Perception

I doodled this idea 10 years ago and let it sit until it was no longer deeply personal but something that I was experiencing on a regular basis. Perceptions spin out of control. I was spiraling, and still can. We all can. Spiraling emotion and experiences are chaotic and fragile for me. The weaving alone was too clean, so I eventually decided to add sequins. I found these helped visualize what I was feeling, and were both chaotic and fragile to work with. This piece reminds me of where I was, but also that things get better with time and when I gently move through the chaos instead of sidestep or avoid it.  

I took this piece off of my loom last spring and it took me bout a year to decide and finish because:

1) what else needed to be done with it (adding sequins)
2) what sequins to order, it took me a while to narrow it down to not spending $300 on sequins, this has 5 different style.
3) should I or shouldn't I wash the weaving first?
4) How to sew the dang sequins on and in what way.
5) Finish/hanging work

I have to thank my friend Abigail for asking me if I could create hair pins for her wedding a few years ago. They were to match the beading on her dress which was very dimensional. I had never worked with sequins before or considered that they could do much more than lay flat. I had a lot of fun with that project and it added a new technique to my toolbox. Check out those hair pins here. When I wanted my weaving to feel messier, I eventually realized that sequins were the way to go. 

I did wash this piece. The black portion is woven in twill and the colored is woven in plain weave. Washing helped the twill weave fill in a bit for sewing the sequins on. We won't talk about the amount of width I lost when I washed this though. 

Sewing the dang sequins on. I thought I'd sprinkle the sequins and stitch them on in little sections as I sprinkled. Sequins don't "sprinkle." They are staticky and stick to everything but where you want them to be. Mostly your fingers. This was a process, I kind of shoved them together in sections trying to vary the different sizes, finishes and shapes. I really love how the sequins turned out, but this was not as fun as beading is for me. 

The finish work. I give a seminar talk on thinking ahead of time about how you'll hang/present your work and I did none of that prep work for myself on this piece! I was kicking myself when I got to this part and hadn't looked at the header or bottom in almost a year. What was I thinking? I was so focused on having clean selvages for this weaving that I got caught up in that instead. I was going to add a hanging mechanism for the top and bottom but decided it was fine if there's only one way to hang this. I just like to have options. I'm happy that Perception turned out about like what I had in my head. I'm also glad it's done and I can move on to finishing some smaller projects before getting back to my next weaving. 

Weaving Update: Perception

My larger weavings take some time so it's time to celebrate that I'm past the half way point on my current word-based double weave. I have a lot of additional ideas for this one. It doesn't seem...chaotic enough. So I'm thinking about adding bead embroidery and sequins for additional texture on this piece. I haven't done true bead embroidery on my weavings so I'll have to weave a sample piece I can play with. This fabric is a little loose and airy and beads can get heavy quickly. It's just a thought right now.

The middle of this weaving is all orange and black.  It fades out into other colors on either end, but the orange is the central glow. I'm laughing at my younger self because orange wasn't really a color on my creative radar and I kind of hated that my high school colors were orange and black. Here I am staring at orange and black while I weave and it takes on a new brilliance for me. I'm surrounded by orange on a daily basis due to my day job and it's definitely ended up taking the front seat as a color I like to work with in my fiber art in this moment. 

This piece is "Perception" and it calls back to a time in my life where everything felt like it was spinning out of control and what someone else viewed was completely skewed from what was actually happening. I knew what the lies were but the gas-lighting and drinking had gone on for so long I had lost all trust in myself. I have my confidence back...along with some extra that I had never had before in my life. 10 years makes a big difference when you start going in the right direction. I used to joke that it takes me 10 years to get over something, but now I really think it's true. The dramas of my past and the artwork ideas sketched during that time have started to come into physical existence. The first being "Playing with Fire" last spring. Once these ideas become a finished piece of artwork I seem to just...let it go. 

