Finished Shawl

Here's a picture of the finished triangular shawl.  It is very light, lacy, and airy!  A perfect wrap for a cool summer night.

Close up view: 

I'm working on another triangular shawl.  I've pulled a beautiful black with cherry nubs wool boucle from my shelves and paired it with a cherry glace ribbon.  As long as the triangular loom is up, I'll keep scouring my shelves for the right combination of yarns and make as many of these one of a kind shawls until I get bored and have to move on! I'm on a roll!

Triangular Loom

I pulled out the triangular loom that I have and set it up this week.  I decided that part of my exploring, playing, and rediscovering would be to develop ideas that I have had brewing for a while.  I had bought on sale, about 2 years ago, a number of balls of yarn that I thought would look great woven into a shawl.  My intention was to weave with them on the triangular loom.  The yarn is a very lacy looking yarn made out of linen binder threads and a beautiful cotton variegated yarn in pastel green, mauve, and gold.  The cotton yarn is actually woven through the linen threads in a snake like fashion.  Along with this yarn I went to my stash and found some rayon ribbon ("Glace" for those weavers reading this) in colors that would work with this yarn palette. So here are some pictures of the yarn and the weaving process.  With a triangular loom you are weaving the warp and weft at the same time.

Yarns are chosen



Beginning planning chart - 1/2 the design

Weaving in progress

The sheet is just there to let you see the weaving as it is a very open structure.



Close up

"Body of Work"

"Body of Work" is a phrase that is often used in the art world, but what does it mean?  Last night I watched a program on "American Masters".  It was about Jeff Bridges, the actor. I have always been fascinated by the Bridges family but have not seen many of Jeff Bridges movies.  (I did see "Crazy Heart" and he definitely deserved the Oscar for that!)  It was interesting to discover the varied and interesting characters he has played over the years. As he and other actors talked about Jeff's process for  making a character real, I learned how much creative study goes into playing a part.  For one of his movies he actually studied the moments of birds in order to play the part of "Starman".  From the clip you could see how he used the tiny slow jerky movements of a baby bird, who is just learning about the world around him, and applied these movements to the character he played. This is definitely a creative adventure into playing a part. So, getting back to "Body of Work", here was a body of work presented that showed how over time and many films, Jeff Bridges could transform to play a number of different personalities by creative study.  A "Body of Work" always presents the creative mind in motion.  Sometimes it takes making time for yourself to discover the next thing.  Sometimes it takes looking at your environment to discover the next thing.  Sometimes it takes being part of a group of people who support and encourage even your craziest idea!

I feel like I am on a journey with my work.  Right now I am feeling the need to do some exploring and playing with new possibilities.  My journey is leading me into other avenues.  I'm not sure where I will end up but I feel like I need to re-evaluate how I create my work along with how I sell my work.  Is this a "Body of Work" in movement?  Is there value in taking this time?  The fine art world has always looked at a person's "Body of Work" as a growth and maturity factor in understanding one's message or style.  The retail world of fine craft has not always been as concerned with this.  The bottom line, especially for high end shows, is usually consistency of work.  Are the two mutually compatible?

As I journey, I will post from time to time my progress and thinking.  As part of a wider community, I'd love to have a dialogue on-going in the comments section.  I'd love for you to be a part of my creative process to discovering what is next for me and my work.

Liturgical Stole

For a long time I have entertained the idea of weaving Liturgical pieces.  This is quite astonishing since I come from a non-liturgical denomination where the church liturgical calendar and liturgy was never a priority. Over the last 20 -25 years I have learned the colors for the various seasons and am interested in how these colors are used in the church calendar. I am also interested in how textiles play such an important part in the whole ecclesiastical environment.

In the previous post I talked about the participatory art installation that I worked on for Advent.  Along with this I designed a stole for my husband for the Advent season. I had painted a warp over a year ago with the idea that I would make a stole. I used a combination of blue and red dyes so that the colorway goes from blue to purple throughout the stole.  This combines the traditional  Advent color of purple with the new color of blue.The warp was woven and then FEAR and PROCRASTINATION set in!  It wasn't until this year that I pushed myself to explore new territory. I forged ahead sewing the stole and hoped that it would lie flat and stay where it was supposed to stay.  It did!  My husband loved it and wore it throughout Advent. 

So here is the finished stole on my husband.  What do you think?