Midwest Weavers Conference Awards & Updates

One of the things I always find interesting is that if I don't provide a photo of some of my work hanging how I intended it, it sometimes gets hung differently.  "She Can't See the Forest Through the Trees" is one that travels best if I group the middle panel of beaded strips together on its hanging rod.  I then spread it out for display.  When I went to see it hung, they were all still grouped in the middle. I didn't mind it too much but I did find myself fixing it on my second visit to the exhibits area. 

"Leaf Me Alone" had the leaf panel hung in the middle of the back woven piece, which I left. I liked having it shown a little differently. 

I was notified after I got home that I won 3 awards: 1st Place and People's Choice for Leaf Me Alone and 3rd place for Neon Gypsy Leaf Bracelet. I'm always very honored to be awarded, and thank you to the conference and attendees for the votes and awards. One of my favorite things about exhibiting is when other conference members meet me and put my name along with the work they saw and their face lights up, "oh! you're Jenny!?" Su wanted to "pick my brain" about my Forest Through the Trees piece (that I still brought for the Leader's Exhibit even though I wasn't teaching). I had a lot of great questions and conversations about my work. So much so that I need to check and make sure I'm not talking too much or boring someone because I do love to talk about my artwork. Once I check myself I'm reminded that I'm among people who also love to do what I do, so really we are all here for a week of full fiber emergence.

Neon gypsy leaf bracelet, with the hands, and the fabric...

(there's a lot going on here, that's all I have to say about how this is displayed.)

The only thing that stings a bit  was "do you teach?" or "I'd love to take a class from you" and then I mention that I had 2 classes for this conference but they were both cancelled due to low enrollment. It's helping me learn that there's a disconnect between my class offerings and people knowing the kind of work I do with the techniques I want to teach. I can't exactly put a leaf panel that took me months or years to finish along side a class description for the Russian Leaf class I teach because most people only finish 2-4 leaves in a 6 hour class. I mentioned this while talking to Sarah and John. John suggested that a lot of instructors put their larger work with their headshot. Either in the background or a photo of the work connected to the headshot. I love this idea, so now I need new headshots. 

I'm behind on blogging...well, I feel like I'm behind on everything. I've been struggling getting back to a regular routine and what I want to work on next vs what I "should" be working on. I'm really inspired and want to play with a create ALL THE THINGS. I recently posted a video on Instragram rattling on about this particular artist's dilemma which I then stuck up on YouTube if you want to check it out:

(I recorded this as we were getting ready to go to a punk-ska show)

I just got back to brushing up on circular warping my inkle loom and tablet weaving.  I've also decided to play with weaving undulating twill now that my new loom is set up and ready to weave on. 

3 Day Beginner Tablet Weaving Class with John Mullarkey

Tablet Woven Bands I created in John Mullarkey's Class

I didn't know where to start with my experience at my first Midwest Weaver's Conference, so I'll begin with the class I took. I have wanted to take a John Mullarkey class since I first saw his work with students (I think) back in 2014 at a Michigan League of Handweaver's Conference that I was also teaching at.  Tablet weaving on a small loom seemed like a kind of intricate technique that I'd love so when I noticed that he was teaching a 3 Day beginner class at Midwest Weavers Conference, and it wasn't going to overlap any of the classes I was teaching I signed up the minute registration opened. 

Day 1

My classes ended up being cancelled but Sarah had decided to join me for this conference so we were already good to go for a fiber vacation. I knew a little bit about tablet weaving from following John and Inge Dam's work but the concept of how it worked was totally foreign to me. I knew this was something I was never going to have the patience to teach myself and 3 days of working with this technique would be a good start. 

Day 2 playing

Makeshift "cones"

I didn't follow directions well from the supplies list, for the continuous warp (we learned how to do on day 2) I needed to be able to pull my cotton from 4 cones, 2 of each color. I had 1 cone of black, one of white. So the night before I took the coffee cups in the hotel room and created makeshift-cones which actually worked out pretty well. I did get the correct inkle loom and tablet weaving cards from Woven Art and ordered my 10/2 cotton from Yarn Barn of Kansas. I purchased some "John Mullarkey Official" tablet weaving cards from in class too. His cards are a little smaller and I'm wondering if they might be easier for my hands to twist them. 

Schacht Tablet Weaving Cards

Something that surprisingly helped me with this class was my earbuds. Once students got going on how to use the latest technique we had learned it was difficult for me to tune out conversations and chit chat. So when I was feeling frustrated I'd plug-in. Listening to music that I already knew all the words to helped me focus on the project. I don't like feeling like I'm being rude or trying to ignore people so I'd let my table-mate Kate know I was plugging in but to tap me if I needed to pay attention and that I wasn't trying to ignore her or John. It ended up helping my focus big-time. 

Day 3: Double Faced

I also totally lucked out with having my table-mate, Kate. She's John's self-proclaimed "stalker" as she's taken a ton of his classes but needed to brush up since her last few years had been rough and she was out of practice with her tablet weaving. She was there, focusing, like me but basically already knew the process and she was helpful when I didn't realize I should be asking for help. 

I also pointed out to her that if I wasn't sure I was doing something correctly I'd put my name on the board to have John come and check my work. I used to not like to bother instructors, but then when I became one, from that perspective, I'd always rather come check on a student's work than have them get so far off in left field that it's nearly impossible to backtrack. My biggest problem with tablet weaving so far is my tension. Way too tight (warp and weft) and then when I loosen up pulling my weft I go too loose.  This is another reason I want to practice regularly and pay attention to how my motifs are coming out. 

I love this new technique. I learned much more in 3 days than I would have ever thought possible. John is an excellent instructor, I'm excited to start practicing tablet weaving more at home. I have a few other things to get off of my plate before I can really get lost in it, but the inkle loom and 10/2 cotton has already found a spot in the house where I can pick it up and play with it for a few hours here and there.