Bruce "helping"

Perception feels timely for this year too. I'm delving into my artwork in the safety of home and friends because I feel on-guard out in the world. Some days I still expect to open my back door to go outside and see the world on fire. I'm working on accepting and moving on, or moving...got my passport updated and have found myself looking into how to immigrate to Canada or what it would cost to move a house of furniture to Europe (mainly for my looms)....I think between myself and my husband we finally have our studio/offices set how we want them and have our equipment upgraded to what we've been dreaming of (my looms, his gaming and music) so I'm not desperate enough to move. I love our house, property, Lansing and our cozy little kitty-filled home.

Gratitude is celebrated regularly here in our home, there was a brilliant full moon this month and I love how quiet and haunting the snow-covered night and shadows feel in our back yard. This giant tree casts the best shadows. 

Yes, And; Stacey Honorarium Commission

On Thursday, October 28th the First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor held an intimate service for the piece that they commissioned me to create in memorial of their pastor, Stacey Simpson Duke.  It's hard to put into words how honored I am to have gotten to create this piece for them. Being hired to design and weave a piece with this level of emotional and personal intention, yet, still have the freedom to create in the way that works best for me was truly a wonderful experience. 

I made it through the service without crying too much and was invited to speak.  A big thing for me with this piece it's the first of my word-based weaving that is not only a commission but will hang in a permanent home.  So far these types of pieces are publicly exhibited but then come back to me. Which has made sense as they relate directly to me and my emotions or how I'm handling (or not handling) something at that time in my life. This was a different level of emotional learning for me. The internet deep dive that I fell into researching Stacey's voice of hope and inclusivity made me feel connected to her without ever having the opportunity to meet her. Once I started learning about her, the ideas and inspiration for this piece came in droves. 

They presented this weaving in the church sanctuary at first and towards the end it was taken to be hung so we could witness it's initial hanging as a group. I was so surprised when I walked into the hallway and they had chosen to hang it from the ceiling in the center of the stairwell. Initially we had discussed hanging it against the wall, but when I had spoken about how my double weavings are visible from both sides at a church meeting back in February the way it was to hang changed, I just didn't realize that it had been confirmed. 

I stayed and answered questions and we spoke about Stacey, a number of people told me that she would have loved it and the other popular comment was that I reminded the attendees of Stacey, with my curly hair and large fuchsia cat eye glasses.

The other exciting thing (to me) about the way this weaving is hung is that the time of day will show off the two sides differently. In the evening the side facing the upstairs hall was in full color and the light shining on it lit lit it up but that light also shines through it. So from the back side, with the light shining through you don't see the colors as vibrantly but you do get the outlines of the words and shapes. I had just given a program about my work and was trying to explain that I weave a bit more open than most and when the light comes through my weavings the colors and often designs disappear making it look more like plain fabric.  This piece doesn't look "plain" by any means, but that effect was lovely to see in-person.  I usually end up with a favorite side of my weavings, but this one is really balanced and I like them both equally, so I'm glad it ended up being hung this way. 

The Service Handout

As much as I always say I don't take commissions, lately when I do they really are worth it, I feel confident that I've done a good job for the group the commission is for and I get a lot of joy out of doing it. And that's how they should feel. This piece actually pushed me to put the most amount of color I've ever included in a weaving before and also learn a vector based design program so I could add movement to the words. I'd never have thought when I was in art school that I would ever end up creating pieces that would be hanging in places of worship (or that I would need to use Illustrator/Inkscape). I didn't think it was out of the question either, I just...didn't know where I or my work was going back then.  

This weaving has so much going on with it that I did my best to narrow down all the detail shots, I hope whoever likes to look at my blog out there enjoys them at much as I do. 

Convergence Conference 2024, Wichita Rundown

Sunset view from the Riverwalk my first night in town.

Convergence 2024, where to even start?  This year became all about the people for me. I want to meet more weavers that I feel like I clique with, but I get shy. Last Convergence I took a chance when I saw Elizabeth (weaverbee.ca) in the gym and introduced myself because I follow her on Instagram and love her posts. That turned into us hanging out together in Knoxville, catching up on the phone over the last 2 years and then being roommates this year! You can find her too on Instagram as @WeaverBee.

Elizabeth/WeaverBee, I had a great time being roommates!

