaving.