Thursday, May 8, 2014

Stones, Visitors and More


Today I had a nice visit from a couple of professors and about ten students from Piedmont College.  They're involved with the 2014 Maymester experience that's underway at the Lillian E. Smith Center right now.


Here I am talking to the group about my design for the tapestry (looking a bit startled, it seems!)  Photo was by Dr. Debra Dooley, one of the Piedmont professors.

This year they're immersed in the study of the geology and the Native American history of the north Georgia area.  Today they were coming over this way to visit the Dahlonega Gold Museum and what remains of the once booming town of Auraria where the first gold rush began in the early 1800s here in the county.  Since I've had so many wonderful experiences at the LES Center and because my current tapestry is inspired by the stone chimney ruin on the grounds of the center, I invited them to come by to see the process.  They were fascinated to see how tapestry is done--and one of the student is the granddaughter of a quite well known weaver!  Their remaining time at the Center will continue to be a valuable experience as they explore the north Georgia area, I'm sure.

After the group left I walked home to check the mail and in my box were these great bobbins from John Moss!  He did them for me, basing the design on one of the wooden bobbins I'd gotten from another tapestry weaver some years ago.  I like the weight and size of the bobbin for use on larger tapestries so asked John to replicate it in a few bobbins.  The original one is the dark wood... the other six are my new ones.  I'm already using one and it works just wonderfully.


The book is one that also came today; UPS guy'd left it on the porch--so I found it just as I was walking to the house from the mailbox.  It's Tapestry: A Woven Narrative, from Black Dog Publishing.  Sidsel had a copy with her at the Folk School class and I was glad to be able to flip through the book and to see right away that it was one I wanted to add to my library.  I'm going to enjoy it very, very much--not only the wonderful color photos of lots of tapestries but also the essays.

And finally, here's the tapestry progress for the day:







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