Scent of Lilies

I'm preparing a small show of my older, rarely viewed, work and I decided it would be a good opportunity to get good photos and document these pieces online.  Scent of Lilies (small version) was a sample for a commission piece, but I'm not great at sampling so it came out as a smaller version of the large piece.  

The technique used here is Theo Moorman Inlay weaving, a style which the design lays on top of the base woven fabric.  The base read weaving is a heavy linen and the lily design is a variety of yarns I picked from my stash. 

The measurement on Scent of Lilies (small) is 24.5 inches long by 13.5 inches wide.

The show is going to be called "Awkward Phase" and it'll be at the Haslett Library's bookshop called Bookends August 8th through the end of September.

The reception for this show is Saturday August 10th from 2-4.  There will be an end of summer family party going on at the library on this day too (so come early and bring the kids!).  Parking will probably be tight, but you can park in the Haslett Middle School lot close by.

Leaf Me Alone 2

I finished Leaf Me Alone 2 just in time for the Michigan League of Handweaver's Conference and entered it into the Fiber Art exhibit.  It received an honorable mention.   I was fortunate enough to be the scribe for Cameron Taylor-Brown as she went through each piece critique-style.  She said that both of my Leaf Me Alone series weavings looked like maquetes (I appreciated her use of this word). Which they kind-of are.  I have one more small piece to weave and then I'll be warping my loom for the original idea, a large version of Leaf Me Alone. 

I wanted to play more with the way I'm using my words in my pieces, so I wove this one on an angle.  Cameron thought (and I agree) it's a bit more playful, almost like something from a comic book.  (Another prompt for a new piece concept to boot.)

As usual, this piece has the beaded edging which is becoming a bit of a signature of mine.  The smaller pieces turn out a little wonky with the beads because it's not as heavy as the larger pieces.  Something to work on still.

I struggle to get absolute true-colors in my images sometimes and I'm seeing a lot of different lighting for this pieces does different things.  I originally thought the above and below photos were too dark, but I think these also give a good idea of what this piece is. 

Leaf me Alone #1

This is the small version of a much larger draft.  I needed to get back to my passion of double-weave pick-up with a small piece after having exhausted myself with triple-weave pick-up.

Detail of beaded edging

I really am enjoying doing some smaller pieces so I might stick to those before warping my loom for the massive plan I have for this particular series.  I have been making so much jewelry I forgot how good it feels to play with extra warp on double-weave.

"Leaf me Alone" was started as a thought process when I was married and miserable, but in general, I need a lot of alone time.  I don't mind (and sometimes prefer) doing things alone, skiing, dancing, concerts. I was lost in the woods a few times on my Porkies Residency, and the leaf cover was always so comforting.  Loneliness is important for me, I suppose it's like meditation. I feel very fortunate to have found someone to share my home with who feels similarly.  We do things together, but we don't need to.  So the Leaf me Alone series looks like it will continue popping up in the next group of smaller weavings (and by small I mean, approximately 15in x 10in).

Mother Superior: Lake Superior Triple Weaving

Remember the weaving that I finished for the Porcupine Mountains Artist Residency?  Well I had some warp left over and decided to make myself another Lake Superior weaving from all of the wonderful photos that I took while I was there.  I cannot stop thinking of calling it "Mother Superior" so that's what it is.  Plus that Beatles song keeps popping in my head when I was working on both pieces.

This weaving is much smaller and far different in texture than it's sister piece.  I perused my dyed rayon stash and found most of the colors I needed.  The yellow-orange ball of hand dyed rayon is actually from my years at the University of Michigan Art School.  It was perfect for this piece and I'm glad it's sat waiting in my stash for this long. The green weft I did do some over-dyeing on the skein and up close it has some fantastic hues of blues and purple.

Some major edits were done to the reflection of the sun (round yellow thing in the water) after I pulled it off the loom. I actually snipped the loops of rayon (lets be honest, I wove it the wrong direction, the loops were meant for the back of the piece, but I always do tapestry from the back so it ended up all wonky).  This is the first time I have ever stitched into a weaving for a fix/detail.  I was nervous and wanted it very faint, so I used yellow sewing thread.

I just submitted this piece to it's first show, so fingers crossed on it jurying in! Until then, it has a place on my wall.