The lower left side is a series of lines extending from the solid roots. I'd hoped these would seem to be drawn lines. They were done with twining, using grays of slightly different values. The background "white" is a mix of three--white, natural and a very light creamy tan. It almost looks like a light color oatmeal.

The lower hem area is a single gray and narrower than the top hem.
I'm going to weave in every other warp, like Pat W. and Marti F. do. The warp is a #12/18 Finnish cotton seine twine and pretty hefty.

Here's a shot of the finished tapestry just after we cut it off the loom. It's on the floor so I can't get a very good photo of it yet. It's too heavy to hang until I get the ends attended to.

The upper 3" that's a different color (most noticable in the tree trunks) is hem so the design effect ends there. But I didn't want there too be too much difference in color or value to be seen at the top of the turn down so chose to do the hem in versions of the colors that were beneath (maybe this doesn't make any sense?!)

Thomas helped me cut off the roots tapestry last night. I'll take it to Campbell with me for finishing next week. I hope to get it photographed and submitted to the ACC Spotlight Southeast exhibit--deadline is soon. I'll post a photo later.

I finished the hem of the roots tapestry today and woven in scrap yarn to hold the last of the weft in place. I'm going to use Marti and Pat's method of weaving in every-other warp end, rather than doing the half-hitch I usually use at beginning and end. With 6 epi, as is this sett, the bulk of the warp is a problem as a hem is turned back. And, I want to use the method like on the recent commission piece for hanging this tapestry since it's pretty wide and will be a bit heavy.

I'm also getting ready for the Campbell tapestry class next week. Thomas glued together 7 copper pipe frames last night; I'd cut the copper pipe for the looms earlier in the week. I had 12 before that he'd made for me but several of those have "disappeared" and I have warps on two of them. I also wanted my assistant, Neville, to work her way through at least part of the sampler so she'll feel more comfortable in helping out next week.

I'd hoped to have a cutting off get-together for the roots piece but looks like I'll probably cut it off on my own. It's the largest piece I've done at the Stanton Storehouse studio, only completed one tiny one last fall and begun the cat tapestry for Thomas before this. I've woven a number of other things...my rag rugs for the bathroom, a couple of pillow tops in boundweave, Noel's tabard--but this is the first significant tapestry. I began it on January 12 and had a goal of finishing it in a couple of months. I guess I could say I almost made it--can't keep weaving through the time needed for a death in the family. I'm interested to see the finished piece off the loom.

This detail is "hot" on the left but the lamp which I use when I'm weaving was on that side. I'll fill in the area between the trunks as soon as I can weave again. I have a hem area to weave above this...I'm hoping to get this woven by next week. Noel is coming on the 21st to do a spindle spinning workshop for my class and I'd like to have a "cutting off" celebration with Noel and the students after the class!

BUT, so much now depends on Ellen's progress or decline at Joan's house. She's being move there tomorrow from the hospital here. She was asleep when I saw her today, and Thomas said she's not very responsive at this point (later in the afternoon) but I hope she'll have some alert times as she gets there and is able to realize that she's with Joan and Buddy. This is a hard thing...to have another death in the family, although she's not dead yet. But, since the doctors have indicated there's only a few months remaining, based upon her cancer diagnosis, it's hard to know what to think. She was asleep when I saw her earlier. Will this be the status of her awareness for the time she has remaining? She's on a morphine drip and I don't know what other possible pain meds. The end of life remains a mystery to me. I've seen it more closely, now over several deaths, than I ever wanted to or though I would. I know no more now than I did earlier to help me reconcile the process, except more about the details of death.

Thomas often askes me what image of "death and dying" I'm currently weaving. I guess that he's nailed my "theme" since most of my works over the last few years have been based upon my response to death and dying. In fact, the 1990s pieces with crows in them were those sorts of images. And, while my Mother was in her process of dying, and using the oxygen tanks, I wanted to design a piece that was of a portable oxygen tank. The shiny green of the tank, sitting by her chair in her house, which we no longer own, is still with me. I've not worked on that image more, though...or any based on the drawings I made of her in the hospital as she was, indeed, dying...although we didn't know that at the time. They are too raw for me to look at very often.

Finished the trunks today and have the middle background to fill in, about 3" x 20" or 60 sq. in. worth. I still don't know if I'll have enough of the particular dark blue/green that I'm running short of to weave that area. Tomorrow will be a non-weaving day, I think. Thomas is taking his Mom to his sister's house to begin the hospise care and I'll go with them. I'm not sure when I'll be weaving on the piece again.

NGCSU is on spring break this week so I don't have classes scheduled.

I wanted to add another image this morning so thought I'd put the "Fall" piece here. I still like this piece; I haven't seen it at its new home...hope it's hanging and being enjoyed there!

I still think of this one as sort of a "break through" piece for me. I started it in 2003, finished it almost a year later since it sat on my loom during the winter after my Mother died...I just couldn't get back to it because of all the bright colors. I worked on other things in the meantime.

