The Queen of Color Gamps

For those of you who have dabbled in Color Horoscope Weaving, take a look at this! Coby Johnson, the current president of the Missoula Weavers Guild, is truly the Queen of Gamps

I usually post other people's work in Inspired by Bonnie, but this was just too good.


Here is what Coby had to say about her weaving:

When Bonnie offered a second horoscope shawl workshop to the Missoula Weavers Guild, my first grandchild, Graham Arthur Johnson, had just been born. I asked Bonnie to create his horoscope instead of my own. I have a lovely horoscope shawl of my own done in cottons about 7-8 years ago and really thought it would be fun to create one for Graham in the beautiful colors of Bambu 7. Since I'm basically a structure weaver who likes to play with color, I threaded my 12 shaft Woolhouse loom to an 8 shaft twill repeat that could be used for a variety of structures. After first trying a straight twill block mixed with a basket weave block -- which didn't work at all -- I wove a block twill with a 3-1 twill block alternating with a 1-3 twill block. (See draft).

While working on this at home I got so excited with my early results, I had trouble keeping my seat. I kept repeating, "Gotta show this to Bonnie." When the guild study group arrived at my house for a session, I even unwound the finished section of cloth to show them. And did the same the next night when my knitting group arrived. I used the same 12 colors of Bambu in approximately 3 inch stripes in the weft beginning with red and continuing around the color wheel. I managed 2 1/2 times around the wheel. I intentionally changed colors within a block repeat so the adjacent colors blended more. The finished results may well be my favorite piece in 30+ years of weaving.

Thank you, Bonnie, for providing the inspiration for a fabulous piece of weaving that I will be examining for years as inspiration for other projects. It is the greatest of color gamps and still a beautiful shawl, which will make me think of my handsome little man every time I look at it. I plan to redo it in cotton at twice the width with the horoscope mirrored as a baby towel for Graham.

Coby Johnson

As soon as I can figure out how to copy the draft, it will be available on the Inspired by Bonnie blog.

The Weaving Happens

HERE ARE SHARMILA'S WORDS
A couple of years ago while talking to a group of design students at their orientation I remember saying " Its time to adopt an artisans family" be it a potter, a weaver, a sculptor or even a farmer to support thier activity to suppoort our lives.

That day that moment I did not realise how strongly I felt what I said. What unfolded magically in these two years is what you see here.

All the Puzzle pieces, Ms Bonnie, The weaver and I fell in place.
I met this wonderful weaver family Goverdhan and Sujatha, who are weaving the traditional silk Ikat for many many years. They have learnt to weave just by being around from their parents and grandparents.

Goverdhan and Sujatha have two amazing little boys who are growing up in the middle of all weaving activity. Though their passion is to weave, it doesnt support their family economically. Weaving has become one of the many things they do for sustainability.

Goverdhan and his family were very apprehensive in the beginning about what is going to become of this association. But the originality and the uniqueness of the horoscope weaving, the people associated with it and the plan made them see what its going to be.

I am glad they are now a part of our family.

The joy of weaving has returned with work and experiencing fair deal in trade.

The threads of His Holiness Dalai Llama horoscope weaving has wrapped us all from Ms Bonnie in Montana to us in Hyderabad and Goverdhan in Puttapaka ( a small weaving village).

I am as curious as a child now than ever to see what happens when each new warp is wound and each new weft is inserted.

Over to You Ms Bonnie.......... :)




And would you believe it, this weaving arrived at my door on my birthday! Sharmila tells me that the reason the colors look so different is because the weft is different from picture above.


I have to get a better picture of the ikat, but I wanted to put up the post today. When I look at the ikat, it makes be realize that my ikat (which I have called: EASY IKAT, TURNED WEFT IKAT, ALMOST IKAT) should really be called "ga ga goo goo" ikat---baby talk.

When in Doubt, Start in the Middle and Work Out in Both Directions

Some stories are just so good it is hard to know where to begin. To begin at the beginning---well that is 3 years ago. So let be begin in the almost present with Sharmila, co-founder of WEAVING TOGETHER.