So when I saw @SydsThread (SydneySogol.com) in the Convergence Marketplace wandering around by herself I got up the guts to tell her I love her posts and am a fan, same with @ComfortCloth (comfortclothweaving.com) who I caught at breakfast the next morning. I now know them and Sydney and Tegan instead of just their Instagram handles. They were both leaders this year for conference and through them I also got to meet Denise Kovnat. We all ended up piling into an Uber when I found the three of them waiting for in the lobby and I had some free time to go see the Complex Weaver's Exhibit.

Outside of Elizabeth/WeaverBee these are the ladies 

I ended up spending the most time with; Denise, Tegan and Sydney!

John Mullarkey (malarkycrafts.com) was shopping when I got to catch up with him and he joined the group that Elizabeth had already compiled for dinner before we all headed to the fashion show. Karen Donde (karendondehandwovens.com) was part of that dinner group who is the outgoing President of Complex Weavers, passing the torch on to Elizabeth at their conference which was just before HGA's. I also seem to have started to make a point to have an afternoon catch up with Clara at Convergence Conferences who I know from our years together at the Lansing Weaver's Guild, she lives in Florida now and we overlap a little between her time there for Complex Weavers and mine at Convergence. 

John and I

Clara and I

I got to meet a bunch of the interns and talk about fiddly weaving things with Andrea! Getting to join this Conference would have been a dream for me at their stage in the Fiber Conferences realm and I'm glad to have them joining us (they have REALLY LONG days as interns so thank you thank you thank you for all of their hard work.)  Check them out on Instagram: @AndreaAlexanderArt @AnneXavierHeide @Arghavan_Booyeh.Art @LesMaillesSerrees

Group Photo with some of the interns and Sydney! (Check out Andrea's scarf!)

I've generally been terrible at taking photos and I'm impressed that I remembered to take some selfies as I connected and reconnected with other weavers.  When I go to a multiple day weavers conference I tell people it's not a vacation as much as I'm going to "commune with my people" because the energy at these is just wonderful.  I wish it didn't trickle away so fast as I settle back into my normal day-to-day at home...this year I'm going to make myself make sure to reconnect, text and zoom to keep it going.  Also, there were so many others, these were the people I hung out with the most and linked up with on Instagram. 

Selfie with "Is there a thing..."

I'm sure there are plenty of other's posting about their time at Convergence so I'll focus on my stuff. I was excited that I had 2 of my pieces accepted into the Mixed Media exhibit this year (it's the first time I've had two!) "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time" and "Playing With Fire." Both of these pieces are woven in Double Weave Pick Up and I hand dyed the warp and weft. "Is there a Thing..." has it's own beaded edging.

Is There a Thing To Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time

Playing with Fire

Playing with Fire selfie

I also submitted my Klingon Light Bangle to the Leader's Exhibit because it hadn't been accepted to anything with HGA and has aged out....and it's a piece that I love and wanted to show here.

Klingon Light Bangle

I had 2 seminars this year. Two! It's the first time I've had more than one of my proposals accepted. I was feeling down after the whole proposal processes and thought that I just might not do a seminar at all if only one was accepted again this year. It's costly to go to Convergence and not much is covered with a 90 minute seminar. I decided to move forward with the accepted proposals since I had more than one this year. They both filled just enough to be a go which I was happy about, and yet, at the same time, I had a lot of anxiety and stress (I do this to myself) with the preparation and leading up to the Conference. I'm glad I did it though. Most of my class for "Hands on Finishing your work" brought in things to play with and get ideas as to how to finish pieces, and I learned a lot from teaching the "Keep Track of Your Digital Art Life" which I'm providing video to my students to reference since I know it's hard to retain things that I'm learning on the computer without doing it over and over. I'll be submitting these proposals again and I have more to add and along with some cleanup in my PowerPoints.