But, this was one of the first pieces I did using the cartoon stitched to the back, rather than inking onto the warp. Pat, FREN, thank you again for helping me learn how to do the stitching on!
I do very much appreciate being able to weave with more freedom--PLUS, the two big advantages of not having foreign matter on the warps that might eventually bleed through the weft, and not having to spend the time to do the tedious inking process and waiting until the marks totally dry!!

Hi Fren!
Thanks for commenting on the blog. I'm still playing around with it, as you can tell, whenever I have time. And it's very user friendly...so many options to doodle with, like template, color, font, where pictures go...and even more that I haven't discovered yet.

The tapestry is within inches of finish (except for the hem area). I may not have enough of one of the dark blue in the background area but will weave until I run out of it. Noel's out of town until mid-week so couldn't get more until later after she's back and has time to recover from her trip. I'll dig through past weft bundles to see if I have bits and pieces of this color but I'm afraid I won't have. It's a deep, dark blue with a bit of greenishness to it. I'm using it combined with a dark navy blue and a dark, dark green.

The tapestry is 54" wide x about 38" high (I say about since it grows a bit as I weave...). The sett is 6 epi of the Swedish cotton seine twine from Laura Shannock--#18, I think it is. The weft is 3-fold Vevgarn, for the most part although some 100% Spelsau is there too.

And, speaking of Splesau, there's an interesting article about the Norsk Kunsvgarn spinnery in Norway--the one from whom Noel had imported the Spelsau...great photos! Oh, yeah...the article is in the latest issue of Våv magazine.

I got the new Fiberarts yesterday. The review of the ATB6 is quite good...glad to see it got good coverage!

Later today...
I've gotten to the top of the tapestry in several areas. Tomorrow may see the top of the weaving. But, my husband's mother has been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. She will be going to her daughter's house for hospice care but my husband (her son) and I may be involved over the next time or so. I'll post when I can.

It's later today and I now have a new (old) loom in my studio! I bought a used Kessnich from the Folk School. One of my student's, Katina, and her boyfriend picked it up (along with one she's bought for herself) and delivered it to me. What a kind thing for her to do...it really saved me time. I'm excited for her about her loom...it's an Artisat--just like my first floor loom I had back in the early 1970s. Her's seems to be pretty new and looked in great shape as it sat in Darrell's pickup.

The Kessnich is probably twenty years old, maybe. It's 35" wide, has a sectional beam parts which I'm now reversing to the inside of the warp beam since I'll use the loom for boundweaves, mostly, and won't need the sections. I now have two Kessnich looms, the smaller one that allows about a 24" wide weaving and this one. It was a great price and since I'm hoping to begin teaching more in my studio I thought it would be a good buy. Of course, I can always sell it later--as I've done with several looms I've owned in the past.

TWS toast, November 2006 at Forrest Hills

I'm playing around with the template this morning. I thought I'd post the photo of the TWS anniversary meeting...our toast to our first decade. Happy hour(s) all around!

before going to the studio I'm going to try another image or two.

















This shot is as I was weaving on the commission piece that was 18" wide x 78" long. I worked on the tapestry design from January 2006 to around March or April, then began the tapestry. It was on the loom while we were in MI for Convergence, then I finished it in August. It was installed in November of 2006. I titled it "Falling Down" and was quite a learning experience in many ways!


This is the finished tapestry when it was at the Buission Arts Center in an exhibit before taking it to the client's home for installation.

Sunday, March 11
Time "sprung forward" and now it's 10:47 a.m. rather than an hour earlier as it would have been this time yesterday morning. I have several hours to work today on the roots tapestry. It's nearing the end and I hope to be able to take it off the loom this week. However, there's a family health issue that may very soon be taking quite a bit of time for all of us here.
I'm going to post this shortly, but first am going to try a few things on this "Compose" page. And, I'm noticing that there's a tab at the bottom left that says "Post Options" and right now the "reader comments" is checked for allow. So, Pat...if you have time, could you try to make a comment so we can see if that works?
Also, I see a picture icon in the upper menu strip...let's see if I can add a picture here with that...OK, the picture is added but to the top of the posting rather than below the text...wonder if I can cut and past this above...will try that now...



OK!! That worked! Now, what's the eraser thing for...don't know...didn't seem to do anything.

Well, I previewed the previous and it looks ok, I guess. I'm going to continue this for a bit (not tonight but tomorrow or later) and add more to it, both thoughts and images of work underway. Although I might add some photos of the spring flowering that's happening all around here right now.

begin at the beginning...

March 10, 2007

After seeing several tapestry weavers' blogs I've decided to begin this one. I have no idea what I'm doing at this point and maybe don't have time to be doing this but will at least give it a try. As I thought about starting the blog this morning I thought, "Why do I want to do this?!" And, I couldn't come up with an answer. Maybe I want to share ideas and images. Maybe I want to ramble on as I can do more easily through the keyboard than face to face. Maybe I want to get feedback from strangers. Don't know yet and possibly won't know until later.