Sharmila brings Color Horoscope Weaving to her hometown in South Central India.

She carefully selects a weaver in one of the many weaving villages and explains how she requires 12 rainbow colors in fine silk to be set up in a color horoscope draft.


I think that Sharmila can tell this part story much better than I can, so I will just show you the pictures and hope that she will comment on this post. I can tell you that Sharmila is wearing a Mexican ikat rabozo that I gave her before she left the US. I am told the weavers of India were not particularly impressed with the ikat, but they went crazy for the long complex fringe that they had never seen before.

The silk was so fine....
The sett is 100 epi (with the warp ends quadrupled!)


When Sharmila and I talked about cloth woven in India, I said that if I could look at a piece of cloth and say "I could weave that", then I am not interested. I want to look at cloth and say, I could NEVER weave THAT!"

COLOR HOROSCOPE WEAVING CLASS AT JOHN C CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

For anyone who has wanted to be a part of a week long hands-on workshop with me, here is a golden opportunity!

Join me the first week in May at the fabulous John C Campbell Folk School in the mountains of Western North Carolina, to learn the whole process---from creating a personal horoscope draft to weaving a finished cloth. I will also touch upon Turned Weft Ikat, Almost Ikat, and Woven Words as they apply to designing textiles with intention to create magnificent colorful weaving.

It would appear that my traveling to teach is winding down, and my energy and interests are changing with a stronger leaning towards weaving as a means of healing and service. Although I am no longer submitting applications, I will continue to accept interesting invitations.

Where to Pick up the Thread(s)

My 4th Blogaversary quietly came and went.
My actual birthday was celebrated.
I passed the 100 thousand visits to Weaving Spirit.
I am unsure of the direction I want to take the blog.
Weaving is happening slowly.
A truly amazing story continues to unfold. It is so amazing I don't know where to begin.
Will I ever teach again? Yes, in May (details to follow)
I will be flying back and forth to the East Coast quite a bit in the next couple of years to deal with my mom's many collections.
And wonder of wonders, I will be moving house again in May!

This is all I can say for now with the sincere hope that BLOG BLOCK (which has plagued me for the past several months) will fade with the coming of spring. Although there is still snow on the ground, I heard lots of birds singing this morning.

Memorial and Celebration

I am finally back home in Montana (after spending weeks in Baltimore attending my mother (Charlotte’s) funeral and staying on to make sure that Joe (Charlotte’s true love and longtime companion) was going to be OK.

I am so grateful that my mother lived long enough that I had the opportunity to completely heal our relationship. I am especially grateful to Joe who gave my mother the support and love (true love) that allowed the healing to take place. Of course, un-knitting cashmere sweaters together was a tremendously positive project; and as I survey the pounds of lovely yarn we created, I see this as Charlotte’s real legacy to me (and to everyone who gets to wrap up in a woven piece created with this precious yarn)

My mother died at age 92 in the arms of her true love on February 2, 2011 of a massive heart attack. She had 6 great grandchildren (two of which spoke at her memorial). We should all be so lucky.

I would like to share the words I spoke at Charlotte’s memorial service.

Recently I have begun to explore the path of Buddhism. When I shared this with my mother, she said “Oh no! I just got used to you being a vegetarian!”

We get to know our mothers from the inside out, so it is practically impossible to be objective. Hearing so many of charlotte’s friends talk about her from the outside in is a gift I will treasure almost as much as the 50 lbs. of cashmere yarn my mother and I created together over these last 5 years by taking apart some 200 old cashmere sweaters. The yarn which I call “Outstanding Moral Fiber” is a precious legacy wound in the countless meaningful hours we spent together un-knitting—following the thread miles and miles—all the way back to the beginning—not the end.

So many blessings--

This is More Like It

This used to be my most favorite part of weaving. In fact it used to be the whole reason for weaving---the moment when I cut it off the loom.


I must admit that this step still has a great deal of appeal, but now it is accompanied by a hint of something else...the mystery of what's next.