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. 

"Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time" the social media piece Final Post

I have blogged about the process of this piece but I'm just getting around to a final post about it.  I finished stitching the edging on this weaving just in time for the "Brave New World; Fiber Art in the 21st Century" Exhibit which went up in the second weekend in September. I really needed that extra push of having it going into a show to finish this before the subject matter became totally obsolete. That's how fast things seem to move on the internet and social media these days. When I began the draft for this weaving TikTok wasn't even on my radar and now it's just as popular (or more?) as Facebook and probably more popular than Twitter (now X?) is.  In 20 more years will these even be a thing? And what will they have morphed into?

I digress. I don't like social media. I'd delete my Facebook if I didn't have to use it for my art business and to keep up with my friends and fellow artist's event here and there. Ultimately I don't scroll through any of my social mediums much because I'd rather be enjoying time at home or doing my artwork. It has it's place, but I've worked to make it a very tiny place in my life for my sanity.  It's not healthy for me to be on it all the time and it's absolutely depressing how it sucks me in and I'll completely loose an hour that I'd rather be doing something I actually enjoy. Such as weaving this piece.

This weaving is called "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time" which is a quote from Chris Thile when he was hosting a favorite radio show of mine on NPR. He was talking about how he was alone at home and got on Twitter: Is there a thing to which brings us less joy yet we devote more time?  This sentence exactly describes how I feel about going down that social media rabbit hole. I think it was at a time that I had the Facebook app completely removed from my phone. I chose greys and blacks for the base colors because social media tends to make me feel dark and grey.  If you look closely there are threads of color in both warps representing the occasional good that can come from interacting with it. Now that I'm further removed from the making of this piece I'm remembering that I designed the edging with the "connected to Wi-Fi" symbol. During the weaving of this I cursed myself that I couldn't just stop weaving when I felt like I had had enough, I needed to get to the other end with the Wi-Fi edging to finish the piece. I really enjoy that little extra bit that I put into the design that at least I notice even if no one else does. 

The beaded edge took some sampling as I wanted to switch it up from my usual stitch. This bead stitch is a netting pattern instead of my usual St. Petersburg chain stitch. I haven't really had the time to think about whether I like it better than the other, I didn't have it up on my wall long enough to fully process this portion of the final piece before it was off to be hung. Possibly more on that later. 

I have my usual nit-picky things that I need to fix or wish I had done better but ultimately I was really happy how it turned out looking hung in the middle of the Adrian Center of the Arts gallery space. I also plan on never naming a piece with this long of a title again. 

(This photo was in my last post about the Brave New World 

exhibit but I think it s acute one of Bryan and I)

Brave New world; Fiber Art in the 21st Century with Jenny Schu

This past weekend was the Reception for a very cool fiber exhibit that I was honored to be part of: Brave New World; Fiber Art in the 21st Century at the Adrian Center for the Arts. 

There were over 100 people through and although it was to be from 2pm-4pm it was already getting busy in the gallery space at 1:50pm.  The day flew by fast and it was nice to meet artists that I've only known through social media or by name but never gotten to talk to before. I'm always so grateful to be part of this amazing fiber community.

Thank you to all who made it out to celebrate with us. This is the first time Uprooted 1, 2 and 3 have shown in the same space outside of my home. 

"Uprooted 1, 2 and 3"

It was also wonderful seeing "She Can't See the Forest Through the Trees" next to her sister piece "Leaf Me Alone" 

"She Can't See the Forest Through The Trees"

"Leaf Me Alone"

I have some tiny details to fix on "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time" but I love how it turn out hanging in the middle of this space.  Being able to tell how light and drapey my weavings are is important to me if it can be shown off. I finished this one just before I needed to drop it off for the show!

Bryan and I with 

"Is there a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time"

I posted a partial walk-about of the gallery when it finally died down which is kinda fun: 

Going from an amazing vacation at the Supernova International Ska Festival to this Fiber Art Reception has made my heart want to burst wide open with all the love I'm feeling packed into a mere 10 days. Plus Bryan and I just celebrated our first year of being married which felt like it went by really fast. September has been wonderful.

#MyBeadingYear How it's Going

At the beginning of this year I made sure to talk about how I try to make very loose plans and goals because I'm so hard on myself when I don't finish things "in time" or "fast enough" so I only hoped to get my current weaving off the loom this year, maybe finished. 

How's that going? 

I stitch a little on the beaded netting which will be the weaving's edge (this portion of the project sits in a 9mm case by the couch for evenings in front of the TV). I haven't been weaving a whole lot since it's been getting nice enough to work outside but I did notice that I'm just past half-way on "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time."  I've been feeling like I may be playing "yarn chicken" but at the end I'm sure I'll have enough rayon in the colors I had dyed.  Trying to match a dye years later never really works and I designed this so that the "Wi-Fi" pick-up design is repeated on the beginning and ending of the piece.

