But Not Too Busy to Weave

There are a few weavings to do before I pack up the studio, and this is a Woven Words Blessing Shawl.


I have to say this is one of my favorite couple of steps. This is when I get to see what the weaving is actually going to look like.


Up until this moment, the cloth is a bunch of notes on paper and some color wrappings. And then...the shawl reveals itself.


CLARITY/LAUGH/LOVE/ADVENTURE/LOVE/LAUGH/CLARITY

Too Busy to Blog

I love the blogging community! My 4 years of blogging has brought me more pleasure and friends than I could ever imagine. I have been struggling to keep up in the midst of so much change in my life. I can hardly believe that I will be moving again within a month! Please continue to check in on me, and I will post whenever I can.


Here is a quick recap of April.

Wrapping Words for a Blessing Shawl.
Winding Almost Ikat stripes to go between the words for the Blessing Shawl


Finally finishing off the towel warp (or better, the warp that would be towels, but will be table mats instead). For those of you who are patiently awaiting your towel (3 of you!), my goal is to weave some towels before I dismantle the studio.


Teaching a Woven Collage workshop


Creating a Virtual Quilt from each students woven collage.


Anything else will just sound like whining and complaining (grin)

Dances With Cloth

When I first began experimenting with translating horoscopes into bands of color (1979), I used a different color palette and worsted wool. My mother was the recipient of my first efforts, and like a dutiful mother, she packed this shawl away for me to re-discover 32 years later.


I couldn't resist bringing in back to Montana with me and then taking it to my NIA class. My friends Karrie (above) and Pola (below) couldn't resist "playing" with it.


Nobody can believe the weaving is so old! It looks and feels like new. This may well rekindle my love of wool. Of course living in Montana will really help.


What can I say---I love to play!

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.