I voted my tripod out of the luggage for weight reasons 

and refusal to have more than one checked bag...

bring the tripod next time (I had to stack my luggage to get a good height)

I mentioned I was feeling down after submitting proposals and I learned why that was as I talked to other Leaders while I was there. Part of the submission process is submitting what you have taught in the past 2 years. Outside of the occasional conference I don't do much teaching. I've found a day job that I love and I've realized over the past 8 years that I hate the artist's hustle. My general well being is so much better knowing I have a consistent paycheck and security (like medical insurance and such). That being said, I have a lot of pride in the fact that I have had the opportunity to be a Leader at this conference for the last few conferences. It's beyond my wildest dreams that I'd ever have artwork accepted to these exhibits on the regular and then the fact that other fiber artist's value what I have to share?!  It's a dream and I feel very fortunate to be where I'm at today. I don't have to keep the momentum that I used to have, but I do have to keep some, otherwise I think I'd be a bit disappointed in myself. So, I'll plan on some new proposals and old ones will be submitted again....we'll see how it goes. This year threw me a curveball and there are a few different paths life could take and I'm learning that I struggle with that kind of uncertainty. 

Weaving and Life Update

I'm close to the end of my "Yes And" weaving commission. I can see the end of the cartoon and the warp. I was on a roll weaving a little bit every day but life has thrown off my groove. By my tracking I'm weaving about every 4 or 5 days lately.  I've been to the doctor and the vet more in the past three and a half months than I ever have in my life. There's also change, joy and grief floating around our home.

I've had some medical stuff, most recently what I thought was a cold was bronchitis for like 2 months. I finally went in and my doctor got it under control (I'm so thankful we found one we like, who's helpful! and listens!)  I've always hated bugging anyone with something that will probably just go away on it's own, but this year is full of things that aren't that simple. 

On the happy end of things the universal cat distribution system moved a sweet black stray cat who's paws were torn up and bloody under our porch. He was immediately our outdoor lap cat and we started feeding him and named him. We spent much of our Seattle trip to see Madness worried about him (his paws getting infected, him having to fight the other strays) but we couldn't get an earlier vet appointment and we couldn't chance him bringing anything in the house and possibly getting our other 3 cats sick. Once he was clear to come in we kept him separated while we were at work or sleeping for a few days but it's been a pretty easy introduction into the family. Bruce is the only one who's dramatic, Morgan, Lois and Clark just look at him like "what's with all the hissing and growling."  They just thump him when he gets annoying or too aggressive. He's starting to chill out. 

On the heartbreaking end...Morgan was looking rough about 3 years ago, he's 21 this year and we found out back then that he has hyperthyroidism. So he bounced back with his pills, but then things took a turn a few weeks ago and we go an official diagnosis that he has lymphoma. He's not eating, not excited about treats, is a little wobbly on his back legs and losing weight quickly. I'm taking this harder than I thought I would and I'm realizing it's the first time in my life I've really had to deal with end of life choices for an animal I am close to. Danielle's death was abrupt and animal death on the hobby farm i grew up on was a little different. Morgan and Bryan have been together the whole time so half of Bryan's life he's had Morgan.  There's a lot of hanging out with Morgan and making sure he's still happy and comfortable. 

My anxiety about handouts and PowerPoints for my seminars at the Handweaver's Guild of America Convergence Conference has subsided as the time I have left with Morgan has taken priority.  I know what I want to talk about in my seminars, I think I have it organized in a way that makes sense, the handouts are simple and I'm printing them today. I can tweak PowerPoints on the flight to Wichita if need be, but those came together easier than I suspected they would once I got going.  So Morgan and I have watched all of Season 3 of Bridgerton together and are on to Queen Charlotte. He also enjoys laying on the cat cube in my studio while I weave so when I've had the mental space to do that, I make sure he knows that's what I'm up to. Our vet has assured us 21 is a good long life for a cat, but its still hard to watch him stop eating and laying around in odd areas. 

Lois and Clark are "helping" me pack for Convergence.  I'm looking forward to my yearly communing with my people. Teaching can feel like a lot (I don't know why, I'm fine when I get there) but being around so many creative in the fiber world is always invigorating and inspiring. Of course, when I have things I need to finish, inspiration to start new projects is extremely enticing. I have a lot in my head and on paper, I did start pinning up one idea...we'll see where that goes. 

pinning up an idea I've had for 10ish years...

