West Dean -- another day

It's so hard to believe that I left home two weeks ago today! Only four more weeks here for me now although my colleagues in the T & TA studio will be here for the rest of the academic year (and some beyond) as they finish their degree programs. The four others in the studio-- Erica, Diana, LouLou and Magenta--have accepted me into their midst with hospitality. They all made me feel quite at ease immediately. All are quite willing to share with each other and with me, the newcomer. I appreciate their kindness very much.

Today we had photographers from the college in to photograph the new space for Tapestry & Textile Art and also of us, working in the space. I took a few photos as they were working--here they are shooting Diana at her area:

And they took several closer shots of her hands as she worked:

These are a few more photos of my four cohorts as they worked today--

Erica is working on color sampling for her piece. Earlier in the week she dyed several of the yarns she'll be using.

LouLou is working on a sample based on the line drawing that's on the wall in front of her. It's a wonderful organic line that she's weaving in varying textures including a "scringy" line... see her blog to read more about it...

Magenta is nearing the end of a shaped tapestry; she's weaving on a dark blue warp with a bit lighter blue as weft.

Here's my loom with the second version of the sample yesterday... lights are better but still too dark, in my opinion. I turned the loom around and set it up again to weave the third version...

and here it is as I left tonight...

there's sampling of dark mixtures on the right side. I'll do more sampling for the mid-range and light mixtures tomorrow and I hope to finish the third version by Sunday.

And, finally... a few photos from my walk over this morning. It was cold but NOT raining! I took a few minutes to look at the glasshouses--a few details of those. I've yet to walk inside one of the several that are here.