I'm also beading some ideas for wedding stuff. Lets face it, wedding planning if going to be the big part of my summer which will force me to finish the garage, reroof the shed, cleanup and add-to the door fence and get our gardens under control. My beading has turned to jewelry with spikes and leopard print for bridesmaid ideas; fishnet is also becoming more prominent in my styling process.

I am falling madly in love with the spikes that Swarovski offers. The bangles and dress details are really giving me that dressy-punk look that we're looking for.

So wish me luck on playing yarn chicken this year and getting all the beading done for our upcoming nuptials!

Update for the Weaving with the Long Title: Edging

I decided that the title of this weaving should be a quote from Chris Thile when he was the host for Prairie Home Companion/Live from Here. It's a ridiculously long title and I hope to not make that mistake again but it fit perfectly how I feel about social media: "Is There and Thing to which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time."

We waste so many hours scrolling through social media allowing it to tug our emotions in a million different directions or distract us from what we need to be doing or would rather be doing. Weaving is what I would rather be doing so here's my visual on how I feel about the whole social media situation in my life. 

I've decided that I want the edging on this piece to be different than my other wall hangings. The netting stitch I use would complement this weaving's design as it's much more linear. So I started stitching my netting stitch before I thought to "audition" it with the weaving.

At first I thought it would look fine until I stepped back from it.  I had gotten almost 27 inches done before I took a look at tucked around the edge of the weaving and decided it's too big and too distracting. So that's been set aside for who knows what and then I made 2 smaller stitched samples.

Middle Size Edging open

Middle Size Edging around piece

The "middle" size that I stitched looks ok, but I wanted to check one more option: 

Smallest Edging Open

Smallest Edging wrapped around weaving

Bryan helped me confirm that the smallest of the nettings looked the best and were the least distracting,  so now I'm working on that (among other things as you'll notice on my Instagram) in the evenings while we wind down in front of the TV. 

Reflections on 40, and a Weaving Update

New glasses, getting ready to go bowling

Well, I woke up this morning and everything hurt. I had to remind myself that it's not because I'm 40 but that we bowled for like 3 hours with a big group last night. I had a generally long day for my usual day off and then lots of friends out with us which was awesome getting to catch up. I forgot how much overstimulation wears me out though!  After bowling we went over to the Avenue to play some pinball and then finally wound down sometime after midnight. 

I'm dragging today but I think I was prepared for that to happen for the most part. We had a lot of fun and I'm thankful for everyone who came out, also those who texted, called, posted on my social media and private messaged me.  I'm not a huge fan of my phone blowing up and having to respond to people but at the end of the day I was very grateful and also sometimes surprised at those who remember my birthday. I'm terrible at birthdays and will have the best of intentions then completely forget or get busy/distracted.

I'm also thankful to report that at 4 decades I've finally found a doctor I like, gotten all the tests and questions and mammograms' and everything and I have a surprisingly good bill of health considering. I picked up a sweet new pair of glasses this morning with an updated prescription and I'm ready to take on the next decade being able to read road signs better at night. 

My current weaving "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy, Yet We Devote More Time" is plugging along.  I've approximated that on a good week where I weave a little every day I'm getting about 3 inches done. I have been making the beaded edge for this weaving in the evenings and I put it along the edge...I'm not sure I like it.  More on that issue later.

I really don't have much more to say in this 4-decade reflection, because otherwise I'd just gush on and on about how wonderful life had become (and I guess that's what my weekly Joy posts are turning into).  Someone once told me to wait until my 30s, that's when I'd have everything figured out and life gets easier (boy was that wrong).  I'm a late bloomer. My 40s are going to be great though!

Joy: Quiet

The cats are fed; I sit at my loom, the heddles tinkling together, crunching of paper, roll of the spools on my shuttles, the quiet of winter outside....

I used to listen to music all of the time, maybe it was to distract my brain so it would stop spinning out and just focus on what I wanted to work on. I don't need to do that now, I'm focused and in love with my life and my studio space. Sometimes music helps motivate me, but when I'm already motivated, particularly in the mornings, I enjoy the quiet. 

Since it's Valentine's Day I feel compelled to bring up how wonderful my fiancé is, he allows me to have my space and my quiet when needed. I've always struggled with living with others, I just wanted to be left alone. After I got divorced I figured I was just unable to live with another human ever again, and then I met Bryan. He moved in after 9 months of dating and is fine that our schedules don't line up and probably glad that he also has his alone time. His presence is not demanding, but gentle, kind and quiet. 

I have so much going on in my head (that is rarely quiet), so many projects, to-do lists, dreams and what-if's. Bryan doesn't get angry when I don't hear a thing he said because he can usually tell when I'm off somewhere else.  He silently watches me bead and stitch next to him on the couch in the evenings and clearly notices what I'm doing and the various choices I make as I'm creating.  My artwork flourishes and he provides educated critiques when I'm stuck on color or design. I have to say that having a partner that understands how necessary the peace and quiet is to me is of the utmost importance. 