Yes, And weaving update; Half Way

I am just about to the half way point on "Yes, And" which is in the the yellow weft, the brightest color in the middle of 9 different colors, against the black of this weaving. I was able to start weaving this at the beginning of March (I warped the loom and dyed additional rayon in February while waiting for final approval of the size/design). I wasn't sure how long this would take me to weave as I've never had a commission for this kind of piece before (and keeping track of timing can be a pain, so I don't do it on my personal pieces). Commissions take the front seat ahead of most personal projects because I don't like the feeling of someone waiting on me, so I've been weaving at least a half hour nearly every day, up to 5 hours some days. I am now remembering how I finished 3 pieces per semester in college, I wove a lot, I slept when I could and worked more. I have better balance these days. 

I originally quoted about a year to finish this piece but I think if I keep working along this steadily it'll be more like 2-3 more months. That being said, as it warms up I tend to want to start putzing around our gardens in the mornings instead of weaving.  Maybe I'll just start getting up earlier with the birds, that being said, this weather change kicked my butt and I've been too sick to do much but sleep the past 3 days, along with a medical thing I had to deal with last week I'm feeling a bit behind over these past 2 weeks. I haven't promised anything yet, but I'm sure I'll get it done before the projected dates on the agreement in the fall, I just need to see what my weaving pace is once it warms up. 

Hyperlapse x10 of 1 full circuit of the treadling

So far I have 60 hours of winding, warping and weaving on this final piece and about 30 hours of dyeing (I didn't do a great job of tracking that because some of it is just preparing a dye bucket and throwing the skein(s) in to soak for the day) and 8 hours into the design work (that's after I taught myself what I needed to know to work in Inkscape). These numbers do not include the time for the samples I wove to make sure the design was going to all work out. 

I'm really excited to see this piece in full, as I move from color to color I get to see glimpses, but my color sketch and samples are the best I have to go off of to envision the final piece. It's part of what's exciting about weaving, the work has a baseline but you never quite know what the final piece will look like until it's off the loom and up on a wall.

Yes, And: Second Sample and Checker Colors

Before I got going on the full-sized weaving for "Yes, And" I tried a second sample warp with a little bit of color in the black warp. I was curious as to how it might read. I didn't want to be weaving that idea later and think "oh man, this would have been great in Stacey's weaving." I got 6 inches of it done before my meeting with the church to take as a sample to pass around. 

Ultimately I think the color in the black warp is a little too distracting.  The color portions came out as dotted lines in the twill weave structure and I feel like it takes away from the design overall. I am glad I tried it out just to see what it did and so I could confirm that it wouldn't work how I wanted it to with curving text. 

Now this...

I had warp left over to just play and weave fabric. I decided to see how I might want the color to move in and out of each other for the final commission piece.  To keep things simple, a little quicker and not mess with another paper cartoon I went with my favorite pattern: checkers. I really love how this fabric turned out and it confirmed that the way I want to move the colors through the 48 inch long weaving; bright to dark to bright again...I don't want it to look like a rainbow but I still really want to use as many colors as I think will look good without being stripey feeling.   

With the checker pattern I don't feel like the dotted lines of color in the the black warp are as distracting. I suspect its because because the design is straight lines so the dotted lines of colors just sort of fit in. I really love this fabric and I'm torn between finishing it to make it into a little wall hanging or washing it to use as part of a clothing accent piece. One of the things I enjoy about being a fiber artist is I sometimes get to wear my work. 

I had created a smaller checker sample at the end of the warp for "Playing with Fire" so I could see how it washed up. I usually don't wash this fabric as it ends up as wall-hangings so, even though I know weaving has shrinkage, it definitely shrank more than I realized it would. 1 1/8 inches to be exact. The twill allows the fabric to get a little squishy with some stretch.  It washed up really nice though, which is what I was hoping for.

Moving a Macomber Loom; Meet Beatrice

Beatrice all moved in and put together

Well, I wasn't planning on purchasing a new-to-me loom in 2023, but here we are.  Sherri (my now-retired fibers professor) brought up that Anne (another fiber artist who was weaving with me at University of Michigan's Art School way back when) was wanting to sell her 16-harness Macomber loom and I should purchase it. Sherri has brought it up every time we've gotten together over the past year or two. I figured that it would be much more expensive than I was able to afford, but I wanted to be able to tell Sherri I had at least talked to Anne about it. 

Anne wanted to sell it to me at-cost that she paid for it back in 2002, she's taken immaculate care of storing it and it needed a good home. This loom new, with all the extras, bells and whistles she sent along with it would be over 10K and she made me an offer I'd be silly not to take. 

Bryan next to loom as I took it as far apart as possible

Bryan and I went over for a lunch visit and to take a look at the loom, make sure it would (barely) fit in my studio and start planning on how to move it.  No matter how we shifted it, it wasn't going to fit into my Explorer without taking it apart further than I was comfortable with. I took off all the beams, and we packed up what we could to lighten the load for the big moving day. I started thinking of a name for my new loom other than "the Beast" which kept turning into Beatrice in my mind, which is one of my favorite Shakespeare characters. So she was named.

Delilah moved out

I was going to pick it up sooner than later but then the box truck at work was out for repair and I got COVID the week we had planned. The Universe must have know I needed the extra time anyway. In the meantime, about a month and a half, I finished weaving the warp I had going on Delilah, made a rental reservation for the box truck from work, attempted to clean my studio (ha!), moved furniture to make a loom-path through the house. Two nights before the move I bought shoulder harness moving straps and we moved Delilah into the garage...

These shoulder harness straps are amazing. Moving really big heavy things sucks, but this product really made it suck less. For two in-ok-shape 41 year olds we were tired but surprised that it didn't hurt more. We tested the straps before the big moving day with Delilah so I could see what else we might have to move around for the loom-path. Delilah's second back beam is sectional beam which was really the hard part of not taking her beams off, the pointy metal spikes threatened to catch on walls and furniture but we made it out. 

Loom strapped to box truck, 

(we needed to pick up some OSB too, might as well get it while its easy)

For moving truck rental we found it less expensive to rent the box truck from Home Depot because they charge by the hour whereas UHaul charges a flat "daily rate" rate but then has an additional per-mile cost. We were driving to and from Ann Arbor and the mileage was going to be more than double the cost of what Home Depot charges. The box truck was extra large for the loom, but it's the only truck that has a ramp and no way were we lifting this upwards onto a truck bed!

We had to take a break at this point, 

I was getting sore, tired and crabby

Moving  Beatrice in the house was not the same as moving Delilah out. The 16-harness castle plus extra width for this beast of a loom made it juuuust wide enough that it was a struggle to get it through the back 32-inch storm door and then it stuck on the exterior door. I had to take the back door off of the frame (the hinge pins refused to budge for me) and the studio door off the hinges.

Second place we got stuck in the alcove

I was hoping that we would be able to walk her in place in a normal position, but the alcove before the studio was too tight to turn her around. Beatrice is 70 inches wide (longest side) and Delilah was only 48 inches wide...so we backed into the dining room, secured more of the moving parts that I was concerned about and lifted her on her side, repositioned the moving straps and shuffled her in. Beatrice just fits in the space with my mess of shelves all around. I can still move around her, but it's much tighter than with Delilah.

Tied up more and on her side

We got her moved in to the studio and I then waited until my next day off to put her all back together. I found that the beams had been in the wrong places, a spring was stretched wrong, some of it was not making sense and, thanks to google, I happened upon a blog that discussed Macomber looms specifically. Macomber Looms and Me turned out to be a help getting Beatrice put back together correctly.

It's taken me a while to adjust to her size, honestly it's been a bit intimidating. I should be working on a new sample for my "anger piece" but the desire to play with some more complex weave structures is really what I want to be doing so I've wound a warp to play with an undulating twill pattern. Undulating twill was the first thing that came to mind of what I could weave with more harnesses, and it was waking me up in the middle of the night with the need to sort out pattern drafts. I'm so excited to be warping something more complex than usual!