I also remove myself from social media and will often leave my phone outside of the studio when I am working.  Even though I have it on silent, the compulsion to pick it up and look at notifications is difficult for me to manage. Texts, emails, social media is all noise that can take over my need for quiet. My days off and free time go better, happier when I remove myself from my phone. 

I have found that having the evening shift for my department at work gives me my mornings that I need for creativity to flourish in my quiet time. Quiet=Peace

Fiberside Chat Follow-up; Notes to Future-Self

 

Photo from Longmont Yarn Shoppe's follow-up email, thank you!

I just LOVE this photo.

I had a wonderful time on Thursday being hosted by the Longmart Yarn Shoppe (and affiliate yarn shops) last night for their Fiberside Chats series.  It was my first Zoom event where I was the speaker (which was going to happen sooner or later) and I learned a lot.

First, it was really weird talking to absolute silence as I went through my presentation.  I was nervous and I think I blew through my talk a little faster than I had practiced. I couldn't see or hear people's reactions so I was trying not to rattle on too long about specific pieces. I was later assured that everyone was engaged and smiling or nodding. My friend who was on told me she was so interested that she didn't get any knitting done. That's a good sign. I'm going to start to post more video to get the hang of speaking to "nothing." This made me realize I don't talk out loud when there isn't anyone around.  When I'm home alone I barely even talk to the cats.  I walk around in silence just thinking.  Maybe I should start to think out loud?  I do need to make notes for my slides in the future.  I quit doing it because they were just distracting when I spoke in front of people.  On Zoom I think notes will help ground me.

Second, we have really great internet at our house, but it wasn't so great on my new laptop in the studio. I was struggling with Zoom video via the laptop live video feed.  The presentation was fine and I had my phone logged into Zoom for my weaving demo which was clear for everyone to see.  I think in the future I need to take the Zoom video settings off of HD so it's not trying so hard and I should be clearer (something Sarah pointed out to me the next day).   

Third, I really loved being able to answer questions about my work while weaving.  I get fidgety when I have to stand there and go through questions, talking and weaving (and explaining what I was doing as I wove) went better than I could have imagined. My next talk is with the Kalamazoo Handweaver's Guild and I am going to try to have a demo prepared for them too now!

Lastly, I think my talk did what I always hope to do, inspire fiber artists.  I became a weaver and fiber artist because of my exposure to guilds, programming and creative memberships.  Others' creativity pushes and inspires my own and I hope I will be able to do the same.

Beginning Weaving for "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time"

I started this post on 1/6/2021 and have gotten a bit further than the above photos, once I start to weave I can get on a roll and other things (like this blog post) may be overlooked or forgotten. 

It seems like it's been a long time since I've tried to add float warps to either side of my warp in order to try to get my selvedges looking better. I still pull in too much on the left side. I haven't a clue why I still struggle with selvedges, but I'm trying on each piece to get them better. I know that part of my selvege struggle lies in the fact that I make 2 passes with the weft before beating it.  I'd be fine if I only did one pass, but then that's twice as much time spent picking up the warp for the pattern. It already takes me about an hour to weave a quarter of an inch, maybe I'll do one pass on a future smaller piece.

If you want to see a LIVE DEMO of me weaving this piece on Zoom, it's coming up in February!  I have been asked to be the feature for a Fiberside Chat session hosted by Longmont Yarn Shoppe. I'm very excited to be doing my very first Zoom talk about how I use supplemental warp structures in my weavings. Don't worry, I will not get too technical. It's more about my work, what inspires me and my weaving process.  It's $20 and you can register HERE. 

 

Cheat-Warping (Tying on to old warp)

 I decided to make my next weaving the same width as the Leaf Me Alone (full sized) weaving which allows me to tie the new warp directly on to my previous one. I call this cheat-warping because I'm skipping the entire process of re-dressing my loom and pulling each warp thread through the heddles and reed. It still takes a while to put on, the above time-lapse video is about 3.5 hours of tying on each new thread to the old one on one of my 2 warps.  I'm not doing a video for the second warp, I keep setting it down to go do something else or picking at it during a Zoom meeting. Sitting for this long can be hard, there's some getting up, stretching, getting more coffee while I watch House on my tablet (which is why I keep staring at my loom's castle, my tablet is folded over it at about eye level).

Holding my cross.... 319 ends on this grey warp

30 ends of color pops per warp

I first tie on the larger bunch of warp threads and then the smaller warp bunches of spots of color.

Everything tied on and ready to pull through

Knots pulled through the reed.

Clark stalking the hanging ends of my warp.

All tied on!

This weaving (both warps) has 698 ends of warp. I used to think that's a lot, but it's mostly just the time. I've gotten really good at untangling thread over the years. I'm also using floater warps that you can see on the left and right of the main warp (2 threads). I'm hoping to get better at selvedges eventually.  :)